GameStop has begun to buy high grade PSA TCG and sports cards in some of their U.S. locations.
GameStop is moving further into the collectibles space, now buying high grade PSA cards in an attempt to take advantage of this robust market (see “Silver Age of TCGs Continues“). Some of their locations, excluding stores in CA, DE, FL, MD, SD, and UT, are now authorized to make cash or credit offers of up to $500 per card on PSA-graded cards that are rated an 8, 9, or 10. These offers are non-negotiable and employees are not authorized to haggle over price on the spot. The cards will be resold via GameStop’s website.
The new venture for the struggling meme-stock company (see “GameStop Sales“) is almost a natural extension of their business model of buying and selling used games. The good news is that this move will not likely interfere with other games retailers’ businesses that already buy and sell TCG and sports card singles too much because of the limitations GameStop has put on what cards they can buy or sell. If anything, GameStop’s new buying program may actually help other singles card retailers as it will probably drive card sellers towards them. Customers can now go to GameStop to get a baseline cash offer on their cards, then go to more experienced singles card buyers at game stores to see if they can do a little better, should the offer price be too low. This could be a boon to singles card sellers’ inventories.
Additionally, the $500 cap on purchasing high grade cards almost pigeonholes the program from the start and is also somewhat helpful to other singles card retailers. Several of the truly desirable TCG singles and sports cards are valued on Buy Lists at over $500 in ungraded conditions, let alone as graded cards. Thus, GameStop has inherently planted themselves in a range of buying lower to mid-valued, high grade cards; essentially leaving many of the more desirable high-value high, mid, and low grade cards that walk into their stores still on the table. Savvy retailers should be able to take advantage of this situation as GameStop’s customers seek them out to get offers on these cards.
Source: ICv2
