SOURCE by Stadium Goods

I’ve always admired Jaysse Lopez for everything he’s done for the sneaker community. That’s why when it came to consigning with the big-box players (FC, SG, and UN), I was always partial to Urban. 

However, I had been hearing a lot of chatter recently about Stadium Goods, especially when it comes to investing more into their tech. Out of curiosity, I started poking around their consignment portal and came across their SOURCE platform.

From what I saw, SOURCE is a new marketplace that Stadium Goods launched in May of this year to allow consignors who have a number of items stored at SG but need capital ASAP to now list bundles of their items at a discounted price. Anyone can then go on and purchase a bundle that will be added to their consigned inventory and be put right back up for sale by SG.

SOURCE provides obvious advantages for sellers. They can easily find new inventory in bulk, purchase it at a discounted rate, and then almost immediately have it go up for sale on one of the most prominent marketplaces in the industry. When it comes to consignment, my main hesitation has always been the idea of having to ship out an item, and wait for it to get delivered, and authenticated. And then, I wouldn’t even know when it had been listed for sale. During all of this time, I could have been finding a buyer myself on another platform and moving it quicker. But this system removes all of the wasted time from the process.

However, there are also things you should be aware of before getting started with SOURCE. 

First, the language is unclear: listings for bundles have the listing price and an estimated “Market Value,” which at first glance, makes the deal very enticing (seeing a list price of $10,000 and a Market Value of $14,000, for example). But nowhere on the site does it specify where that Market Value estimate comes from. Is that StockX Lowest Ask, your estimated return off of the bundle, or Previous sale prices for those items on Stadium Goods? 

Looking into it, I believe it is the third. It’s important to keep in mind, though, that Stadium Goods takes a 20% consignment fee on top of the 5% added commission rate they charge to the bundle for purchasing it. 

Now that apparent 40% margin you thought you were getting has been cut down to less than 20%. 

Second, you are not able to raise the prices of your items after the purchase. When initially pricing the items you had just purchased, it won’t give an indication for the total that I would be getting from these items until after (I was still confused by the whole Market Value phrasing), so when I realized that I had priced them too low by mistake, it restricted me from updating them even though they had not even finished processing the transfer… weLp. 

Finally, the point of this service is to let sellers get rid of products and free up capital quickly. That means the majority of products that get listed are not going to be the hotcakes you would prefer, like Panda Dunks or recent 4s. Rather, there are mainly bundles of basic Supreme tees, brick sizes of Yeezy 500s, and random Air Maxes. 

If that’s what you’re looking for, then SOURCE is a great option for you. But, I would definitely recommend doing your research before making any major purchases and proceeding with caution if you do decide to venture into the SOURCE market.

SOURCE is an innovative and fresh new segment in the consignment world that appears to be a great opportunity for sellers with a medium to large-sized nest egg to make some money more passively from the sneaker and streetwear market. But do your due diligence on the items you’re buying and don’t expect any crazy or immediate come-ups.