Item — HN Reader

This is what I don't get either. I keep thinking of Danny DeVito's speech at the end "Other People's Money."

"You know, at one time there must've been dozens of companies making buggy whips. And I'll bet the last company around was the one that made the best goddamn buggy whip you ever saw. Now how would you have liked to have been a stockholder in that company?"

GameStop sells buggy whips. Why shouldn't people bet against them?

2 comments

Exactly. And I suppose not too many are aware of the fraud that’s been exposed by short sellers who usually pay the costs associated with investigating fraud. Wirecard or Enron, anyone?

Last I checked steam/etc doesn't allow one to resell their games. So they do provide a convenient service in that regard.

You can sell used games on craigslist, ebay, facebook marketplace, or any number of places... often for better prices than GameStop will give you.

Yes that works, but in many cases your still paying a middleman. Be that ebay, or the post office. And the convenience of one stop selling the old game, and picking up the new is pretty strong.

Frankly, its sometimes hard for me to understand how game-stop profits on some of that stuff. Every time I go in there, someone is selling their old xbox/whatever to get the new one, and I just about never see anyone buying the old hardware.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say, is where I live the only bookstores that seem to be doing well are the half-price bookstores which operate with a similar model (and are also headquartered in TX and resell games). So I don't think its all gloom and doom for them.