The Benefits of Live Selling

Live selling is one of the most compelling blends of online life, e-commerce, and social media - affording Hobby sellers the ability to create unique relationships with a customer base, to grow beyond the confines of four walls, while it affords collectors the ability to expand reach, engage across The Hobby, and bring an interactive flavor to their online card chasing experience.

Live selling is fundamentally an interactive, real-time consumer experience. Before The Hobby was capable of branching out in this way, the creation and expansion of more traditional online marketplaces - think eBay - itself was a revolutionary development. However, the process is still ultimately mediated by the process itself. There are gaps that are inevitable between seller and buyer. Trust can at times not be about personal interaction, but scanning reviews, sending messages, waiting for feedback.

A new era of eBay is upon us, with the recent launch of eBay Live, the online marketplace giant's biggest foray into live selling. Aimed to bring a new experience to consumers, joining the rapidly growing trend of live selling, eBay live gives collectors and collectible sellers a whole new way to engage through eBay.

Scott Fitzgerald shows an 1886-87 Old Judge Baseball Card of Jack Glasscock | Kelly Wilkinson/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Think about when you try to negotiate a lower price for a card. The process in traditional online marketplace can often be a drawn out, trying one, that can at times take some of the community feel of The Hobby out of the transaction. While many, many online sales, and relationships on the marketplace can be rewarding, and beneficial to both buyer and seller, live selling could help make that become the more common experience of buying cards online.

Live selling is a far more direct-to-consumer alternative that in some ways combines at least some of the local card shop experience (being able to talk shop, chat about cards, build more substantial relationships) with the online experience (wide net of sellers and product, ease of search, budgeting filters, and so on)

Will live selling replace the need for local shops or the traditional online marketplace? The need to to attend card shows in order to ask questions of sellers who aren't down the street? Perhaps it's more about expanding the range of experiences afforded those in The Hobby. The local shop is not completely replicated by live selling, and most would agree that sometimes, you would still just prefer to search and scroll to your heart's content. But, live selling offers both a space between these two poles, something new and intriguing.