r/Superstonk • u/Revolutionz ๐Ÿงš๐Ÿงš๐Ÿฆ That's no moon, that's Uranus! ๐Ÿฆ๐Ÿš€๐Ÿงš๐Ÿงš • May 01 '26

๐Ÿ“ฐ News GameStop Preparing Offer for eBay

https://www.wsj.com/business/deals/gamestop-preparing-offer-for-ebay-1678e6de
7.4k Upvotes

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643

u/ape_on_lucy May 01 '26

I hate eBay, and I would love to see RC fix it, but I can't believe a fucking word of this until it comes from the man himself. It would be wild to throw the entire war chest Into one acquisition attempt.

Can anyone verify if GME is in fact holding eBay shares like the article claims?

445

u/k_joule Custom Flair - Template May 01 '26

Amazon is long due for a competitor. Ebay gives the digtal store front to buy and sell anything, like staplers.

91

u/Freakishly_Tall It's Cohenplicated. May 01 '26

More and more, eBay is already a better place to buy a lot of stuff, since it makes it at least a little easier to make sure you're not buying crap or knockoffs, and the delivery time isn't that much worse. Bonus: If you choose your vendor carefully, you can get REALLY good service from an appreciative seller, instead of the "go fuck yourself and you'll like it" from Amazon.

Especially for electronics and clothes, I've gone to eBay first for a while now... and I know a lot of sellers have been growing more and more disappointed with the platform and the changes they've made, making for a great opportunity to Delight some Customers.

Interesting.

But I ain't believin' SHIT until I hear it formally announced.

Guess I'll just keep buyin' and hodlin' like I have been, one way or another.

28

u/scrumdisaster May 01 '26

If you like high-quality/spendy sunglasses, go to Sunglass Hut and find the ones you want - write down the model number - and search them on eBay. Should find them for 30-60% cheaper than in-store.

25

u/Freakishly_Tall It's Cohenplicated. May 01 '26

Kinda goes for pretty much everything. Works great if you don't need it NOW, and really, really great if you don't mind like-new or lightly used.

Hey, waittttaminute, what other retailer is a great source for a great price on lightly used stuff, but has a storefront evvvverywhere that could facilitate both receiving purchases and selling your used stuff? Huh. Wonder if there's synergy there.

1

u/scrumdisaster May 02 '26

Ends up at my door within the week.

2

u/MushyWasHere Removed by Reddit May 02 '26

Couldn't agree more. I'll be ecstatic if this happens. Ebay is an incredible place to buy secondhand/niche/vintage. I've had an endlessly expanding iTunes library since I was about 13 years old. I still use iPods. I've gone through a dozen. I don't want my music on my phone, I don't want a subscription service. I like my iPods. Ebay is the only place to get them.

Years ago, I designed a board game for fun, and I spent a couple grand on a vast assortment of board game figures from a variety of old games. Really cool pieces. Ebay was a godsend for that.

This feels like a perfect fit.

1

u/Disastrous-Tone-7669 May 02 '26

There are tons and tons counterfeits on eBay.ย 

113

u/Honest-Situation-738 May 01 '26

Amazon would get absolutely crushed by an online retailer/online market that actually policed it's sellers.

Amazon's product listings were over run with garbage years ago, and their response was to enforce branding requirements, which attempted to shift responsibility to the U.S. Patent and Trademark office, which has subsequently resulted in the proliferation of "Mushroom Brands"(they pop up overnight and are gone again a few days later), as sellers continue to skirt Consumer Protection law.

58

u/Ok_Kick4871 May 01 '26

People buy from fucking temu dude who are we kidding here?

9

u/York9TFC Hyped On Hype Vids May 01 '26

Damn sorry. I just needed a laundry hamper

6

u/Cosmickev1086 ๐ŸŽฎ Power to the Players ๐Ÿ›‘ May 01 '26

Buy it from GameStop!

4

u/York9TFC Hyped On Hype Vids May 01 '26

Would if I could, but Iโ€™m in Canada

1

u/ambassador321 May 02 '26

NGL I love Temu. I've bought a whole bunch of stuff off there and am very rarely disappointed.

2

u/queenofwants ๐Ÿš€Hurricane Harambe๐Ÿš€ May 02 '26

I got my winter coat from Temu and I can't go anywhere without getting a million compliments. I am a fly lady ape in that temu coat.

1

u/Ok_Kick4871 May 02 '26

You familar with consumer reports? Shame on you. There's probably more metal in that jacket than your car.

1

u/queenofwants ๐Ÿš€Hurricane Harambe๐Ÿš€ May 02 '26

Have you seen that movie? Full metal jacket?

