Alright. We are back.

Another episode of Passion to Profession brought to you by my good friends at eBay. We have a first. This is a one of one where we're actually talking with someone who works at eBay. So I'm really excited, to dig in. I'm joined by Jayne.

Jayne is a director of product management at eBay collectibles. Jayne and I are just meeting for the first time, but I've heard, some great stories about, her from a business sense and then also just from an overall collecting sense.

And so we're gonna dig into, Jayne's story and have a lot of fun doing it.

Talk cards, talk business, and everything in between. Jayne, welcome. How are you? Brett, thanks for having me. I'm great. I mean, when being able to talk shop for a day, like, let's do this.

Yeah. Maybe, this is maybe a little off the the the format, but I'm just curious. Like, what's it like working at eBay? I know we'll, like, maybe get dig more into your role.

But everyone who's listening has saved searches set up. Everyone's constantly buying cards, on the platform. We're all spending probably way too much time on the platform, although I know that's probably a good thing for all of you.

But what's it been like just, like, working for a company that's the biggest marketplace and and leading kind of the trading card industry?

It's eBay is will definitely be a chapter in my career that I will look fondly on. It it's hopefully, everything x outsiders think of us in terms of we think and we think about the customer, talk about the customer all day long.

So, hopefully, that's flattery. We we all think and talk about you all day long, but we do.

I use the platform every day as a buyer and a seller in collectibles, having serious conversations about Pokemon. You know? My wife will walk by and be like, you guys just talk, you know, because, you know, this is business.

You know, my wife's name is Maggie. And it's this yeah. We this is our business. And so it's, it is the most fun and all consuming role I've I've ever had, but in in a way that I guess you know, passion into profession.

It's it's it's exactly what we're gonna be talking about, hopefully. So, yeah, it's everything you you think about. So maybe let's talk about your your early memories and early days of collecting.

How did how did this all present itself to you? Like, have you always been a collector? Maybe take us into some of those early days of you as a collector. My dad got me into collecting.

He he was a big baseball collector. I remember my grandma finding his cards later. You know, she was cleaning out something. I think my maybe my grandpa had just passed or something, and I'm probably butchering this story.

But he stood he stayed up all night just looking at his cards. And I can similarly, I can lose six hours organizing my cards. So and I I didn't.

My dad worked a lot, and it was our time to bond. So every weekend after a soccer game or softball game or something, he would take us to he would take I have a twin sister. He would take us to the card shop, called Collector's Corner.

And we would buy a pack of cards. At the time, it was, you know, junk wax, but I still that's my I can never throw them away because it reminds me of my time that my dad would allow us to go buy a pack of cards.

So that's how I just started. How how important do you think that connection and having that that meaning and having those moments, like, early on, how important do you think that's been to your overall evolution just as a collector?

I guess, in other words, do you think you'd be still doing what you are doing from a collecting perspective today if it wasn't for those memories and connections with your family? No. No.

I it is it's what started me into collecting. My twin sister, not so much into collecting, and she just went along because I was into it. But the collecting really connected me with people, like, on the on the, you know, the blacktop.

I would trade my baseball cards with mainly boys because there weren't a lot of girls that were collecting baseball. I remember I think I my first trade was a Jeff King Fleer Ultra or something.

I traded it for Nolan Ryan because I had loved to play as Nolan Ryan in Super Batter Up and a super Nintendo game. And, my dad was a big Nolan Ryan fan. I mean, he's a big ace fan, but he's a big Nolan Ryan fan.

And, yeah. So I would definitely not be the kind I would not be a collector like I am today, and have the passion or the empathy that I have that I have for for the hobby if it wasn't for that.

Jamie, maybe talk about the, like, lanes you collect, and you mentioned Nolan Ryan.

So I'd meant I I figured baseball was a a piece of that. But was it exclusively baseball and baseball collecting, or were you kinda collecting in other areas?

So I grew up in the Bash brother era. So, yes. So I'm a huge Ace fan, Growing up with, like, in a sea of Giants fans. I had that, like, is a I still am very prideful of that.

I also collect skateboarding. So Tony Hawk was a big person, and and and Tony Hawk back in the day I'm probably aging myself, but you would be able to write to, you know, mail right to fan clubs, and he would send you a signed postcard.

And so, actually, they're all in the background of my my Zoom.

So if you, like, really, like, zoom in on my background, you'll see all the Tony Hawk and any fan I have I like fandom I had, I would write in and they'd always send me like a postcard or something.

