Can I use a 410'd page again at a later time?

[WebServiceConsulting.com]

I have old pages on my site that I want to 410 so they are totally removed, but later down the road if I want to utilize that URL again, can I just remove the 410 error code and put new content on that page and have it indexed again?

[TomRayner]

I've tested this a couple of times and each result has been: no.

If you 410 a page, Google does a bloody good job at never bringing that URL back.  I've changed the response code back from a number of 410s, socially shared the page, built natural links to it, even blasted links to it (for testing's sake of course!) and Google has never reindexed it.

It's both good and bad - good in the sense that it really uses the 410 response code properly, but bad in the sense that, if you make a mistake and want to reuse the URL, you're pretty screwed.

If you're going to use it, be absolutely 100% you wouldn't see any use in using that URL again (such as offering the product again in the future etc.).  If there is any doubt, leave it as a 404 or redirect it.