After my ‘eBay authentication’ post the other day, someone hit me with the comment about how it’s a good thing for the sneaker community and I’m just looking for reasons to hate.
Um. No.
I look at what can possibly go wrong and I extrapolate it. What I was worried about is already happening - there are people being blocked and their accounts getting flagged and their shoes getting pulled with NO EXPLANATION. Just scroll through the comments on the post. I didn’t expect to see any of those at such an early stage.
How can eBay possibly authenticate the countless samples, IDs, player exclusives or ‘non-official’ official shoes that almost EVERY collector has bought or sold at some point?
Again, IMO the purest form of commerce is between a buyer and a seller. This is how I believe the world should be. You have a product, I look at it, then I decide whether or not I want it. If I do, I make you an offer and we discuss it, hopefully coming to an agreement. Any other method, IMO, is lazy. If I need the opinion of a fellow collector - I seek it. If I need a third-party-paid-stranger to make the decision for me - I should probably spend a bit more time educating myself.
I’m sad...eBay was a huge part of my hustle. We HAD the purest form of commerce in eBay - a perfect place for buyers and sellers to meet. But they did such a terrible job of looking out for the seller that sellers started leaving in droves.
And that’s where @stockx entered. They came around and made everything ‘easier’ for the buyer and the seller. I had such high hopes for them, but found out pretty early on that it wasn’t what I thought it was. 90% of the shoes I was selling weren’t even available to sell on their platform. I had a long conversation with @gregschwartz and he said to me ‘well, we’re not going to have everything.’ At that point, I realized it wasn’t about shoes or collectors - it was about low hanging fruit.
So...back to eBay...I think it’s time for me to start selling elsewhere.