And, yeah. So I collect I collect memorabilia. I don't collect as much memorabilia as I used to.

And then now I have a lot of ultra modern, but I collect a lot of women's sports, WNBA. I started on that early. So I've got early, like, Cheryl Swoops, and which is great now because now WNBA seems to be very hot to collect.

F one, mainly just because one of my friends told me to collect that, but my passions are in baseball and women's sports soccer.

I was a soccer player growing up. So I have a lot of 90 soccer and then now, women's soccer. But, yeah, I kinda collect it. And my kids are in Pokemon. Didn't have a lot of that growing up.

No. I every time every I know the market is hot. Every time Pokemon gets talked about, I'm always like, I'm thinking of a little too I was I just missed it, but I can appreciate the passion that all the collectors have.

Maybe before we get into kinda your career path digging into the the fandom, I'd love to know because this is the second conversation in a row where, the last person I I chatted with was a Bash Brothers A's fan as well.

And and you mentioned the Giants, and I'd love to know, like, living in that area, the Bay Area of your life, like, how how does that how did you decide early on, if you're cheering for the A's or cheering for the Giants?

Like, is it just like a family thing that's passed down?

Maybe break that down for us. My my dad grew up in the Central Valley. His his dad played actually semi pro baseball. I recently he recently gave me a bunch of my so my grandfather's stuff.

My grandfather passed away when I really young, so I don't remember a ton. I mean, I have some memories of him, but not not as much as I wish I had, but I have a lot of mementos now.

And my dad was an early ace fan. He he loved the ace. It's funny because my uncle so his bro his brother is a Giants fan, and we just have this pride that we like the underdog.

We always and this was after, like, the seventies. This was after, like, the championship. Like, I've I I have not seen or witnessed an ACE championship.

And, but I was, you know, the Moneyball era. Mhmm. Like, I I think that I've had quite a privilege to grow up and be a fan of a team that has created strategies for other teams.

I have pictures with, you know, Mark Mulder, Barry Zito, Tim Hudson with, you know, spray tan, a puka shell necklace.

I've signed baseballs from them. So, like, I that is that is my yeah. That's my that's my upbringing. So let let me hit you with the WNBA question.

Are you did you adopt the Valkyries because they're right in your zone, or do you cheer and support another squad? The Valkyrie. Before the Valkyrie, there was a San Jose team, called the Jennifer Azzi was on it.

It's called the Sparks or something. I think it's the oh, the lasers. San Jose lasers, I wanna say. So I was a fan of that. I have, like, some old jerseys.

Yeah. The lasers. But, yeah, no. I'm a Valkyrie fan. My wife's my wife is obsessed now with the Valkyrie. She didn't she was it's funny because she was not that into it. And now she goes to, like, every game.

She which is great because I collect WNBA. So I'm like, look. Like, you like watching them. I collect. Don't get mad at me when I buy boxes and boxes of, you know, the hobby boxes. So yeah. But, yeah, I'm a Valkyrie.

I'm a Valkyrie fan. I'm a also a BFC women's soccer because I played it, you know, like I said, grew up playing it. So BFC fan. Awesome. Yeah. It's been fun following from afar. The sellouts, a lot of momentum.

I think, you know, they're the hope they're the way I think the league wants to roll out all the other new teams with just the success that's been going on and just, you know, I think you got Splash Brothers, all the championships with the Warriors.

It's like, there's a hunger for basketball, in in your neck of the woods, and that's been very apparent with their launch. Let's maybe get into kind of your professional background.

I was digging through your LinkedIn, and I was like, oh, she's had a very interesting career path and done a lot of really cool things. Maybe share with the audience, like, leading up into your role at eBay.

What are some of the things that you've been attracted to, and where have you worked? I I will say some of my LinkedIn does not show all of my, like, internships and things like that.

I I pride myself. Like, I was I'm a big nerd, in terms of in middle school, I spent my lunchtime pulling and surveying my classmates and asked them about their like, what their shoe favorite shoe brands are.

And at the time, it was like everyone's wearing skater shoes.

And I sent it to the CEO of Nike, and he said, basically, you're you are missing out on a customer here. Like, you're there's a generation that is growing up without wearing Nikes. We all wear skater shoes, and he responded back.

