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What if? What if Disney Purchased eBay?
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Started by Buzzetta,

25 posts in this topic

Buzzetta

Buzzetta

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Posted

Or if Time Warner Purchased Comic Connect?

Or if IDW Purchased Comiclink?

(I debated about posting this but...why not?  If it is simply lame then it will fade away.  If not then it sparks conversation.)

Lego buys Bricklink

Today something interesting came over my newsfeed.  The Lego corporation purchased Bricklink.  Bricklink is the largest dedicated market for second hand Lego bricks.  The site operates on an eBay type system where the website profits off of a percentage of the transaction. Yesterday afternoon the purchase of Bricklink was announced raising eyebrows across the Lego community. For one, you basically have the producer of the an item now controlling the major marketplace where that item is bought and sold on the aftermarket. 

Brothers Brick: Lego Buys Bricklink

So what does this mean and what does it have to do with comics? 

Lego has indicated that for now there will be no change other than removing listings for modified or custom Lego pieces that do not fall within the vision of the company which is slightly controlling the Lego aftermarket. Quite a few questions arise though and relate to how a company can influence it's own second market.  What about the second hand selling of exclusives or items that are still in production.  You get the idea.  The following have been questions that have already been asked, some of which Lego addressed or will address concerning the purchase of Bricklink.  However that also parallels what could happen if, say, Disney bought eBay, or if any other comic book manufacturer purchased the major distribution of its own items on the second hand market. 

In another thread we were talking about the outlook for Brick and Mortar establishments.  If something like this becomes the norm how does this impact various hobbies?  Where does this take the aftermarket moving forward? 

Just something I found interesting.  

 

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BabaLament

BabaLament

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What If...

Disney purchased National Amusements, bringing Star Wars & Star Trek together under a single corporate overlord?

What If...

Disney purchased CGC & AT&T purchased Eli Global? "Begun, the grading war has." - Yoda

What If...

Image, Valiant, Aftershock, etc. get enough exposure to seriously cut into the market share of the big two? What IP/company gets bought out, and by whom?

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Buzzetta

Buzzetta

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16 hours ago, dupont2005 said:

Get too controlling and Bricklink dies and the sellers and buyers flock to eBay. 

I don't know if that is entirely possible given the features that Bricklink offers.  Originally they were just an eBay carbon copy for Lego, even calling themselves "Brickbay."  After a cease and desist, they changed the name and the features.  I can upload a collection and piece it out.  I can find a set and break it down to the pieces I need for that set along with the ability to directly source parts from multiple sellers. 

Many places undercut Lego itself?  Would there be a mandated pricing structure? 

 

If more businesses purchased online retailers in the secondary market, would that be a way to circumvent Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc where a textbook manufacturer tried to block sales of their textbooks that were purchased in Thailand shipped to the US and then sold on the secondhand market.  The ruling fell in Kirtsaeng's favor.   How do you practically overrule the ruling?  Buy the secondhand market. 

Like I said, imagine if Disney bought something like eBay.  Let's think about how protective Disney is of their IP.  What would be taken down and what would be allowable? 

I honestly think that this move on Lego's part is going be eventful down the road and not in a way that we look back fondly upon when others follow suit.  There is no doubt in my mind that someone is going to one day buy eBay.   The question is 'who'?

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dupont2005

dupont2005

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4 hours ago, Buzzetta said:

I don't know if that is entirely possible given the features that Bricklink offers.  Originally they were just an eBay carbon copy for Lego, even calling themselves "Brickbay."  After a cease and desist, they changed the name and the features.  I can upload a collection and piece it out.  I can find a set and break it down to the pieces I need for that set along with the ability to directly source parts from multiple sellers. 

Many places undercut Lego itself?  Would there be a mandated pricing structure? 

 

If more businesses purchased online retailers in the secondary market, would that be a way to circumvent Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc where a textbook manufacturer tried to block sales of their textbooks that were purchased in Thailand shipped to the US and then sold on the secondhand market.  The ruling fell in Kirtsaeng's favor.   How do you practically overrule the ruling?  Buy the secondhand market. 

Like I said, imagine if Disney bought something like eBay.  Let's think about how protective Disney is of their IP.  What would be taken down and what would be allowable? 

I honestly think that this move on Lego's part is going be eventful down the road and not in a way that we look back fondly upon when others follow suit.  There is no doubt in my mind that someone is going to one day buy eBay.   The question is 'who'?

I feel like a replacement will always come along. Even for eBay. It’s probably already here, just hasn’t reconfigured itself to take over the market. Facebook was around for years before it replaced MySpace as the popular social network. Ending the requirement for a college email coinciding with MySpace selling off and it’s new owners changing everything for the negative and the game is set. eBay is a major site but not too big to lose to something new 

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the blob

the blob

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12 hours ago, dupont2005 said:

I feel like a replacement will always come along. Even for eBay. It’s probably already here, just hasn’t reconfigured itself to take over the market. Facebook was around for years before it replaced MySpace as the popular social network. Ending the requirement for a college email coinciding with MySpace selling off and it’s new owners changing everything for the negative and the game is set. eBay is a major site but not too big to lose to something new 

Alibaba probably buys ebay or something like that. It has 15x the market cap, if regulators allow it, they can do so easily. Maybe Google. I think Amazon would raise antitrust issues. EBay has a p/e ratio of 16 right now, lower than many brick and mortar retailers. In this market its stock is cheap.

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Aweandlorder

Aweandlorder

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12 hours ago, dupont2005 said:

I feel like a replacement will always come along. Even for eBay. It’s probably already here, just hasn’t reconfigured itself to take over the market. Facebook was around for years before it replaced MySpace as the popular social network. Ending the requirement for a college email coinciding with MySpace selling off and it’s new owners changing everything for the negative and the game is set. eBay is a major site but not too big to lose to something new 

You mean, we don’t know it’s amazon yet?

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Krismusic

Krismusic

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55 minutes ago, Aweandlorder said:

You mean, we don’t know it’s amazon yet?

I agree with this I thought it was amazon biting into eBay share I mean if I can't find it on eBay or only see China sellers I trend to Amazon and usually find it there or find some NA sellers. if I can't wait for the 3 month China shipping. I mean its bad with the shipping that sometimes I forget I ordered something 2 months ago and the interest in it had faded a bit.. so I try to curb my few dollar cheap purchases now... 

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Aweandlorder

Aweandlorder

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Comparing eBay to MySpace is more or less accurate... there was a time where Facebook and MySpace coexisted and slowly fb took more and more shares from MySpace. Eventually what was left over from MySpace were its avid music user community and eventually even that faded away. 
same is w eBay v Amazon. When someone wants to buy something nowadays they go straight to amazon. eBay is now left with very few retail branches that are somewhat more popular on their platform than Amazon’s. 
When will that go away? We don’t know

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Aweandlorder

Aweandlorder

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This business analyst shares the same concerns as Buzz

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2019/11/25/analysts-wonder-whether-ebay-could-have-held-out.html?ana=apple_sanfrancisco

Armstrong criticized the approach of selling StubHub in order to increase value for shareholders, and said eBay hasn’t charted a path for how it will continue to grow its business. He wondered whether eBay’s core marketplace business would eventually be sold to a large retailer or a tech giant like Google, or be sold to a private equity firm and be taken private.

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the blob

the blob

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1 hour ago, Aweandlorder said:

You’re not sure that amazon is a superior online retail platform? 
 

I don't know if it is superior for buying from or selling by smaller retailers. I have not tried to sell there. 

 

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