eBay Loses GM Collectibles & Trading Cards
UPDATE 12-15-21
It looks like Bob Means has stepped in to fill the GM Collectibles & Trading Cards role after Nicole's departure.
Tony Reid
More personnel shakeups are happening at eBay - this time affecting one of the all important "focus verticals" - trading cards.
Nicole Colombo General Manager, Collectibles & Trading Cards will be leaving the company to join card exchange Alt.
Kim Bhasin
Nicole Colombo, who ran EBay’s fast-growing business in collectibles and trading cards for the past two years, is joining card exchange Alt as president. The former fashion-merchandising executive will drive overall business strategy for the platform, whose first asset class is trading cards. Management plans to expand into several other categories.
“Alt’s main goal is to create transparency and liquidity of alternative assets,” Colombo said in an interview. “That can mean trading cards, luxury watches, NFTs. The goal is to go beyond that.”
Nicole recently participated in the September eBay Seller Check In with a special session specifically devoted to Collectibles. This was a "make up session" designed to quell seller discontent after the Collectibles break out session at eBay Open was dedicated almost exclusively to trading cards.
Losing talent to an up and coming competitor zeroing in on some of the same categories as CEO Jamie Iannone's vertical focus playbook has to sting, especially on the back of other recent leadership changes in eBay's International ops.
Liz Morton
Liz Morton
This situation is somewhat reminiscent of when ex-CEO Devin Wenig found himself in the unenviable position of having SVP Americas Scott Cutler leave eBay to become CEO of StockX, taking a chunk of the sneaker resale market with him.
Iannone has spent a great deal of time, money and resources trying to claw back some of that market share with no fees on sneaker sales over $100, Authenticity Guaranteed, and an enormous marketing blitz including events, sponsored content, influencer collaborations and more.
How embarrassing would it be to have history repeat itself - especially with so much riding on the success of these focus verticals?
What the heck is really going on at eBay HQ? Stay tuned for updates as the story unfolds!
eBay seller since 2022
Just started selling about a year and half ago
800 items sold 99.7 feedback
Recently I went away for family things for 30 days set my acct to be away … got back with items not received cases opened
I wasn’t able to revise existing listings post new listings OR refund the buyer from my eBay funds …
The items were caught up in recent wild fires but ended up being delivered late. I had to beg the buyer to let me pay them off of eBay to close the case because it was on hold and I wasn’t able to refund them from my eBay acct etc…. So luckily they obliged and I did … but ever since then my acct must be strikes as high risk because funds have been on hold 3 days after delivery since then indefinitely might I add… I get the run around everytime etc etc FINALLY I got someone saying it’s temporary it’ll be back to normal etc. these r all reps from escalated departments… one lady told me that with my history and feedback I’ve proved beyond doubt that I’m reliable seller and shouldn’t be on hold she put in for a appeal never heard back got the run around for another few months… they keep telling me I’ve been chosen for the new update they r rolling out total BS … do you believe that sellers will stay on eBay with these holds ? No they will simply go to another platform … they r 100% making money on the holds and use any reasoning to tell you basically no and keep profiting…. The get around is creating a new acct… these cases were closed without eBay having to step in and might I add I lost $$ and its been truly frustrating esp since I’ve built the acct up but I know I can do it again.. when they tell me its going to happen to all accts I just mention how my brother just opened one n now has immediate payments they don’t know what to say I don’t think they really even know.,, its sad n scummy but I see a class action lawsuit coming honestly ! I don’t know💬 if I forgot anything but well written thanks for the information. Have a great one!