TCGPlayer founder and CEO Chedy Hampson officially announced the partnership between TCGPlayer and Ebay on August 22 through TCGPlayer’s blog site, TCGPlayer Infinite. The post assures fans that, while Ebay is acquiring TCGPlayer as a whole, the site will continue to operate independently of the auction site. Hampson reassures users that TCGPlayer will maintain the same level of flexibility with the site’s management as before, with Ebay reportedly bringing more tools and experience for the site to expand in the future.
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The deal reportedly sees TCGPlayer selling for nearly $300 million. Ebay’s VP of Collectibles Dawn Block cited Ebay’s cooperation with “local hobby stores” as a major factor behind the deal, with both Ebay and TCGPlayer featuring a variety of small hobby shops on their sites. TCGPlayer will continue to operate autonomously under the Ebay umbrella, with the previously mentioned Hampson maintaining his position as TCGPlayer CEO.
Hampson took some time during the post to honor, with TCGPlayer employees “sharing in the financial reward” due to the company’s employee stock options. Hampson also reassured buyers and sellers that orders and agreements will be unaffected by the acquisition, with TCGPlayer’s marketplace operations virtually unchanged by the Ebay purchase. The TCGPlayer purchase brings to Ebay the site’s ecosystem of hundreds of sellers across card games like Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Magic: The Gathering, among others.
Ebay’s acquisition of the popular marketplace comes as the auction site has put an increasing focus on trading cards as one of the site’s big draws. Ebay has regularly seen cards selling at exorbitant price points with some cards like a PSA 10 1st edition shadowless Charizard selling for over $300,000 on the site. TCGPlayer’s announcement of the acquisition expressed optimism about the deal allowing TCGPlayer to “expand its catalog” and offer more products for buyers on the site. The partnership between Ebay and TCGPlayer will mark the newest chapter of Ebay’s foray into the collectible cards market.
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Source: TCGPlayer
