Comment by 59percentmore | Hacker News Reader

Comment by 59percentmore | Hacker News Reader

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I don't think this is a serious assessment. For years, the core business of both companies has been facilitating the flow of used goods. Gamestop has moved strongly into collectibles recently, with a partnership with collectible grading firm PSA and the introduction of (essentially) lucrative trading card lootboxes, whereas eBay has capitalized on the same expansion of the collectibles market with new live/flash auction features.

IIRC, Gamestop recently had a "trade-in anything" day, where they accepted a variety of products for store credit. Seems an awful lot like this was some sort of test for accepting products in-store for eBay listings, or something along those lines. They already accept trading cards to send off to PSA for grading and to place into their lootbox system.

As far as efficiencies go, you can see things like shifting shipping by individual sellers to mass shipping to/from a warehouse, a much heavier footprint in collectibles, and perhaps quality control that reduces buyer disputes (this one's a bit iffy).

Well let's be clear, the "trade-in anything" day was a fancy discount day. They gave everybody $5 for whatever they brought in, online you can read from employees that they just donated or threw it all away, no attempt to actually keep any of it to sell.

That said IMO the biggest difference in the two situations you're describing is that EBay is not in the business of buying the items to then sell later, they just facilitate transactions between two parties and some of the logistics (depending on the seller). They're similar as far as dealing with "used goods" but the actual design of the business and risk being taken on is very different.

EBay also not really lacking what you're describing - there are fufillment centers that can be used for EBay listings, there's the EBay "Authenticity Guarantee" program for cards, they already own TCGplayer which does all of this for trading cards way better than GameStop does, etc.

Perhaps somehow these things could be improved by GameStop but I can't imagine it being significantly better than it currently is.

Can you tell me where your local eBay fulfillment center is? I can tell you where my local Gamestop is (no, not that one, the other one).

No, why does it matter? I also don't know where my local GameStop is since the few by me closed a couple years ago :P

Plenty of stuff on EBay offers me 2 day shipping clearly via fulfillment centers, as far as I'm concerned that's all that matters. Do you think the addition of GameStop stores would mean EBay can offer faster shipping than that on a significant number of items?

You asked what could be improved with Gamestop. Public knowledge of Gamestop locations is a boon if people don't know where your existing fulfillment centers are.

Yes but I don't need to go to my nearest fulfillment center if they ship everything to my house, that's why I don't know where it is.

What do you think people need to visit fulfillment centers to do?

Buyers? Sure. (Unless you're like me and paranoid after getting porch-pirated.)

Sellers...?

Sellers what? You generally don't just drop stuff off at a fulfillment center, when you get to that size you're dealing with large amounts of inventory and you ship it to them.

If you're saying sellers could come into a GameStop to have their individual items packed and shipped out, I suppose, but:

1. They don't really have the space for much shipping volume at any of their stores.

2. You can walk into any USPS, UPS, FedEx, etc. store and do that already, you don't need an 'EBay' store. GameStop would presumably get the packages picked up by one of those carriers so it's not saving any shipping time or expense.

For buyers, in many cases there's already alternative drop-off locations similar to GameStop Ex. For UPS deliveries I can get them shipped to a bunch of different convenience stores near me. GameStop stores might be a nice addition to that list but it's not enabling something you couldn't do before, and I would think for most people they already have a closer location than a GameStop.

Well, look at what you can already do with their trading card program. You could just list cards yourself on eBay, of course. You could drop them off at a shipper to send them off. You could keep them at home while you're waiting for a sale, where I guess they're insured by your renter's/homeowner's insurance. And if you want them graded, you can send them off for that however you like, too.

Or, you can bring your cards into Gamestop, and they'll send them off to get them graded and/or buy them from you, at which point they become inventory for their lootbox. With eBay, you'd be able to do all of that, too, except you'd be selling directly to someone else through a consignment service - more pricing freedom.

And then you could start doing it with things other than cards.

I can't tell you where the nearest GameStop is because afaik they don't have any locations in my country. Can find half a dozen convenience stores that will handle eBay (or Amazon) goods for me within walking distance.

They are wildly different businesses. Ebay is not in the business of holding physical goods, they are a marketplace that connects buys, sellers, and shippers and adjudicates fraud, collects funds, handles taxes, etc. They are not a warehouse.

Gatestop is a retail operation that buys and sells goods. It takes on all the liability for fake products, it puts capital on the line to purchase used goods, it is a totally different (and worse) business

That’s not correct. eBay owns TCGplayer which has large warehouses and does direct shipping & fulfilment sales (tcgdirect).

eBay already had warehousing ops, I assume larger than tcgplayer’s.

Last year, eBay shut down tcgplayer’s only fulfillment facility in Rochester, NY and switched to using eBay’s facility in Kentucky.

That wasn't about size, it was a labor play. The NY workers were negotiating for unionization for 500 days because of unfair conditions and low pay.

I would have projected the same outcome though.

Quality of TCGDirect operations, from an enduser perspective, took a nosedive with the move and never recovered.

I am familiar with all the particulars, check my HN profile ;)

INDEED! Congrats on your recent successes and I really like your product!

As a seller and as a buyer.

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