The market for High-quality collector’s items as rare Pokémon cards has exploded in recent years, and GameStop appears to be doing so too wants a piece of it. The gaming retailer told some store managers this week that it will test purchasing Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA)-rated trading cards later this month as it looks for a new business strategy while its meme stock Shenanigans continue.
“Exciting news,” said an internal message passed on yesterday on the GameStop subreddit. “We are excited to announce that we are officially moving into Graded Collectibles. Starting tomorrow, all employees will have access to the main menu learning course around accepting PSA-rated collectibles (trading cards only for now).” The company said the program’s rollout will initially begin next week in just 258 stores, including some in Texas, where GameStop is headquartered.
It’s not yet clear how the program will work, whether GameStop plans to resell the cards in-store, or what the cap will be on the prices it can pay. Some self-identified contributors to the subreddit I speculated that stores are only allowed to purchase collectibles with a PSA level of 8 and higher. However, the prices can be around 50 US dollars, for example Raging Bolt Ex from the recent Temporal Forces Pokémon set at over $29,000 for a rare Charizard from the original basic set.
The backbone of GameStop’s business was once used video games. After players completed a new version, they could sell it back to the company for a fraction of the MSRP, which GameStop would then turn around and sell to a new player for almost the full price of the new version of the game. This “circle of life” gave GameStop huge profits in the early 2010s, but like most of them, it has fallen apart Game purchases have gone digital.
More recently, the company has increased its reliance on branded merchandise and collectibles such as Funko Pops and video game character statues to make up the shortfall. Despite raising $1 billion thanks to a meme-fueled stock bonanza, GameStop’s pivot to cryptocurrencies, PC gaming gear and even televisions hasn’t charted a new path forward for its struggling business. Over time, GameStop employees created this to bear the excesses, failures and resulting cutbacks of the company.
It’s unclear whether GameStop’s long-standing reputation for poor trade-in offers will extend to its new collectibles program. “10% market price, whatever,” one person joked on Reddit. “5% market price in cash, 10% market price in store credit, and they sell them at 500% market price.”
