FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Every question answered. No question is a silly question.
These are the real questions members and prospects ask us - answered the way we answer everything: straight, specific, and honest about the risks as well as the upside.
The basics
What is ACO (automated checkout)?
ACO means we use bots to check out retail items on your behalf, automatically. The software enters your shipping and payment details faster than any human can, securing high-demand, low-supply products - Pokemon TCG, sneakers, limited drops - without you lifting a finger. You give us the details once; our operators run everything else.
What is a cook group, and how is HTD different?
A cook group is a paid community sharing reselling information: which drops to watch, what resells well, restock alerts. Most stop at information. HTD goes further - we actually run the checkouts for you (ACO), generate the accounts, and enter the raffles. Information plus execution, under one roof, with fees tied to your results.
Is using a bot or ACO service legal in the UK?
Using a bot to buy retail products is not a criminal offence in the UK. It can breach a retailer’s terms of service, which is a civil matter between you and the retailer - the usual worst case is a cancelled order or a closed account. We are upfront about that trade-off, you assume that risk, and our full Terms of Service spell it out honestly.
Is reselling still worth it in the UK?
Yes - if you treat it as a business rather than a lottery. The money is made on margins, fees and discipline, not on one lucky snipe. Members who track their numbers and pick drops strategically scale from pocket-money flips to four-figure months. Members who chase every hyped release usually pay for everyone else’s wins.
Pricing and trust
How much does Hit The Drop cost?
Joining is free - the server is referral-only with no entry fee or course to buy. Services are pay-per-result: ACO charges 15-20% of the estimated profit on a successful checkout (minimum £2, maximum £80), quoted before you commit. Raffle entries run from £2.90 per profile per month. Account generation is priced per unit, published openly.
How does Pay-After-Success (PAS) actually work?
You only pay when we secure. Every drop is announced with its fee percentage up front - a slice of the estimated profit, scaled by how hard the drop is. You register only for the drops you want. If we hit, you get an invoice payable within 48 hours. If nothing secures, you owe nothing: we absorb the cost of the bots, proxies and operator hours.
Do you guarantee successful checkouts?
No - and you should run from anyone who says they do. Retail drops are contested by thousands of bots; nobody wins every time. What we guarantee is the honest version: real infrastructure, operators who do this every drop, fees only on confirmed wins, and straight reporting either way. We would rather lose a sale than oversell a cook.
Why should I trust you with my checkout details?
We run checkouts for hundreds of members and have never had a data leak. Details are stored encrypted and used solely to place the orders you registered for. Practical advice we give every new member anyway: use a separate account from your main bank for checkout profiles and fund it only when a drop is coming. Trust, then verify - that structure protects you regardless of who you use.
What happens if my order gets cancelled by the retailer?
It depends on why. Our job is securing the checkout; once secured, payment for that work is fair - and retailer cancellations driven by profile quality sit on the member’s side. That said, refunds are reviewed case by case at manager discretion, we have honoured them before, and we will help you fix profile issues so it does not happen twice. What we never do is pretend cancellations don’t happen.
Getting started
How do I join Hit The Drop?
By referral only: a current member vouches for you and access is approved instantly, free. We keep the community deliberately small so service quality stays high - quality over volume is the whole model. If you know someone inside, you are already halfway; if not, request access on Discord and we will take it from there.
Do I need my own bot or software?
For ACO, raffles and most services: no - that is the point. We run the software, proxies and infrastructure; you never touch any of it. The one exception is Amazon account generation, which is built for members who already run compatible invite software (Hidden AIO, Stellar AIO or equivalent). We generate accounts; we do not sell bots.
How do checkout profiles work?
A profile is one checkout attempt: a name, delivery address, email and payment method. Because retailers usually limit orders to one per person, serious resellers run several distinct profiles. Setting them up properly is a craft - our guides and team walk every member through it step by step in-server, and our tooling checks profiles for the mistakes that kill orders before any drop.
What cards work best for automated checkouts?
Digital banks - Monzo, Revolut, Starling. Their virtual cards work cleanly with multiple checkout profiles. High-street banks (Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds) run aggressive fraud detection that flags automated checkouts and tanks success rates. It is the single highest-impact setup choice a new member makes.
How much money do I need to start reselling?
Less than you think, but more than zero. You need float to buy stock at retail (a single Pokemon ETB run might tie up £40-£120 until it sells) plus our fee on wins. The honest rule: never commit money you need next week - retail-to-resale cycles take days to weeks, and margins reward patience over desperation.
Day to day
What happens after I submit my profiles?
You watch the drop board. Every upcoming release is announced in-server with the product and the fee quoted up front; you register for the ones you want in a couple of taps. You are only ever entered into drops you chose - never auto-enrolled. Your profiles stay stored encrypted and reusable, so registration takes under a minute.
How do I know when you’ve hit for me?
Usually the retailer tells you first - an order confirmation lands in the profile’s inbox. Retailer emails can be slow, so the reliable signal is ours: an invoice for the successful checkout, with order details available on request. Wins are also celebrated in the success channel, where posting them enters our promotional lottery for free future checkouts.
What products and sites does HTD cover?
Pokemon Center (including 24/7 restock pre-running), Topps, and 40+ UK retail sites - Very, Argos, John Lewis and more. Product-wise: Pokemon TCG sets, trading cards, sneakers, vinyl and limited drops with real secondary-market demand. If you want something that isn’t announced, ask - we run member requests too.
I’m a collector, not a reseller - is HTD for me?
Genuinely, yes. A growing share of our members are TCG collectors who are done paying scalper prices on the secondary market. We secure items at retail for them the same way we do for resellers. Collectors and resellers in one community sounds like a contradiction; in practice everyone is chasing the same thing - products at retail price.