Probstein Leaving Ebay on Oct 23, Starting Snype

[FromVAtoLA]

Here's details of the new business Probstein announced earlier in the year. My guess is Probstein spent two decades building a business with $1B in sales and realized no wanted to buy it for what he thought it was worth. (Him: I have a $1B in sales! Potential Buyers: And you have no assets - all you have to show for it is a bunch of followers on Ebay?!) It says he owns 90% of this. So, if it's successful, he can sell his equity.

He has the most eyeballs of anyone on Ebay. A lot of eyeballs means a lot of bids. A lot of bids means that the cards go for solid prices. And that's all consignors care about - getting the most for their item. If he can't get everyone to migrate over to this site then that means fewer eyeballs, fewer bids, and possibly lower prices. Time will tell whether his lower fees will make up for that.

Power seller Rick Probstein leaves eBay to create own platform
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New auction platform snype will offer reduced fees, more shipping options
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By Darren Rovell
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September 26, 2025

In more than 21 years as a power seller on eBay, Rick Probstein sold almost 6 million sports collectibles, generating $925 million in sales.

Probstein, 56, shared those numbers with cllct Friday after revealing his last day on eBay will be Oct. 23. An eBay spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment.

Probstein isn’t getting out of the game. He just thought he could build something better. In November, he will unveil snype, an auction app and website that aims to solve some of Probstein's biggest issues with other platforms.

It starts with logistics for power sellers.

“If someone sells a lot of items on our platform in a day, they can ship their items to us in one package, and we will send them out to the individual collectors,” Probstein said.

In order to get sellers to put their items on snype, Probstein has dropped his commission fees to 5% on an item under $1,000 and 3% for an item over $1,000.

In sports collectibles, eBay currently charges a 13.25% seller’s fee plus an extra 2.35% for items selling for more than $7,500.

Under the current formula, a seller of a $9,000 item on eBay would make $7,433. With Probstein’s snype, that same item at the same cost would net the seller $8,730.

Probstein says he thinks he will immediately be able to get market value for items.

Bidders, who pay no fees upon buying, can get multiple items for lower costs by holding their items won on the site for 30 days and then getting a single package to save on shipping costs.

While eBay closes an auction immediately at a prescribed time, snype will have extended bidding. A bidder can bid three ways: next bid, max bid or "snype." If a collector chooses snype bidding, the max bid hits with two seconds left and extends the auction 15 seconds.

Probstein said snype will also have unprecedented energy for an auction site. Aside from live commerce, chat is enabled within each auction.

Snype, based in New Jersey, has 35 employees. Three investors have joined Probstein, who says he owns 90% of the new company.