I just did this about a month ago. I'm pretty sure the timeframe outlined in Mike Davidson's post (http://www.mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2005/03/how-to-sna

I just did this about a month ago. I'm pretty sure the timeframe outlined in Mike Davidson's post (http://www.mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2005/03/how-to-snatch-an-expiring-domain http://www.mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2005/03/how-to-sn...) was right on. So, 75 days. If it's helpful, I didn't use any name dropping service. I just waited until the right day, kept checking the whois service (you probably know this, but from the command line, just type in "whois nameyouwant.com"), and then bid on it as soon as I could. It worked out well, and didn't cost anything.