The first thing you'll notice about Hyena Cart is that shopping on this site is a bit different than the traditional on-line shopping experience. Think of Hyena Cart as a collection of stores, each one with its own products, shopping experience and checkout. The one thing these stores have in common is that they are powered by Hyena Cart's unique code.

1. What's unique about Hyena Cart's shopping cart code?
2. So why do some Hyena Cart stores have a shopping cart rather than only "Buy Now" listings?
3. Do I have to register for an account in order to shop?
4. What's the difference between Buy Now's, auctions, lotteries and multi-carts?
5. Why are some items listed but not yet available?
6. How do I pay for my item?
7. What's all the stuff about Spots and 'Where the Hyenas are' on the main page?
8. Why is it called Hyena Cart?

What's unique about Hyena Cart's shopping cart code?

First of all, Hyena Cart was originally coded for extremely high-demand, one-of-a-kind items. Sellers who tried to offer this type of item via traditional cart codes ran into server crashes, overselling items, and frustrated customers.

Hyena Cart was originally designed for these high-traffic, high-demand situations, and that is the basis for the "Buy Now" style listings that are found in most Hyena Carts. These listings don't ever get entered into a shopping cart. The customer clicks the "Buy Now" button and that is the end of the transaction.

As time went on, different ways to offer these high-demand items to customers were added to the cart, including auctions and lotteries.

So why do some Hyena Cart stores have a shopping cart rather than only "Buy Now" listings?

The "Buy Now" listings are great for high-demand items, but very limiting for others. Customers are not able to check out with more than one item at a time and this is inconvenient for buyers and sellers. So a second type of Hyena Cart was added, dubbed "Hyena Cart Multi" in contrast to the original, which was then named "Hyena Cart Standard."

Hyena Cart Multi is a more traditional shopping cart, which allows buyers to put multiple items into a cart and check out with everything all at once. As you shop the Hyena Cart stores, pay attention to the buttons you click to purchase items. Some clearly state "Buy Now" and a click on of these buttons means the listed item is yours. Some will say "Add to cart" and those listings can be added to a cart, edited and deleted before the final purchase is made.

Here's an example of a "Buy Now" listing that you can test purchase without any obligations: HS1 Item. And here's a test store where you can play around with loading and editing a shopping cart in an HC Multi store: HC Multi Test Store.

Do I have to register for an account in order to shop?

You can browse around the stores as much as you like without registering. However, if you would like to purchase a high-demand item through a "Buy Now" listing, enter a lottery, or bid on an auction, you will need to register for an account. Note that registering is very easy -- you only need to enter your first name and an email address. As stated in our Privacy Policy, your first name is simply used in friendly greetings throughout the site and your email is used as your contact information to the seller when you purchase items. This information is not shared with anyone other than sellers from whom you purchase items directly.

What's the difference between Buy Now's, auctions, lotteries and multi-carts?

• Buy Now's
  Buy Now's are first-come, first-served listings. A single click is all that is needed to purchase these items (recognizable by the "Buy Now" purchase button) . There is no shopping cart or confirmation page for this style of listing. You can practice purchasing a "Buy Now" item here: HS1 Item.

• Auctions
  Auctions are listings that allow buyers to place proxy bids (high bids which will automatic over-bid any subsequent lower bids). Auctions operate in a going, going, gone format where bidding can continue past the stated end-time until two minutes after the final bid. You can practice bidding on an auction here: Fake Auction.

• Lotteries
  Lotteries are listings in which multiple buyers can enter to purchase the same item. At the ending time of the lottery, a single person is chosen as the successful buyer. Please read lottery listings carefully. Some sellers occasionally offer free items by lottery as a promotion, but in general, lotteries are used to list full-price items that multiple people would like to buy.

• Multi-carts
  Some HC stores use the HC Multi code, which has a mini-shopping cart shown on the right-hand side of your screen. These listings can be placed in the cart, edited, or deleted similar to most on-line stores. There is a 3-step checkout process ending in order confirmation for this style of store/listing

Why are some items listed but not yet available?

Some sellers of high-demand items like to preview their items so that buyers have a chance to read carefully through the listings before getting ready to "stalk" (stalking is basically hanging around a store until an item is available and trying to be the first to click the "Buy Now" button.

How do I pay for my item?

Most sellers accept Paypal. Paypal also offers credit card processing without a Paypal account. Some sellers also accept checks or Money Orders. Read carefully through the listing information to understand the payment options.

What's all the stuff about Spots and 'Where the Hyenas are' on the main page?

That's all described on the main "Shop" page.

Why is it called Hyena Cart?

As mentioned above, Hyena Cart was originally coded for selling high-demand items. Stockings of these high-demand items usually involved mobs of customers (sometimes well over 100) all hanging around an on-line store as soon as the seller started listing items. Because exact listing times were unknown, and items were listed one at a time, customers tended to hover over a high-demand store at all hours, hoping to catch the first few listed items. The high-amount of traffic combined with complex cart software usually slowed the site down to a snail's pace, making it difficult and tedious for the seller to list her items, and also for the customers to purchase them. This 'circling' or 'stalking' for these items caused one seller to remark that the customers were like hyenas, pacing around and waiting for the kill. Thus, customers of high-demand items became known as hyenas, and when I first coded this cart, Hyena Cart was the obvious name to use.