Seller Questions

We want to have a relaxed, fun vibe to these trains.

It is important to remember that the success of the WHOLE event is riding on everyone doing their part. If one person does not do their show (or start on time) it hurts all of the sellers that will go after you.

A raid train is about getting more exposure, new followers and introducing yourself to a new group of sellers who may become close friends!

1 – Share your show on social media a few times, share your best items as well to encourage prebids. Talk about your show and items on your own shows leading up to the train.

2 – Bring your own moderator. This helps keep the flow going and interact with the chat when you are busy selling.

3 – Have a backup person for your time slot in case of a personal emergency. Life happens while we are busy making other plans, if your plans change suddenly having a backup person will ensure you do not let the train down.

4 – Be a nice human. Follow Whatnot’s guidelines for sellers.

5 – Join the other shows in the Event whenever you can!!

Before your sale:

1 – Load your buy it now with as much as you can for bonus sales! If you can load your auction well ahead of time that is great and you may get some prebids!

2 – Promote all of your shows (not just this one) on social media, on Whatnot (but don’t spam please). Gather those bookmarks!!

3 – Go into the sale of the person before you to let them know you are going to be ready on time. Tip: If you can, watch their show on one device (like your computer, phone or tablet) and then set up your show on another (like your phone or tablet).

4 – Start your show at least 5 minutes before your scheduled time (and if you are listening to the other show on another device make sure to mute that device!!!!!)

5 – When you are raided you can have a giveaway OR a $1 start item. We encourage you to do giveaways when you are raided with the “Followers Only” button checked. Giveaways are not required.

6 – Focus on the fun, not the sales. And please don’t look at that number at the top – it is never right – whether it says 1 or 100, talk to the audience, tell them why you love the items you are selling! Keep running items, a quiet chat doesn’t mean they aren’t listening.

7 – If the chat gets quiet do not think no one cares. The majority of people never say a single word on the chat!!! But the strong silent types will buy!!! So RUN to SELL! (RTS) No one in chat said run it? Run it anyway – just for a short time. You may be surprised how many sales you get. *10-15 seconds work well for this

8 – If something doesn’t sell remember that this is live selling, it just means that the right person wasn’t in your show today – tomorrow is another day!! If you have time, run items from the beginning again. The right person may have entered your show late.

9 – When it is close to the end of your time the next person should already have said Hello in the chat. If they haven’t ask your mods to go check if they are ready. You may have to chat a bit longer or sell some more items while the next seller gets set up (technical difficulties happen). You will get a list of Train Conductors (volunteers who help keep the train running) that you can tag in your shows to let them know there’s an issue. Example: @theredrooster Help! Next seller is not live yet.

10 – When the next seller is live (and you are ready to end) type: /raid @sellersname and hit send. Learn about the technical aspects of raiding on Whatnot Seller Academy.

11 – Stay in the next show so that you can be recognized by the seller and you can encourage your followers to follow the seller! If you can stay for part or the whole show that is wonderful!

The thumbnail for the train is available at the top of the signup page.

This will only happen during special multi-line events. Most months will have only 1 train line per day. Please DO NOT message people to tell them they shouldn’t be on at the same time as you. If you think there’s an issue message TheRedRooster on Whatnot , let her sort it out.

Sharing is caring. We want you to join us but we also want other sellers to join us, especially new sellers who need the experience and the exposure. If you are a power seller wanting to run for a significant amount of the day please message TheRedRooster if you’d like to go for an extended period of time and we’ll work out something where you can raid into other shows or we can create a Power Seller line for a few of you to share the day.

New for 2025** You must book your show on Whatnot when you sign up for a time slot. The longer you have your show scheduled on your WhatNot profile the more bookmarks you will get – more bookmarks equals more buyers!!

It is not required to preload your show but it is better if you do.
If you are doing an unboxing, a shop my shelves, live thrifting show, etc you really can’t preload. Preloading does help with pre-bidding and can boost your sales. Even if you can’t get everything loaded in time, having a few things in your buy it now and in the auction show folks what they can expect at your sale and will increase your bookmarks.

Oh absolutely!! Have fun games (within Whatnot guidelines), chat, educate, juggle, show off your pets!! Sellers in the Arts and Handmade category have done amazing craft demonstration shows and sold the tools and supplies you need to also do the craft. Book sellers have read from their favourite books. You should always have things in your buy it now if you are not going to be running any auctions to stay within Whatnot guidelines (which change more often than I will update this post so check Whatnot first).