Ahh, so true, except its been regged since 2000. ;p Now, if Godaddy would just let us see for certain if the contract on it ends when the current registration does here at the beginning of 2012...
How does it normally work when valuable domains expire? Is there a known second when they become available and the person with the best internet connection and a lightning script gets the name?
Pretty much any name worth picking up from a drop is grabbed by sites that auction them off to the highest bidder. You can place backorders on names. For names with backorders, they go to the highest bidder to ones with backorders. That is the gist of it anyway.