Why GameStop buying eBay would be horrendous for Pokémon TCG collectors

Reports have emerged that GameStop is considering an acquisition of eBay. Fans of everything from the Pokémon Trading Card Game to retro gaming should hope this deal does not happen, as it could have a disastrous impact.

The Wall Street Journal reported on May 1 that GameStop has quietly been buying eBay shares and is currently preparing an offer to acquire the publicly traded company. We don’t know the potential acquisition price, but eBay’s market value is currently around $46 billion.

This acquisition would be a big swing for GameStop, which has a comparatively smaller market value of $12 billion. That said, this action would align with another WSJ report from earlier in the year about GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen’s plan to make a massive deal to drive GameStop’s market value above $100 billion and earn a $35 billion payday.

An acquisition like this would be bad on many levels. The amount of debt GameStop and eBay would likely take on to make this acquisition possible would be crippling to both companies. In turn, the acquisition could lead to layoffs and other frustrating changes for their customers.

Just look at other mergers this decade, including Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, to see how messy it can get. Within a few months of that acquisition’s completion, around 1,900 jobs were cut within the Microsoft Gaming organization, and more layoffs followed in 2024 and 2025. In Feb. of 2026, Xbox’s CEO was replaced outright. The Xbox of today does not resemble its pre-acquisition form, so it’s not hard to believe that GameStop and eBay would both see massive change as a result of this merger, too.

While eBay’s marketplace reaches far beyond games and collectibles, this acquisition would be particularly brutal for those markets. eBay is one of the primary secondhand markets for trading cards, retro games, and consoles. Whether you want to buy a rare trading card or a used PS2 and some games, GameStop would essentially have near-complete control over where and how you buy those products after an acquisition like this.

That could have negative ripple effects on pricing in the short term, given how high prices have already gone for Pokémon and Magic cards at both GameStop and eBay. If this reported GameStop-eBay combined company doesn’t work out in the long term, it could destroy key storefronts used by collectors, enthusiasts, and preservationists alike.

An offer could reportedly be made before the end of May, with GameStop’s backup plan being to go directly to eBay shareholders if its initial offer does not work out. But nothing good will come from GameStop acquiring eBay.