And he's like, thanks, you know, thanks for doing this analysis, you know, seventh grader. And, but, you know, Nike is focused on core sports and, you know, we're not into skate skater shoes.

And now every time I look at a Nike skater shoe, I mean, obviously, I'm not the reason that they changed their strategy or added that, but that's, it kinda goes into I I I have been at places or taken on roles with the intention of taking risk.

I I like to push where maybe others won't for whatever reason.

I just I I like to be the underdog. So early on, I started in mobile games. I'm a big gamer. That is a passion that I've had for for many years. I think gaming and collecting go pretty well together. And so, I interned at Glu Mobile.

My dad likes to remind me he he remind me recently. This time, I went to the CEO and CFO, or I think he was CEO and CMO maybe, and talked to him about again, I'm an inter I'm still in college at this time.

I'm, like, not even 21. I'm 20 maybe at the time. And I say, we're all focused on trying to beat Snake with Nokia games.

You know, like like sorry. We're all trying to trying to beat, you know, like Snake, like, which is like a pre download on every Nokia device. And I'm like, and at the time, Myspace was bigger than Facebook.

I was like, there is a we should be building games on social platforms. Yes. Smartphones are 1% of the market. The iPhone hadn't even come out yet. So this is before an app store even. And ever and so I I the CFO and CEO were like, no.

We're not doing that. But, I, because they were, like, 97% of the market are, you know, feature phones in Nokia devices. So we gotta keep trying to beat people that play snake. They gotta play our games.

And then, you know, iPhone came out and free to play model and people making a lot of money on building games for Facebook. So had internships at Glue, then moved to I'll just, like, kinda fast forward a a bit.

I I've always been in mobile games, most of my career. I've always been in growth. I've been in growth growth type of roles for almost twenty years. And we fast forward to probably DraftKings.

So then I got into daily fantasy sports and sports betting, and that was a time or, actually, let's let's go back to Reddit. Reddit was a good story. And, actually, that's another good collecting story.

Some of my collection is from Alexis Ohanian. So I used to rip packs at my desk, and Alexis is like and was like, oh, I have boxes of cards. I'll have my dad send them to you. And all of a sudden, I get this, like, shipment.

I had, like, 20 boxes of, like, all his entire childhood of cards, which I kind of feel and I feel really bad about now. I mean, they're all, like, nineties Redskins cards, and then he had a bunch of, like, older Marvel cards.

And now he's into the hobby. But at the time, he was he wasn't, like, super into the hobby. So he gave me, like, most of his childhood collection, I have, which is kinda cool.

And, at Reddit, I was, like, employee 60 something. We've gone through, like, three CEOs. I was like, yeah. This seems exciting. And we were not making any money. And my job was try to figure out how to make us money.

So I called myself, like, the Darth Vader at Reddit. And, yeah, you know, that was a crazy time. I like to just, you know, I I what I say is it's not just even about failing fast. It's about fixing fast.

So you fail fast, but you fix faster. So when I try things, I know that it's probably not gonna work the the first time or the second time, but I have a plan of how I would fix it really quickly or, like, iterate really quickly.

So we move on from Reddit, and then we go into, yeah, daily fantasy sports sportsbook.

On, like, day one, the charter was, we're gonna we're gonna be the number one sportsbook when we're launched in The US. And I was like, oh, okay. Yeah. Let's let's do that. The law had just changed, and, yeah, that was a crazy time.

That was that was, though, very much there's a lot of alignment between, I would say, more than Nuvo Collector and the Daily Fantasy kind of more mobile betting cohorts, that grew up in a world where you're being more interactive with your fandom, where you're either at the stadium or you're watching the game and you want to do something while you're doing that rather than just watching.

So DraftKings was amazing in terms of probably the closest back to sports and profession alignment outside of gaming.

And, then I went to EA, back into gaming. And then I worked on Madden and Star Wars. We crossed a billion dollars in revenue when I was at when I was there.

And then we I ended up being part of the team that acquired Gold Glue. So going from an intern that's like, we should be, you know, doing social social platform games. And then, oh, hello.

We're gonna acquire you guys. That was fun. And at the time, one of my buddies had introduced me to, Top Shot. And I started getting into NFTs and ripping packs, you know, digitally. And as a collector, I understood this concept.

Also, you know, growing up in the Napster day, just I something about owning something digitally was native to me. And, Yeah. I, you know, again, I take risks. I took a risk. I was like, okay.

