eBay acquires online trading card marketplace TCGplayer for $295 million

Published , by Morgan Shaver

TCGplayer, a well-known online marketplace where you can buy and sell trading cards, has officially been acquired by eBay for $295 million. The deal is expected to close in Q1 of 2023, with eBay noting in their press release that the deal will help the company facilitate connections between buyers and sellers in the trading card space, and “cater to enthusiasts around the world.”

© QPK Design, TCGplayer

It makes sense that eBay would acquire TCGplayer as there are plenty of users that buy and sell trading cards on eBay already. The trading card space has also seen an impressive amount of growth since the start of the pandemic. In 2020, eBay reportedly saw a 142 percent increase in general trading card sales over the previous year.

It was then predicted by eBay that the trajectory would continue to keep a similar pace from 2021 onward, with the company vowing at the time to “build on new ways to enhance the eBay experience for buyers and sellers, especially in the collectibles space.” It seems like the acquisition of TCGplayer will facilitate exactly that, with TCGplayer featuring all sorts of cards on its website including Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh, Digimon, and more.

For more on eBay’s acquisition of TCGplayer, be sure to read through the full press release. And for more on trading cards, be sure to read through some of our previous coverage including the wild story of Logan Paul minting the most expensive Pokemon card into an NFT.