What is the deal with this What-not auction site? It sounds childish.

[silverstatetreasureboxes]

All I ever hear on YouTube resellers sites is " my Whatnot sale and trains". This sounds so goofy to me and not anything I would be interested in but sounds like these sellers are raking it in.

    Do you see Ebay doing this in the future?

[disneyshopper]

ebay has already started live auctions, but you have to be invited, the last I heard.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques · Accepted solution]

WhatNot is a Livestreaming site which also now has fixed price items available from some sellers.

ebay is doing Livestreaming, but in a very small way. Only certain categories (basically the Focus Categories, such as sneakers and trading cards) and only approved sellers. ebay started livestreaming as fixed price, but now at least some of it (maybe all of it) is auction. I believe you need the ebay app to view the ebay live events, but you can get an idea of their focus by going here:

https://www.ebay.com/ebaylive

WhatNot has eventsall the time in many , mostly collectibles, categories. One big advantage is you can offer, say, 100 items on an auction and , once you have a decent following, you might be able to sell all of them in one auction.....so it's a great way to move merchandise quickly. Lots of bargain hunters there, and unless you have a strong following, you are likely to be selling some stuff pretty cheap....

Really, the best way to understand it is download the WhatNot app and watch a few auctions. A seller can be on camera while selling, or can just talk while filming the items to be sold.

[silverstatetreasureboxes]

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques 

Thank you for that ebay link. It looks much more professional than that WN one. If this proves to be successful for ebay I hope they will expand to other categories in the future.

     I just don't have the desire to download WN app or purchase anything from this site as the trust is not there for me. It's grainy to view, it freezes and it just seems like a chat fest.

     Thanks for posting cottage,  that clears up alot!

[simba6]

eBay has done live auctions a few times in the past.  I actually won an item on such an auction.  However, I was later told it was sold to another person. eBay said it was the live auction people I had to deal with about it.  They said it was an issue with the eBay site.

I never wasted my time again with live auctions.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@silverstatetreasureboxes  Yes, ebay's live auctions are much more structured, WhatNot leaves pretty much everything up to the individual seller, which means the quality and style of the presentation can vary enormously. Some are well organized and move things along at a brisk, professional pace, others are.......not like that LOL  From a buyer perspective, if you hunt around, you can probably find some who appeal to you. 

A pretty good break down of some of the pros and cons can be found on the Vendoo blog:

https://blog.vendoo.co/live-selling-the-pros-cons-of-selling-on-whatnot-app

(This is from December of last year, so there have probably been some changes since then, but the general outline is probably still pretty accurate)

And yes, as someone said, ebay is not open to just anyone, although I think you can apply to be a Live seller at any time....but they are opening it up very gradually, and have hinted they will only gradually add categories. So I wouldn't expect to get to use this as a seller anytime soon.

[silverstatetreasureboxes]

@simba6 

I think I'm right there with ya simba. The last link that cottage sent was an interesting read also. Some of these buyers on WN are so infatuated by these YT sellers and they'll buy anything just to own something that this YouTuber touched! Are you kidding me?? Lol, thanks for posting.

[sapphire_studio]

I ran into a lot of news articles over the years about the same NFL player (Blake Martinez) that quit football to make millions on Pokémon. He sells on What-Not and opens packs live that people purchase from him and then mails them the cards.

Well recently he got caught red-handed having his assistant that opens packs switch out a giant hit pikachu card with a lower hit card. Now people assume he's been doing this for a long time but he was sloppy this time and got caught. They also wonder if other whatnot sellers are guilty of the same thing.

He's been banned from the platform and whatnot is actually changing the entire rules regarding trading cards and how they're allowed to be sold so it is less like gambling.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10085267-former-nfl-lb-blake-martinez-banned-from-selling-pokemo...

[simba6]

And then there was the time Yahoo too had an auction site.   Still nothing can out do those penny auction sites for sleeze.

[silverstatetreasureboxes]

@sapphire_studio 

Wow! I did hear that some buyers are being caught up on the excitement and when it comes time to pay, a lot of them don't. I had no idea about this Pokémon seller, thanks for posting this.

[chapeau-noir]

Posh has live auctions, too - it's pretty meh, but then there are very few things I'll fight for on auction, though most of the stuff goes for a pittance if it goes at all. 

A lot of times it's the hype that brings people in, or very niche categories like cards or designer bags.

[inhawaii]

Come on @silverstatetreasureboxes get with the program will ya?

I had to ask my friend the other day, what's a Doja Cat?  😉

[silverstatetreasureboxes]

@inhawaii 

Lol! What is a Doja cat? Do they sell them on that whatnot?

[baantiques]

Mrs baantiques watches sales by certain sellers.  From what I've gathered, to be successful you have to have a following (groupies, really).  The successful sellers seem to already have Facechat, Snapgram, YouFace, etc channels with a ton of followers who will then generate a frenzy and bid up your cheap crap to ridiculous levels.  She watches sales by this lady who has a youtube channel where she films herself shopping in thrift stores.  

I've not been able to crack the YouTube code.  I tried doing some videos a couple years ago but I managed a total of 5 subscribers.  Probably because I have a face for radio and a voice for print.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@baantiques  My impression is, it certainly helps to have an existing following on social media, but then, that's true of selling on any platform. From what I can see, a seller can build a strong following without having an existing following, but it might take some time, so if I were testing the waters over there I'd plan on running quite a few auctions to judge how well it can work for me....I don't think one auction would necessarily be a good test. 

I think some established sellers are willing to do joint shows with newer sellers, or use their established show to promote a new sellers upcoming show. So, as with any platform, you need to spend some time learning the ropes, figuring out your target audience, etc. The approaches different sellers take vary considerably, and it looks to me like you don't need a face for TV or a voice for radio (although it won't hurt)....People draw buyers with give- aways, they draw buyers by starting all auctions at a dollar (or whatever), and so forth. In many ways, it reminds me of ebay in its early days, with people feeling pretty free to experiment with different approaches, and a lot of interaction with buyers, so that there's a sense of community that used to be much more a part of the buying-selling here.

But...it IS work, and I'm sure, just like ebay, some never figure out just how to make it work, and others do figure it out.