Live selling is the fastest-growing surface in commerce — and the hardest to moderate. A buyer’s entire inspection happens through a camera, in the moment the seller holds the item up. In sudden-death auction formats, that moment is five seconds. There’s no time to check a price guide, no way to examine the surface, and no catalog review before the listing goes live — because there is no listing in the traditional sense. Auction lots go up as “lot 72 — trading card,” and the sale is done before any trust process could begin.

Then the item ships, and the problems arrive after the money moved. Dispute queues drown in ticket volume. Claims on low-value items get resolved blind — no investigation, usually in the buyer’s favor, with the platform absorbing the loss. Physical review only makes sense above a price threshold, and it doesn’t exist at all for international orders. Repeat counterfeit sellers stay invisible because nobody connects one resolved claim to the next. And condition claims made on stream — “this is gem mint” — are never checked against anything.