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GameStopE5: Are Buck & Nat Turn(er)ing points for GameStop's transformation?
35 Plays8 months ago
The PSA partnership, Buck The Bunny's return & Nat Turner's appointment to GameStop's board all align too well to be coincidental. What could it all be leading towards?
Image Credit: Iuliia Duzhnikova
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Transcript
Introduction and Host Persona
00:00:26
Manny Cray
Hey, me. Hello, everybody. Welcome in on this Tuesday, November 19th. um Or whenever you're listening to this podcast. I'm Manny Cray. The podcast host, I like never say that, but that's my persona, I suppose, Manny Cray.
GameStop Stock Excitement
00:00:45
Manny Cray
At Magnificent Pod on the X.
00:00:50
Manny Cray
so you can find me over there. It's been a little while. It took about a week off. Things have been a little bit busy. It's kind of hard to stay focused on this too when GameStop is just... you know GME is just absolutely running which it has been over the last basically since the beginning of November popping out um from the low 20s shot up but above 22-23 bucks and then just shot broke out really up to 28 been sitting in this 26-28 range so a big battle of the 27s currently
00:01:26
Manny Cray
So who has time to look away from what GME is doing and listen to podcasts? Nobody, including myself. Don't have time for that. Don't have time to record an episode. So that's what I've been doing.
Transcript Collection Challenges
00:01:40
Manny Cray
And it's been it hasn't been all like, you know, zero production. I actually recently I went through this kind of interesting because eventually I might I might offer some sort of Google Google sheet um to people free of charge. Here's the link type of deal, just like Richard Newton does that. ah But I was really curious about cat. There's OK. Let's put this into perspective.
00:02:08
Manny Cray
Um, when you're obsessed with everything GameStop, um, as it relates to all these cryptic memes and emojis and all this other shit, you know, there are a lot of live streams from Keith Gill, Roaring Kitty, and Each of these live streams, they range from people, people. They range from three hours to like seven, seven hours. He had a seven hour long stream. And it's like, what the hell can you talk about live for seven hours? Yeah, his last video before, which is good, good for him.
00:02:53
Manny Cray
um His last livestream back in 2021, this was on January 22nd, 2021, Keith Gill, Roaring Kitty, had a seven hour, eight minute, 19 second long livestream. So is this is kind of his farewell livestream. But if I want to go through all this stuff and try to look for nuggets,
00:03:13
Manny Cray
I don't have time to listen to a seven hour live stream, even on 2X, which is really hard to comprehend. You put the playback speed on 2X, that's three and a half hours of paying attention, taking notes. That's a lot. So what I did, I went through, I grabbed the transcript from all of these videos. There's 63 live streams. So I grabbed the transcript from All the live live streams, each column in my spreadsheet is a different live stream. I've got the thumbnail at the top. I've got the video you know title and date in a row below that. And then this the transcript just copied down below.
00:03:57
Manny Cray
So this is I find this useful if I, you know, something like PSA, if I want to be like, oh, did he ever mention PSA in any of his 63, 62 live streams in 2021? I can just and just search my spreadsheet, see if PSA ever came up in the transcript.
00:04:17
Manny Cray
The one thing that's very interesting, I will say, there's four videos that didn't have a transcript. So of the 63, four of them do not have a transcript. And that means he intentionally or just forgot. He forgot to click the button to have the transcript. um But one of them was October 30th, 2022, which this one looked very interesting to me. So I might have to listen to that one, but it's six hours long.
00:04:49
Manny Cray
Good thing I'm passionate about this because holy shit, six hour long live stream. And the first one I started to listen to, I got about halfway, is just over three hour live stream. And this one's fascinating to me because it was election week in 2021. So no transcript. and I'm like, huh, is that intentional?
00:05:11
Manny Cray
What was in that live stream?
Election Week Market Reflections
00:05:13
Manny Cray
So you get a little bit of response, how his view of the election might have been around the time, you know, how the markets would react. So it's kind of cool. um But I'll say I'm halfway through. I took some notes and take a bunch. Not a lot stood it out to me.
00:05:31
Manny Cray
Um, but on the thumbnail, you've got Trump and Biden. It's crazy. It's got like the same thing that happened this year. Anyway. and So that was November 2nd, video 39, live stream 39, where he was talking about, you know, how does COVID, COVID-19 and the U S election impact GameStop pretty quick. Crazy.
00:05:52
Manny Cray
But yeah, there's four live streams without a transcript. So going forward, I'm going to try to go through those four and get notes. But going forward, I can just search. There's a keyword. I want to know if he ever talked about it. I can search for it and I can see it in the text in my beautiful spreadsheet that at some point I'll probably share it to everybody.
