Features

Live show experience

Sub-second WebRTC, sniping protection, real-time chat with moderators, and replay with chapter jumps.

• WebRTC bidding (sub-second)

  No HLS-only delay; bid lands before the next breath.

• Soft-close anti-snipe

  Auctions extend automatically when a bid lands inside the closing window.

• Auto-bid (max-bid proxy)

  Set your ceiling once; the engine bumps you in step with min-increments.

• Pre-bid before live

  Place a max bid on a queued lot — fires the moment the seller opens it.

• Flash auctions

  Lightning-mode short timers for high-velocity drops.

• Pack breaks (with per-spot UI)

  Sell N spots from one pack; each spot becomes its own order.

• Mystery boxes

  Hidden contents revealed on purchase, with rich-text reveal.

• Giveaways + auto-draw

  Open a giveaway, viewers tap Enter, host clicks Draw — push to the winner.

• Top-buyer leaderboard

  Real-time top spenders panel per show.

• Run-it-again

  One-tap clone of the last sold lot back into the queue.

• Co-host moderators

  Deputize trusted viewers to delete spam and run giveaways.

• Floating reactions + haptics

  Hearts, fire, money, comic — vibrate on tap on mobile.

• Chat overlay on video

  Optional translucent chat pinned to the lower 1/3.

• Show recordings + R2 archive

  Auto-recorded MP4, migrated to Cloudflare R2, replay forever.

• Replay chapter markers

  Jump to lot 5 in 2:34 — every sold lot gets a timestamp.

• Mobile go-live

  Full-screen portrait publisher; tap to start, swap front/back camera.

• Multi-cam (3-cam break setup)

  Register Main + Close-up + Side cams; viewers swap with one tap.

• OBS + RTMP support

  Pro setups, multi-cam workflows, hardware encoders all welcome.

• Tipping (live)

  Preset $1–$50 tips with a sticker + message; confetti ribbon on screen, top-tippers panel for cred.

• Buyable stickers

  🎉 🔥 💸 🚀 💥 — tap a preset, the host sees the call-out, you land on the leaderboard.

Buyer experience

Discovery built for live, not search-first. Watchlist, follow, push, saved searches.

• Live discovery feed

  Live now + upcoming + recently sold ticker on the home page.

• Personalized /feed

  Built from sellers you follow + your watchlist.

• Browseable categories

  Curated taxonomy with per-category landing pages.

• Faceted search

  Category + kind + price + sort — newest, price asc/desc, most-bids.

• Watchlist (lots + shows)

  Heart anything; we ping you when it goes live or restocks.

• Follow sellers

  Follower counts surfaced; follows drive the live feed.

• Web push notifications

  Outbid · show going live · saved-search match · giveaway won.

• SMS notifications (opt-in)

  Twilio-ready; flip on per-kind for transactional pings.

• Per-kind notification toggles

  Push / email / SMS, per category. No global all-or-nothing.

• Saved searches + daily digest

  Email + push when a new lot matches your saved query.

• Add-to-calendar (.ics)

  Apple / Google / Outlook reminder for scheduled shows.

• Show-going-live reminders

  Push 5–20 minutes before scheduled shows kick off.

• Reviews

  1–5 stars on the seller after delivery; surfaces on /shop.

• Disputes

  Buyer-filed; admin resolution pipeline; pre-empts chargebacks.

• Buyer support tickets

  /account/help — direct line into the admin inbox.

Seller toolkit

Everything you need to run a show + grow an audience without app-store gatekeepers.

• Browser go-live (no OBS)

  One-tap WebRTC publish from desktop.

• Mobile go-live page

  Portrait full-screen camera with big tap targets.

• Schedule shows + trailers

  Cover image + trailer video pre-roll while you wait.

• Pin-a-lot

  'Now selling' overlay regardless of which lot's ringing.

• Lot creator (auction / buy_now / mystery / pack-break / flash)

  All five kinds in one form.

• 24/7 shop

  Buy-Now / Mystery available any time, no live show needed.

• Shippo labels (master account)

  One token across the platform — sellers print, never sign up.

• Bundle shipping + suggestions

  Combine multiple wins; we surface bundles for the same buyer in 7 days.

• Broadcast to followers

  Push + email blast — Whatnot's #1 missing feature.

• Announcement composer

  /seller/announce. Capped to one blast per hour.

• Auto-bid stack visibility

  See max-bid ladder on a lot before it opens to spot snipers.

• Stage tab

  Run-it-again, giveaway create + draw, moderator add/remove, announce shortcut.

• Analytics + payouts

  Daily / total breakdowns, top lots, Thursday batch.

• Tax form (W-9 / W-8BEN)

  Captured pre-payout; encrypted at rest; 1099-K-ready.

• Sales tax automation

  Per-state nexus map; bps rates; line-itemed on every order.

Trust + safety

Real KYC on sellers, two-factor for everyone, and a moderation stack that doesn't hide behind email.

• Seller application + KYC

  Identity + business filing review; admin approval workflow.

• 2FA TOTP

  Google Authenticator / 1Password / Authy — backup codes too.

• Moderator chat-delete

  Soft-delete; hosts and mods only; broadcasts a deletion event.

• IP blocklist + bot blocker

  Auto-block on suspicious behavior; admin override.

• reCAPTCHA on sign-in / sign-up / forgot-password

  Optional, configurable in admin.

• Audit log

  Every privileged admin action is appended; no quiet bans.

• Disputes pipeline

  Filed by buyers in-product; admin resolves with notes; pushed to both sides.

• Chargeback recovery card

  Seller card on file in case rolling reserve runs out.

Platform / DX

PWA, OG cards, sitemap, robots, and a deploy story that fits in one shell block.

• PWA installable

  Manifest + service worker; offline shell; web push handler.

• Mobile bottom nav

  Live / Browse / Feed / Alerts / Me — sticky on mobile only.

• Open Graph + Twitter cards

  Dynamic per-route (homepage / show / shop) generated at request.

• Sitemap + robots

  Crawlable for search engines; legal docs separately indexed.

• Streak background

  Desktop-only animated pink streaks + random camera-shake.

• Toast notifications

  Global useToast() hook; auto-dismiss; max 3 visible.

• Victory burst on bid wins

  Pink ring + 12 particles when you take the high bid.

Indie Comics Live vs Whatnot

Apples-to-apples on the things buyers and sellers actually feel.

Whatnot column is a public-records snapshot — features change and we’ll update this page as they ship parity. Got a correction? Tell us.