This is the same sneer you reserve for people at cocktail parties who find out that you're a B2B executive and proceed to ask where to find the best porn on the Web. But if you'll bear with me, I'll share a few of the things I've learned. In e-marketplaces, liquidity is everything. By getting there first, eBay managed to build itself into the everyday routine of most dealers and buyers of collectibles. For good or ill, eBay is the place where entire hobbies congregate.
Content makes the market.
The hardest part of selling trading cards online is figuring out how to present them to potential buyers. On your own site or eBay, you must provide detail, make it attractive, and find the best venues and times to sell your goods. You don't sell your oldest cards at 2 a.m., when young people are the only ones awake. Sellers in e-marketplaces are struggling with many of these same issues. Whether they're on eBay or on e-Steel, the winning sellers make the best presentation, provide enough detail about their inventory and understand their competition.