If the backlinks are there, they are there forever. If you grab this domain and build a decent site on it in the same niche, and use the leverage of these backlinks wisely (i mean no 301 all 404's to the homepage and other cheap SEO bullsh*t), the site will skyrocket soon. There is no other way. Otherwise PBN wouldn't work and SEO's wouldn't hunt for good drops.
No disrespect once again.
No disrespect taken, but we are talking about domain names and not sites. Sure, you can recreate a site, but there is no guarantee you will rank the same way again as the site ranked before.
This was possible in the past, but does not work the same way as it used to. Many will go to the internet archive and try and copy the old site, but Google is not stupid and would catch this pretty fast.
Yes, you could put up similar content and build from there using whatever SEO juice was left.
If the backlinks are there, they are there forever.
In my experience, the longer a domain has been unused the more likely many of those back-links would have been discovered as no longer working and dropped by the linking sites.
Even so, when Google spiders those sites and follows those links, and they lead nowhere, it is noted by Google and along with other factors has a negative effect.
If you grab this domain and build a decent site on it in the same niche, and use the leverage of these backlinks wisely (i mean no 301 all 404's to the homepage and other cheap SEO bullsh*t), the site will skyrocket soon.
Is it impossible to get back to the rank the site had before? Maybe not, it depends on many things.
But there is no guarantee of this just because of the back-links and site age.
Do not forget that links are not the only determining factor for ranking. Content is also a big factor, as well as many other things, and when a site has been down for a while and Google sees it is gone, it loses its position and getting it back is not as easy as it used to be.