About Hickra

The seller doesn't get your money when you pay. It sits with Hickra until the club has been delivered and you've had time to look at it — 4 days after delivery, in total. If it never turns up, or it isn't what the listing said, the money hasn't left yet.

That's the real protection here, and it's worth being straight about what it isn't: Hickra has no buyer-protection programme, no purchase guarantee and no fund to pay you out of. What it has is the timing — the seller is paid last, not first.

The price on the listing, plus shipping if the seller charges for it. Nothing else. There's no buyer fee and no booking fee, and Hickra isn't registered to collect sales tax anywhere yet, so none is added.

The total you're shown before you pay is itemised, and the site refuses to send you to checkout if those lines don't add up to exactly what your card will be charged.

No. Paying takes you off Hickra entirely and onto Stripe's own checkout page. Your card number, expiry and CVC are typed into Stripe, never into Hickra, and they never touch Hickra's servers or database.

What Hickra stores afterwards is Stripe's reference for the payment — an identifier that can't be used to charge you again, and which nothing in a browser is allowed to read.

Buyers have 3 days after delivery to report an item that does not match its listing; after that the sale is final, and the seller is paid a day later.

You open a claim from the order, and I read it — it's me, not a queue. If it's upheld you're refunded in full, and the money comes back out of the seller's side.

Being clear about the limit: this covers an item that doesn't match its listing. It isn't a change-of-mind return. If you bought a driver and decided you'd rather have a different one, that's between you and the seller.

Sellers have 2 days to ship. If nothing has been sent by then, the order is refunded automatically — you don't have to chase it or ask.

Hickra is, in its own Stripe account. It doesn't go to the seller's account and sit there — the transfer to the seller only happens once the order is finished.

One consequence worth knowing: you can only buy from a seller Stripe has already identity-checked. Setting up to receive money means giving Stripe a legal name, date of birth, address, the last four of a social security number and a bank account. A seller who hasn't done that can list a club, but nobody can buy it — the listing says so instead of offering a button that fails.

There's nothing to pay to list. When something sells, Hickra takes 9% of the item price, not the shipping, and card processing comes out of that, not out of you.

There's a minimum fee of $1 on a sale, because below about twelve dollars the percentage stops covering the card fee Hickra is absorbing.

A shop can open a store for $29 a month, which brings the rate down to 7%.

Founding members never pay more, and usually pay less. The first 50 people to join, and the first 100 listings from anyone who joins after them, sell with no commission, for life: each sale costs $1 plus the card fee (2.9% of the item price and 30¢), or the usual fee if that is lower.

4 days after the club is delivered — the buyer gets 3 days to check it, and payout follows a day later. If delivery is never confirmed, it releases on its own two weeks after you shipped.

From there Stripe moves it to your bank on its own schedule, currently with a 2 days delay.

You'll need to finish Stripe's payout setup before anyone can buy from you. You can list without it — you just can't be paid, and the listing will say as much.

The buyer, at a flat price you set on the listing — put 0 if you'd rather cover it. You buy and send the label yourself; Hickra doesn't buy it for you.

So set it honestly against what the box will actually cost. If the real label comes to more than you charged, the difference is yours.

Before it's listed — very little, and I'd rather say so than pretend. It takes an email address you can receive a code at, and photographs you take yourself: for a club, the whole club, the face and the sole. Nobody reviews a listing before it goes up. A photo requirement proves somebody had three photos, and no site on earth can prove a photograph was taken this week.

What actually protects you is further down the line, and it's stronger. You can only buy from a seller Stripe has identity-checked, so there's a real, traceable person behind the account. Their money is held until the club reaches you. And you have 3 days after that to say it isn't right.

Under their name on any listing: whether their email is confirmed, how long they've been here, how many sales they've actually completed, and how quickly they usually reply.

If a line isn't there, it's because there's no real data behind it yet — not because it's zero and we're hiding it. You won't find star ratings, review counts or trust badges anywhere on Hickra, because nothing has earned any and inventing them would be the easiest lie on the site to tell.

Every listing, every store and every message thread has a report link. Reports come straight to me and I can take a listing down or suspend an account.

Honestly, though: there's no ticket number and no automatic reply, so you won't hear back through the report itself. If it matters, email me as well and you'll get a person.

One person. I'm Rich, I'm in Phoenix, and I built the whole thing. There's no support department — when you email Hickra, I'm the one who reads it.