Future Podcast Ideas
00:06:12
Manny Cray
So that's what I've been working on. That's been pretty interesting. I've been messing around with it a little bit.
00:06:18
Manny Cray
I found some interesting dialogue in video 12 from August 28th, 2020, where there was some speculation about Chewie and Gamestop teaming up for to take on Amazon. Which what? Yeah. That was pretty cool. I think somebody in the chat posed the question, so it wasn't solely worrying Kitty's idea, but it was cool dialogue nonetheless. Cool to listen to.
00:06:44
Manny Cray
Or was that video 1492? Can't remember. It was either video 12, livestream 12 or 14. Anyway. I actually took a snip and I posted on X that I think you can only do one minute at a time, but I got the meat of that discussion and posted on X at Magnificent Pod. So check it out there if you'd like, or you can just sift through all the livestreams, which would be mind numbing.
00:07:12
Manny Cray
So, OK, something I want to talk about.
Buck the Bunny's Significance
00:07:15
Manny Cray
So I had when I started this podcast, I had roughly 10 episode ideas and.
00:07:25
Manny Cray
kind of like 10 different speculations or some of them were just like, e let's just go through all the means and talk about the speculation on each individual, the meaning behind each individual mean, stuff like that. This would be the fifth episode. And this is kind of... in you know this one's more current events i mean it's easy to have some of the other episodes when there's a lull and like not much going on and we're just sitting around waiting for something to happen and you're kind of hungry for that type of content but right now things are happening and they're happening pretty quick so i'm going to try to stay current
00:08:02
Manny Cray
um And in this episode, I want to talk about, hey, but Buck the Bunny just came back, had his first day on the job this past Sunday. What date was that? That was the 17th, November 17th, Sunday, first day on the job at GameStop. We don't know much about it other than he's working really hard for Black Friday deals. So who knows what the hell that means.
00:08:26
Manny Cray
or how long he's gonna stick around this time. He could get canceled again. We'll go into some of that history and um you know why he was relevant ah back in 2009, back in 2022, why he went away. um I wanna spend some time talking about PSA and collector's universe because as we know, this week, yesterday, Nat Turner was just appointed to the board of directors. So who's this guy? Why is he not getting paid all this other stuff?
00:08:55
Manny Cray
um And then that kind of ties into Steve Cohen, so we have to talk about all this So that's that's the intention on this episode I still have what like another six or so episodes. I'd like to do that are planned. I just have to um Actually like map them out aside from that I just posted this on X and and I'm gonna pin it. I'm gonna leave it pinned on my profile at mag mag Magnificent Pod, um where I am inviting, open invite to any GameStop community member who would like to spend three minutes on this podcast episode, or on your own podcast episode on this podcast show. I just said that really weird. Anyway, anybody that would like to come on bullshit for 30 minutes,
00:09:40
Manny Cray
Um, really simple discussion, you know, uh, I just kind of want to give a voice to all of the community members since I've been obsessed starting in June of this year. You know, I, I have the shortest tenure, of basically every, everybody I'm seeing on X on Reddit. There's a lot of really great minds out there that have been involved for a long time.
00:10:03
Manny Cray
I would love to give back to the community, give a voice to some of these um amazing community members that we've all grown to to know. ah So yeah, open invite, if anybody listening to this part of the GameStop community would like to have a voice, bullshit with me for 30 minutes, open an invite. I'm going to keep it very casual. If you've listened to any of these episodes, it's kind of off the cuff.
00:10:30
Manny Cray
You don't have to go off a script. You don't have to do anything. um i the The only structure I'll offer, and we can deviate, we can do whatever the hell we want. Only structure I'll offer would be curious to know a little bit about you. um you know Make any shoutouts. um Promote anything you've got. you know I don't know what the case may be.
00:10:51
Manny Cray
But let us know who you are. Give some shout outs. I want to know about your GameStop journey. What pulled you in? What keeps you going? um What you're looking forward to? Maybe we'll talk about some speculations. And really, that's it. Quick 30 minutes. Pretty easy to join an episode. I just share out a link and you join it kind of like a Teams meeting. And you can even do it from your phone. So you don't need like a microphone.
00:11:15
Manny Cray
You can do that if you want if you want to set up a microphone a computer improve the audio quality whatever but this is the magn Magnificent podcast show so the bar is really low You know, I'm gonna create a safe place and space for anybody zero judgment just um open open invite and opportunity to to talk game stuff, really. So hit me up. Hit me up ah at Magnificent Pod on X if you'd like to hop on. I'm going to have to schedule these um collaborations if they ever happen. Maybe, you know, I only have
00:11:51
Manny Cray
Not many people listen to the show. It's it's not, you know, it's not mainstream. So it's just me. It's just me coming out of out of nowhere and talking to myself. So maybe I'll get more listener. I don't know. I don't know who knows where that's going anyway.
