How do you effectively obtain an expired domain in this day in age?

[justinOrel]

Back in the day, when a domain name expired, and no one else was interested, it was easily up for grabs.

These days I'm reading about bots and stuff like that, so I'm assuming that one has to compete with various robots now.

So.... I was wondering how a human can obtain a domain name that is going to expire?

There is one domain name I'm interested in, its current registrar is GoDaddy. It's going to expire in about a month, and I don't think the owner will renew it, it was left for a few years.

Now I'm assuming that as soon as it's expired, GoDaddy will just renew it in their name hoping to sell it. Either GoDaddy or some other bot.

In any case, I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars to obtain it. It's not really popular, I don't think anyone else will be interested, it's just a different extension of my .com.

Should I contact GoDaddy and arrange to transfer it to me or will they screw me?

I'd appreciate any advice from those experienced with such a matter. Thanks!