eBay Goes On Livestream Shopping Tour In Search Of Elusive Enthusiast Buyers
eBay has announced a new Livestream Shopping Tour with in person and streaming events across the US, rehashing old strategies in search of elusive Enthusiast Buyers.
According to a company press release, these pop-up events will take place at hobby shops, conventions, and trade nights throughout 2025.
This summer, eBay is launching eBay Live on Tour—a live event series delivering livestream shopping and collector-focused experiences to cities across the country.
Beginning June 14, the tour will showcase top eBay sellers, curated inventory, special guests, and real-time broadcasts from hobby shops, conventions, and trade nights. Whether attending in person or tuning in online, collectors will have more ways to discover, shop, and connect.
“eBay Live is about more than just buying—it’s about bringing people together over shared passions,” said Caroline Pougnier, US General Manager, eBay Live. “This tour is our way of showing up for the community—meeting collectors where they are and celebrating The Hobby together.”
The first stop is in Cooper City, Florida, at local hobby shop and eBay seller AA Mint Cards (3800 N University Dr, Suite 209) from 3–7 p.m. ET. The event will include livestreamed coverage, an appearance from rising basketball star, Boogie Fland, and hands-on experiences for local collectors. Those unable to attend in person can tune in live at the eBay Live Tour Channel.
Tour Stops Include:
- June 14 – Cooper City, FL: Hobby Block Party at AA Mint
- June 27–29 – Tampa, FL: Card Party East
- July 19 – Los Angeles, CA: Trade Night at Bullpen HQ
- July 24–27 – San Diego, CA: San Diego Comic-Con
- August 9 – Los Angeles, CA: Hobby Block Party at Lucky Vault
- August 19–23 – Oklahoma City, OK: ANA World’s Fair of Money
- September 27 – Hamilton Square, NJ: Trade Night at TNT North Jersey
- October 9–12 – New York, NY: New York Comic Con
- November 15 – Las Vegas, NV: Hobby Block Party at Legacy Sports Shop
Notably, several of these conventions and events are places where eBay has already previously had a presence featuring eBay Live, so this isn't exactly a new idea and it's not entirely clear how much exposure eBay will get out of these events to users who aren't already familiar with the livestream offering.
It's also worth noting that eBay will have some significant competition present at some of these events, often in the form of familiar faces - like the many ex-eBayers who have gone on to help Walmart take a bite out of the collectibles market.
Liz Morton
eBay leaned heavily into the "pop-up shop" concept in 2021-2022 as part of CEO Jamie Iannone's "high value enthusiast buyer strategy" focused on sneakers, handbags, trading cards, watches, jewelry, and luxury fashion - but those events were often mostly hype meant to capture media buzz with very little to show in terms of increased sales on the site or brand awareness bringing in new buyers.
Liz Morton
The pop-up shops had mostly been abandoned since Chief Business Strategy Officer Stefanie Jay left eBay and the company has increasingly pivoted away from the narrow vertical focus she had championed and back to broader consumer to consumer focus last year - so it's interesting to see them making a comeback now.
Liz Morton
eBay Live launched in June 2022 and while a few new categories have been added in that time, as well availability on both desktop and mobile, many sellers have been frustrated with the glacial pace of rollout and the restrictive application process - with some moving to competing sites like Whatnot and others, like mega-seller Rick Probstein working to launch their own platforms instead.
Liz Morton
That increasing competition and pressure from investors to meet Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) and Active Buyer targets is finally catching up to eBay - but will these latest efforts to get buyers onboard with livestream shopping be too little too late?
Liz Morton
One of the biggest hurdles eBay faces to gaining buyer adoption for eBay Live may not be marketing, but rather persistent technical problems that make the user experience inconsistent and, in some cases, practically unusable.
For example, last year's Elton John Charity Event turned into an embarrassing debacle with terrible pixelation, extreme lag and buffering distracting and disrupting the event.
Liz Morton
Interestingly, eBay's press release for the Livestream Tour says they just expanded eBay Live internationally to the UK in May 2025.
eBay Live Fast Facts
- Covers categories like collectibles, luxury goods, sneakers, and apparel
- Offers both live auction and Buy It Now formats
- Expanded internationally in May 2025 at MCM London Comic Con
- Notable sales include rare Pokémon cards, a Rolex GMT Master II “Batgirl,” and high-profile sports card breaks.
However, a different press release dated April 8, 2024 said they were piloting eBay Live with select UK sellers at that time as part of the initial rollout of fee-free selling for private accounts.
Liz Morton
So eBay is either bending the truth in order to try to claim the UK launch just happened last month or they quietly buried the fact that it took them over a year instead of "the coming weeks" to make it actually happen - neither of which would reflect particularly well on the company.
And it would appear to be the former, since the Internet Archive Wayback Machine shows ebay.co.uk/ebaylive has been actively hosting livestreams since at least April 28, 2024.
That begs the question, who is eBay trying to fool by saying it just launched in the UK last month and for what purpose?
No amount of PR sleight of hand can change the fact that eBay has been behind the curveball, dragging out their livestream initiatives for 3+ years with no real innovation or growth to show for it while smaller, scrappier competitors beat them to the punch - and it's going to take much more than Livestream Tour pop up events to clawback that squandered market share.
