Question : Reserve or pre register a domain name

Hi,
We didnt renew one of our client's domains and now its been bought by one of those lovely companies who try to sell it back to you for £100,000 of pounds.  The client is understandably very upset and we are a small company and cant afford to lose the client.

The way i see it is that we have 3x options, 1) Wait until the domain expires and the company who currently hold it release it, 2) pay the extortionate fee and buy back the domain name. 3) lose the client (not an option).

The domain expired and was bought by the ransom company last March so its not long until they have had it a year.

My ?'s are:

1) How long do these type of companies ususally hold onto domains? (We havent approached the company and have ensured that we have only done a couple of whois lookups and virewed the site a couple of times to see what they have put up there, which is links to competative sites).
2) Is there a was of reserving the domain name, without them knowing so as soon as it becomes available we can buy it back?
3) Does anyone have any other suggestions (other then dont let clients domains lapse in the first place which is a lesson we are painfully learning)?

Your help is appreciated,
Mark.

Answer : Reserve or pre register a domain name

Addendum - If there a "for sale" notice on the domain, you should consider creating a second personna and asking for a price. Make sure you are using a completely different DNS. And if you do strike a deal make sure that you use escrow.com to complete the transaction.