A lot of good ideas for something that is needed.
My only idea would be anyone starting a site should purchase a really large collection (multiple vintage sets/lots) and then use the site to sell it over time, sell the cards by auction format. Plan to take a loss on a number of those cards while you build up the service/bidders, consider those losses marketing to get buyers to use the site. Anyone who has a good expericence (a good deal on the early cards) on your site will come back again. The key is getting quality cards for sale in auction format and the buyers will come. Now just having a functioning auction site will not get you sellers, there is too much initial risk of getting a low sale price on using the auction format with no sales history, thats why having a bunch of good material to sale early on would be key. This gives other sellers a benchmark of what they can expect their cards to sell for.
Example if I see the new site sold a bunch of T-206 common SGC 40's over the last month and the prices were comparable to ebay, at that time I would be willing to list a card or two to test the waters. If those got market prices then I would look into listing more items.
I had checked out the other failed sites in the past and the only cards I needed were all priced as high bin's type, nothing worthwile in the auctions. After checking them out a couple times I never went back.
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