Swiping a dropped domain

*Are there any domain experts in the house?*

I have been notified that a dot com - that is similar to a dot net I have - has been dropped and will be available for registration shortly.

When domains that are dropped they are held for a 3 month period after which there is a free for all to re-register. In order to ensure that you get there first you can pay, I think about $100, to get a company to swipe it for you - eg. SwipeNames.com. There are three of these companies who have servers situated physically near the domain registration (Verisign servers) so they can make sure you'll get it.

The fact that I have been contacted by a company to tell me that the dot com is becoming available suggests that they probably want to be paid to get it. But how much? I don't know until I contact them and if I contact them I alert them that I might want it so they could snatch it anyway.

I could:

1) Do nothing and see if you could get it for the basic registration fee
2) Sign up for all of the three companies to swipe it (you don't pay unless you're successful)
3) Contact this other company

What do I do?