Walmart Amps Up New York Comic Con Presence Amidst Collectibles Category Push
Walmart Marketplace is making their presence felt at New York Comic Con, leveraging new Walmart Resold program to offer resellers the opportunity to participate in the Collector Con action for the first time with preorders, exclusive drops and events throughout the convention.
Walmart Resold launched in August, clearly aimed at taking market share eBay by allowing 3rd party sellers to list used electronics, fashion, auto parts, and more - with a particular focus on collectibles.
Liz Morton
As part of the Resold program, Walmart also introduced a new dedicated collector shop, allowing sellers to offer pre-orders of sought after collectibles and enticing eligible sellers with a 0% commission fee offer through Oct. 31 in Toys, Media & Music, Trading Cards, Comic Books & Books, Sports Memorabilia, and Coins categories.
Walmart's foray into the trading cards and collectibles market, and their marketing and outreach efforts around NYCC, highlight an interesting trend in talent acquisition for the company.
For example, Bob Means left his position at eBay last year to join Walmart as General Manager Electronics, Toys & Seasonal.
Liz Morton
Means' official title was Vertical Merchandise Director but most people knew him as the face of eBay's trading cards, toys, and collectibles efforts, often appearing at industry events and a frequent guest on hobby related podcasts and blogs.
He was also the point man for the eBay Vault (since sold to PSA/Collectors Universe as part of eBay's deal to acquire Goldin Auctions) and eBay Live livestream shopping initiatives.
GM Collectibles, Mayank Hajela, invited NYCC attendees to stop by the Walmart booth to hear more about the company's commitment to the Collectibles category with a special call out to that 0% selling fee promotion.
Hajela was GM Collectibles at eBay, overseeing development and execution for this critical multi-billion dollar market segment that has been a keystone of eBay CEO Jamie Iannone's "high value buyer, focus vertical" strategy, but left the company to join Walmart earlier this year.
Senior Director Business Strategy Walmart Marketplace, Kohl Perkins, also took to LinkedIn to connect with NYCC attendees, sharing a post from Senior Business Development Analyst, Antonio Cox.
Perkins was previously Head of Business Development at eBay before leaving to join Walmart earlier this year.
Liz Morton
And you guessed it - Cox is also a recently departed eBayer, previously managing enterprise accounts and new business development for collectibles and eBay Vault.
VP Categories Michael Mosser got in on the NYCC fun too, hoping to entice collectibles resellers to join the marketplace with 0% commission through the end of the month.
Mosser was GM Lifestyle/Media/Toys at eBay from 2015 - 2019 with a stop at Borderx Lab before joining Walmart in 2021.
He also helped broker a recent partnership with StockX to bring hot, in-demand pre-owned sneakers to Walmart Marketplace - another clear shot across the bow directly aimed at eBay.
Liz Morton
Ironically, StockX CEO Scott Cutler also worked at eBay around the same time, joining as President of their StubHub subsidiary in 2015 before being promoted to VP eBay Americas in 2017 and leaving in February 2019 only to "suddenly" take on the CEO job at StockX a few months later, taking a chunk of eBay's sneaker business with him in the process.
While StockX played it off at the time that they had "poached" Cutler from eBay, the reality appeared to be that then eBay CEO Devin Wenig allowed Cutler to engage/consult with StockX while still a company officer.
In fact, both StockX founder Josh Luber and Cutler publicly gushed to media at the time about their long friendship since the site was launched in 2016 and that Cutler had been a "trusted advisor" since the beginning.
Grace Turner
“Scott and I met just two days after StockX went live,” says Luber. “His extraordinary background mirrors the unique business model we have built at StockX. He understood the power of a stock market of things and quickly became a friend and trusted advisor.
Over the three years that followed, as the business scaled rapidly, Greg (Schwartz, StockX co-founder and COO) and I had the idea that Scott might one day be the perfect CEO to take us to the next level. Then the stars aligned – the growth continued, we added three world-class investors to our team, and Scott became available. We weren’t looking for a new CEO, but this was a no-brainer.”...
...“I have known the company and the management team since the beginning and have been impressed by its unique market model in e-commerce and dramatic growth. StockX is revolutionizing e-commerce,” says Cutler.
As savvy scrutineer unsuckEBAY put it at the time, StockX's claims about the situation were more than a little misleading.
Looking at Walmart's current business development talent bench, particularly in these key categories, it's difficult not to notice a familiar pattern - one that seems to be repeating with other recent eBay business development leadership exits to other competitors like TikTok and Temu.
