So...what is tophatter? To me, is like a souped up highly interactive version of Ebay. Anyone can list an item on there. From antiques, fine art work, to supplies for your own crafts. After you decide which item you want to auction off, you write up a description of your item and type in a starting bid. Then you schedule your item to be auctioned off in one of the corresponding live auctions. I decided to try auctioning off a skein of my yarn just to see how it works. I listed my starting bid at $10. A few days later I logged into the supplies auction where my yarn was being auctioned and watched how it worked.
It truly is a live auction! Everyone who is interested in items being auctioned off log in live. A real auctioneer stands at the front of the crowd of cute avatars, and starts asking for bids on each item. My yarn came up after awhile, and it did indeed sell.
My overall review and opinions on tophatter is this. Tophatter is a great place to make sure you get your items sold. But I have come to the conclusion that it is better to auction of items that aren't selling on Etsy, or you have had listed for a long time without getting sold. Listing new items that haven't had a long time to get exposure isn't a good idea. The skein of yarn that I sold ended up selling for less than what I spent on making it in the first place. The lady who bought my 273 yards of pink, orange, and yellow rambouillet hand spun for $10 got a STEAL.
Marketing handmade items, and networking to your name out there is a huge learning curve. For tophatter, I went, I tried, I left disappointed. I have another yarn up for auction tomorrow at 10 PT, but this time I am listing a skein that hasn't sold or had a good amount of views on Etsy.
Tophatter is a great place to sell things you need to destash, but not a good site to depend on for all of your handmade sales.
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