Fittingly, the first step towards creating “the stock market of things” involves sneakers.
A new marketplace that hopes to one day allow customers to purchase a variety of high-end or limited-edition items at prices set by live metadata — i.e., the same way stock prices fluctuate on Wall Street — has started out by offering sneakerheads collectible footwear at fair market value.
Unlike eBay or other boutique resellers, the goal of StockX is transparency. They’ve partnered with sneakerhead data collection service Campless to provide buyers and sellers with up-to-the-minute supply-and-demand data and on-demand pricing histories for more than 21,000 pairs of kicks.
Jordan 12 Retro The Master | Average Deadstock Price $373
Just like with stocks, the sneaker prices move higher or lower based on bids and asks. And StockX has plans to expand into other collectibles, like coins, comics and classic cars.
Jordan 4 Retro Eminem Carhartt | Average Deadstock Price $21,327
Quicken Loans founder and Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, one of the site’s backers, decided to invest in order to capitalize on the secondary sneaker market in the U.S., which he values at nearly $6 billion.
Air Yeezy 2 Red October | Average Deadstock Price $5,926
“We are going to bring the kind of trading platform and visibility to tangible products that financial and commodities markets have used for decades,” Gilbert says. “We believe this is the right time to extend this fundamental concept to appropriate sectors of the online consumer marketplace.”
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