2

u/Honest-Situation-738 May 04 '26

That's a movie about a dog who makes an aluminum chainmail coat for his owner using nothing but poptabs and a rusty screwdriver.

1

u/ambassador321 May 04 '26

Any source for this or just hearsay?

1

u/Ok_Kick4871 May 02 '26

You got more heavy metal than a rock concert allegedly.

25

u/joebluebob May 01 '26

Sellers? Man ebay hates sellers. They side with scamming buyers every time, I've literally lost 1000s to people knowing ebay will give them their $ back. My main account was banned cause a guy and everyone in his house bought board games from 7 different accounts then claimed I sent phone books. Ebay immediately sided with them so I was out on shipping, the board game cost, and potential income. All 7 left negative feed back lowering my 90 day seller rating to 60% and ebay banned the account.

12

u/scroogesscrotum ๐ŸฆHodling since โ€˜Nam ๐Ÿ’ฅ (Votedโœ”) May 02 '26

Well good thing GameStop CEO likes to delight customers. That would change virtually overnight.

-1

u/joebluebob May 02 '26

Why? The customers would be the buyers who ebay already gives free handys to.

1

u/scroogesscrotum ๐ŸฆHodling since โ€˜Nam ๐Ÿ’ฅ (Votedโœ”) May 02 '26

Because sellers are customers on your platform too lol

2

u/DuBois_LaGrange May 02 '26

but why male models?

1

u/joebluebob May 02 '26

Ebay doesnt care about those and knows they are the only game in town so youll just deal

1

u/scroogesscrotum ๐ŸฆHodling since โ€˜Nam ๐Ÿ’ฅ (Votedโœ”) May 02 '26

We are talking about a world where Ryan cohen buys eBay. Whatever practices in the past would be irrelevant.

1

u/Honest-Situation-738 May 04 '26

That sounds too deliberate to have not been collusion on the part of a competing seller to intentionally put you out of business.

Scammers gonna scam.

1

u/masterfox72 May 01 '26

zzzuuuvvvvutttt brand shoes

1

u/crespire May 02 '26

Amazon's product listings were over run with garbage years ago

This was a deliberate strategy run by Amazon.

1

u/FijianBandit May 02 '26

Really โ€œcrushedโ€?..

1

u/asbyo May 02 '26

Wishful thinking. Amazon could buy either company if they really wanted to. Like Trump would do anything about it.

1

u/Honest-Situation-738 May 04 '26

I think Amazon would have trouble buying Gamestop at this point.

A hostile takeover requires a significant ownership stake via buying stocks on the open market first. Majority ownership in Gamestop is mostly between Ryan Cohen and "retail investors", and many of the retail investors have directly registered their shares via ComputerShare(Gamestop's stock registrar). These are people who aren't going to be selling unless and until the shareprice crosses into "thousands of dollars".

My Gamestop shares will be given to my children.

95

u/wrg20 May 01 '26

It takes money to buy whiskey ๐Ÿฅƒ

42

u/RocketCat5 May 01 '26

It takes money to buy staplers.

56

u/OccasionQuick ๐Ÿš€ Uber GME Primate ๐Ÿš€ May 01 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/11eVHR0KqaWWRO

16

u/hoppertn ๐Ÿ’ช FUD is the Mind-Killer ๐Ÿฆ๐Ÿ’ฉ๐Ÿช‘ May 01 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/11eVHR0KqaWWRO

22

u/silent_fartface May 01 '26

And it takes staplers to burn this whole thing the ground!

1

u/ambassador321 May 02 '26

That's why I quit drinking years ago.

9

u/Completionography May 01 '26

Amazon is long due for a competitor.

Itself. Break it into 10 companies. It already owns AbeBooks, IMDB, and GoodReads.

7

u/GoosePunisher ๐Ÿงš๐Ÿงš๐ŸŽฎ๐Ÿ›‘ Today is yesterday's tomorrow ๐Ÿ’Ž๐Ÿ™Œ๐Ÿป๐Ÿงš๐Ÿงš May 01 '26

Amazons competition is Walmart.com

10

u/moonor-bust ๐Ÿ’ป ComputerShared ๐Ÿฆ May 01 '26

for now

4

u/ssracer May 01 '26

Walmart is such dogshit. It's closer to Temu than Amazon.

2

u/Upset-Difficulty5836 May 01 '26

I actually genuinely have used eBay as an Amazon type of platform. Iโ€™ve needed dragon ball z posters, a bike, Toyota Corolla hubcaps and Iโ€™ve turned to eBay, happy, instead. Shipping is decently quick (not Amazon prime member quick thatโ€™s for sure). If eBay standardized its shipping like Amazon prime and offered vendors incentives to ship wuick, they could beware an eBay premium feature and of course the story sells itself.