00:12:10
Manny Cray
um Yeah, low stakes if you'd like to join. just Yeah, super. I can't remember where I was going with that. Anyway, I think you get it. So at Magnificent Pod, if you'd like to to join an episode in bullshit, hit me up. OK.
Buck the Bunny Controversy
00:12:25
Manny Cray
Let's get into it. You know, this is kind of interesting. There's a little bit of controversy with Buck the Bunny coming back and.
00:12:33
Manny Cray
I mean, it makes sense. I mean, history is kind of repeating itself. There was controversy with Buck the Bunny back in the day before he got canceled. So um we'll start with the the controversy now and just got to, I mean, we got to talk about it. Richard Newton, we found out if you follow Richard Newton, I'm sure he watches videos. If you're listening to this, you're probably watching Richard Newton videos like I am every day.
00:12:57
Manny Cray
because why the hell else would you listen to some random obscure GameStop content if you weren't already just fully addicted? um Richard Newton always got to shout out his videos, daily videos, is incredible. I learned a lot from him. Respect the hell out of that man. He's so wholesome and refreshing and he's a national treasure. treasure So yeah, can cannot pump him up enough. But anyway, um he,
00:13:27
Manny Cray
Has said that you know profanity does not align with those values um Which buck the bunny is a very crass vulgar animation so I mean I laugh I laugh cuz like shit like Okay, i love I love a vulgar animation. I grew up watching South Park. I remember reading a magazine, or magazine like a literal magazine um explaining this new animation series South Park was gonna come out. And I remember getting pumped about that as a little kid. And I probably was too young to watch it, but my mom was okay with it to a certain extent.
00:14:08
Manny Cray
so god how old was i was in grade school or something anyway whatever 90s the 90s early 2000s yeah 90s 90s were just a different time people you know
NFTs and Digital Ownership
00:14:21
Manny Cray
we were were kind of pushing the limits back then. um So, okay, love me some South Park, ah kind of aligns with how I was raised with some family members where, God, people can be a little harsh and like call you out on your your bullshit. And it kind of helped me like, help me keep my shit in check sometimes. So there's some of it that I i don't miss growing up that way where it was like,
00:14:51
Manny Cray
too much, too much. Let's just pump the brakes. But some of that was like, you know, pulling pulling my head out of my ass was needed. um And that was a good effective way to do it. And I think ah communication, pro profane communication can be effective depending on the circumstance. So there's a time and place for everything.
00:15:13
Manny Cray
I think words are a tool that you should use with intention and not just you know be flippant and just say things just because. So that's, anyway, where I'm going with this, buck the bunny profanity does not align with Richard Newton, which sucks because I'm torn. I love i love this animated character.
00:15:36
Manny Cray
The more vulgar, the better, in my opinion. And I love Richard Newton. And it's like shit. Richard Newton was saying he wasn't going to shop at GameStop and some X Replies. I don't know if he's like owning that. He doesn't. I've been watching the videos like he's going to talk about this, but he doesn't talk about it in his videos. He just in a few responses and it might have been he did the moment. So maybe, maybe there's nothing more to it. But he was basically saying, like,
00:16:02
Manny Cray
Yeah, um Boycott List. GameStop is on his Boycott List. So he's going to continue to be an investor. um He hasn't shown any and indication of that ever changing, but it's like, yeah, man. Buck the Bunny came back and said, I'm back, bitch. And ah watching Richard Newton like talk about his GameStop experiences, he's going to boycott that job.
00:16:29
Manny Cray
it's just it's tough like nobody can ever win there's there's never all sides winning it's it's just tough and that's i mean that's politics people um but i feel like i feel like he's came around a little bit um i have seen him tag or respond to certain buck the bunny posts so maybe maybe something's going on there maybe you got a formal apology who knows maybe buck the bunny said hey i'm sorry i recognize it i get it i'm gonna be better this time around if you thought the bunny came out of rehab and he's gonna be a little bit better this time around not use vulgar words that are unnecessary frankly unnecessary keep those you know just let the
00:17:12
Manny Cray
Southport characters um call out all the bullshit and use all the profanity. And Buck the Bunny can you know still be nuts and amusing and do stuff that's you know borderline you know border on the border. um But maybe he can you know act in a way where it won't go against Richard Newton's values. Hey, I want everybody to win here.
