Instantaneous Auctioning Site

By Angela Truong

Save up to 80 percent off the sticker price with live auction website and app Tophatter which offers jewelry, electronics, handbags, apparel, artwork and more.

Tophatter is similar to eBay but instead of waiting you can bid and win within a few minutes. Sign up to join and bid for free.

The live auction website was founded in 2011 by Ashvin Kumar, Chris Estriech and Andrew Blachman.

Just like QuiBids, when products are shown in the live auction section, it has the number of people bidding and displays the name of the current bidder. Instead of a traditional auctioneer yelling, they have a yellow and red bar timer to warn bidders for final call. When you’re not signed in, there’s a section for auction collections where the website shows comments such as “Going once to Angela. Fair warning. Do I hear $4? Final warning. This lot is about to close. Do I hear $5?” On the side, they offer a chat section for bidders to talk to each other or to the seller.

But unlike QuiBids, you don’t have to pay for every time you bid.

Starting bids go as low as $1 and could increase depending on the item or seller. Each product provides the original price, the percentage of savings and shipping option ranging from free to $7.

After winning an item, you must check My Orders section. They may provide product questions such as ring sizes and payment methods depending on the seller. Make sure to check your invoice and pay on time since sellers have the right to cancel the order. New buyers must pay for the first five products after winning before continuing to bid again.

There’s a Featured section that allows bidders to check products that will be auctioned within two days. Other items may be viewed in the browse section. If interested, people can “like” the product and provide a number so they won’t miss the auction.

Tophatter can get addictive but saving money on brand name products may be worth it.