You can add eBay to the list of collectible dealers to open a physical vault and marketplace.
During an “Investor Day” presentation, the Northern California-based company said it will open a 31,000-square-foot, secure storage facility for trading cards and collectibles sometime in the next few months.
Collectors will be able to store their items in the vault and offer them for sale with ownership transferring from seller to buyer “in a matter of seconds.”
Like other “vault” marketplaces such as those already in place at places like Goldin, PWCC and Alt, the process is targeted at higher value inventory. It’s part of a larger strategy by eBay that will include “planned features like fractionalization and live commerce.” Fractional shares markets for sports cards and other collectibles have risen to popularity through sites like Collectable and Rally. eBay’s vast inventory could potentially put a very large number of items onto such a platform.
eBay expects its vault “will hold up to $3 billion in assets within a few years, making it one of the largest stores of non-governmental assets in the world.”
eBay is also planning to offer a digital wallet service where customers can use proceeds from their sales to purchase their next item or pay their selling expenses.
The company says it now has over 147 million buyers worldwide with 28 million of those considered “high value” buyers.
In its presentation, eBay also hinted that it plans to soon offer live case breaks to card collectors in the near future and indicated that one trading card is now sold on its marketplace at an average of every second of every day.
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