It's a blustery Spring day here in Billings with the wind shaking the house and whistling through the still bare trees. But Spring is coming, you can feel it in the air, in the earth, and in the trees. Even the wild bunnies have been making an appearance, and the grass is showing the tiniest hints of green peeking up through the brown... I can't find my photo of our neighborhood bunny, so here is one borrowed from another Montanan.
Lately I've been staying terribly busy between tutoring, family activities and daily life, and this new auction website called Tophatter. Not much time for blogging!
So until I have something better to post (projects in the works, seed bead ring finished, just nothing photographed yet!), I hope you'll take a chance to visit and get to know this new venue, Tophatter.com. It's a live auction website, where you can chat live with other buyers and sellers, and actually bid on items for sale in real time. It's a lot of fun and quite addictive! Like any brand new baby site (I believe this one launched about 3 months ago), it certainly has its growing pains and they are tinkering, adjusting, and adding new features every day. I've been having fun selling beads and making friends...
Here's the main screen where you can see what's going on now and what's coming up soon.... click any of the auction links to browse the "lots" and even set alerts for items you think you'd like to bid on!
"VIEW LOTS"
This is one of my favorite places to hang out. I like the bigger photos, and it's easy to just click any item and a temporary popup comes up with a detailed description and up to 2 more photos of the item. That popup is also where you can set a reminder to bid, which will warn you if you happen to be in a different room when the lot comes up, and it also sends a text message to your phone in time for you to go sign in and get to the room you want to be in.
Here are a few of the upcoming item for the Home Decor auction later today via the "View Lots" button...
"ENTER AUCTION"
Here's what a live auction looks like. This example is almost live, as they open the room for chat an hour before the auction actually begins. It's a great time to get to know people before the action starts! Look at all those people already in there! Each little person there represents a real person somewhere in the world, at their computer, and in that room right now. You can click on each little person and even see who it is!
See the little "Confused? Try the tutorial" link at the bottom? I highly recommend that to get started. When you visit the main site for the first time, the offer to view the tutorial should pop up. It just takes like 30 seconds, I recommend it!
Oh, and if you ever want to see bigger pictures of all the upcoming items, click the "View all items" below the column of upcoming items, and that takes you back to the page where you can browse lots for future auctions, only showing the items for THIS auction.
I guess that's about everything for Tophatter.... Do give it a peek and checkout the site's built-in tutorial mentioned above. There is also an unofficial facebook group called "Tophatters Anonymous" in case you find yourself hopelessly addicted...
If you'd like to keep an eye on what I'm selling on Tophatter, you can find my seller page here where you'll see a few of my upcoming items, sold items, and feedback from past buyers.
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| My Seller Page |
I'm "Charlotte B." in the auction rooms since there are lots of people and a few other Charlotte's and a few other people who go by "Bird." I usually hang around the supplies and jewelry auctions the most, but also love the handmade soaps over in bath & body....
Stop in, pull up a spot, and enjoy the fun! Maybe I'll see you there... :) Enjoy!
With Love From Montana,
Charlotte B.