I'm I'm when I'm all in, I'm all in. I wanna learn the most I can as fast as possible. So I got early into web three just like I was early in the mobile games before the iPhone. You know? And, and, I will say, like, I burned myself out.

I've I have three kids now. So all all throughout this journey, I've been having kids. I have I've yet to take I've yet to take a a leave. Like, the most I think I've ever taken is, like, two or three weeks.

And so all throughout this my career, I've yet to to really spend time with my family or really know what it means to have to be a mom, a working mom outside of, like, I'm a 100% dedicated.

And I started realizing I was missing my life, the other part of my life. And is that some is there a legacy that can I have both?

The Web three space also really beat me up in a lot of different ways, and I learned a lot. And I'm appreciative of the community and what I learned, but I I really want to go back to something that brings me joy.

It's not about a title or the money, and I was like, what is out there that is into collecting? And eBay is the largest company I've ever worked at.

It's the oldest company I've ever worked at, and that was kinda scary. That almost was a risk. That was like a that was the new risk for me is can I survive being me and who I am? And I'm very authentic.

I I like to I like to I'm messy in a lot of ways. I'm very raw. Can I could eBay accept someone like me? I have strong opinions. I want to do things cert you know? And I so far, so I mean, so far, it's two years in.

And I think the great thing about eBay is I'm not trying to everything we're trying to do is really in service of the buyer, the seller, making sure that that local card shop stays open, like my, you know, collector's corner from when I was a kid.

I don't want that to go out of business, and that's what worries me about the industry sometimes is growth, but at what cost? I don't wanna grow by taking growth from a local card shop.

I wanna grow I want to drive growth incrementally, bringing in new new new customers, finding new ways to, you know, support sellers, not taking revenue or opportunity from, you know, a a local car shop or a place that, you know, has is contributing to the hobby in such a positive way.

So I I've been talking too long about my story, but that's that's where we are today. So you've got one of the coolest, professional backgrounds that I've heard, especially on this show.

I'm I'm so intrigued, and we're gonna get into the eBay of it all. But I wanna hit, a quest like, just listening to you talk, like, I can tell you have been, very vocal in in finding your opportunities.

Right? Going straight to the top, you had two different stories where it's like, I'm just going to the CEO and sending him an email. I'm going to the CEO or CMO.

Like, you wanna be heard. Like, I can tell that you want your opinion to to resonate. Like, why why a lot of people are passive. They sit back and they just wait and want things to come to them. I think you take the opposite approach.

Maybe, like, when did you learn that that is the way in order to kinda get to where you wanna be in your career by, like, being proactive and, like, being direct and having that conversation and trying to get your opinion heard as opposed to just, like, hoping or waiting, whatever you wanted inside your head would eventually come up and happen, whether it was job opportunity, head count, salary increase, those sorts of things.

Maybe talk a little bit about that. Some of it is privileged with where I am. Like, where I am right now and why I spoke why I speak up today is very different than when I was an intern even.

When I was an intern, it it it goes back to, like, the underdog. No one expected no one expects the intern to have, you know, all the strategy and opinions and all that.

And in fact, I like to hang out with interns a lot because they're very strategic, and they bring such a fresh, positive, and interesting perspective to things.

So as an intern, I had I had done analysis. I was closest to the problems. And so it was kind of just I would speak out with, like, a, oh, who are you?

Like, what are you doing here? And, now it's more just I I I don't I I I work because I like being here, and it brings me joy. And as long as I appreciate the problems I work on, I will continue to be here. And as long as I you know?

And I remember a story too at EA. This is not like, I'm not, like, you know, trying to be a martyr here, but there was someone on my team, and they were passed up, like, for five years in a row for a promotion.

And I gave up my bonus. I gave up my salary increase so I could promote that person.

The CEO down didn't do any of those things. You know, they gave themselves increases. And to me, that's that, like, it's the right thing to do. Like, you work your ass off. You know, you do all these things.

I gladly will do that at the you know, if there's someone that whether it's on my team or someone I know that needs it, they deserve it, I'll give up whatever that means so that, you know, we make it right.

I just that kind of that kind of stuff really I get annoyed with the big company stuff in that sense, hopefully.

Dave doesn't get me fired. But, Yeah. I, I I want my kids to be proud. Like, I'm my mom gave up her career early, but from the story she's told me about herself, she was the same way.

