Episode · 2026-05-13
Ebay Rejects Gamestop
Ebay Rejects Gamestop | Amazon: 30-Minute Delivery | Brian Blum x Jacob Posel x Byron Young
Rundown
The cowboys open on Ryan Cohen's public pressure campaign against eBay's declining buyer and profitability metrics, then run through Amazon's 30-minute delivery push, TikTok Go's travel-booking launch, and ChatGPT's new product-catalog-to-ads integration. The back half features Hitmakers' Brian Blum on the rise of 'performance creators' in TikTok Shop, and Byron Young recounting the bean-bag-bed invention and Shark Tank deal that built his business.
Takes from this episode
The hosts back Ryan Cohen's activist pressure on eBay, framing its falling buyers, GMV, and operating income against rising expenses and CEO pay as justification for a hostile takeover push.
Ecom cowboy is in full support. Hostile take over.
Amazon's continued expansion will eventually push most ecommerce sellers into being third-party sellers on its platform.Prediction
One has to wonder if we will all simply be third party sellers on Amazon at some point... If it's anybody, it is Amazon.
ChatGPT's new ability to connect retailer product catalogs directly to paid ads is a genuinely valuable, if still early-stage, automation for ecommerce.
I think this piece of automation that they are adding super valuable and like actually helps everybody in e-commerce do what they need to do
Freelance TikTok Shop creators who whitelist content across multiple brands can build durable, passive recurring income like performance marketers, a shift Blum calls the 'performance creator era.'
You have eight to 10 ads for different brands passively earning you commission in meta ad accounts that are spending for what, six to eight months... The performance creator era
AI-generated UGC ads are inherently untrustworthy, so brands betting on real human creators will outperform those relying on AI-generated content long-term.Prediction
I can't think of anything less trustworthy than an AI UGC ad. It's literally a fake story from a fake not even real thing... people are going to continue to buy from people in the future.