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I told ya. Here it is, and the minimum is only $100 (where they still have no Final Value Fees!).
Pretty smart, I think. Another move to differentiate from Amazon and attract new demographics. Years ago we knew that the Japanese were collecting vintage sneakers but if you had told me that brand new sneakers would be such a thing worldwide, I would have thought you were insane. Who knew.
What category is next?
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I don’t know about all in. I agree that it seems impractical for most things. I think watches and sneakers were low hanging fruit because many others are already doing it. I assume the authentication is contracted out to those already doing it. Ebay was doing fashion purses also but only for certain sellers. That may be next for an expansion. Or high end coins and baseball cards could be next due to the existing authentication/rating infrastructure out there.
As for the business model, I can’t say it better than MyCottage did a while back:
“High end sneakers can go for thousands, and this has been a very profitable niche for eBay, but the competition—niche sites, individuals on sites like Instagram, etc, has been heating up. I’m also guessing buyers who will pay thousands for a pair of sneakers also are willing to pay high amounts for other collectibles, fashion items etc.
Also, this is a category that largely appeals to the fashion conscious and the younger folk…two demographics eBay can’t afford to lose as buyers (and sellers) This will help eBay retain its prominence because it will attract sellers (no fees) and buyers (sellers listing more and better sneakers because of no fees)
The “sweet spot” on eBay for sneakers is about $50.00….which means, while eBay sells a lot of high end sneakers, this fee change really only impacts a fairly small percentage of transactions on eBay. A seller with a pair of sneakers that would usually sell for $50 would be a fool to bump them to $100 just to avoid fees, because they would never sell at all.
I think eBay has crunched numbers and decided that ultimately they’ll make more money with no fees here than they would make from continuing to charge fees. Also, high end sneakers on the site tend to get a lot of free press, which is good for eBay marketing.
I wouldn’t expect to see any across the board expansion with this, but I could see eBay eventually doing something similar in other “hot” categories.”
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You can read Jordan’s comments on this here: https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/Our-big-news-Sneakers-Authentication-w-Jordan-Sweetnam/ba-p/31280462
Hard to say which category will be next, but obviously ebay realizes this won’t work for everything. But I think Jay’s term, the halo effect, is spot on. And, as Jordan notes, it’s not just authentication. I don’t see this on my PC ebay Home Page, but I do on my phone: “The Sneaker Channel”…..I can see where that sort of content can help bring in buyers, and I can see extending that sort of thing to other categories as well…
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