GoDaddy has a domain I'm interested in, and it has a backorder price. What is this, and what happens if you pay to backorder it? What if the current owner decides to renew it? Are you just out that money until they decide to let it go?
if he renews it nothing happens. You get the credit back and can place a backorder on another domain. But they don't give you the money back.
The GoDaddy backorder domain service is a complete waste of time. You are guranteed not to get the domain. If you really want it, try services like Snapnames, Pool, or Namejet.