[QUESTION] Aged Domains

I would appreciate any feedback/suggestions one might have about this question.

Lets say I purchase an aged domain about school supplies that is still indexed from GoDaddy auction and I build a new website with the the same domain I purchased and use it for a different niche like lawyers.

Can it still rank?

In other words can a domain that's about one specific niche can be used to rank for a completely difference niche? Has anybody tried it? Was it successful?

Also how can one check if a site is still indexed? Not penalized by google?

Yes, you can rank for non-domain related keyword. Website content + backlinks is what google looks at.

Yes, I have also done this in the past. The domain even retained the original pagerank.
However, it is advisible to build as many relavent links as possible after you set up the site in a different niche.

Yes it will rank better than a brand new domain (considering you build relevant backlinks, etc)

Make sure the domain is not penalized in google before buying it tho (info:domain.com or site:domain.com etc.)

I'm doing this for quite some time.

old domains are good, haven't conducted much testing as to whether there is a difference between bought at auction not yet expired vs previously registered and expired though older domains do seem to perform better than newer as a rule of thumb

domain name itself matters but is but 1 factor vs the final decision maker else EMD's would also hold the #1 position for every keyword