I've been reading through a post on here ([webmasterworld.com ]) from last year talking about buying dropped domains and then placing links on them to boost other site's ranking. To me, it sounded like PR from these domains remained and at other times didn't.

Some questions:

What is everyone's experience in doing this during 2011?

When people say a dropped domain do they mean expired?

Is it better to get a domain before it expires even if you still change the whois details on the domain? If so, what's the best way to purchase a domain before it expires? Approach the owner directly?