Newbiw question about expired domains

[quecoder]

I searched for domains and found one that's great , it's expired from 21-05-2008 ,, appears to be taken when trying to buy it ..
do I need to wait for awhile to be deleted or what ?
may it be offered in auctions ? and if not the domain owner who decided to put it into auction , like snapnames , how can they do it ?

 

[regine]

i believe you need to wait for the 5 day grace period before it is officially deleted