00:17:39
Manny Cray
Anyway, huge tangent. So let's just keep going with it. Buck the bunny. Let's talk about his history. So he was first introduced in 2009. He was the GameStop official mascot and he kind of represented like, you know, GameStop's a fun community and that's what he stood for. So he appeared in various like promotional events and stuff like that. There's YouTube videos. I'm sure if you're, you're aware of this, you can see them pretty easily on Buck the bunny's account or even on YouTube.
00:18:09
Manny Cray
um But then he just, he went away. I don't know why he went away the first time, but he didn't reemerge until 2022 when GameStop started a new venture into NFT marketplace. So there's obviously Buck the Bunny reemerged when there was a new GameStop venture in 2022. A lot of speculation is now, hey, he's reemerging again. So there's got to be some sort of new GameStop venture.
00:18:38
Manny Cray
what the hell has been cooking? And maybe it's just ah reemerging this GameStop NFT marketplace. Maybe that's all it is. um Which, yeah I don't know how deep I have to go into the history of NFTs, but if you've been awake for the last three, four years, what year is it? I don't know. um You're probably aware the NFTs were a huge fad. They blew up. They were really cool for a hot minute. People spent,
00:19:06
Manny Cray
ungodly amounts of money on NFTs. I don't know what the most expensive NFT purchase was. Well over $100k. I think some NFTs even went for a million plus. Insane. So, you know, huge fad. Whoever invested in NFTs back then lost their ass because nobody is paying anything for NFTs nowadays unless I'm out of touch.
00:19:31
Manny Cray
I mean, my only experience with NFTs DraftKings back in the day, around the same time, had some sort of marketplace for NFTs. Me and my buddies would get in line for these NFTs. It was like a Tom Brady NFT and like all the Tiger Woods and stuff like that. And there'd be different tiers. And if you got in line, you could buy the NFT. And there, I mean, when this was going on, there was like 100% chance um of getting a return on your investment if you immediately flipped back and sold them to the marketplace.
00:20:01
Manny Cray
So that's all we do. We try to get in line, buy the NFT and sell it right away, make a profit and try to get in line for the next one. And then the series came and went and then my interests with NFTs came and went. So I don't know what it's doing nowadays, but from everything I've heard in the recent memory is NFTs are worthless. So I don't know. But I'm going to dive into that a little bit, because how has that changed? um Why did it die?
00:20:28
Manny Cray
And if if Buck the Bunny's reemergence is tied to that, how is it going to be different this time? And I think what caught my attention the most is when you think about the value of GameStop, it's all tied to
Digital vs. Physical Game Ownership
00:20:40
Manny Cray
ownership. The physical copy, anything that's tangible as it relates to gaming, that's what makes GameStop valuable. So everything is moving to the digital environment. And I mean, think about this.
00:20:55
Manny Cray
I mean, I don't know if you're listening to this, most people probably get this, but you know, I was a huge fan of physical copies. Um, I don't game as much as I used to. I'd love to, to have more time to do that, but.
00:21:09
Manny Cray
I mean, just the nostalgia, getting the game system, getting the video game, just having something tangible to put it in you know put in the entertainment system, um and play the game, like the cover, all this stuff, but then also the resale value. like i Look at my collection, ah it's time to move on, there's a new system, I'm over these games, whatever the case may be, you can sell all of that and get a return on your collection.
00:21:35
Manny Cray
But nowadays you buy a digital copy because let's face it, um, you know, we're instant gratification era. So we don't want to wait to get the physical copy when we could just digitally download it at midnight and play it instantly. So when you do that, there's no digital ownership.
00:21:55
Manny Cray
I can't turn around and sell my system and all the digital games I bought. The digital copies go away. People just buy the system. You don't buy the digital copies, because it's all like tied to your gamertag or something. Anyway, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I just messed up. when i Because I've done this multiple times, multiple times, where I bought these digital copies, and then I can't turn around. There's no resale value. I sell the system.
00:22:24
Manny Cray
you have to like wipe the hard dry, I don't know. this Yeah, there's just no return on my investment for those digital copies. They just go away when you have to sell and move on. So what's interesting about NFTs is because it it can give you digital ownership and that's that's key, that's missing in gaming today where digital um copies will become popular again if you have digital ownership.
00:22:53
Manny Cray
via NFT. So if I buy the latest copy of Call of Duty, a digital copy, if I have that and of you know the the digital ownership tied to that and I can turn around and get some of my money back when I want to sell that copy, that's valuable. So I hope it's going that way. It's kind of evolving with the video game marketplace.
