Mercari drops selling fees to 0% 📉

Rise and shine, card enthusiasts! This is Penny Sleeve, we’re like that cup of hot cocoa on a snow day.

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

• Mercari drops selling fees to 0% 📉

• F1 and Topps extend exclusive partnership 🏎️

• People to follow in the hobby 👥

• Meme of the day 🃏

MERCARI DROPS SELLING FEES TO 0% 📉

Mercari, a widely-used online marketplace, recently announced a shift to 0% seller fees, while also introducing a buyer’s premium. On top of that, they’re implementing a new return policy where buyers than can initiate returns and get a refund within three days for any reason. To compensate for the elimination of seller fees, buyers will pay a service fee on each purchase. The exact fee depends on a number of factors, such as the product category, but it reportedly will be as low as 5%.

0% fee with no-questions-asked returns is vastly different from their previous 10% flat commission with no return policy. While lower fees are promising, sports card sellers should exercise some caution. Although there’s a non-insignificant volume of sports card sales on Mercari, the platform primarily caters to secondhand fashion buyers and sellers. This move is probably to stay competitive with other secondhand fashion marketplaces like Poshmark and Depop, as opposed to sports card marketplaces.

More importantly, lower fees in the sports card world haven’t necessarily equated to better deals. For example, MySlabs charges around half of what eBay charges (6.5% vs. ~13%), but for any given card on MySlabs, you can probably find a cheaper copy of the exact same card on eBay. The best deals tend to gravitate towards platforms with the highest buyer activity, especially in a market like sports cards where the velocity of transaction is crucial. A lot of sellers are trying to liquidate inventory as quickly as possible, and it’s hard to do that on any platform other than eBay right now. On top of that, Mercari’s new return policy is especially lenient and could pose risks similar to eBay’s old Money Back Guarantee for cards, where buyers could return items for nearly any reason.

Will other marketplaces follow in Mercari’s footsteps? While direct competitors like Poshmark might feel pressure to respond, I’m not holding my breath for eBay to reconsider its selling fees. Despite people’s frequent complaints about their fees, it remains the most straightforward platform for quickly moving sports cards and it doesn’t seem like they’ll be dethroned any time soon.

F1 AND TOPPS EXTEND EXCLUSIVE PARTNERSHIP 🏎️

Formula 1 and Topps have solidified their partnership with a new multi-year renewal, making Topps the official licensee for F1’s trading cards and stickers for the foreseeable future. This extension is a continuation of their partnership that began in 2020, which allowed Topps to produce collections featuring drivers from F1, F2, and F3.

Topps, and their owner Fanatics, plan to incorporate trading cards into the in-person fan experience at F1 events, starting with the Austrian Grand Prix this summer. It’s unclear what exactly that entails, but from what we know, attendees will be able to “collect exclusive cards, get their hands on the latest collections and immerse themselves in experiential activations that bring the partnership to life“.

What does this mean for the hobby? The sports cards industry (and collectibles broadly) has grown meaningfully over the last several years, and it seems like it’ll continue, albeit not at the explosive pace we saw during the pandemic. Not all growth is equal, though, and it’s important to attract the right people who are true fans and want to stay in the hobby for the long run. The easiest way to find those people is at in-person sporting events, so I’m excited to see what they’re able to pull off. We’re yet to see great execution at the intersection of cards and in-person sporting events, but it’s definitely something that’s in Fanatics’ wheelhouse.

PEOPLE TO FOLLOW IN THE HOBBY 👥

• Up North Collectors: Modern box-breaking content.

• Titan Cards: Fun content on new TCG and sports card products.

• 1 Cent Sports Cards: Deep dives on nearly every baseball release.

MEME OF THE DAY 🃏