So i found a domain I am interested in. It is parked by godaddy at the moment and expried 12/29/14 . it sais at the top it is pending renewal or deletion. What is my best chance to obtain this domain at the lowest cost?
If it's still pending renewal you can't backorder it yet. If it's at GoDaddy then it has a cycle to go through, where it will hit GoDaddy auctions before it ever gets the PendingDelete stage. If they haven't renewed then give it 30-40 days and start browsing the GoDaddy Closeouts at auctions.GoDaddy.com - Once it's in the closeouts you can buy it and it will be yours assuming the previous owner doesn't renew it within that week that it's in the Closeout auctions. This will cost you at most, $25 or so
Godaddy they themselves can take that domain as Namecheap did it with me. Wait for the deletion period and look if it is available for back ordering or registering.