Charizard, customer credit and the price of trusting Ryan Cohen.

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GameStop’s fans spent the squeeze promising never to sell. The company went on to raise billions by selling shares. Quite a good arrangement, if you happen to be the company.

The stores have been shrinking, the product mix has changed, and Pokémon cards now deserve a place in a discussion about GME’s earnings. Cohen has added Bitcoin, an eBay stake and an attempt to buy the whole of eBay. Buying GameStop requires rather more homework than it did when the business was selling you a used game.

We made a film about what happened after the squeeze. You can watch it here, free.

Prefer to listen? The film is also on Spotify.

For this memo, we spent more time at the counter and in the accounts. A customer trades in a card, takes store credit and returns to spend it. GameStop has acquired something it can sell without paying cash upfront, and has given the customer a reason to come back.

We like that business. We also want to know what happens when card prices stop doing everyone a favour, and how much of the improvement we would already be paying for at $25.55.