We recently connected with Rob Kligman and have shared our conversation below.

Rob, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Collectible Lane didn’t start as a business idea..it started as frustration.

I’ve been a collector my whole life, but I’ve also spent my career building and scaling revenue-driven businesses. So when I was buying and selling collectibles, I wasn’t just emotionally invested…I was constantly noticing how broken the economics were.

As a buyer, prices felt inflated. You’d look at an item and know that a meaningful part of the price wasn’t value, it was sellers padding to cover platform fees. As a seller, it was even more painful. You’d sell something meaningful and immediately lose 15–20% to fees. That didn’t just hurt margins…it changed behavior. Sellers raised prices, buyers pushed back, and everyone accepted it as “just how it works,” even though no one was actually happy.

The bigger realization was that collectors were being treated like transactions, not people. There was no context, no story, no sense of why an item mattered…just listings, fees, and star ratings.

That’s when I started asking a simple question: what would a marketplace look like if it were built by collectors and priced fairly?

Once I asked that, the logic became obvious. The collectibles market is massive but fragmented…video games, cards, comics — all operating the same way economically, all suffering from the same fee and trust problems. Fees were the real issue, not demand. And despite better technology, marketplaces hadn’t evolved with how collectors actually behave.

Collectible Lane was built around aligning incentives. If sellers keep more, they don’t need to inflate prices. Buyers win. Sellers win. The marketplace becomes healthier instead of extractive. We also built it as an ecosystem with multiple lanes, not silos…because collectors don’t think in categories, they think in passion. And we added storytelling as infrastructure, not marketing, because trust and context matter in this space.

What excited me most was realizing that making the experience more human actually made it more efficient. That’s a rare combination.

I knew it would work because the reaction from collectors was immediate. Lower fees, cleaner UX, and a platform that spoke their language changed behavior right away. I wasn’t solving a problem no one else saw, I was solving a problem everyone saw but no one fixed because the incentives were misaligned.

At its core, Collectible Lane isn’t just about buying and selling things. It’s about trust, nostalgia, and identity. I didn’t want to build another marketplace, I wanted to build the place collectors actually want to be.

Rob, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have spent my career at the intersection of media, entertainment, sports, and commerce, building and scaling revenue driven businesses and platforms. Before founding Collectible Lane, I held senior leadership roles where my focus was always on growth strategy, partnerships, monetization, and building products that actually resonate with passionate audiences. At the same time, I have been a lifelong collector, which gave me a very different lens on how marketplaces and communities truly function.

Collectible Lane is the result of those two worlds colliding. It is a collector first marketplace ecosystem designed for people who care deeply about what they buy and sell. We operate multiple category specific lanes including video games, trading cards, comics, sports authentics and currency, all connected through a single experience. Our core product is a modern marketplace with significantly lower and more transparent fees, supported by technology and content that builds trust, context, and long term value for both buyers and sellers.

The primary problem we solve is misalignment. Traditional marketplaces extract value through high fees, which forces sellers to inflate prices and creates friction for buyers. Over time, that erodes trust and hurts the entire ecosystem. Collectible Lane is built to realign incentives. When sellers keep more, pricing becomes more honest, transactions increase, and the community becomes healthier. We also solve a trust and discovery problem by adding storytelling and education directly into the ecosystem, helping collectors understand why items matter rather than treating them as anonymous listings.

What sets us apart is that we are not trying to be everything to everyone. We are building for collectors specifically, with tools, language, and experiences that reflect how they actually think and behave. We combine commerce with content through our Behind The Lane platform, which highlights the stories, history, and cultural significance behind collectibles. This creates a deeper connection between the item, the seller, and the buyer, and turns transactions into experiences.

What I am most proud of is building something that respects both the emotional and economic sides of collecting. Collectible Lane is designed to be fair, transparent, and human, while still being a scalable, sustainable business. It is not just a marketplace, it is an ecosystem built on trust.

The main thing I want people to know about me and the brand is that this was built from lived experience. I am not observing the collector community from the outside. I am part of it. Every decision we make is guided by the question of whether it makes collecting better, more accessible, and more rewarding for the people who love it. That principle sits at the center of everything we build.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I built my audience the same way I built Collectible Lane slowly, intentionally, and by showing up consistently.

I did not start with a big following or a viral moment. I started by paying attention to what collectors actually talked about when no one was trying to sell them something. Nostalgia, arguments over favorites, behind the scenes stories, weird production details, price shock moments, and the emotional pull of owning something from your past. That became the foundation.

Behind The Lane gave me a framework. Instead of posting content just to post, every video had a purpose. Teach something people did not know. Spark a memory. Start a debate. Or just make someone smile. Once I stopped thinking about platforms and started thinking about moments, the content became more natural and more fun to make.

We leaned heavily into short form video across YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, TikTok, Facebook, and X because that is where discovery happens today. The key was not repurposing randomly but understanding how the same story could live slightly differently on each platform while still feeling authentic. The story stayed the same, the delivery adapted.

Growth came from consistency and trust, not chasing trends. We showed up regularly, spoke in a collector’s voice, and avoided hard selling. Over time, people started to recognize the tone and the intent. They knew they were going to learn something, argue in the comments, or relive a memory. That repeat behavior is what built the audience.

The biggest lesson is that community comes before scale. If you try to grow fast without understanding who you are talking to, the audience will feel hollow. If you focus on serving a very specific group well, growth becomes a byproduct.

For anyone just starting out, my advice is simple. Pick a lane and stay in it. Do not chase every format or trend. Be consistent, be curious, and talk to your audience instead of at them. Treat comments as conversations, not metrics. And most importantly, enjoy it. People can tell when content is made with genuine interest versus obligation, and that authenticity is what ultimately builds trust and long term attention.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

For me, managing a team and maintaining high morale starts with trust and clarity.

I believe strongly in top down leadership in terms of vision and accountability, but not in micromanagement. It is my job as a leader to clearly define where we are going, why it matters, and what success looks like. Once that is established, I focus on empowering people to do their jobs without constantly looking over their shoulder. People do their best work when they feel trusted and supported, not managed minute to minute.

Encouragement plays a huge role. I make it a point to recognize effort and progress, not just outcomes. When teams feel seen and appreciated, morale naturally improves. Even small wins matter, especially in fast moving or high pressure environments.

Communication is another key factor. I try to be transparent about challenges as well as successes. When people understand the bigger picture, they feel like part of something rather than just executing tasks. That sense of shared purpose goes a long way toward keeping teams engaged and motivated.

I also believe in giving people real ownership. Empowering coworkers to make decisions, take risks, and bring their own ideas to the table creates accountability and pride in the work. Mistakes are part of growth, and when people know they will be supported rather than punished, they are more willing to innovate and take initiative.

Ultimately, high morale comes from building an environment where people feel trusted, encouraged, and aligned around a clear vision. When that foundation is in place, performance and culture tend to take care of themselves.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.collectiblelane.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiblelane/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Collectible-Lane/61580423835130/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/collectible-lane/?viewAsMember=true
• Twitter: https://x.com/collectiblelane?s=11&t=zyqDULn4sIxFETsUjrETVw
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@behindthelane

Image Credits

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