She went straight to the CEO. She at Sun Microsystem, she told me, like, she was a she was a pretty like, she was like a hotshot in the eighties and early nineties, and she told me a story how she went straight to the CEO.

And at the time, Sung was, like, the Google of the day. And I'm getting emotional thinking about it just because I'm kind of in the same spot as my mom at this time.

But, she went straight to the CEO. And, you know, like, you tell me why I should be here. Like, you know, you're recruiting me. And she asked the CEO all of these questions, and, he just was so, I think, impressed with her strength.

And my mom to this day is, like, the strongest person I know. She'll speak up for whoever. And, I think it's the reason I've been successful in my life is I love my dad, and I very much appreciate everything he's given me.

But it's actually come from my mom, and who she is as a person. Yeah. Sorry. No. I love it. So obviously, like, you are someone, and I can tell in, like, thirty minutes that it's like family first.

Family's super important, and you've got values. And you take those values and you use them in order to kind of find your place within these businesses. And, it's all kind of pointed at these growth roles.

When you I'm I'm thinking about that career resume and all that you went through and all those, like, scrappy start ups, small, trying to push things forward, experimentation, pitching ideas, knowing it's not gonna work.

And then, you know, doing something super cool, moving on to the next one.

And then you're in this phase right now where you're like, okay. You you ended up at eBay. But eBay doesn't look like any of the other companies that you've worked for. It's it's it's been around for a while.

It's it's massive. Maybe talk to us about that connection point with, like, who you are as a person, your values, what you've built your whole career around, and then looking at this, like, monster that's, you know, offering you a job.

Like, how did how did you say, okay.

This this this makes sense for me, and this is what I'm about right now. When I joined eBay, collectibles was in a really tough spot. We'd just gotten off the COVID, you know, kind of the COVID, high.

And, it's we didn't really know where we we we knew we had a lot lot to lose. And I don't like to play scared. I think I've never I've always felt like like, like, I'd never wanna be on defense or play scared.

And instead of thinking about, like, yeah, protectionism or, like, we have all this to lose, it's like, what an opportunity for us. We can take way more risk than a lot of a lot of people out there. We don't have a cold start problem.

Let's go after it. Like, let's do things that people that would really, like, make people think about eBay in a way of, surprise in a good way. Like, wow. They really they did that, and and I'm really and and I'm glad and and it's true.

It's pure. Like and, even the like, the partnership with PSA, there were so many people on the team. We we worked our bucks off to get that done and to integrate that and continue to and bring bring experiences to the customer in a way.

And, like, we're not done with that. And, and, we're testing into things. We just did a a light test into repacks, and we're actively working on that.

And, like, I'm excited about what we're gonna you know, excited about those types of things. I don't wanna lose what's great about the hobby. And, you know, I I like, again, I'm a nerd. I like to do research. I like to organize.

I'm it's, like, meditative for me in a lot of ways, but I'm also I'm also, competitive. I like to flip. I like to do case breaks. Like, I like I I kind of I really do love all all of it, and things are getting so fragmented right now.

And I don't think that that's, like yeah. Like, it's great to have you know, you can go wherever, but all roads do end up leading back to eBay in some way or the other.

And, I wanna make it we just wanna make it, like, really easy for people, to do whatever they wanna do. I don't I know that there's, like, a lot of there's, you know, like, you have to use this service or you have to do this.

Like, I don't I don't like that. Like, a lot of people I like the the idea of choice for a collector. You it's your collection. You do whatever you want with it.

It they're yours they're yours your customers too. If you're a seller, they're your customers. Like, you should be able to manage them how you want to. And so yeah. So here, like, I take I I take a lot of risks.

I experiment. My team experiments a lot. We're there yeah. I'm, some things you've you've seen already, and, we're really proud of, the partnerships or the new experiences we brought, I think, in the last two years.

Hopefully, there's you you know, people have seen a lot from us, and, I feel very emboldened.

I feel like I've gotten some internal credibility or clout that, like, I might act very messy and chaotic, but I I know what I know in my mind, it makes sense, and I know I I think I know where the market's going.

And yeah. I know I mean, I gave out, like, Bitcoin at $35 as Christmas gifts one year.

I drafted Le'Veon Bell number one in my draft when, like, yeah, like, you know, I'm sometimes I'm a little I jump a little bit too fast, but I do I do feel like there's something I do feel like we are on to something, and we're we now know where we fit in the market, and and that makes me really excited.

