E-commerce giant eBay has agreed to acquire TCGplayer — an online marketplace that has recently expanded its sports cards offerings — in a deal that could fetch up to $295 million.
The acquisition will allow eBay to expand its footprint in an emerging market after the company’s “State of Trading Cards” report revealed a 142% increase in domestic trading card sales in 2020 compared to 2019.
- The deal is expected to close in Q1 2023, pending closing conditions.
- TCGplayer will continue to operate autonomously once the deal is closed.
- The company has over 1 million active customers in its marketplace as of March 2022.
- It generates revenue with a transaction fee that ranges between 8.95% and 10.25%.
The pending deal arrives after TCGplayer secured $35 million in growth financing from Vista Credit Partners in June 2021.
In July, TCGplayer acquired content provider and events coordinator ChannelFireball and inventory management solution company BinderPOS.
Big Business
Trading cards continue to be a hot commodity after the category saw $2 billion in transactions in the first half of 2021, which was equal to the total value of transactions in 2020.
Earlier this month, an SEC filing revealed that sports card trading platform Alt is in the process of raising $40 million. To date, the company has raised $305 million, per Crunchbase.
