What Trading Cards Tell Us About The Future Of The Creator Economy
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA – February 19, 2019: Baseball cards typically display an image of the player ... More with identifying information including statistics and biographical information. Baseball card production peaked in the late 1980s however, baseball cards are still one of the most influential collectibles of all time.
For years, creators have been chasing virality and hoping the money follows. But today, the most successful creators are flipping that script by monetizing directly through community, content and commerce. Fanatics Live, a livestream platform built for trading card enthusiasts, is a great example of what's possible when creators are given the tools to operate like entrepreneurs.
According to CEO Nick Bell, Fanatics Live is 'the place where card collecting meets entertainment,' combining the real-time thrill of QVC, the social energy of Twitch and the gamification of Candy Crush. It's content and commerce wrapped in community.
Live commerce is already well established in Asia, where it accounts for more than 20% of all e-commerce sales. In the US, it's on a steep upward curve, with McKinsey forecasting growth to $68 billion by 2026, driven largely by vertical platforms in collectibles, fashion and beauty.
Bell sees the momentum: 'Live commerce has grown incredibly rapidly in China over the last 10 years… I think when it comes to collectibles, I would really look at it as like the difference between watching a sports game alone at home versus being in a packed stadium with other fans.'
At its core, Fanatics Live gives creators, called 'breakers', the ability to host livestreams where they open card packs, engage fans and transact in real time. Bell explained that the platform's technology, LiveOS, is 'purpose-built for the collectibles industry' with integrated tools that let creators 'sell breaks, run giveaways, polls, quizzes' all in a deeply gamified, vertical-specific environment.
Rather than building for everyone, Fanatics has focused tightly on the trading card category. 'Rather than other platforms that go much wider… we're very, very focused on trading cards,' Bell noted, underscoring a strategy that puts community depth above generalized reach.
What's particularly striking is how Fanatics Live prioritizes creator empowerment. Bell emphasized, 'Our creators are entrepreneurs. They're building communities, not just audiences. That's where the business is.' This isn't hyperbole, Fanatics Live sees over an hour of average watch time per user per day, suggesting that fans are sticking around.
That sense of stickiness is by design. 'You speak to collectors who use Fanatics Live on a daily basis… they have their two or three favorite creators. And it's not just the creator… it's the community that forms around that,' Bell explained. He described how users show up for the creators as much as the product—'these are people that are their friends.'
Fanatics Live's ambitions go beyond digital. In its recently launched London flagship store, it unveiled a professional-grade Fanatics Live Studio where creators can book slots and go live directly from the retail floor. 'We provide the prime location and professional-grade equipment for creators to shine,' said Bell. 'It's about empowering the community, fostering genuine connections, and delivering exhilarating live experiences.'
Fanatics
The studio functions as a production hub, storefront, and creator coworking space, a model that could easily extend to other verticals in the future.
Fanatics Live may have launched in the UK most recently, but its model is globally relevant. Bell, who grew up in the UK, noted that while sticker collections were once popular playground currency, trading cards represent something longer-lasting: 'Collecting is this kind of journey that you go on over a long period of time… these things live on for years and years.'
He added that 'people build their collections for years… it becomes a form of art,' pointing to a recent example where a Paul Skenes debut patch card sold for $1.1 million on the platform.
As Bell put it, 'Gone are the days where people are just going to post a video, hope it gets a load of views and hope that they get a few pennies out the bottom from ad revenue.' Instead, Fanatics Live creators are operating like small businesses.
Here are a few key takeaways for creators:
'Find something that you're really passionate about,' said Bell. 'Something that you want to be doing evenings, weekends, every waking moment, and go deep on that.'
Fanatics Live proves that trust and familiarity drive more revenue than virality. 'It's not just the creator that [viewers] move towards… it's the community that forms around that.'
Fanatics Live's LiveOS was built from scratch for this vertical. 'We're building a connected ecosystem… that helps collectors enjoy what they do and removes all the boring bits,' Bell said.
Top-performing creators on Fanatics Live show up regularly, not sporadically. 'Building a business is not easy,' Bell admitted, 'and it's got to be something that you want to eat, sleep, and breathe every single day.'
Fanatics Live might focus on trading cards, but it's modeling a broader truth, the most successful creator businesses are built on depth. By combining real-time commerce with community and infrastructure, Fanatics Live is showing how creators can own their audiences, their earnings and their futures.
And as Bell aptly put it, 'We're giving creators the infrastructure to build meaningful, sustainable businesses.'
This article is based on an interview from my podcast The Business of Creators.
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