Gamestop buying Collectors (PSA & SGC)?

[Rich Klein]

Originally Posted by ullmandds

the last time I went to the mall of america i stepped into gamestop. It was packed with people...and the store was packed with all kinds of collectibles in addition to "games." Unopened boxes of all kinds of modern cards...why not sell graded slabs. It was like walking into ebay!

One of my former Beckett teammates now works for Gamestop (not sure exactly what position there) and said their involvement with cards has really helped their business

[Republicaninmass]

Would be apropos for a calling of the "top of the market"

[Eric72]

Geoff Wilson apparently released a tidbit of info, which I'll paraphrase below:

I'm a super-duper important hobby blowhard who has Nat Turner on speed dial. I chatted with him - he's always willing to share top-secret information with me. After all, I'm...me. Anyways, he told me Game Stop is absolutely, positively not going to acquire PSA. I know, my good buddy Nat runs PSA and he's on the Board of Directors for Game Stop. Still, that wouldn't stop him from telling me everything. I'm a hard-hitting serious journalist, a hobby mega-influencer, and a close personal friend. I'm the best thing since Gary Veeeee. Hell, I'm more important than Louis TAINT! Who wouldn't want to keep me in the know?!?!?!?

Disclaimer: the preceding message was satire. It was meant to illustrate Geoff Wilson's self aggrandizing behavior, limited hobby knowledge, and general buffoonery.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

One of my former Beckett teammates now works for Gamestop (not sure exactly what position there) and said their involvement with cards has really helped their business

Any other monetary stream would help their business. Is Gamestop still a thing? I don't play video games but my daughter and her husband do. I don't think they go to Gamestop though.
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[sbfinley]

Originally Posted by Leon

Any other monetary stream would help their business. Is Gamestop still a thing? I don't play video games but my daughter and her husband do. I don't think they go to Gamestop though.
.

It’s a dying business model. Their core business is selling new and used video games. The problem is the industry is transitioning away from physical media much like the movie industry did. The vast majority of games now require you to download the entire game from the disk to the system (plus large data online downloads) so there is really no point to drive to GameStop and buy the game when you wake up the morning the game releases and it’s already downloaded on your gaming system. It wouldn’t surprise me if by the end of this decade the gaming companies completely stop selling the physical media and it will almost certainly happen within 10-15 years. They are essentially blockbuster circa 2005.

Despite this, their market cap in 2021 jumped from about $1 billion to $100 billion mainly because a guy on Reddit got upvoted with a bunch of fake internet points and financially illiterate people bought an astronomical amount of idiotic OTM leaps at valuations almost comically high. Like any self respecting capitalist company whose failing business was instantly valued 100x times higher overnight, they issued diluted shares at the new insane valuation and pocketed billions. In the following years the stock will randomly run to absurd levels, the company will issue more direct shares, and when the stock crashes back again it blamed alternatively on Wall Street, Ken Griffin, or Robinhood. Meanwhile the company is now run by the guy that pump and dumped Bed, Bath, and Beyond in bankruptcy and realizing the core business has as much of a future as polio iron lungs, attaches the company to whatever is the “IT” occurrence in the social consciousness (crypto, AI, and now collectibles) when at the end of the day all they really do is sell used video games.