The architecture enabling multiple marketplace verticals without engineering bankruptcy—a technical examination.

The Problem

Every collectible vertical wants its own marketplace. Art cards. Sports cards. Action figures. Vintage toys. Inline skates. The list is endless.

Building a marketplace is hard. Payment processing, shipping integration, trust and safety, messaging, search, recommendations—the technology stack runs deep. No small team can build all of this well from scratch.

The traditional approach: build once, serve one vertical. When you want a new vertical, start over.

This doesn't scale.

The Solution: Shared Infrastructure

What if the core infrastructure could be shared across verticals while allowing each marketplace to feel completely native to its community?

This is the Nerdbase method:

Layer	Shared	Customized
Payments	✓
Shipping	✓
Auth	✓
Messaging	✓
Search	✓	filters
Catalog		✓
Grading		✓
Community		✓
Branding		✓

Configuration Over Code

The key insight: most marketplace differences can be expressed as configuration rather than code.

Vertical: Art Cards (Nerdworth)
- Grading: PSA, CGC, Ace (custom labels)
- Categories: Artist, Series, Character, Variant
- Shipping: Calculated (fragile items)
- Fees: 10% platform + 3% payment

Vertical: Sports Cards (Slabsworth)
- Grading: PSA, BGS, SGC
- Categories: Sport, Year, Set, Player
- Shipping: Calculated (standard cards)
- Fees: 10% platform + 3% payment

Same backend. Different frontends. Each feeling native to its community.

The Benefits

For Operators

• Launch new verticals in weeks, not years
• Share engineering investment across all verticals
• Bug fixes and improvements benefit everyone

For Collectors

• Consistent experience across marketplaces
• Single account, multiple communities
• Cross-vertical discovery and trading

For Scale

• Infrastructure costs amortized across verticals
• Network effects compound
• Talent focused on one codebase

What We're Building

Nerdbase is the operating system for collectibles. The rails that power:

• Nerdworth — Art cards and slabbed collectibles
• Sugrworth — Candy toys and PEZ collectibles
• Yoyoworth — Yo-yos and skill toys
• Figworth — Action figures and vinyl toys
• Slabsworth — Sports cards and TCG

One system. Infinite possibilities.