From Listings to Livestreams: eBay Live’s Big Canadian Launch

eBay Live is a new interactive shopping experience,

it's connecting buyers and sellers

and just bringing new community together

and offering a brand new shopping experience.

[♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪

Well, I've got my guest here,

and his name is Patrick Gendron.

He is the lead over at eBay Canada.

Thanks for joining us today.

Thanks for having me, Mike.

So I understand you are in my hometown right now,

Vancouver, British Columbia.

We've got a fan expo going here.

And you guys are here to talk all about eBay Live.

I think most of our listeners are probably familiar with eBay.

I've been using it for years.

Myself, you guys have been around

since the beginning of the internet, it seems.

So what is eBay Live for the listeners and viewers out there?

Yeah, we're really excited to be launching eBay Live.

It's a new interactive live stream shopping experience.

We've launched a number of different markets,

but really excited to bring it to Canadians today.

And how long has this been going in the United States, for example?

eBay Live has been available to shoppers

for a little over two years now.

But in Canada, we just launched on February 11th.

And yeah, exciting times just trying to bring Canadians

to the whole experience.

So you're in Vancouver.

Tell us what people can see at the fan expo

and what you guys are doing there.

Yeah, at FanExpo, we've got a lot of great things happening

right now.

People come to eBay Booth, the exhibit,

just to take part, have fun, enjoy the fandom,

and all the great experiences.

We've got the typical things like our Booth.

But with eBay Live, we've set up a whole studio experience.

And we're going to bring on some great celebrity talents.

They're going to see the Phelps twins.

Those are the Weasley twins from Harry Potter, Sean Aston

also joining us, who was famous in The Lord of the Rings

and the Goonies.

So lots and lots of great activations.

And people can join us here at Vancouver FanExpo.

But also tune in on eBay.ca.

Just click into eBay Live and join us on stream.

And is eBay Live just kind of for collectibles

and special events?

How's that all working?

No, it's really just a way for us to bring the community together

and do what people are already doing on eBay.

It's shopping for the things that they love,

what they're collecting, everything from trading cards

to comics, toys, fashion, clothing.

Just about anything that people have come to shop on on eBay,

you can find it on a livestream for it.

And can anyone use eBay Live as far as selling?

How does that all work?

Right now, we're really trying to align ourselves

and partner with the sellers that we trust

and people have come to trust on eBay.

But that group of sellers is growing every day.

We're bringing on more sellers and partnering

with more sellers every day.

So you're going to see that grow and grow.

What are you most excited about?

What do auction items?

For me, it's really about the trading cards and comics.

I get really excited about seeing that.

We've got comic traders coming on later today.

And they're bringing in Jamie Tindle,

who's a famous artist here in Canada.

And that's the really exciting part for me

to be able to just see everybody in the community,

talk to one another, bid on the items I'm interested in.

And that gets me going.

So just to see everybody fired up in the passion in the room.

And as far as the auction experience itself,

anyone can sign up and bid on these items?

Yes, anybody can sign up as long as you're

over the age of 18 and have access to an eBay account.

You can absolutely just jump right into eBay live stream.

In order to bid, you do have to have a credit card

on file or a payment method.

But then you're good to go and join in.

So you're doing the fan expo here in Vancouver.

Are there other events that you have coming across Canada as well?

Yes, actually this weekend was great.

It really was an opportunity presented itself

for us to launch here in Vancouver, but also in Toronto.

We've got the Toronto Collector Super Show,

which launched yesterday.

And just being able to launch coast to coast

is an absolutely amazing story for us

just to bring the whole community together.

Again, people in Toronto tuning in, people in Vancouver.

But really with eBay live, the beauty is it doesn't matter

where you are.

You can tune into a live stream and take in the fun remotely.

And for the listeners and viewers out there,

obviously you can look at this through a desktop.

Is it available in the mobile platforms at the bottom?

Yes, yes.

Mobile is the best experience in my opinion.

But yes, you can access live through your desktop,

through your mobile.

Just make sure you download the app.

And then on your home screen, you'll

see eBay live right at the top.

And then you see, once you click in,

a whole host of events lined up for this weekend,

but also future events as well.

So it looks like it's starting off with collectible items.

Will you branch off into other things, like cars, for example?

Right now, it is collectibles.

I mean, eBay's been the home of collectibles

and the collector community's very bust here in Canada.

So it just presented itself as a logical point

for us to launch with.

But we'll be branching off into new categories.

We've got a great lineup of fashion sellers coming.

And some other interesting categories in the works, too.

I don't want to say too much.

But yes, definitely a lot of interesting categories.

I don't know about cars just yet, but definitely

on the horizon, I think.

Karthik, what are some of the items

you have up for auction at the Vancouver Fan Expo?

Yeah, we've got some really great items lined up.

We just auctioned off a Maclin celebrity, the Rookie

card.

I've really coveted Rookie card for one of the rising stars

in hockey, also representing Team Canada.

And then we've got a Charizard card, a PSA 7 of a card

that was released in 2006, a really rare card coming up,

valued at around $10,000.

That's going to be auctioned off later today.

And it's all starting at $1.

So it's really just to get everybody in, excited,

everyone taking part in bidding, and really getting in

on all the action.

I'll give you $2 for that card.

Yeah, well, I don't know if $2 is going to make it.

But it's still a bid, and it's going to get registered.

But also some really great merch, right?

We've got Sean Aston signing items.

You're going to see Jamie Tindall, a whole host

of other celebrities coming up, giving away items,

and also signing items for people in attendance.

But they'll all also be auctioned off as well.

We're talking with Carthick, all about eBay live.

This is launching here in Canada now at the Vancouver Fan

Expo, and heading off to Toronto as well.

I want to thank you for joining us on the program today.

Thank you for having me, and it was a pleasure.

And again, join us on eBay.ca, eBay Live.

Lots of great events still coming.

If you can join us here in Vancouver,

lots of fun to be had, and also in Toronto,

we'd love to see everyone make it out.

Thanks for joining us again.

Thank you.

Thank you.

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