eBay’s New Trading Card Scanning Feature
The company announced the feature recently via a press release. The new feature is aimed towards the digital marketplace’s massive trading card community that recently saw a growth of 142%. It will, as per eBay, will cut down the listing time of trading cards to half. “Among our 185 million shoppers around the world, we’ve seen unparalleled demand for trading cards over the past year, with four million more sold than the year prior,” says Nicole Colombo, Head of Trading Cards and Collectibles at eBay. At launch, which is slated for late April, the new scanning feature will only support Magic: The Gathering cards. Going forward, however, eBay aims to expand the support to Pokemon and Yu Gi Oh! cards in May, and later to other collectible card games and sports trading cards.
How Does It Work?
Now, the new trading card scanning feature in eBay will leverage computer vision technology to detect the cards. As a result, all the sellers need to do is point their smartphone camera at the card they want to sell. The app will automatically scan the card and provide the relevant result. So, as eBay explains, sellers can use the new feature in three simple steps:
Step 1 – Open the eBay app on Android or iOS and start a listing with a game name. In the search UI, select the new “Tap to search with your camera” option. Step 2 – Point the smartphone camera towards a trading card and let the app scan it. Step 3 – Select the relevant results from the listing.
“Our new listing feature will not only create a faster and more convenient experience for our sellers but will also provide more robust trading card inventory for shoppers – all while ensuring that the information in card listings is more accurate,” added Colombo. So, following the new update, trading card sellers will be able to list their products more quickly on the platform. Moreover, apart from the said feature, eBay will also add a few enhancements to support the trading card community. These include improved returns, low-cost shipping options, and protection of buyers and sellers.
