Again in February, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian teamed up with Brent Montgomery (“Pawn Stars” producer) and Evan Parker (former common supervisor at The Athletic) to launch Mantel, a social community permitting collectors to share their newest finds, equivalent to sports activities playing cards, TCGs (buying and selling card video games), comedian books, cash, stamps, sneakers, watches, and extra.
Initially accessible solely on the internet, Mantel launched its cellular app on Wednesday, offering collectors with a better option to join with like-minded fans. Now accessible for obtain on the App Retailer and Google Play, Mantel presents collectors a devoted house to interact with their interest, whether or not that’s celebrating the joy of the chase or in search of recommendation from different fans on subjects like grading sports activities playing cards, discussing market traits, and extra.
Some standout options embody “Mantelpiece,” a digital show case the place customers can showcase their favourite collectibles and entice curiosity for trades. The app additionally incorporates gamification with options like streaks, polls, and badges. Along with the primary feed, the place customers can see posts from different collectors, customers can entry a wide range of content material, together with market stories and insights from business influencers.
In tandem with the app launch, Mantel additionally launched a “Teams” function the place customers can invite members to teams based mostly on area of interest pursuits, like “NBA Junk Wax” or “Classic Non-Sports activities Playing cards.” The function is at present web-only however will roll out to iOS and Android gadgets within the coming weeks.
Within the $493 billion collectibles market, many accumulating apps exist; nevertheless, most prioritize gross sales. This might deter some individuals who aren’t excited about promoting and will favor merely displaying their finds and assembly new associates. Additionally, whereas quite a few social community apps exist, Mantel goals to serve a distinct segment group of hardcore fans who could need to maintain their accumulating actions separate from different mainstream platforms.
“There’s nothing nice within the collectible house for [sharing] content material,” Parker, co-founder and CEO, informed TechCrunch. “I don’t see anyone within the collectible house doing what we’re doing.”
Buying and selling and promoting are nonetheless allowed on Mantel’s platform. Nonetheless, the emphasis is on group and sharing. In some unspecified time in the future in 2025, the app will launch a Stripe integration and personal messaging to facilitate gross sales between customers. However, there are not any plans to develop an in-app market, because the business is already saturated with opponents like eBay and CardsHQ.
The trio created Mantel out of a shared ardour for accumulating, desirous to develop a platform they personally would take pleasure in utilizing.
Parker at all times had the “collector’s gene,” he defined, accumulating every thing from sports activities playing cards and memorabilia to toys and watches. After leaving The Athletic, he met Ohanian and Montgomery, who shared his enthusiasm.
“Alexis is a large collector, and Brent is anyone who grew up promoting baseball playing cards and issues like that to generate income when he was in class, after which he got here up with the concept for ‘Pawn Stars’ and spent his complete profession on the content material aspect, numerous it having to do with the accumulating world… [Mantel] is nice for group, which Alexis is aware of higher than anyone from his Reddit world,” Parker mentioned.
Along with a powerful founding crew, Mantel is backed by notable traders, together with Courtside Ventures, Cosmic Enterprise Companions, Steve Aoki’s Aoki Labs, Change Ventures, VaynerFund, together with former WNBA participant Candace Parker and Adam Hansmann, co-founder of The Athletic. Ohanian’s SevenSevenSix and Montgomery’s Wheelhouse Leisure additionally invested within the platform.
Mantel didn’t disclose the precise variety of customers however talked about that it’s within the hundreds. On common, these customers make greater than 30 feedback or posts every month and interact with content material over 100 instances month-to-month. The platform additionally boasts “tens of hundreds” of posts.
The app is free to obtain, however the firm is contemplating monetization choices equivalent to promoting and putting sure Teams behind a paywall.
