eBay Announces New York Comic Con Plans, Including Hyper-Exclusive Funko Partnership

eBay Live is going to bring some incredibly rare Funko pops and convention exclusives to fans at home.

By Russ Burlingame

Online retail/auction giant eBay is doubling down on the huge presence they had at New York Comic Con last year, appearing at this week's convention with a huge booth and a number of realtime events planned. In a nod to the season, eBay and Funko have joined forces for a trick-or-treat-style attraction at the Funko booth, designed to showcase their partnership to serve the collecting community.

Tickets to the trick-or-treat attraction are limited each day, so fans will have to stop by the eBay or Funko booths at NYCC to see if they get lucky. One manifestation of that luck? Fans might receive one of the first-ever Freddy Funko silver coins (only 25 available all weekend). This convention-exclusive, ultra-limited run is a collectible collaboration by eBay, Funko and Apmex, the leading Precious Metals retailer in the U.S.

"I was at the company for 12 years, and then came back about a year ago and I was able to see just how committed we were to getting out and engaging with people in the [fan] community," Gene  Cook, VP of Global Collectibles at eBay, told ComicBook.com's Jim Viscardi. "So I think it's critically important that we go to the shows."

"The team is incredibly customer oriented, and gets energy from being out of the office and actually engaging with people, but it's important to do it because we do care about this category and this space so deeply," Cook added. "I think frankly, it's important that we show up, that we signal that, and that it's an amazing opportunity for us to learn. I try not to overcomplicate how we decide what we focus on; try to keep things simple and really focus on the feedback that we're getting from our customers.

Over 22,000 people tuned into eBay's New York Comic Con eBay Live last year, where they sold the first-ever graded Funko Pop, and held a pre-sale for MetaZoo, a collectible card game. The company will be broadcasting multiple eBay Live events once again from the convention floor, including exclusive comic book variants, exclusive coins, and rare Funko Pops.

eBay Live is pretty much what it sounds like: video events in which both direct purchase and auction listings are promoted and listed, and fans can tune in, be entertained, and buy in. Funko, Greg Capullo, Tula Lotay, Alex Ross, and Bill Sienkiewicz are among comics and pop culture all-stars that are planning eBay Live events for the coming days. Some are hosted directly by eBay or by their affiliate companies. Others are just being hosted by retailers or other individual eBay sellers.

"I'm personally passionate about live commerce," Cook said. "Our approach is eBay Live and respectfully to what other people are doing, we feel like that is a perfect fit for eBay. eBay especially in collectibles, has been about social commerce from the very beginning. People came together on this platform, they actually made friends, they educated each other about this space. And so when we see people in a live stream, we're seeing the sellers sharing their passion and educating buyers or collectors about the special things that they found. We're seeing the interaction go back and forth. One of the things that we're most excited about is  that eBay, thanks to our customers, has this giant, amazing, rich, diverse marketplace. So when a collector starts to discover a new passion in the stream, when that stream is over, there's this whole marketplace full of other buyers and other sellers, and an amazing inventory, so that they can further deepen their passion even after the stream ends."

According to numbers from eBay, the site's users searched "Funko" 13,000 times per hour in 2022, which makes their partnership an obvious one.

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"We are thrilled to be Funko's preferred secondary marketplace, and what we really love when we get to work with a partner that closely, is what we can do with them to help make special things happen for the community, happen for our customers," Cook said. "We are excited that some rare Funkos are showing up in New York Comic Con in an eBay Live context. Obviously, we're excited about specific drops that we do with them, and building the best collector experience for the Funkos on the [eBay] platform. I would like to think that they respect the sincerity, the authenticity, the care that we have for their brand, and content, and we're partnering with them to help make it possible for them to engage with as many passionate enthusiasts as possible."

The 2023 eBay booth will feature:

  • A display of retired Funko Pops! no longer in production and available only in limited quantities through resale – they'll be available to purchase through a QR code and online during an eBay Live event with eBay seller Pop Queen.
  • An exclusive drop from eBay and Funko: Insidious Zombie
  • From the depths of the Insidious universe comes an all-new eBay x Funko New York Comic Con exclusive that's sure to send shivers down your spine. The Key Demon is back, just in time for spooky season, and dropping 10/13 at 9:30am PT on eBay.

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