Attention Shopping Addicts…

Attention all shopping addicts…welcome to your new addiction: Tophatter live auctions. Let me show you how it works!

If you’re like me, you love the convenience of shopping online. And snagging a great deal on something you love at auction is even better! But the thing about ebay is you have to constantly be monitoring it because the auctions take days. Well all of the items on Tophatter are auctioned off in minutes. YAY short attention spans! Here’s how it works…when you visit Tophatter.com, you see the main page:

There you will see what auctions are running (or soon to be running), and how many people are attending. Each auction is pretty much a chat room. Once you decide which auction sounds appealing, you can check out what is being auctioned–

How cute is this?! It’s just like a real auction. There’s a chat where you can discuss items (and usually ask the seller questions because 99% of the time they attend their own sales), as well as views of the Upcoming Lots in the lower right. If you see a lot you’re curious about, you can click on it for more info:

And there you can see more pics and the specs of each item. There are often special terms from sellers too, like bonuses! Many sellers will add bonus items for bidding that reaches a certain price. Common ones I see are adding a keychain to a purse, or sometimes a wallet. Jewelry auctions often include extra pieces as bonus items!

Similar to Ebay, Tophatter sellers have a profile where feedback is shown along with their selling terms, shipping policies, etc. Observe:

You can read people’s feedback comments etc. as well but I cropped that out of the screen cap because I didn’t want to publish the identity of the random seller whose profile I stalked for the picture. ;)

So what sort of stuff is on Tophatter? Tons of jewelry and accessories. It seems to be a very popular site for Etsy shop owners to sell off items. There are also a number of sellers who sell legit designer items. Now me being a Coach addict, I love the designer auctions because there are a LOT of Coach items that come up. I’ve also seen Chanel, Tory Burch, Louis Vuitton, Vera Bradley, and I wanna say at least one Gucci item too.

Another pretty cool feature of Tophatter – no reserve prices. So you won’t bid $5 on a ring and then find that they have a reserve of $300 and you never had a chance. If the starting bid is $5, you can pay $5 for that item (if no one bids against you!). I really like that. ;) They do have lots that are on “Standby” and those won’t go to auction unless someone places the starting bid ahead of time (those are usually higher starting bids) which is one way they can guaranty getting a certain amount for an item. But most things go for really, really great deals.

Payments are handled through Paypal or with Credit Card, and you can track the status of your items from your account profile page.

But wait, there’s MORE. There’s also a Tophatter APP for iPhone! So you can watch live auctions and bid etc. from ANYWHERE! WOO! So you can see how this can get very addicting very quickly, right? Right.

I’ve purchased a few things from Tophatter so far, and received 2 of the 3 items. I’m so hooked. My mom has also purchased an item and is quite happy. One of the things I bought was an authentic Coach handbag! Retails for $338, and I paid $100. The earrings I got are sterling silver/topaz and were $15. Um, hi? DEALS!!!

So if you’ve never heard of Tophatter, you so need to get on this bandwagon. It’s SO FUN. They also have a referral program so you can refer your friends via email or Facebook and then you both get credits. Free moneys! For the shoppings! Woot! :) If anyone wants a referral from me just put your email in the comments. But you don’t need a referral you can just sign up too.

Anyone else on Tophatter yet? And does anyone wanna see a Tophatter haul post? :)