I wonder if there'll be a round two of The Internet Idiots vs The Hedge Fund Dumbasses.
this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2024
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I feel like people will hope for it and try to act accordingly to the situation in which it does, but it will only benefit the people it shouldn't.
"I like the stock"
They are mostly a toy store now. Last time I visited a GameStop I was told they don't even stock new games at release, except for pre-orders. There doesn't seem to be a point in going there anymore.
Time to short GME!
There's literally no point to me going into a game stop anymore. I used to buy their bargain bin games, but now with psplus and a library card, I don't need to buy games at all. GameStop here mainly just sells products and pop figures now
And their games aren't competitively priced. Why would I pay $40 for a used game there when I can get it for $20 on eBay? And they frequently don't have the used games I want anyway, so there's even less reason for me to check it. And if they do have a sale on something, it's usually not as good of a sale vs their competitors (e.g. I bought my Switch from Target instead of GameStop, which is in the same parking lot, because Target had the better offer).
I used to go to GameStop because they had a great selection of used games for good prices, and there were perks to buying pre-release games from them.
If I were in charge, I'd change the whole model of the business, for example:
- host tournaments with prizes and whatnot
- host live game exchange events, where instead of selling to and buying from GS, it would arrange swaps directly between locals (i.e. safer than Craigslist/Facebook marketplace/etc); they could pay a small fee to test the game in the store and appraise the quality of the game, as well as clean it up
- have an option to rent games before buying; it wouldn't be a big part of the business, the main goal is to keep people coming back
- sell retro games/consoles, international treats (esp. Japanese), and other nerdy stuff
Right now, when I got to GS, all I see is overpriced crap, and I want to leave as quickly as possible. If they're going to survive, they need to be a place people want to go, otherwise they'll just play at home.
Short squeeze here we come!
It's worth mentioning this is deliberately worded to sound as bad as possible. Q2 is down from Q1 (it always is), and revenue is down but so are expenses as unprofitable stores are closed (remember when your local mall had two of them?)
The company was profitable in this last quarter, but only barely. There was an operational loss, but interest on the massive $4Bn war chest pushed it over. This isn't great, but marks a real improvement over hemorrhaging money which it was doing before. Its also the first profitable Q2 in years. The year of 2023 turned a narrow profit and 2024 is on track to be a little better.
Hate GameStop all you want (and by all means, frequent your local indie game store). But keep in mind that business wise, someone still feels the need to spend money on 'attack' articles like this one.
Oh shit, they are going too do another pandemic to avoid bankruptcy again, aren't they...
I'm just a guy.