A expired domain name is when the owner fails to pay their scheduled renewal fee's. A Expired domain name will go through 3 stages lasting up to 60 days.

During stage 1 of 3 the owner has up to a 30 day grace period to renew their expired domain(s), however, some registrar give you only 10 to 12 day grace period, so be sure to check your registrars renewal policy VERY closely or you stand a good chance of losing your domain name and getting it back could cost you thousands of dollars and many headaches. This happened to our domain A2ZEE.com, we lost it because our registrar had changed there expired domain name renewal grace period from 30 days to 17 days with out notice! Be careful with your domain!

If the owner fails to renew in stage 1, the domain automatically enters stage 2, this is called the 'redemption period'. Note: When a domain name enters stage 2, the cost to renew is now $80 to $100 dollars depending on the registrar and is your last real chance to redeem your domain name without losing it forever.

When a expired domain reaches the final stage 3, it enters a holding period of 5 days, then is released back into the public domain registry and can be registered by anyone once again. However, if you have a valuable domain name that expired there is a good chance your registrar will retained the domain after stage 3, and will try to auction it for profit. If the domain name does not sell at auction they will released it back into the domain registry. Be careful with your domain!

To buy expired domain names is a simple process. The fastest way and easiest way to find expired names is to obtain a list of names from a domain registrar or domain reseller. These expired domain list contain domain names that have just expired and released back into the public domain registry for you to register. Get a premium weekly list of expired domain name here!

Summary:

We can't stress this enough be very careful handling your domain renewal dates. The domain biz is big business with plenty of crooks and greed!
Register your domain names for long periods of time, such as a 10 year domain registration, this will also help your search engine rankings.

If your domain name expires, don't wait until the last minute to renew it. The point here is be careful with your domain names and to keep them up to date, to avoid losing them.

How a domain name expires

How to find and buy expired domain names

How to avoid losing your expiring domain name