eBay buys Goldin

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Lorewalker

“This will benefit The Hobby above all else, which is the primary goal of this innovative partnership between eBay and PSA,” said Collectors CEO Nat Turner. “We will drastically improve the collector experience by creating a seamless, end-to-end journey. No matter an individual collector’s goals, this partnership will make collecting safer, easier and more fun. We’re excited to combine the scale and trust across eBay's global marketplace with PSA's authentication and grading expertise.”

For my next vacation trip I aspire to go on "a seamless, end to end journey".

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

For my next vacation trip I aspire to go on "a seamless, end to end journey".

I just loathe that BS feel good corporate speak. Just an insult.

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

I just loathe that BS feel good corporate speak. Just an insult.

But can't you understand that this merger empowers the customer and creates new synergies between selling venue and hobbyist that will result in a win-win scenario?

This gets the hobby all the way to bright. Come on... get with it!

[brianp-beme]

The below snippet from the Ebay statement confirms what I always believed about the three outfits involved:


The newly established partnership will combine complementary service offerings from each brand to remove friction from The Hobby and power a sophisticated, integrated program to buy, sell, grade, and store trading cards and collectible card games. The companies remain focused on enabling The Hobby while unlocking economic opportunity for all collectors to enhance their experiences along their collecting journey.


Indeed, what 'The Hobby' needs is integrated friction removal by a newly consolidated group of these hobby enablers. Ick. I wish "The Hobby" would revert to being just a hobby and be scrubbed clean of the corporate ooze that has crept in, but I'm afraid that's just wishful thinking on my part.


brianp(arker)-beme

[Michael B]

Originally Posted by brianp-beme

The below snippet from the Ebay statement confirms what I always believed about the three outfits involved:


The newly established partnership will combine complementary service offerings from each brand to remove friction from The Hobby and power a sophisticated, integrated program to buy, sell, grade, and store trading cards and collectible card games. The companies remain focused on enabling The Hobby while unlocking economic opportunity for all collectors to enhance their experiences along their collecting journey.


Indeed, what 'The Hobby' needs is integrated friction removal by a newly consolidated group of these hobby enablers. Ick. I wish "The Hobby" would revert to being just a hobby and be scrubbed clean of the corporate ooze that has crept in, but I'm afraid that's just wishful thinking on my part.


brianp(arker)-beme

As I was reading that my only thought was "Who brings the K-Y?"

[Snowman]

The most interesting component of this deal to me is that PSA is taking the vaults. Obviously, I get eBay buying Goldin (hence I predicted it when seemingly no one else did), but eBay & Goldin wanting out of the vault game is interesting. The primary reason PWCC's vault works so well, other than the fact that they were the first to do it in this hobby, is that it gives them a portal through which sellers can easily list their cards on their marketplace and thus brings in revenue. But if they didn't have a marketplace, it wouldn't be very cost effective. I can't imagine a scenario where a vault that isn't tethered to a marketplace survives long term. Obviously, PSA has some sort of agreement with ebay here which covers the cost of operating the vault, but it sure is interesting to see ebay aborting their vault project so quickly and effectively contracting it out to PSA. But what does PSA get out of it? Surely, PSA can operate it cheaper than ebay could, just by the nature of their businesses, but it's still a fascinating strategic component of the deal.

[Snowman]

This video is pretty funny in light of the news about ebay buying out Goldin. It's a video where Ken goes on a rant about how bad ebay is for selling cards lol

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CMDPijN...Q1ZGUxMzBkMA==

[Lorewalker]

Originally Posted by Snowman

The most interesting component of this deal to me is that PSA is taking the vaults. Obviously, I get eBay buying Goldin (hence I predicted it when seemingly no one else did), but eBay & Goldin wanting out of the vault game is interesting. The primary reason PWCC's vault works so well, other than the fact that they were the first to do it in this hobby, is that it gives them a portal through which sellers can easily list their cards on their marketplace and thus brings in revenue. But if they didn't have a marketplace, it wouldn't be very cost effective. I can't imagine a scenario where a vault that isn't tethered to a marketplace survives long term. Obviously, PSA has some sort of agreement with ebay here which covers the cost of operating the vault, but it sure is interesting to see ebay aborting their vault project so quickly and effectively contracting it out to PSA. But what does PSA get out of it? Surely, PSA can operate it cheaper than ebay could, just by the nature of their businesses, but it's still a fascinating strategic component of the deal.

The vault has appeal to most due to the ability to avoid paying sales tax. Most of us will become sellers at some point but until then I think most collectors prefer to have their cards in their possession and not located in a vault.

And maybe I did not read the wordsmith release closely enough but is PSA getting two vaults out of this? I understood they were simply keeping theirs that they had with Goldin. Did not see that eBay was giving up theirs too.

And maybe I am in the minority here but what is so obvious about why eBay would want Goldin or any brick and mortar house?

[carlsonjok]

Originally Posted by brianp-beme

The below snippet from the Ebay statement confirms what I always believed about the three outfits involved:


The newly established partnership will combine complementary service offerings from each brand to remove friction from The Hobby and power a sophisticated, integrated program to buy, sell, grade, and store trading cards and collectible card games. The companies remain focused on enabling The Hobby while unlocking economic opportunity for all collectors to enhance their experiences along their collecting journey.

For a truly seamless end to end experience, they should just buy the Psychic Friends Network and use it to determine what we want to collect and remove the troublesome, fickle hobbyist from The Hobby.


PROFIT!

[Republicaninmass]

Avoidance of sales tax, seems like a win. Another huge sign we've entered a frothy top of the market.