Walmart Resold Takes Aim At eBay With Pre-Owned Fashion, Collectibles, Electronics & More!
Walmart announces big changes at Let’s Grow! 2024 Marketplace Seller Summit, introducing “Resold at Walmart”, allowing third-party sellers to list used products on the site across a variety of categories.
The new program builds on Walmart Restored for third-party refurbished goods, and reportedly already includes 5 million items from more than 1,700 sellers across a wide range of categories including electronics, home, fashion, sporting goods, movies and media, collectibles, automotive, beauty, gamin and more!
Walmart has also introduced a new dedicated collector shop, allow sellers to offer pre-orders of sought after collectibles and adding pre-owned conditions for collectibles sold in the Resold at Walmart storefront.
Eligible sellers can receive 0% commission fees through Oct. 31 in Toys (Figures, Dolls, Trains, Plushies, Games, LEGO, Funko, Diecast Cars & Hot Wheels); Media & Music (Movies, Vinyl, Music, SteelBooks, Musical Instruments & Entertainment Replicas); Trading Cards; Comic Books & Books; Sports Memorabilia; and Coins categories.
In addition to the 0% fee promotions, Walmart offers collectibles sellers the following perks:
- Flexible return policy: Choose between accepting: no returns, a 15-day return with sealed policy, or our standard 30-day Walmart return policy.
- Ability to offer preorders: Build the anticipation around a new drop by offering pre-orders for your products.
- New grading system: List trading cards and comic books with new, graded condition options coming soon.
- Sell pre-owned: Collectibles come in all conditions. Let your customers know that your products are vintage and pre-loved, making them one-of-a-kind.
Walmart's foray into the trading cards and collectibles market comes as no surprise as Bob Means left his position leading this category 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.
The situation could in some ways be reminiscent of when Scott Cutler (who joined eBay in 2015 as President of their StubHub subsidiary before being promoted to VP eBay Americas in 2017) left in February 2019 only to "suddenly" take on the CEO job at rival 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.
More recently, eBay underwent a shakeup in leadership of this key multi-billion dollar vertical with VP Collectibles Gene Cook announcing his exit and previous US GM Adam Ireland stepping in to replace him.
eBay has also faced increasing competition from other niche collectibles marketplaces as longtime mega-seller Burbank Sportscards recently signed a deal to take their 40 Million+ inventory off of eBay to sell exclusively through Fanatics Collect instead.
That increasing competition has led eBay to pursue an exclusive content deal with New York Times-owned The Athletic, raising concerns about media ethics and integrity.
Liz Morton
Beyond collectibles, eBay has recently shown signs of a business strategy pivot to include more of the core consumer to consumer non-new in season merchandise that CEO Jamie Iannone touted as "foundational to eBay's success" in his early days at the helm, before Stefanie Jay joined the company as Chief Business Strategy Officer and oriented operations toward a more narrow "high value buyer" vertical focus.
Ironically, Iannone was COO Walmart Ecommerce before rejoining eBay in 2020 and Stef Jay had previously served as VP Walmart Media Group before coming over to eBay in 2021, then stepping down earlier this year.
Liz Morton
It will be interesting to see how Walmart's expansion into pre-owned inventory in these core categories shakes up the competition for buyers and sellers of used goods - let us know what you think in the comments below!
