It’s not a penny auction! So why are we reviewing it? Well, we think that TopHatter is a good penny auction alternative. TopHatter is a free to bid auction website (you never pay for bids as you would on a penny auction). Who cares! There are some things about TopHatter that we really like, and a few things which we do not. So sit back class and prepare to be schooled about TopHatter Auctions.
Disclaimer: This review was written by an independent third party. For any comments or factual corrections, please email info@bestpennyauctionsites.org.
About TopHatter
Website: www.tophatter.com
Competition: Low-Medium (we easily win auctions)
TopHatter Coupon Codes: None needed, bids are free
Free bids at sign-up: N/a, bids are free
Other ways to get free bids: N/a, bids are free
- TopHatter Address: 185 Berry St., Suite 2400, San Francisco CA 94107
- Phone number: (405) 242-5339
- Facebook: facebook.com/tophatter/
- Twitter: twitter.com/tophatter
BBB Rating: A+
Editor’s TopHatter Reviews
TopHatter takes the term Entertainment Shopping to the next level. Tophatter is a high-paced free to be auction website which operates hundreds of closing auctions at all times. In our observations, the volume of auctions offered here seems to outpace some of the largest penny auction websites such as DealDash.
TopHatter is a bidding website which is similar to eBay in that 1) the items auctioned are done so by sellers, not TopHatter and 2) placing a bid is free. However, we think that this auction site is a lot more fun than eBay!
One important note is that TopHatter is NOT a penny auction. That’s right, NOT a penny auction. Bids are free, always. If you want to check out a penny auction, turn your eyes towards DealDash.
TopHatter Auction Features
Top Hatter is unique from other online bidding websites in a few different ways:
- Free-to-Bid Auctions: All auctions are free to bid. You only pay when you win plus a shipping fee.
- Many Sellers: Items auctioned on Top Hatter are done so by other vendors. So there are basically thousands of vendors auctioning products at all times. Similar to ebay, but much more fun and fast-paced.
- High Auction Volume: The volume is really hard to quantify as a user. It’s huge, visit the site and you’ll see.
Common TopHatter Auctions
- Jewelry
- Watches
- Home goods
- Cloths
- Gift cards of all shapes and sizes
- Laptops and tablet computers
- Video games and video game consoles
- Headphones, MP3 players
- Digital cameras including SLRs
- Purses, Jewelry, Art
- Tons of other stuff
Bidding Tips
- Shipping price: Check the shipping price before bidding, some sellers
- Shipping time: Watch the estimated shipping time. In some cases, it can take a couple weeks for shipping
- Plan to win: In our experience, we won a good majority of auctions leading us to believe that vendors are willing to sell product at a low cost
- Cancel if you need to: If you win an auction and don’t want the item, you need to cancel it within your account. Easy to do and avoids your account from being cancelled.
TopHatter.com shipping and fees
As a bidder, Top Hatter does not charge any fees. However, when you win an auction, the seller will charge a shipping fee which in some cases can be more than the price of the item. Just keep an eye on it before bidding.
Is TopHatter a scam?
We don’t think so. TopHatter has a great BBB rating, lots of auctions, and is free to bid. Nothing we see causes concern. Scroll to the bottom of the page to read reviews from other Tophatter customers who also weigh in on whether or not Tophatter is a scam.
Some reviewers have lately been reporting low quality merchandise as sellers on Tophatter are plentiful. Online auction sites such as DealDash only sell factory sealed, unused products and dealing with customer service is easy should you have the need to do so.
TopHatter Alternatives (websites similar to TopHatter)
Websites such as eBid, Bonanaza, and eBay all offer free to participate shopping.
TopHatter Pros and Cons
- TopHatter Pros: Free bids, countless auctions, fast paced and fun, easy to win auctions
- TopHatter Cons: Some products have long shipping times, quality of products is dependant on seller
TopHatter FAQs
Here are some of the most commonly asked questions about the auction website, TopHatter.com.
Tophatter merchants auction thousands of electronic devices daily (based on our best estimates). We see a lot of off-brand electronics of all types- TV’s, gaming systems, drones, MP3 players, cameras, and much more. Based on Tophatter reviews submitted on this website, many of the electronics come from overseas and the quality varies. Always review the seller ratings on Tophatter before participating in auctions. Not all electronics sellers are equal!
