If you’re a dedicated Magic player, chances are that you have a local game store in your area where you meet up with friends and play some games. These establishments can help various communities find a meeting point week after week where they can play the formats of their choice depending on the day. These local game stores, or LGS’s for short, are typically one-off stores owned by someone local.
For better or worse, LGSs are rarely chain stores that span an entire country. That may be about to change, however, as one gaming giant is unexpectedly entering the trading card game industry. In a strange new development, it appears that Gamestop is now purchasing TCG singles, and expensive ones at that. On top of this, Gamestop is also beginning to host events, giving traditional LGSs a run for their money!
Gamestop Purchasing Graded Cards
Two weeks ago, Gamestop announced that they would begin to purchase graded cards from various TCGs from customers. For reference, graded cards have been assessed, literally graded, and slabbed by a handful of prestigious and highly regarded companies to ensure their quality and condition. Typically scored out of ten, myriad minute details can bring down the grade of a card. Any scratches and physical damage will obviously affect a card’s grade, alongside manufacturing defects such as centering.
When being graded, players are always hoping their cards get the highest score possible. Ideally, a perfect ten Gem Mint or Pristine rating will mean that your card is the best example there is. Typically, the higher the grade, the more your card will sell for, especially if it’s already expensive to begin with.
Curiously, while Gamestop has stepped into the ring by purchasing graded TCG cards, they’re being surprisingly picky. Rather than purchasing any slabbed and graded card, Gamestop is specifically only interested in PSA-graded cards with a grade of eight or higher. Alongside this, Gamestop doesn’t even want to purchase super expensive or desirable graded cards as they’re not buying anything worth over $500.
While Gamestop is weirdly picky about the grade and price of cards they buy, they’re less fussy about what cards they’re purchasing. From sports cards to Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokémon, and MTG, Gamestop is reportedly willing to buy it all.
While Gamestop is interested in purchasing graded cards from many different games, the company is favoring one card game in particular: Pokémon. Not only is Gamestop purchasing graded cards for this card game, but they plan on grabbing singles and hosting events for it as well.
Pokémon TCG Obsession
While Gamestop is indeed interested in purchasing graded MTG cards, the gaming giant is much more keen on getting involved with the Pokémon trading card game. Not only will Gamestop be purchasing graded Pokémon cards, but from the sounds of things, they may be interested in non-graded cards too. These non-graded singles will likely be sourced directly from the secondary market, but details are currently unclear.
Additionally, Gamestop has reportedly started hosting Pokémon TCG-related events. The scale of these is still rather unknown, but they did host a Trade & Play event over May 24th-26th at various locations.
Even for purchasing PSA-graded cards, Gamestop appears to be more interested in Pokémon cards than the other TCGs. That said, their online graded store is proof that there could be interest in any graded cards among TCG franchises.
If you’re in the market for PSA-graded cards, Gamestop now has graded TCG cards for sale online. Prices range quite heavily, with cards as cheap as $8 available on the site at the time of writing.
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