We know where we fit in the hobby, and it's gonna stay here. Like, like, the hobby is gonna continue to grow, and I'm just want to foster that.

Whatever part I impart, you know, would play in that. I wanna I wanna dig into that, but I I wanna jump back to what you said about you're talking about your career and being in growth roles.

And, you know, we're in this phase where big hobby businesses all talking about growth and 10 x ing the hobby and all of these things.

And I wanna know from your perspective, like, you've always been in a position, whatever the company look like, whatever the industry it's been in to try to grow, whether it's in a traditional or nontraditional sense.

You run experiments. You're trying shit to make it happen. You go into eBay. Right? And eBay is already huge. There's already, you know, millions of people using the platform, and you're tasked with growth.

Like, how do you think about do you think about growth differently based on what you are walking into, or has it been kind of the same strategies and tactics that you've used, whether it's research or new ideas that you've applied in other roles?

I'd love to dig into that a little bit. I focus more on my decision making.

So there's a book by Ray Dalio, called Principles. And he talks a lot about that. Is I every with my esteemed background also come esteemed failures. I probably have failed and made more wrong decisions than anyone.

Definitely at on in my peers. Absolutely. Have failed more and have but that means I have more learnings than any of my peers. And I use that. So I don't you know? Well, this is how I did at my last company.

No. I like, there is not one thing I've, like, tried a cookie cutter. It's I've optimized my decision making to be where I am today. And, I think that shows in I can get to the end state more efficiently. I can get there.

I can get to an end state more effectively than I than I did ten years ago, than I did when I first started, and that's what I optimize for, is how can I get to an end state faster and, cheaper every time I have a decision to make?

And as long as I'm continuing to grow that way, up into the right, the all the other stuff is more just, like, kind of noise of, like, oh, well, I missed this opportunity, or we launched that and it failed. I don't really look at that.

I don't really look at those types of things. It's more of what did I take into account. And okay. Now I need to optimize my decision making. Oh, this is where I missed the mark. Oh, this was a blind spot I had.

Oh, if I so I constantly am doing that with myself, not kind of something works, something didn't. Well, we did that three years ago, and it failed. I I I love when someone at the company tells me that, well, we've tried that before.

Okay. Well, first of all, I didn't try it yet, and I wouldn't do it that way, and I'm gonna learn from it. So, like, did you really try that hard? Did you iterate?

So there because there's a lot of grit a lot of times, it's not about the new idea. It's just, like, how how much tenacity and how much conviction can you instill in your team to push through when things get really, really hard?

And when is it time when is the right time to call? Like, okay. It's time to pivot or, yeah, let's call this.

Like, it's just not working. That that it that's very different. And, like, I don't I really nothing nothing makes me more annoyed than well, there's a lot of things that annoy me. But one of them is we tried that and it failed.

Cool. Okay. So what'd you learn? Like, okay. That's not helpful. Let's let's come out again. How how how important and you made an observation and alluded to it. When you're reflecting on yourself saying, you know, I like to collect.

I like to rip packs. I like to buy into breaks. Like, you're like, I like all of it. How important is it for you? And you've also said your anti cookie cutter approach, which I love.

But, like, how important has it been to you in your role in running experiments to understand the the diversity that's within the collecting community, and how there's so many different segments and so many different types of personas that enter this space.

How important has it been for you to not only, like, realize that is true, but then second, to try to, run experiments knowing that, like, if I'm doing this towards this group, it's likely gonna look a lot different.

Because the way these people are motivated, are a lot different.

Like, how have you processed just that melting pot of interest within the hobby as you've kinda stepped in and been working in your role over the last couple years? Yeah. EBay, we're we are gigantic, as you know.

We cannot be everything to everyone. And I but I think that's where I don't stop and my team doesn't stop is if we're trying to do something for a particular customer, we don't stop it. Did we fulfill it for that customer?

We look at what avenues do we have to support customers that are coming. Like, we have a lot of business that are extensions of our platform in terms of they're using our APIs, they're using our services.

And on the back end, we're powering a lot of that. You might not know that you're in our you know, that, like, it's eBay or there's parts of it that we're powering.

But if if someone is building something on behalf of our customer off of eBay and, you know, within our terms and services and whatever legal would want me to say on this, I have no idea.

But I love a good third party ecosystem. Like, at Reddit, like, at the time, and this was again a long, long time ago, 30 over 30% of our business was not from Reddit.

