Hello. My first post in this forum.
I have a very quick query and would appreciate any feedback on this.

I'm trying to get a domain name that has been registered to someone else. I guess the best option would be to backorder it and pray the original person forgets to renew? Also, in the whois lookup for two domains, it says:

Updated Date: 21-jul-2006
Creation Date: 21-jul-2006
Expiration Date: 21-jul-2007

Record expires on 27-May-2007
Record created on 27-May-2002
Database last updated on 23-Jun-2006

Does this mean that the domain expires on the expiration date (DOH) which is fairly soon and I can hope to backorder around this date?

Any help would be very useful. Thanks.

Why would you assume that a person registers a domain and is going to let it drop after 1 year? For more reading about backordering, I suggest you read this 2 page thread. http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=477474

Very well, thanks for your reply.

The domain expires on the expiration date, but can't be registered by you right away. The exact amount of time before you can register a domain after it expires depends on the registrar...

Some registrars follow the standard domain expiration process, where the domain is in registrar-hold for 30-45 days, then redemptionperiod for 30 days, and then finally pendingdelete for 5 days (so it could be from 65 to 80 days after the domain expires before you can register it). Some registrars don't follow this process, and instead keep the domain for themselves and try to resell it (this is typically called pre-release).

Your best bet is to research the registrar and try to figure out if they following the deletion process, or if they pre-release their own domains.

godaddy and sedo have backordering service