As of May 14th, GameStop started buying Pokémon slabs in a few select states, mine being one of them. I learned that they are only buying PSA graded cards and are only buying those graded at an 8, 9, or 10.
Regardless, I figured stopping by to get an initial read on the program would be worthwhile. I went to my local store in DFW, Texas with 7 graded cards. All vintage, all PSA, but 3 of them I had under PSA 8.
The Selling Experience
When I went into the store, the store clerk greeted me and confirmed that they were a store that was buying slabs. I put down the below cards.
- PSA 5 1st Edition Shadowless Alakazam
- PSA 10 Japanese Base Set Raichu
- PSA 8 1st Edition Misty’s Golduck
- PSA 7 1st Edition Giovanni’s Gyarados
- PSA 7 1st Edition Misty’s Gyarados
- PSA 9 CD Promo Venusaur
- PSA 9 CD Promo Dragonite
He confirmed that they were only buying PSA 8 and up and set the three that did not fit the criteria off to the side. He then proceeded to carefully look at each edge of the first slab, checking for cracks, marks, or otherwise. Fortunately, none of these had any of those.
Once that inspection was done, a blacklight was used on the front and back of the card. They were each carefully looked at on the PSA labels to confirm authenticity. This thorough check was done with each card.
The barcode was then scanned and the store clerk looked into his system. At that point, we started running through them individually and a price was given for both a store credit as well as a cash value. The cash value would be paid either in cash or as a pre-paid MasterCard gift card.
GameStop Pokémon Slab Values
Before we go into particulars, I’ll go ahead and say that the values that were given were all over the place. After the first price was given, I asked what system or site they were using to check their pricing.
It sounds like they have an internal system and algorithm that tells the store clerks what to offer for the cards. They are pulled partially off sold values elsewhere but that they have and are building their own internal algorithm, despite relying on eBay or otherwise.
Once the price is given, I either confirmed or declined the offer given. He then fed information back into the system.
Before I went inside GameStop, I pulled up each cards value based on average Pricecharting values. I took note of what was offered on each card and have included that information below. The store credit option was 12% higher than the cash value given.
| Card | PriceCharting Value | Cash Offer | % of Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| PSA 10 Japanese Base Set Raichu | $275 | $195 | 70.91% |
| PSA 8 1st Edition Misty’s Golduck | $73 | $50 | 68.49% |
| PSA 9 CD Promo Venusaur | $141 | $17.50 | 12.41% |
| PSA 9 CD Promo Dragonite | $102 | $108 | 105.88% |
See what I mean with the pricing? Even though I had two CD Promo cards, one had the highest value of the lot at 105% of market while the other was given at 12% of market value.
Despite pulling in other sold data, it seems that their algorithm has a long way to go. Even in this small sample size, it was impossible to get any indication on what an offer might be for a card.
Final Thoughts and Considerations
Overall, the GameStop Pokémon Slab buying process was simple and seamless. They were thorough with their examination to ensure they wouldn’t be getting any fake cards, and had a simple process to get it all done.
A lot of Redditors are opinionated in the long term plan for GameStop. My overall feeling is that they are still barely getting started in a whole new market. They are trying to buy up a piece of it to get more people in their stores while figuring out what they can actually buy and sell these slabs for.
I expect that they won’t be paying high market values on these cards for long. Even their slabs for sale online are incredibly inconsistent, with some being priced fairly while others are tremendously high.
If you have PSA slabs you are trying to move now though, I’d say a stop at GameStop would definitely be worth it before they start wising up on their pricings.
Thanks for reading!
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