Fintech wiz taps into hobbies as big business

Online marketplaces and social media platforms have exploded on the internet where people can resell items, including those considered as collectibles. However, the rise of online selling has come with a threat, from the proliferation of fake items.

To address this problem, Frederic Levy and his other two co-founders, moved from GCash to launch Toki which is an online marketplace dedicated to authentic collectibles which currently consist of Funko Pop figures, LEGO, sneakers, sports cards and trading cards.

“Today there is a fragmented experience. There are five or six apps and in Facebook, you don’t know who you are buying from and the quality of your product,” he said.

“When you receive the item, you have the right to pray that it’s authentic,” Levy continued.

As Toki’s chief executive officer, Levy ensures that its items on the e-commerce platform come only from true collectors and sellers who have built a loyal client base and some who have been featured by major media firms. They include toy artist Quiccs and sneakerhead (rubber shoes enthusiast) Bigboy Cheng.

“Most of our sellers are semi-professionals. Our sneaker guy is the number one in the country. They all have physical stores,” Levy said.

To determine whether the sellers are legitimate collectors, Toki said its team visits the sellers’ places to see their stock volumes and it employs a verification team in Sucat, Muntinlupa City to check the items’ condition before shipping them to customers.

Since it started operations in November last year, Toki has attracted 200 sellers and nearly 60,000 members.

From finance to collectibles

Relaxation and entertainment is evident in Levy’s career path even if his academic and work background consists of law studies in France and chief commercial officer of financial tool GCash.

Before he moved to the Philippines and created Toki, Levy was producing TV shows and movie soundtracks.

“I opened my own business before and through that I was able to meet people in the music industry. I worked in Warner Music, then Canal+ which is like HBO in Europe,” he shared.

Being a collector himself, Levy delights in playing LEGOs, walking in his sneakers which have piled up to 80 pairs, vinyl records from France, and most recently Funko Pop which he developed fondness for when he started living in the Philippines.

“I was working on GCash and that time was very stressful, so I was looking for something to chill me down,” he recalled.

“I realized that building up LEGOs was a very relaxing thing. I talked to a lot of company executives and a lot are building LEGOs as a way to relax for one or two hours,” he shared.

Beyond authenticity

Levy said Toki offers end-to-end solutions both to sellers and buyers.

“Sellers using Facebook or Instagram don’t have search functionality. They may have 500 models of sneakers but the only one you sell is the last thing people see on Instagram,” he explained.

Levy added buyers only have to wait for the items as Toki also facilitates their delivery and other checkout processes.

“In social media platforms, you handle everything by yourself including the logistics and payments. In the end, it’s good having an end-to-end secure, safe, and fun experience in one platform,” he said.

Aside from posting their items on Toki which presents products similar to a printed catalogue, sellers can run live stream auctions on the digital platform which Levy said makes selling more fun.

“You negotiate the price, you speak to people with the same lingo and that’s why we launched the live stream auction,” he said.

“There is a playful or gamification angle so if you have a great seller or emcee people might be more excited to bid and the price can go higher,” Levy added.

Recalling a seven-hour auction, Levy shared that a seller made P100,000 from offering over 200 blind boxes. These contain certain cartoonish figures or characters from a wide collection of characters, many of which are popularized by the brand Pop Mart.

“At 3 a.m., there were still 35 people in his auction,” Levy said.

Endless collectibles

Toki is looking to expand its product range to K-Pop, fashion, and luxury items such as vintage clothes and rock band T-shirts.

“In the US, they have 75 categories. The road map is to develop more categories than to keep adding sellers even when it doesn’t make sense already,” Levy said.

He said at least 37 percent of Filipinos collect items, encouraging Toki’s team to satisfy other subgroups with different income levels and interests.

“The Philippine collectibles market ranges from $5 billion to $6 billion but when we checked the demographics, we found everybody collects. These are the old, millennial and Gen Z generations,” Levy shared.

Currently, Toki’s most sought-after collectibles are sneakers, sports and trading cards such as Pokemon cards and NBA cards.

Levy said the sales reflected its strategic approach.

“We have this idea of a market for everyone that’s why we started with sports cards, Lego, and sneakers because the price bracket is $200 to $300,” he said.

“It opens you to a wider market rather than starting with higher-end collectibles, you identify yourself with the rich market,” Levy elaborated.

However, he stressed that Toki for now offers only brand new sneakers and items available in the Philippines.

“My friend is collecting rock band T-shirts that are used. So I think you have to inject a feature in the system where people can see if what you’re selling is mint, good, or used,” Levy said.

He added Toki might accept items from abroad depending on several factors such as the weight of the item, tax rates for shipping, and rarity of the item.

Moving forward, Toki also plans to open physical stores and organize events.

“When you grow the community, the more you establish yourself as a reliable partner,” Levy said.

Toki is confident the Philippines will continue to enjoy lively collector communities regardless of economic conditions.

“During the pandemic, the demand exploded. The sneakers market, for example, went ballistic which was strange because we weren’t allowed to go out and put on sneakers,” Levy said.

With Toki, he said the collectibles industry can expand sustainably.

“We have independent sellers and the Philippine collectibles ecosystem now can have safer transactions. The buyers will buy more and some rookie collectors will start to become active,” Levy said.