Registering expired domains.

good luck chances are someone will already have them by the time you figure it out

lots of people make their living doing just that

i doubt they'll readily give you the keys to their mansions

Well, it never hurts to ask. These domains aren't anything special, and I'd really be surprised if someone sniped them. They're names, like, people's names. Nothing in the common vernacular.

Anyone else have any ideas?

the registrar that holds them will probably try to auction them off first, if no takers, they may offer them for a buy now price

they might truly eventually drop if they are garbage

They most likely aren't going to drop until 30-35 more days. Keep checking their whois to see what part of the redemption phase they are in. The current owner can still renew them for much of this phase. If you think the domains have some value and in demand, you may want to sign up with one of the drop services and try and snap up the domains when they are officially dropped.

You have three basic choices...
(assuming .com or .net domain)

* Contact the previous registrant (owner) and try to negotiate a price - very risky because most often the previous owner will want a fortune for it. NOT recommended.

* Do nothing - wait about 30 days, and then check the whois to see if it's in "redemption" period (or "pending delete", which often follows that) ... IF yes, then continue to check whois every so often until it to drops out of the database.

-- Check on the web at InterNIC.Net / VeriSign, and/or via whois client (best) to whois.verisign-grs.com; DO NOT use whois service at registrars, etc because many sell / use lookup data to grab domains people seem overly interested in.

* Use a "drop" service to acquire the domain; often the best option, but depends on what the domain is and where it's registered.

-- It's important to be aware that many drop services have partnered with various registrars - using multiple drop services is ill-advised except, perhaps, in instances where the registrar isn't partnered with any particular drop service.

Good luck.

Ron