Case Study: The Card Collector’s Conundrum

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How Peter optimized his sales strategy with Crosslist

Peter had been collecting Pokémon cards since childhood and remained an avid collector well into his teenage years. So, after two and a bit decades of growing an impressive collection, he found himself sitting with some of the rarest cards in the game.

It wasn’t until the resurgence in popularity of all things Pokémon with the launch of Pokémon Go that he realized he was sitting on a goldmine.

Having outgrown his love for them, he found no real use for them anymore, and they were gathering dust… instead of hoarding them all for himself, he decided it was time to share his collection with the world! As a bonus, he would also get to make money from what was his passion in a previous life.

With an impressive collection and knack for finding new cards to add to his shop, his eBay store took off pretty quickly. His reputation was impeccable, and his sales were consistent, but Peter felt he was hitting a plateau after a few years of selling on eBay.

His eBay store had become the go-to place for Pokémon enthusiasts looking for that rare find. He took pride in his extensive product offering, and his ability to help fledgling collectors find their perfect cards.

However, as the Pokémon craze continued to rage on, Peter realized he was limiting his brand’s ability to grow by only selling on eBay.

PS: In case you’re not familiar with the Pokémon card craze, here’s a peek at what they actually look like!

By the way, to keep them in such good shape, there are display vaults that can protect them for a long time.

The challenge:

Many collectors were venturing to newer platforms like Mercari for their purchases. Peter realized that by sticking solely to eBay, he could miss out on a substantial portion of the market.

But, how on Earth could he migrate his extensive inventory from eBay to Mercari? Each card had specific details, conditions, and prices, so the thought of copy-pasting everything to another platform would take days, if not weeks!

Additionally, every time he was ready to sell a new card, he would have to list it on eBay and Mercari, doing double the work he was doing.

Moreover, the inventory management itself would prove to be a nightmare. He would have to constantly keep checking and rechecking his sales against his inventory to make sure that he had not accidentally sold the same item on both platforms.

When searching for ways to solve the problems he was having, Peter came across a cross listing tool (sadly, it was NOT Crosslist). He thought his woes had come to an end, only to find out that the tool had made things even more complicated. 

For starters, he could only import a certain amount of his existing listings from eBay at a time. This meant that manually keeping track of the ones he had imported so that he didn’t accidentally bring them in twice became a nightmare. The tool also used form-filling software, so after creating a new listing, he had to go and check all the details and manually hit “Submit” for it to go live.

Overall, it was a very frustrating experience for Peter.

The solution:

A chance meet-up with an old high school friend naturally led to a discussion about work. When Peter mentioned he was having trouble migrating his inventory across to Mercari and found the existing cross listing tool he was using very frustrating, the friend recommended trying Crosslist.

They’d been selling their refurbished home decor on Facebook Marketplace and had successfully branched out to Etsy and eBay using Crosslist.

Peter, always open to optimizing his business, explored the tool only to find that it really put an end to all of his complaints. His key takeaways from using Crosslist were:

• Quick and seamless bulk importing: With thousands of cards to cross list from eBay, the bulk import and cross list feature was a godsend.
• Bulk cross listing: After importing, all Peter had to do was select all the listings and hit the “Post” button, and Crosslist automatically posted them in bulk to Mercari. Even if he had to enter some additional product info, Crosslist highlighted it for him, so he did not have to use his energy. In less than an hour, Peter had successfully cross listed all of his eBay inventory to Mercari!
• One dynamic form for cross listing: Unlike the previous tool, he found that Crosslist only asked him to fill a single form. And it had auto posting in the background! So, all he had to do was click all the platforms he wanted to post his listings to, hit “Post” once, and sit back and relax. No more manual checking needed for every single listing.
• Delist and relist capabilities: Managing such a large inventory across multiple channels was no small feat. Using Crosslist’s relist/delist capability, he was able to quickly delist an item from multiple marketplaces when sold.
• Impeccable consistency: Each card had its backstory, condition grade, and pricing correctly transferred over. Crosslist’s dynamic form ensured every detail was consistently presented, irrespective of the platform.
• Inventory management: Peter could view all of his listings at a single glance from Crosslist’s dashboard (including all the platforms each listing was posted to). He could mark items as sold, never having to worry about keeping track of his inventory.

The results:

1. Taking back his niche

Within two months, Peter’s Mercari sales matched and occasionally surpassed his eBay sales. He was pleasantly surprised that his sales had climbed by 43% since adding Mercari to his sales plan.

2. Increased efficiency

Crosslist drastically reduced the hours Peter spent listing and relisting cards. He could now rather spend this time sourcing new collectibles to further his expansion plans. He ended up saving countless hours (and a ton of energy) every week.

3. Expanded customer base

Tapping into Mercari’s user base allowed Peter to connect with a younger generation of Pokémon enthusiasts and grow his customer base.

Some of these younger customers wanted cards he hadn’t considered adding to his store before, so tapping into a new market meant he could better serve his customers on both platforms.

What Peter has to say:

The takeaway:

Peter’s success with Crosslist underscores the advantages of diversifying sales channels, especially in niche markets like collectibles.

For sellers with extensive inventories and specific product details, tools like Crosslist can be instrumental in efficiently expanding to new platforms without compromising on listing quality.