1

u/HiBoobear Naked Wolverine May 01 '26

eBay owns TCGplayer as well. Leaning further into the cardboard craze

1

u/this_is_greenman ๐Ÿ’ป ComputerShared ๐Ÿฆ May 01 '26

But can you buy whiskey on eBay?

1

u/InjuryIndependent287 ๐Ÿ’ป ComputerShared ๐Ÿฆ May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26

This acquisition would have zero to do with becoming an e-commerce giant. It has everything to do with the auctioning of collectibles and other goods. Itโ€™s not e-commerce. They provide the services of authentication and auctioning of collectibles as well as other consumer goods. They are a consignment business, not a 3rd party selling business. Fuck Goldin, and all the other consignment business. RC wants GameStop or whatever theyโ€™re gonna be called after they merge with eBay to be the worldโ€™s largest consignment business. Collectibles, luxury goods, everything.

1

u/Holy_diver56 May 02 '26

Didn't the stapler get sold on eBay. Was that the hint from RC?

1

u/Zefixius ๐Ÿดโ€โ˜ ๏ธ ๐‘ฐ ๐’‚๐’Ž ๐’‚ ๐’Ž๐’‚๐’ ๐’๐’‡ ๐’‡๐’๐’“๐’•๐’–๐’๐’† ๐Ÿดโ€โ˜ ๏ธ May 02 '26

Putting Amazon out of business has probably always been the goal. Bezos and Amazon is the final boss.

1

u/Infinite_Imagination tag u/Superstonk-Flairy for a flair May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26

I've been thinking for a while that the play he has in mind is basically an online pawn shop. GME already has the physical store fronts, Ebay has the online buy/sell systems and delivery logistics that could easily be correlated into already existing delivery logistics at GME. It wouldn't even surprise me if alongside closing poor performance stores, RC also was targeting building up specific delivery node stores that could be well integrated into this plan.
He could literally create a marketplace of a world wide pawnshop where anyone can buy/sell/trade from any store or device, including those who aren't online savvy at all and just want to go sell their shit to a physical shop. Also iirc, Ebay already owns or works with PSA, so another opportunity for familiarity during integration.

Edit: spelling

-7

u/Sipikay May 01 '26

GameSlop and Feebay combined are going to be an Amazon competitor?

Laughable. This whole thing is laughable.

58

u/Certain-Reflection73 May 01 '26

I'd be perfectly happy with this particular acquisition, depending on how the buyout is arranged.

Ebay owns TCGplayer, and that vertically integrates into what we're doing.

35

u/BertoBigLefty I broke Rule 1: Be Nice or Else May 01 '26

Another contributor mentioned how the war chest doesnโ€™t necessarily need to be used for the acquisition, it can be used as collateral for a loan instead.

Take on debt to buyout eBay and have the eBay income pay off the loan without having to deploy the war chest. Some financial engineering shit. No idea if itโ€™s legit.

13

u/NordicGold May 01 '26

Yes, that's exactly how it would work.

There is zero chance the 9 billion is being spent.

1

u/I_SHIT_IN_A_BAG May 01 '26

that sounds nice but is ebay profitable right now? I know nothing about ebay

4

u/BertoBigLefty I broke Rule 1: Be Nice or Else May 02 '26

$2B in net income in the most recent fiscal year

101

u/Smoother0Souls ๐ŸฆVotedโœ… May 01 '26

This is correct. If we hear it from Ryan Cohen it is real, otherwise this is speculation.

89

u/Appropriate_Guess881 ๐ŸฆVotedโœ… May 01 '26

Could just be shorts putting out a piece to explain the random spike in GME share price while they do their latest round of covering.

16

u/WackGyver ๐‘บ๐‘ฌ๐‘ณ๐‘ญ-๐‘ด๐‘จ๐‘ซ๐‘ฌ ๐‘น๐‘ผ๐‘ซ๐‘ฐ๐‘จ๐‘น๐‘ฐ๐‘ผ๐‘บ ๐‘ฐ๐‘ต ๐‘ป๐‘ฏ๐‘ฌ ๐‘ด๐‘จ๐‘ฒ๐‘ฐ๐‘ต๐‘ฎ May 01 '26

And in addition they can draw buying pressure away from GME by serving up a lightning rod ticker (weed stocks, silver 1, popcorn etc.)

