'Tophatter' Auction Review Part I

I subscribe to quite a few websites and blogs in the artsy/crafting world. I am always looking for great ways to grow my little TTED.

Recently I read an article in Handmadeology  that discussed an online auction service called "TOPHATTER". Tophatter is a venue for crafters and others to sell their items in a true real  time auction. 

I decided to give it a shot. This is my review of my experience up to now.  Last week I read the guidelines ( see below from Tophatter site)

It's easy to become a seller on Tophatter.

1. List a new item (also known as a lot), and schedule it for public auction.

2. At the auction, your item will be sold to the highest bidder.

3. The buyer will pay you directly, and you will ship the item to the buyer.

In order to protect buyers against fraudulent sellers, new sellers can only schedule a single lot at a time until they sell 3 lots. After that, priority scheduling is granted to sellers who have sold at least 80% of their last 5 lots. With priority scheduling, sellers can schedule 15 lots at a time, and up to 3 in the same auction.

Seems easy, no listing charge and Tophatter takes a 10% fee only when your item sells, (there is a $1 minimum). If your item does not sell there is no charge.  All transactions are through PayPal.


I started my experience by bidding on some things. Just like in a real auction, you need to have a $ amount (including the shipping) in mind and stick to it.  Just as in a real auction the desire to "win" is quite strong.
I searched the offerings and decided on a couple of things I thought I could use. I decided to purchase in the 'supplies' category.  I bid on a few items but stopped when my imaginary $ amount came and went. It is a very fast paced setting. I eventually had my mind set on some brass bezels. I have been wanting to branch out into epoxy work and these seemed like a good choice.
The opening bids flew out of the gate, I was determined. As I said above, have an amount in mind. That advice went out the window as I was determined to WIN.  I eventually won the 36 brass bezels for $22+$2 s/h.   Not an incredible deal, but certainly less than retail. I paid right away via PayPal and sent my seller a quick email, confirming this and requesting speedy delivery.  I'm happy to say my package arrived as promised from AZ in two days.  The bezels were fine, a bit tarnished, but once cleaned, nice & shiny.   "OK" I decided, "this is easy, I am going to venture into selling something" 


Stay turned for part II. The selling challenge.


Have a lovely day & as always, 
Thank you for being here,
~Tammie