Expired but not yet released domains

[chrisjl]

There's a .com domain I'd like to get ownership of that's expired, but not yet been released (by GoDaddy). It's current owner registered it for a project he was funding my Dad to work on, but he has now "faded" from the scene and isn't responding to emails. The domain name is just our surname - quite rare, but not desirable to anybody else. I'd like to get hold of it, but not enough to pay over the odds for it.
What happens now? Is it likely that a domain "parking" company will snap it up the moment GoDaddy let go of it, and then try to re-sell it to the highest bidder? Without cooperation from the soon-to-be-previous owner, I guess there's not a lot I can do beyond the occassional 'whois mydomain.com' to see if it's been released yet?

[aranell]

If it's a rare name, and it's not a common word, parkers probably won't be interested in it as it won't get any 'natural' traffic, so they won't make any money from the name and if it's not an interesting name, it won't be worth them developing.

If you are worried about someone else picking the name up, find some drop-catching software to use which will automatically poll to see when the name is released, and then register it for you. (however, it's not a guarantee that you will get the name because if someone else is also using software, it's a gamble as to which software nabs it first.)

[rpguk]

I've not been dealt with this kind of thing in a few years, but www.pool.com used to be very good at snapping up names for people in your situation. The cost was about $60 although if two people both wanted the name it'd go to an auction situation.