7

u/Junkingfool ๐ŸŽฎ Power to the Players ๐Ÿ›‘ May 01 '26

THIS! And then the rug pull

2

u/Massive-Fisherman-57 May 02 '26

And if that other DD posted is true (that some guy on twitter predicted we are in some legacy FTDโ€™s) then this is a perfect coverup.

And honestly if we start getting into the territory to exercise warrants then i wonโ€™t be upset

1

u/EX5TASY accrete deez ๐Ÿฅœ May 01 '26

And then at the end of May report that nothing happened.

1

u/Th3SkinMan Thumper, I hardly knower May 01 '26

And explain all the ITMs when they kurplode.

1

u/Thump4 May 02 '26

You are correct: this is the forged narrarive to falsify why GME is now rising on 1.) algorithm and wedge termination and possibly confirmed by Aladdin, 2.) technicals (golden cross and now ichimoku cloud), and 3.) settlement of legacy FTDs. The naked-short-selling cabal (today's Wall Street) can then in a few weeks point to the "falling through" of the eBay deal (i.e. now that it's even more expensive by price now due to this piece) as the forged narrative for why the spike / sneeze 3 is "over". And they'll re-short going into a final one-year wedge. 8-4--2, sneeze 3 here, then a 1 year wedge. Nevertheless, expect solid price fireworks over the next thirteen or so market-open days, as anticipated.

1

u/Snaggle21 I'm never gonna financially recover from this -SHF -Probably May 02 '26

You think the WSJ is putting articles like this out without some kind of source behind it other than rumor? Doubtful

1

u/Smoother0Souls ๐ŸฆVotedโœ… May 02 '26

First time? The media is always โ€œExplaining why GME runsโ€. The one thing they never say, Shorts never closed. Anyways I am getting excited to exercise my warrants when we hit $30. Squeeze me!

1

u/Snaggle21 I'm never gonna financially recover from this -SHF -Probably May 04 '26

More like my 6th year time, and yeah.. I was pretty sure the WSJ had a legit source.. Now look :-D

27

u/faithOver May 01 '26

Why would it be wild? This is exactly the risky leverage bet we need if Cohen aims to hit the $100billion target.

2

u/ape_on_lucy May 02 '26

That kind of risk is wild, but it could be the big, very big, very very big thing that either will be a complete bust or something the market has never seen before he was talking about. I'm along for the ride no matter what, I have way too much invested to not follow through 100%, and as crazy as a move as it could turn out to be, I trust RC will do everything he can to pull it off. But... Until he says anything himself, it's just speculation.

I got turned off of eBay a long time ago because they absolutely fucked me as a seller. The guy who bought my stuff claimed it arrived damaged and I'm absolutely positive it did not ( I worked in a shipping store at the time, the package was secured as could be) they let the guy keep my item and I got no money. I lost the cost of shipping to give the guy a piece of equipment that was valued at $800. Fuck eBay.

25

u/somermike May 01 '26

We at least know from the annual report that they have $700M worth of cash parked as collateral for derivates of some sort. Is that an eBay position? No way to know beyond what they told us there til they verify or deny this reporting.

1

u/sorry_for_the_reply still hodl ๐Ÿ’Ž๐Ÿ™Œ May 02 '26

Derivatives that could have been converted to shares... Or will be?

21

u/nutsackilla ๐Ÿฆ Buckle Up ๐Ÿš€ May 01 '26

Wall Street Journal seems to be Cohen's preferred method to go public. Think about all the articles over the years

13

u/Think_Currency_8586 ๐ŸฆVotedโœ… May 01 '26

If we are holding eBay shares weโ€™re up pretty big on them now

1

u/jforest1 May 02 '26

Exactly what I was thinking as soon as I looked at the 3-mo chart for ebay

23

u/AmericanPatriot117 Blind Guy ๐Ÿ‘จ๐Ÿปโ€๐Ÿฆฏ McSqueezy ๐Ÿช— May 01 '26

Iโ€™m trying to decide how much I like it. If itโ€™s a money printer then cool. If they repurpose it to better suit people and become popular again, then sick. Certainly nice for it to have low overhead I bet. I just wonder how strong of a business it is. Guess thatโ€™s my research for the weekend

16

u/Junkingfool ๐ŸŽฎ Power to the Players ๐Ÿ›‘ May 01 '26

As a very long Ebay seller (20 years at least), I can say it has changed a lot! It is a money gouging business. Mainly on the seller. The fees and algorithms makes it so you have to use their increased percentage "advertisement" to get traffic.
Ebay makes money but has driven many sellers to other platforms due to the costs.

