Quote:
Originally Posted by Snowman
The most interesting component of this deal to me is that PSA is taking the vaults. Obviously, I get eBay buying Goldin (hence I predicted it when seemingly no one else did), but eBay & Goldin wanting out of the vault game is interesting. The primary reason PWCC's vault works so well, other than the fact that they were the first to do it in this hobby, is that it gives them a portal through which sellers can easily list their cards on their marketplace and thus brings in revenue. But if they didn't have a marketplace, it wouldn't be very cost effective. I can't imagine a scenario where a vault that isn't tethered to a marketplace survives long term. Obviously, PSA has some sort of agreement with ebay here which covers the cost of operating the vault, but it sure is interesting to see ebay aborting their vault project so quickly and effectively contracting it out to PSA. But what does PSA get out of it? Surely, PSA can operate it cheaper than ebay could, just by the nature of their businesses, but it's still a fascinating strategic component of the deal.
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The vault has appeal to most due to the ability to avoid paying sales tax. Most of us will become sellers at some point but until then I think most collectors prefer to have their cards in their possession and not located in a vault.
And maybe I did not read the wordsmith release closely enough but is PSA getting two vaults out of this? I understood they were simply keeping theirs that they had with Goldin. Did not see that eBay was giving up theirs too.
And maybe I am in the minority here but what is so obvious about why eBay would want Goldin or any brick and mortar house?