Tophatter may be your new addiction.... or not.
One of the rewards apps I was using had an advertisement for tophatter and I thought the premise seemed interesting. It vaguely remind me of some of those deal site auctions where you can pick up items for a low price buy paying for a group of bids. Luckily in this case you don't have to purchase a bid package in order to start bidding. That is one of the few pluses of tophatter. You don't pay anything until you win an auction. Bidding as of this writing is currently free!
THE REAL FUN IS IN THE LIVE AUCTIONS
There are two main parts of the tophatter site. The live auctions and the browse section which includes the items at their regular price and hourly flash deals. The browse section and flash deals aren't as exciting to me. The flash deals change every hour but for me the real fun is in the live auctions. The auctions start with bidding as low as $1. However very few items will ever sell for that price. I generally stick to the FREE SHIPPING section and I will explain why in just a second. It is very easy to get caught up in a bidding war. Often times that can be a little problematic because a lot of the items on this site you can find on sites like Wish
THIS IS WHERE YOU NEED TO BE CAREFUL
Since the items are similar to those you may find on some of those low cost marketplaces. It is best to compare what you are bidding on and comparing the prices. For example the item that I bid on and finally won was selling on Wish between $20-$32 total with the price of shipping. Since I was using the free shipping category on TOPHATTER, my goal was to try to win it for under $20. Otherwise I would just buy it on Wish. I came to tophatter to get a deal. Let me tell you that was not an easy task. The item came up for bid quite a few times because the seller had several listed. There's a little timer bar that reduces. Each time someone bids the bar refreshes but gets slightly shorter. Overall they are trying to keep the auctions under 90 seconds. There was several times that the item I wanted to purchase would go over my $20 limit. Sometimes it would end up going as high as $38. I kept on it and after a few hours.... Yes I do mean hours. I managed to finally win the item I was seeking for $12 with free shipping. The reason I personally stick to the free shipping is because if the auction sells for higher than you wanted to pay, you have to add on an additional few dollars for shipping. At that point you may have had the chance to get a better deal elsewhere.
This is a site you will need to be patient.
If you are trying to snag a good deal then patience is going to be something you will need a lot of. You may not win the first few auctions and the prices may go higher than what you are willing to spend. Plus you also have to consider that shipping can take anywhere from 2-4 weeks on most of the items. I was lucky to reveice my item in right under 2 weeks. It took 12 days total from the time I paid for my order till it arrived at my door.
Late Night Owls may have the best luck.
While people are on this site at all hours of the day you may have the best chance of snagging a good deal late at night during those off peak times. I have no way of knowing this for sure and it is just pure speculation on my part. It would make sense because there are less people bidding and not as many active users on the site during the non peak times. That also means that times when people are just getting off of work or before they go to work for the day are generally terrible times for trying to win an auction with the lowest price possible.
I personally find Tophatter to be fun
It may not be my go to shopping destination, but it is fun to see what items are currently being auctioned. It is thrilling to get a good deal. That is where the excitment with tophatter is. The deals are there on the site but they may not be as easy to acquire. When you do finally win an auction, you'll be as giddy and overjoyed as the bad acting in the advertisements!
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