WhatNot Auction App

[segashack | 15]

Anyone else see the trend of sellers moving away from dedicated webstores or ebay to go to the app WhatNot?

I decided to try it out and was not a fan of it. It's live auctions that are scheduled, games sell in about a minute. 

I saw a lot of games go for more than they should be worth.

I wonder if sellers are using this to get around eBay's new tax rules.

I hope live auctions arent the future of buying videogames, I don't like this format at all.

[DK | 278]

Gave it a try, it was interesting but...

Reminds me of the Facebook live auctions people do.

Most people seem to be selling Xbox/PlayStation stuff.

I didn't see a way to see a list of what the seller is going to be listing, so you just have to sit there and hope something you like comes up.

Meh. It could work, but I don't see any way to get a great deal without just sitting on it all day - which would suck because some of the auction hosts are annoying.

 

[DefaultGen | 5,727]

I like the idea of live auctions (just for the fun factor) but it's a lot less fun sitting through 2 hours of random junk. Like Heritage Auctions is exciting to watch because every other game is selling for $1000s. I sat through a Whatnot auction of like loose Japanese Pokemon Blues and crap and it's just like... why am I wasting my time.

The themed auction like Sidequest Games' full NES set is cool because you know what's coming but I doubt I'd sit through any "Well here's my doubles" auction.

[DK | 278]

I gave it another try while watching a basketball game.

I figured out how to see what a seller has upcoming, which made it better.

Several sellers had giveaways, which is like a computerized lottery run by the app. Decent things given away too, so that was neat.

My biggest issue is that every single thing that was sold went for high prices. Who are these people who are paying over Ebay prices for relatively common games? 

[Hammerfestus | 4,108]

I heard of it.  Looked into it briefly.  Sounded stupid.

[DefaultGen | 5,727]

39 minutes ago, DK said:

My biggest issue is that every single thing that was sold went for high prices. Who are these people who are paying over Ebay prices for relatively common games? 

I heard someone theorize investors (like actual investors not collectibles investors) are pumping up sale prices to drive sellers/interest to the app. Who knows if it's true, but also like... someone also spent over $5000 on a loose Little Samson cart, which is almost CIB price. That's not just overpriced or high, there's just no reasonable world where that sale makes sense.

Who knows. Buying and flipping a few overpriced collectibles to get people to notice is just as sensible as any other marketing campaign.

[phart010 | 1,791]

I tried whatnot yesterday. It’s pretty interesting. I believe I got a good deal on saga Frontier PS1, although with the fast pace that they move at and the free items that they giveaway, I’m not even totally sure that what I bidded for was saga frontier

On the orders page, the item I one has no picture and no title, so I guess I’m just gonna wait until it arrives to see if I got a real good deal. 
 

All that said, I think you can find good deals just because of the short window of time that auctions last and the low number of competitors you have to bid against 

[a3quit4s | 4,386]

I don’t have the patience to sit through junk to wait for good stuff plus the prices aren’t any better than eBay usually

[MrWunderful | 2,932]

22 minutes ago, a3quit4s said:

I don’t have the patience to sit through junk to wait for good stuff plus the prices aren’t any better than eBay usually

Serious. I tried it, and thought it was terrible. I will personally overpay on eBay for the convenience.  

[a3quit4s | 4,386]

1 hour ago, MrWunderful said:

Serious. I tried it, and thought it was terrible. I will personally overpay on eBay for the convenience.  

Some of them are cringy as hell too. 
 

Maybe I’m just a cranky old man