Tophatter in an online auction website which offers a wide variety of Jewelry. Categorized as “Bling” on the Tophatter website, common jewelry items include necklaces, bracelets, lot of rings, watches and much more. Is Tophatter jewelry real? It’s real, just pay attention to what you’re bidding. Tophatter customers who have written reviews on this website often seem confused about what they were bidding on. Have you won jewelry on Tophatter? Please write a review below.
Are Tophatter auctions live? Yep, Tophatter runs thousands of live auctions each day, in many countries around the World.
We’re not sure if the Reddit community likes anything all about Capitalism but if it’s important to you, here are links to a few subreddit topics on the Tophatter auction website.
We generally see pretty positive reviews for Tophatter. For unhappy reviewers post here, many concede that Tophatter refunds their money in situations where they asked. We generally feel that it is safe to bid and shop on Tophatter.
TopHatter offers a mobile application for both Androis and IOS. According to both networks, the app receives high reviews in terms of stability and usability. Typically, reviews of the mobile tophatter apps are 4/5 stars+.
At the time of this post, Tophatter has a BBB (Better Business Bureau) rating of A+. About 60% of BBB reviews were positive and about 30% negative according to the BBB Tophatter profile.
At this time, we do not have record of promo codes or coupon codes for Tophatter or Tophatter.com.
Bidding on Tophatter is free. The only costs which consumers incur are when they win an auction. In this case, the consumer is responsible for the auction closing price plus any applicable shipping charges.
Customers can reach TopHatter’s customer service department through the support email address. Similar to many other auction websites, they do not currently offer phone support.
TopHatter offers auction-style where, similar to Ebay, sellers put products up for auction. Bidders/consumers 1) Create and account 2) place free bids on any item they like and 3) If they win the auction, they pay and auction items are shipped directly from the sellers. All auctions on TopHatter.com are free to participate in, the only costs occur when an auction is won.
FREE AUCTIONS COMPARISON GUIDE
| Website | Editor's Rating | Type | Best Features | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  Read Review | Penny Auction | Many auctions available from TV's to home appliances, featuring beginner auctions, free shipping, great reputation. | @dealdash | |
 |  Review Coming Soon | E-commerce | Huge online marketplace, many perks with prime membership including 2-day free shipping | @amazon | |
 | Read Review | Free Auction | Largest marketplace to find online auctions, with many categories, offers buy it now and promotions | @ebay | |
 | Read Review | Free Auction, E-commerce | Offers products across all categories, similar to eBay, less expensive for sellers so slightly lower prices. | @bonanza | |
 |  Read Review | Penny Auction | Always free shipping. You can earn free bids by referring friends and family. | @centbids | |
 |  Read Review | Free Auction | Many auctions are available in all categories, unique product offering. | @ebid | |
 | Read Review | Free Auction, E-commerce | Offers vacation & travel auctions, excellent Deal of the Day section with unique buy it now offers. | @ubid | |
 | Read Review | Free Auction | Steal of the Day section, various categories with authentic police seized, stolen, abandoned and surplus goods. | @propertyroom | |
 | Read Review | Penny Auction | Special events to win extra bids, prizes, or other incentives, shipping is free, refer-a-friend program to earn free bids. | @orangebidz | |
 | Read Review | Penny Auction, E-commerce | Free shipping on almost everything, auctions available in many categories laptops and tablets to purses and jewelry. | @quibids | |
 | Read Review | Free Auction, E-commerce | Various product categories from jewelry to electronics featuring high paced auctions, with Buy It Now options. | @tophatter | |
 | Read Review | Penny Auction, E-commerce | Primabids store where you can buy it now, winners can re-sell products which they’ve won, gift cards, games, and many other products. | @primabids | |
 | Read Review | Penny Auction | Beginner Auctions, buy it auctions, offers auctions in many categories and discounts for new bidders. | @wellbid | |
 | Read Review | Free Auction | Offers government Auction information for thousands of yearly government auctions, bank foreclosure, car, truck, and other automobile auctions | @policeauctions |
TopHatter Bidder Ratings and Reviews
The reviews below were submitted by users, and solely reflect the views of the individuals who submitted them. Users were not compensated for leaving a review.