It was from people building our into our APIs. Oh, but that was another that's another good story is when, I was at I was at Reddit, and, we're talking about, like, do we monetize our APIs or not at the time?

And, you know, and, you know, now they've they've done what they that what they've done.

But, you know, that was a big topic of conversation, and I've learned a lot. And I learned a lot, what I would have either pushed more for or not at that time, and then, you know, the result of that.

But, so, there is a world to support all collectors whether on eBay or off of eBay, but we can power the things too off of eBay.

And that's where part of my strategy resides too, is that I think about those things. Even when I was at DraftKings, we acquired the the spine, the tech.

It was really important to us to acquire the tech because we wanted to power very niche sportsbooks Like, that we would never power because we were not that was not like we were like, okay. What's core to DraftKings?

Okay. What kind of you know, if you wanted to bet on Norwegian women's soccer and whatever and have a experience dedicated to that, making sure that, well, as long as it's powered by DraftKings, like, who cares?

And for eBay, it's like, okay. You want, you know, this really niche collecting experience, maybe eBay core, it's just never gonna happen, but that doesn't mean it's not going to be eBay or powered by eBay.

It just is like, how does my team figure out the right partners or integrations to make it happen so we can, you know, build that ecosystem and power for all types of collectors.

You said earlier, you're you felt like you were you were on to something. I can tell you're you're deep in the weeds. Whatever you do, I've I've learned that about you and just, like, the research and figuring stuff out.

What just in terms of, like, what you're seeing and and where you think this industry is going, it's changing rapidly. Like, a lot of us were all at the national and seeing new tech innovation, new ideas, new interest, new participants.

It's it's it feels like it's it's moving really, really fast. What what are you seeing just in your day to day role regarding kind of where we're going in this space and maybe what interests you the most that you're observing?

I think I even you've learned a lot about you've you picked up, yeah, a lot in the forty five minutes that we've been together.

One of my top questions I asked to anyone I talked to at the national was, do you think that repacks are a response and, of case breaks? And do you think that it is incremental or taking away from the revenue of case breaks?

It was a mixed response to that. I think a lot of people were united on, well, case breaks was a response to HobbyBox's HobbyBox prices being too high.

Okay. Okay. I can I can align with that? Okay. Let's keep going then. So then our repacks or response to case breaks in some some capacity because you saw the you see the rise.

You always see kind of the like, I'm more observant at the national than I'm than I like, I don't really buy a lot at the national. It's more I try to walk the floor as much as possible, and I try to be quiet and just observe.

I I just and, my I think my favorite areas that I see in in where things are growing, there are more the trading area for kids is an interesting area for me and how active and how much community and how that continues to be a growth area.

The dollar bins, I would love an experience digitally to move the inventory in a way.

And I think too, Repack's is a lot of of that. And, like, I don't wanna, like, throw shade here, but I did buy Repack from a certain sum from, certain company, and I got, like, a Lomelo ball of someone.

And so I was like, oh, yeah. Well, you know, he bought a lot of Lomelo early on. He's trying to just put it in repacks or you know, and get rid of it. That's, to me, not the point of repacks.

If you're trying to move inventory because you either took a position and now you're you're just like that's there was a bad position. Let's let's find formats and let's find ways to move inventory that, like, everyone feels good about.

Someone trying to complete their collection. Are you trying to matchmake? Is are there ways to repackage things so that you're not it's not like a rug pool in a sense. I don't wanna use, like, a web three, you know, term.

But, and, so there are some interesting velocity and movement of supply and inventory that I'm really, like, I'm really curious about to get dig deeper and test and find ways to to make a digital experience and make and make more, make it feel more more native to what you see in the physical sense in terms of you see at convention centers and you see in in that in that space.

But, that's, I think there's a lot of product out there now. There's a lot of volume, I'll say.

There's a lot of volume out there. And I also think it's not just the price of re of maybe hobby boxes or, you know, people feeling like they didn't get what they wanted from a case break and now they're going to repacks.

I also think it's, like, the simplification of a choice. In repacks, they're like, okay. What price point do you want? It really simplifies the risk for you. Okay. $50. Okay. And, oh, these are my odds.

Okay. If do you want by sport? So the choice is a lot easier to maybe grok than here's 50,000 variations and people feeling like, oh, well, what if I make the wrong decision on 50,000 different factors rather than there's three choices?

