What's a vetted marketplace, and why is it so interesting?

As a indie founder of a vetted marketplace business, I'll add that one more advantage is reduced customer support volume. And this is important for a 1-2 person team that needs to wear all the hats.

Really liking your articles on marketplaces!

The way I see it, generally, is that a vetted marketplace aims to separate the wheat from the chaff on the supply side. In turn providing a better experience for the marketplace as a whole.

On the supply side, they don’t have to compete with low-quality products that may under-cut them on price. It also means the average quality of the products / services increases. Buyers get the extra peace-of-mind that their purchase was a good one. And like you said - people are willing to pay for that.

I agree that niche marketplaces might adopt this model. It’s a unique selling point. Offering additional services on top of that can further distinguish some platforms even more (in the case of Empire Flippers).

I could see people who are seen as experts in a niche deciding to capitalise on this model somehow. Where their vetting is specifically extra valuable in comparison to others. There's a car reviewer who has recently started an auction website with vetted cars. If the platform doesn't like the car you're trying to auction, it's not allowed. It'll be interesting to see how well it works.