Submit your review | |
The items that receive is so cheap, the ads for the items are misleading claiming 14 K gold when it is ABSOLUTELY FAKE. Large items you never receive, routing app is fake but UPS claims delivery. BUYERS BEWARE
you have to pay in advance half the stuff y dont get and thw ones y get dont work. you cannot contact the in nay way the phone listed in the web is phony if y dont have an extension it hangs up y cnnot contact the seller dont use it is total scam foe the items i received i paid way above what it should have been including item s i did not get and tthose that did not work cheap? in the long rum way more pricy SCAMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!
I just recently won a bid and purchased the item using my bank card. the next day there were over 30 transactions from my bank account that were from the same creditor with purchases I did not make and over $ 450.00 has gone missing from my account. I have the bank looking into the fraudulent activities, PLEASE BE AWARE card details can be hacked.... I use Wish quite frequently and this has never happened on their website
I went on top hatter and at first you think it's good and before receiving your item you order more, only to find out that your lucky if you get 6 out of 10 items you buy,half the time they don't send the correct item and they don't like refunding, so in probly 3 months I was on I must have lost about £100
Also there tablets are realy crap the phones are the same and extreamly slow and that's if you can get on anything, I brought illuminous stones Yes STONES to put in my water fall and plastic crap comes through, so not everything you read on a listing is true, you realy carnt belive them,
Well I've deleted the app and marked there emails as spam and I'll never go back to using this sly cheating deceiving dishonest site again,
As a new user in Tophatter I figured I would give it a chance. I was SO WRONG. Most of the stuff I received was WELL below standards - cheap - broken - damaged - SO tiny compared to what they tell you.
Example: Women Oversize Plain Hooded Dress Long Sleeve Casual Winter Hoodies Pullover - you can see through it and a 5XL is too small to fit a person that usually takes a Large in shirts.
Example: Soft Rubber Cartoon Bee Hand Knocking Rattle Dumbbell Baby Early Educational Toys Kids Preschool Tools - picture shows a young child playing with it. describes a pleasant ringing... the item was 4 inches across and metal bell on hard plastic - no it is not pleasant.
Example: High quality off-road vehicle toy 1:64 toy alloy Suv high-speed truck off-road truck kids toy gifts - it was a jeep and a little bigger than a matchbox car... no high speed - no rc - no high quality...
Thankfully everything was refunded... just wasted my time looking, paying, waiting, and returning.
This is not a bad site 4 some of the items but i aint buying anything else as they are con artists. I have sent 3 items back with tracking and they got there within the time slot they gave me.now they are saying they did not recieve them in time frame but my tracking says they did .so they wont pay my money back for these items
Only good thing about this site, is they refund you your money. So far it’s been simple, see what you like, bid and win, wait for the refund, because the items never come!!
Don't bother. There is no point bidding on an auction site if your items never ship. I have been on Tophatter since '17 and I am done. I bid a lot this time of year and it used to be good. First you need to understand that these sellers stretch the truth in their descriptions, lately though they flat out lie. Shipping has become a joke. At least a month unless it's from the U.S. That is IF you get your item. I am getting over 70% of my items refunded for non-delivery. It's good they refund but really, what is the point of bidding just to get your money back two months later? DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME.
When I first joined top hatter I was pleased with my purchases and now it’s taking longer and loner to get items. Recently more items are showing as delivered to Florida, Utah, Ohio and yesterday 11/16/2020- I had some nice items delivered to Grenada California but I live in Texas. I’m thinking this is Fraudulent activity, I have requested refunds on all merchandise possible, and I’m waiting for pending orders and I’m getting off the site. I think something that I can’t prove is going on. All 3 WiFi routers, 1 to Florida, 2 to Utah, all sports wear to California. I’ve even complained to the BBB. They gave my money back, but what’s really going on and it does not seem that they care to check. I’m advising people to stay away from the site and if not, you’ve been warned. Either a thief is working there and diverting merchandise or the sellers have gotten GREEDY.
Bought 4 items , 3 i received were junk if ask , me . The 4th never received wont answer why and no refund . Going luck with them .
