Seth from FreshDrop.net just informed me of a new FREE software his team has created for sniping GoDaddy domain auctions. The new software is fittingly called uSniper. I did a quick Google search and could not find any comparable products. I did come across a domainer forum that was looking for a tool like this. Hmmm, maybe Seth read the forum and decided to create the solution.
What is auction sniping?
Auction sniping is the process of watching a timed online auction (such as on eBay), and placing a winning bid at the last possible moment (often seconds before the end of the auction), giving the other bidders no time to outbid the sniper. Some bidders do this manually, and others use software designed for the purpose.
How does it work?
Download the software from uSniper.com and install. The current version only works on Windows based computers and for GoDaddy auctions.
Once the program is installed, you simply open the software, log in and set the desired snipe bid time (i.e. 5 seconds remaining or 2 minutes and 5 seconds remaining). Simply add each domain name you want into USniper along with your desired high bid. Bids can be edited or canceled at any point before the auction ends.
The number one reason why I like this software is that you set your bid and walk away. For someone like myself who hates losing will continue bidding and bidding until I win. This software takes the emotion out of the auction process. With this I can set my educated bid and forget about it.
***UPDAT 3/12/09***
Software/GoDaddy compatibility issues have caused this program to be buggy and not work properly. It has been weeks now and these issues still have not been resloved. I have removed the links to uSniper.com, download at your own risk. My personal opinion, don’t use it. I really dislike when a company launches something and it is not ready!!!
Don’t Godaddy auctions get extended with last-minute bids?
Good question.
The software does take that into consideration and will continue to bid at the rate you set.
Hmm, very cool. I will check this out in a few days when I plan on getting more domains from TDNAM. Thanks Chef!
So it is more about breaking your opponent’s spirit by stalling to the last second of every round of bidding than it is about traditional auction sniping where a last second bid gets you the win. Still pretty cool though.
Not only that but by bidding in the beginning you are bringing attention to an auction. If someone else notices a bid they may think it’s a good domain name and bid it up. But, if no bids are placed they may pass on it saying to themselves, well no one else wants this name
Not sure I like the idea of download a free piece of software and then give them my godaddy user name and password..
I’m a little bit leery that it’s free. (Too good to be true?)
Hi, this is Seth from uSniper.com. This is a secure pc based program, not a web based application. We do not gather any of our customer’s data except for the email you use when you sign up. The login and password you provide stays locally on your computer and is used by the program to place your bids for you. This is a brand new product and we really want to get the word out and get users already signed up when we create future versions.
Thanks to all of the enthusiastic support we have received, and a special thanks to Patrick who has written a great article, as always. Keep up the good work!
Does eBay allow these kind of programs? I’d use it but I’m an avid user of the site and wouldn’t want to be banned. Surely they’d see it as a sort of unfair advantage though?
This one specifically is only for GoDaddy and domain names.
I have seen a bunch of programs like this for eBay but have never tried. As far as it being allowed, I don’t see why not.
This is really good! I played around with it recently and looks good. Ebay has a few similar programs but I would be a bit careful when it comes to ebay because some sniper softwares are not allowed so you could get your account suspended.
I can’t open the .zip file… I am getting an error – saying its not a valid archive….
Is anyone else getting that issue?
Joel I haven’t had that issue but I will email Seth right now to answer your question.
Thanks, here is a screenshot of the error… I have the latest SP & .Net platform.
Not sure what it could be or if it is just me or not.
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/3876/sniperz.jpg
Thanks for your help!
uSniper worked for the first day and then it wouldn’t let me login. Seth, any suggestions.
You are the second person now in two days to say something is not working.
I have emailed Seth and waiting for a response.
If this does not get resolved I will update this post to voice everyone’s opinions/issues.
I wanted to thank everyone for their support and apologize for the recent program outage. This is our TOP PRIORITY right now and we hope to have everyone sniping again shortly.
I will post here as soon as we have it working. We have built in an auto-update feature, so the update should be seamless when it is ready.
Thanks everyone for your patience and thanks for emailing me Patrick.
Sorry Seth but “TOP PRIORITY” should have gotten this fixed ASAP. I have updated my post, I cannot recommend anyone use your services.