I'm hopefully, I don't mess this up. And, so I think that choice is an interesting one, how you present choice or simplifying some of the overwhelm of results and sifting through things.

And, yeah. But I think I think, boom in the supply, liquidity, those are really interesting areas, that I'm intrigued to dig more into.

And who knows? You you said you said something that I I wanna hit on because you're talking about repacks. And I I've had everything you said about repacks in my conversations, I've heard, like, I was like, check. I've heard that check.

I've heard that. But then you started talking about, like, maybe changing it a little bit or evolving a little bit, and you were going down the, like, the dollar bins, and you're maybe, like, repacks to help collectors complete sets.

And in my my fireworks and my brain started going off, and I was like, wait a minute.

Like, I've always looked at repacks as something not for me. But if repacks that could help me complete my Indianapolis Colts gold prism run over from 2012 to 2024 existed.

I'm buying into those. Like, that speaks to me. So I've never thought about repacks from that level outside of you just, like, talking about them?

I guess my question is, like, you're working on some cool stuff that I think can have a huge impact to a lot of different types of collectors.

Even when the stuff, like, no decisions are made and the stuff is in motion or moving or happening behind the scenes.

Like, is there a way that, like, you, eBay, or even other companies doing similar adjacent things can maybe preview or communicate and elicit feedback with the audience?

So, like, we don't just have, like, collectors been doing this for twenty five years.

Don't just have this narrow view on, oh, repacks. Those aren't for me. What when in fact, there's, like, some really cool conversations happening in the background where repacks could be for me.

We just haven't got there yet. Like, have have is there a way to communicate out while that stuff is in motion, or are you more like, let's just wait to see, and then once we have figured it out, we will share?

I'm a very well, as you know, I'm I am very transparent and a very open person, but I'm also very approachable in that sense too. So I think that I don't go a day without talking to an end customer.

I try to that is a priority above many and I and I try to instill that on my team. Everyone should have should talk to and that actually, was advised one of my buddies at, who's who's, run some product at Google told me.

Never go a day without talking to a customer. And the I would there are things that we can and can't say, but the but that's where my head goes is, like, I don't look at, repacks.

I don't look at at what people are doing today as well, that's where we're that's that's where we're going.

I'm trying to think about what why does that exist? It's a response to something. And how do we again, if if we wanna use the Repack's example, I want you to be into it in a way of, like, yeah.

If, you know, if it helps you complete a collection and it's an easier way to put complete your collection and it's the right price point and, you know, you don't, you know, you don't have to deal with 50 different boxes and it's all, you know, fine.

Why not? Like, if you're bought into that, like, I wanna make it I wanna make it easy for that inventory to get repacked and for you to be able to find it and it being transacted, and everyone's happy.

This this is one of those conversations that I think, you know, we I could I have a million questions. And maybe at some point, we do around too because, I thought this was just super interested interesting and fascinating.

Janie, before I let you get out of here, maybe just, like, offer a piece of advice to anyone out there just in terms of someone who is thinking about, working in a space that they love like sports cards and, like, taking that professional career and, matching it with, their passion?

Like, what would be a a piece of advice you'd share with anyone, as they kinda take that leap?

If you're serious about it, it's there's a lot of people that would love to work in this industry or gaming, any industry, any position I've ever been at.

And you the big thing is to have a focus. What do you wanna be known for? For me, I was like, I just want I want to know growth, both how to grow and what keeps things what keeps companies or apps or products from growing.

I want to know that better than anyone out there. And, if you can be known for something, you'll be able to transition whether it's, yeah, from gaming to collecting, back to whatever.

So it's beyond just a passion for sports. It's you have to have a passion for something that you could provide the hobby, provide the industry, and just be really learn that.

I learned that off like, not even within my job. That was just, like, I got obsessed with certain concepts or how I was able to do things, deliver on things.

So you know, if everyone's big in the AI, like, if if you wanna start getting into how AI and, you know, we'll talk and, you know, the hobby and sports and all that comes together.

But that's look at don't look at the red kind of red water. Look at where things are going and become an expert in that before before it gets hot.

Janie, she works at eBay in product management. I pulled so many lessons from this one. Maybe we'll do round two about hobby and AI and it's you in a use case down the road. I have a lot more questions, but we don't have any stuff.

Round two, assuming I'm still here. We'll see how, yeah, we'll see how this goes. But yeah. Awesome. I I would love to. Yes. I would love to. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for thanks for joining.