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5 years ago TopHatter was much smaller and more like Etsy with local sellers. The auctions took more time then they do now and the prices were more expensive. They have changed and I would not buy anything from them because they prices are too low and are obviously indicating the stuff is crap. However I just got an email form them wanting me to rate my most recent purchase – from 2012? Yup the stuff in 2012 is fine – but I won’t give them a good rating that they can use to fleece the public today 🙂
Their are two organizations I never rely on, (1) BBB and (2) Consumer Reports….MY opinion is they are either payed off,or just plain stupid….
Top hatter’s is great. if you cheap buyers don’t want to pay for more then don’t. stop [edited]. l bought several quality idem’s so far and l’m happy.
I seen the zapper light bulb go up for auction. I had bought one at Walmart for I think $20 just to see if it works. They had it retailed for $293 dollars knew right them this isn’t good. if they lie right at the start of the deal it can only get worse. And the way your all talking. it’s sounds like a scam.
I’ve won quite a few items since I began bidding on this site…some I’ve been disappointed in & others I’ve been pleasantly surprised by. I’ve never had an issue with customer service and have been refunded monies even when I haven’t asked for a refund. On one occasion, I was missing one piece of a 4 piece set, and upon bringing it to their attention, I was refunded. Two other separate occasions, stones were missing from rings, and again, I was promptly refunded. Any questions I’ve had have been answered in a timely manner. The only other thing (other than the few disappointing items) that I take issue with is being banned from bidding. I understand the first time I was banned was because there were multiple cancelled items…shame on me. I was banned again tonight after cancelling an item. It was stated that the reason was for excessive cancellations…I thought I paid for my cancellations with the first banning incident…guess not. I’ll just have to pay better attention in the future.
how did You get Your refund and what adress did You ship the merchandise back to? Help.
I bought 3 items frome tophatter website. 2 of them were cheap quality products. Did not work . Stay away from this site. You can find the same product at a better price on ebay or amazon
Agree to stay away from this type scam. Luckily, I haven’t been able to successfully sign in as a customer. Lucky Me. I
‘ll stay with a truly legit. company like Amazon.
Lots of stuff from China. If I don’t mind waiting 30 days for Delivery. And, what if I want to send back?
Lots of negatives, to deal with to save $5.00. Lots of overpriced shipping fees. I have cross checked items on this site to Ebay. Not much difference, and you get it in 2-3 day on Ebay or Amazon, with Free Shipping on most! If I get a deal for $5.00 and the shipping is $8.00 and I have to wait 30 days for delivery.
Not a Great Deal!
If you win a bid that is low they refund your money and don’t send the item. Most products are junk. Major scam from
I have purchased several items from this website. I have learnt that you can go to the website of the item being auctioned and see how much it is to buy now. I read all the descriptions and then decide if I want to bid. I have received a few items that are cheap and nasty but have also received some beautiful items. I only pay with paypal and if I pay and decide to cancel the item I get a full refund. If I receive the item and it is not as described I get a full refund and they tell me to keep the item. I have sent several emails and have received quick and polite and helpful replies. Yes there is cheap stuff on there and the jewellery states gold plated and I have brought several pieces and given them to friend family for presents and they love them. I have cancelled several items and have been banned for 24hrs from bidding and in a way that is good for me and I watch what is selling and what people are bidding for. There is no where you can get something worth a lot of money for nearly nothing. Yes buyer beware and research the buyer and prices and just buy what you really want. I have found all the staff from Tophatter to be efficient and friendly and helpful. I did send an item back and got a consignment number and it cost me a lot to send it back but the item I purchased cost me a lot as it was an ipad. I got a full refund from paypal for postage and when the item arrived back got a full refund for the item and postage to me. You get what you pay for and sometimes you get a great deal and a beautiful item. I dont this site is a scam I think you just have to be aware of what you are getting. Most of the items are from china and some of the goods are great. Hope this helps anyone thinking of bidding on this website. You win some and you lose some. As they say you done get anything for nothing. Also I am from Australia and some of the stuff is only for American power plugs. I had to pay for my return goods but from America you get return shipping paid for. Thank you Tophatter