Tophatter Auction Review Part II

This part II of my Tophatter auction review.
I decided to list a Bracelet & earrings set that I made a few months ago. It's been in my inventory for a while and would be a good test piece.

  This is listed on all my regular sales venues as a "Serpentine, Fossil and Copper" bracelet  & earrings set and is listed at a retail price of $10.

  As Tophatter is an auction format you have the best chance of setting your price at a minimum value you could live with, and of course hope that it does great in a bidding war. In this first attempt I set the price at $6, with a shipping cost of $2.  

  The auction began at 9am PST, so noon here on the east coast.  I was excited, my item was the second item of the auction round involving at least 100 items.

One nice feature of Tophatter involves sending a text reminder to yourself for items of particular interest. Because there are so many things, this will reduce the amount of time you might have to spend waiting in front of the computer for things you are not interested in.

The auction began with 140+ people in the 'room'. There is a live chat feature with a moderator, an auctioneer and the customers, all chatting very pleasantly. 

  The auction started promptly and the 1st item went without a hitch. Next up, my bracelet & earrings set......crickets....crickets...... alas my item did not receive any interest. I was disappointed, but not completely discouraged. I immediately re-listed the set, which was scheduled 5 days out. Tuesday the 15th.

As a new seller there are some guidelines to help get people established

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 based on their statistics on Tophatter.

Factors that have a positive impact on a seller's statistics include:
1. A high percentage of successful sales per items listed
2. A high number of average bids and average bidders per lot auctioned
3. High final sale prices (both in real $ value and in final % of retail price)
4. Positive feedback from buyers

Factors that may have a negative impact on a seller's statistics include:
1. A low percentage of successful sales per items listed
2. A low number of average bids and average bidders per lot auctioned
3. Posting misleading items, including items with inflated retail prices, misleading images, or incorrect descriptions
4. Negative feedback from buyers

  I came back on Tuesday the 15th to re sell my item. As before, I was excited, but not quite as jittery as the 1st time.  Once again my item was listed near the beginning. For the re-listing I dropped my price a bit to $5 with $1 shipping.  

Once again the auctions go quickly, my item received a bid! and sold for my lower price. I was happy that it sold. I went about my day anticipating a PayPal notification.  Later in the day I checked email and found a message from the buyer asking to cancel the purchase. BUMMER

I replied and said she could, but that I would have to post negative feed back because she cancelled. I also asked for a reason for canceling, but my message went unanswered.  Later that day I cancelled the sale and gave negative feedback :-(  

  I hated to do that, but Tophatter asks for honest assessments to protect buyers & sellers in the long run.  I did try to re-list it a 3rd time, but once again because I am a new seller there is a waiting period.  

So the big question, would I recommend TopHatter?  Even with my less than favorable selling experience, my buying experience was very good. I would recommend this venue and will certainly give at least one more try before I throw in the towel.

Through the internet the world of handmade goods is growing and expanding in unexpected ways. I think that utilizing all available avenues is just good business sense. 

As always, Thank you for taking the time to read this. Your comments are appreciated.

~Tammie