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Oct 15, 2025 · Thesis

Why Vertical Marketplaces Win

Collectors don't want a flea market. They want a tailored experience. Why eBay can't compete with specialized features.

There is a famous VC slide from 2010 showing Craigslist being "unbundled" into Airbnb, Tinder, Zillow, and Indeed.

The same thing is happening to eBay.

Depth > Width

Generalist marketplaces are wide and shallow. They sell everything, but they know nothing about what they sell. To eBay, a PSA 10 Charizard and a used toaster are both just "listings."

Vertical marketplaces are narrow and deep. They know:

  • That a PSA 10 is worth 10x a PSA 9.
  • That "Shadowless" is a critical variant.
  • That collectors want to see a population report.

    • The Feature Gap

    Because eBay has to support everything, they can't build specific features for anyone. They can't build a "Set Registry" for coin collectors because it wouldn't make sense for shoe buyers.

    Vertical marketplaces can build tailored features that lock in their users:

  • StockX: Verification for sneakers.
  • Reverb: Audio demos for instruments.
  • Nerdbase: AI label scanning for slabs.

    • This is why we win. We are building the features that eBay can't afforded to build.