Tophatter Live Auctions: The Real Deal, Or Scam?

Tophatter Live Auctions: The Real Deal, Or Scam?

I came across Tophatter while I was researching some other Apps online. As well as a website, they have an app called: “Top Hatter 90 Second Live Auctions.”

I thought the idea was quite exciting. I always used to enjoy selling and bidding on EBay and this felt like another level of that, except you could just bid right away and wouldn’t have to wait.

Maybe you could pick up some bargains here?  I wanted to find out…

Review In Brief:

Company: Tophatter Live Auctions. App & website. Click here for $5/£3 off your first purchase.
Money Making Opportunity: Make a saving/grab a bargain. Online auctions.
Cost: Free to sign up and to bid – if you win, you pay.
Overall Rating: I quite enjoyed playing with this quick auction site and app. However, I feel that they do wildly over estimate the value of things.

So, when something says it’s worth £200/$200 and selling for a few bucks in reality online… maybe do a quick check online first and see what you can REALLY get it for!

You won’t have very long though, as each auction is only 90 seconds long.

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What Is Tophatter & How Does It Work?

Tophatter make it really simple to sign up.  You can sign up quickly by linking up with Facebook, or you can just enter your email and register that way, which is what I did.

After you confirm your account and name/address, you can just start bidding right away.

There are various categories you can go for. What you have available is going to vary from country to country. I am in the UK and the categories open to me included:

• Bling
• Electronics
• Fashion & Beauty
• Homes & Hobbies

You bid in real time for auctions that are going on and you only have 90 seconds to bid on them. After you have bid, people get the chance to outbid you until the time is up.

Once you’ve won a bid, you can just pay via multiple cards, or PayPal and they will give you a delivery date for your item.

If you have spotted an auction that is not yet running, but you’re interested in joining, there is a little “heart,” icon you can press. Then you’ll be reminded once the auction is live.

My Experience Bidding:

I was a bit nervous after downloading the App, I was a bit nervous.

I saw all these auctions running and big buttons asking me to BID… I was scared to scroll down on my phone or push anything, in case it automatically registered a bid.

I got a bit excited when I saw a retro Nintendo console on offer, including 600 games.

It was going for £14 with £3 delivery, but I had a £3 bonus for signing up, (I’m in the UK, but you can sign up from the US).

I bid and I won!

However, I probably should have checked online first to see if it was really a bargain or not.

It seemed I could pick this up for as low as £10 at one shop online!…. Yet they were saying it was worth over £290!

I took a look and I didn’t realise that you can ask for a refund.

It gives you several options. One option was: “found cheaper elsewhere…”

I clicked that and was issued a refund right away. I was re credited to my PayPal account immediately, which really impressed me.

I’m not sure how many times you can do that before you’re banned though.  I was surprised to see that I was even issued my £3 credit back.

I had learnt my lesson.

Ideally do a quick search online before you make a bid and don’t be taken in just by what they say something is worth….

Although, sometimes you won’t have enough info to check.

So, I guess go for what you think it’s worth. Most things seem to go for a low amount. Many things I saw went for under £6!

Having searched for similar products online for the ones that had sold, I did notice that many items that appeared as though they were expensive, could clearly be picked up for cheap online.

What Do Other People Say About Tophatter?

This company seems to have some relatively good feedback online, although if you delve a bit deeper into the reviews, there are still hundreds of negative ones to be found.

With that in mind though, they still have 4 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot at the time of writing and over 3,000 people taking the time to leave a review.

4.0 Stars on site jabber and on App Store they have 4.6 stars and over 70k ratings.

Finally, in Google Play, they have a score of 4.3, with over 100k reviews! That is a lot of bidding that’s been going on….

Many people have written about how they’ve liked the jewellery they’ve won via auction, that the site and app are easy to use and their refunds are no-fuss; quick and easy.

I can certainly vouch for their refunds being quick!

On the negative side, some people say the items look cheap and that generally the items would be cheap to buy anyway, so bear that in mind and don’t expect amazing quality.

Overall though, people have had a positive experience and happy with their purchases.

I noticed that someone had also given a one-star review by mistake on trust pilot, when the review was actually positive.

One negative I will agree on is the misrepresentation of products.

I don’t see how you can claim something is worth over £200- when you can buy is for less than £10 online somewhere.

I don’t know where they get their prices from, but many do not seem based on reality and feel as though they are just plucked out of thin air.

At least you know once you have bid for the item, that you can actually cancel it if you find it cheaper elsewhere, or if you feel you just overpaid for what you have received. You can return items for up to 30 days.

Conclusion: Is Tophatter Live Auctions A Scam? Or The Real Deal?

I found Tophatter fun and I liked how quickly I received a refund, with zero fuss at all.

From an auction perspective though, I feel that this probably isn’t a place that you’re going to pick up an amazing bargain….

You may get some items for cheaper than you’d pay online, but there are some cases where you could pay more too.

As the saying goes, you get what you pay for and when it comes to these items, they’re cheap items to begin with and they go for a cheap price.

I’ve been on the fence regarding whether to mark this review as positive, or average!

I’m going to mark Tophatter as average right now because, although there are things I like about this site – I feel like they could be more transparent about the true value of the items listed!

However, you do get a free £3 or $5 for signing up though, so it could be worth getting something when you get that discount as well on top.