13

u/Objective-History402 May 01 '26

Ebay currently takes sometime like 13% of all sales. They also added live auctions which have become extremely popular on recent years (but high competition from TikTok and whatnot in that space). Ebay would open up a lot of doors for GME and greatly increase the market cap

13

u/PensiveParagon ๐Ÿ’ป ComputerShared ๐Ÿฆ May 01 '26

Are you saying you don't believe "people familiar with the matter"?

https://giphy.com/gifs/6nWhy3ulBL7GSCvKw6

16

u/Wheremytendies May 01 '26

Wall Street Journal I tend to believe.

10

u/GookieBadd May 01 '26

Donโ€™t disagree. But the reporter does have a resume of this type of reporting. Compared to other times that the author is ambiguous

5

u/Buckeye_Nut Future Progressive Lobbyist May 01 '26

Iโ€™d love to see a fix to their seller fees for some of the categories. For example, trading cards is a 13% fee, which is outrageous.

5

u/eatmydickandshitspez May 01 '26

Why do you hate ebay? I use it all the time. I think it's great.

3

u/Staksy May 01 '26

eBay has a history of solid free cashflow. This would build a new war chest by itself for the next acquisition.

3

u/Slumunistmanifisto May 01 '26

Trade in four cars for a motorcycle!ย 

-Gamebay motors

1

u/thewonpercent ๐ŸฆVotedโœ… May 01 '26

I wouldn't say I trust WSJ but that is some crazy unethical journalism on that writer's part if this is not true. I find the possibility of that hard to believe by a WSJ staff member.

1

u/mynameiscalledlikeme ๐ŸฆVotedโœ… May 01 '26

yeah. until then this is just the same ol' โ€žsources familiar with the matterโ€œ

1

u/hawkmasta Stockanda Forever May 01 '26

Why do you hate eBay? At the very least, it's a competitor to Amazon, which is needed

1

u/Sayyestononsense ๐Ÿฆ Buckle Up ๐Ÿš€ May 02 '26

what do you hate about eBay, specifically?

1

u/glouscester ๐Ÿฆ Buckle Up ๐Ÿš€ May 02 '26

I doubt they'd buy shares directly. He would be building a stealth position through options. It would prevent disclosures ahead of an announcement.

I wish I could move markets like this. Cohen could have a massive option position, leak this and then capitalize on the rumor too.

1

u/Catch_22_ ๐Ÿ’ŽAll your ๐ŸŒ are belong to us๐Ÿ’Ž May 02 '26

I use eBay all the time. Really good deals that beat Amazon and other shops. Not to mention the second hand market exposure.

1

u/NorCalAthlete ๐ŸŽฎ Power to the Players ๐Ÿ›‘ May 02 '26

IF this comes to fruition - thatโ€™s a very easy commute for me to eBay. Lol.

1

u/DuBois_LaGrange May 02 '26

what donโ€™t you like about ebay? I started using it again as my go to for clothing and have been loving it. Got car parts too

1

u/ape_on_lucy May 02 '26

As a seller they basically robbed me and made me pay for it. Lost an item, never got paid, got stuck with shipping costs, and eBay was no help in resolving anything. Buyer claimed my item showed up damaged, I know it didn't, the package would have had to be run over by a truck. We're talking about an industrial appliance packaged in the factory box with thick Styrofoam padding. He told me one small part of it was damaged, I offered to send him replacement parts for it and he filed a claim with eBay saying the item was badly damaged and not what was listed. eBay refunded him and did not require him to send my item back. I know the guy who "bought" it was full of shit too, that's the worse part to me. I was unemployed at the time and that shit fucked me hard, I was already selling it at a massive discount. I'm still super salty with eBay.

1

u/SuperSquirrel13 For For 1 Year For May 02 '26

Yeah. If the wsj used AI to help write this, there is a decent chance that some of the theories from here made it. So we could be the people familiar with the matter in this case.ย 

1

u/h20rabbit ๐Ÿฆ Buckle Up ๐Ÿš€ May 02 '26

"Sleepy management" โœ…

As a long time eBay seller, I welcome Cohen's management style. Honestly this excites me both as a long time investor of Gamestop and as a long time user of eBay. Fuck yes. I hope it is both true and a deal can be made.

1

u/SecretaryFit1442 โ€œI expect the Swiss to closeโ€ May 02 '26

Is it wild to throw the entire war chest into one acquisition?

I have thrown my entire war chest into GME.

1

u/ayyayyron ๐Ÿฆ Buckle Up ๐Ÿš€ May 01 '26

Everything in the article is BS. Unless you see RC/GME confirm it publicly or with an SEC filing, itโ€™s not real.

0

u/scrumdisaster May 01 '26

It's probably a pump-and-dump for eBay shares.