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Changing the game wasn't all bad. You could argue that the sneaker marketplace enabled everyone to arrive at a common valuation of sneakers, and this valuation justified spending money on -- and operating profit-making businesses for -- weird and wonderful services that would have been unimaginable to our ancestors: shoe cleaning services, valuation and legit checks, repair, preservation, customization, aging of new shoes to look like old shoes, sneaker construction workshops, ink pens that emulate glue stains on vintage pairs, sneaker art, and cannibalizing new pairs for parts to refurbish vintage pairs. On that last one: Is there any other industry or hobby that does that?!?! So StockX lifted more boats than just the resellers'.

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On point.

Just a minor correction (I just have to!) -- StockX wasn't the leading factor in sneakers becoming mainstream -- that happened long long ago. Rather, StockX was the leading factor in *sneaker reselling* or *sneaker as a business* (SaaB?) becoming mainstream.

But I do agree... When you think of today's sneaker purchases as investments that will fund that really expensive PE that is your holy grail, the game has fundamentally changed. I conscientiously refused to play that game because money causes passion to fade and I wanted to preserve my passion. Well... ok... There was one time I doubled up on Air Jordan III Animal Instinct so that I could sell a pair to Flight Club...

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