Catch a domain about to expire

Now my site has got pretty succesfull

[April]

2 years ago I bought a .co.uk to run my new business. This buisness took off pretty well within 4 weeks, and someone quickly snatched up the .com

I quickly got all the rest of the TLD's and now the .com is about to expire in 10 days according to a whois query.

The .com is just a holding page, it is not SE listed and I have not given the owner any contact to let them know I am even concered. For this reason I very much doubt they will renew and I seriously want to snap up this URL.

The URL is so abstract that other than for my company it would be of no use to anyone... Would the user get a grace period where I can not register it, or is there a way I can snap it up on its expirery date?

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

[Terabytes]

I believe there is a 60 day grace period on domain names...(depending upon the registrar)

I believe someone like netsol (ugh...) even takes an additional 90 days before they place the domain name back into the public...

I have heard that netsol will possibly take over the domain name if it even looks remotely like it could be of any value to them...

you can also review ICANN's stance on this issue..
[icann.org...]

Just my 2-cents
Tera

[voltrader]

Be sure you register with the 3-4 main domain catchers, and backorder your domain through all of them.

If this guy is not generating any revenue from his parking page, then chances are he'll let it drop. Unless of course you have an obviously and objectively valuable domain.

[caveman]

Some major/unscrupulous registrars hold the domains long after the expiration date and grace period (or registry hold/redemption period) have passed. Some just keep it on lock seemingly forever. Others will drop it immediately after the redemption period is ended.

IF the name is important to you, you should NOT assume that because it's obscure it won't be picked up by a domain pro. Your best bet is to pursue the name on the drop date by signing on with domain drop services that can try to register it for you. You of course pay a fee, or in some cases, bid in auction once a drop specialist has grabbed the name. Some domain grabbers have an edge with different registrars too, so pay attention to that.

[Rodney]

Be sure you register with the 3-4 main domain catchers, and backorder your domain through all of them.

I agree with this. Make sure you backorder the domain using pool, godaddy, etc to make sure you have a good chance at getting it as soon as it drops.

[gpmgroup]

It also depends who the name is currently registered with. Several companies have their own back ordering systems/ agreements which means if you register your interest with them or their partners the name will never reach an open drop ;)