00:23:14
Manny Cray
um Yeah, I don't know. That's that's the connection that excites me the most about all this, because that environment needs to change. You can't be spending, you know, 60, 70 bucks on a video game, a digital copy and just get nothing for it. Like, it's worthless the moment you download it. So, yeah, that's got to change. That has to change. So I hope it's going in that direction.
GameStop's NFT Marketplace Challenges
00:23:39
Manny Cray
um But yeah, so 2022, NFT marketplace where, you know, Buck appeared in like various NFT collections.
00:23:51
Manny Cray
um And this marketplace, it was just, it was really that. It's like GameStop had NFT marketplace. Here's a bunch of NFTs you can purchase. And based on everything we know about NFTs, there was a failed investment for everybody involved.
00:24:07
Manny Cray
So GameStop was no difference. No different. um So this NFT space, um this this was the launch. GameStop launched this in July of 2022. They could buy and sell trade and trade NFTs there. um But it faced a lot of challenges. And when was it? It was... get a date for us.
00:24:31
Manny Cray
I was more recent than I realized. So they seized operations on the NFT marketplace in February of this year. So Feb 2nd, 2024 is what I have down. And due to some regulatory concerns, so there was some regulatory uncertainty in August of 2023.
00:24:49
Manny Cray
um That's when they had had to discontinue, GameStop had to discontinue a crypto wallet. because of uncertainty in the crypto space. So that was tied to some of this, and then they ceased full operations by February. So that's interesting. So no longer operational, um but it come back? And what has changed if it did? So I guess some of the key regulatory concerns back then, if we look at this,
00:25:18
Manny Cray
um It starts with the SEC as always does, um which they scrutinized if NFTs qualify as securities under federal law. So there's some ambiguity there. And that could be evolving a little bit. so And that's mostly about like those NFT transactions. And, um, you know, if that involves any regulatory requirements. So that's, that's been interesting. And then the anti, what's this one anti money laundering and know your customer requirements. So regular regulators have, um, there's been some concerns about potential use of NFTs for illicit activities like money laundering. So, okay.
00:26:03
Manny Cray
Whatever, dad. um
00:26:07
Manny Cray
And implementing you know stuff around that and then know your customer protocols is essential, but it's pretty complex. And that's just like anything in an evolving tech landscape. and Nobody knows how the hell to regulate it. There's gonna be bad actors along the way. So you gotta figure out regulation before you can expand those marketplaces.
00:26:31
Manny Cray
So too much uncertainty caused caused a lot of the failure there. Now, since the exit,
00:26:39
Manny Cray
And I apologize. I didn't realize, like, Teams has such good noise cancellation that if my dog's going nuts right next to me, nobody can hear it. But I realized in the last episode, my dog downstairs barking at the door, you can hear, it you can pick it up on this microphone. It's crazy. Anyway, this podcast software is in Castor.
00:27:00
Manny Cray
up your noise cancellation game like teams. All right, so that's a side note. All right, so how has the NFT landscape changed since? So there's been some legislative efforts. The US House of Representatives um passed the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act in May of 2024.
Regulatory Framework for Digital Assets
00:27:21
Manny Cray
So very recently, right around the time, all the DFE memes came out.
00:27:27
Manny Cray
Coincidence, maybe, maybe not. So that aimed to provide a clear regulatory of framework for digital assets and kind of drove a fine line in responsibilities between the SEC and the Commodities Futures ah Trading Commission, the CFTC.
00:27:49
Manny Cray
So, that could be pretty impactful. I'd have to dive in deeper on that one to understand the implications. But that's a very recent development that came through right when DFE ran KDE Return. The SEC has continued to enforce some activities and what's this? So, they issued out a wells notice to NFT platforms like Ocean's OpenSea, indicating potential violations of securities laws. So SCC is pretty firm on all of this still.
00:28:22
Manny Cray
um And a lot of the response has been, you know, due to regulatory pressure, just like GameStop did. There's too many challenges, too much uncertainty. Individual artists have filed lawsuits questioning the SEC's authority to regulate NFTs. So all of this, there's a lot of back and forth. And I think we know, you know, part of the campaign trail for ah Donald Trump um was that convention he joined, the Bitcoin convention. So we know he's pro-crypto.
00:28:57
Manny Cray
So maybe maybe a lot of that speculation, and we know Ryan Cohen had all these cryptic Trump tweets, maybe a lot of that was because of where he thinks legislation in this space will go under a Trump term. That's a speculation, but I can see how this lines up.
00:29:18
Manny Cray
So we already know there's going to be regulatory changes. So Trump is expected to appoint, um, regulators, uh, with pro crypto perspectives. So there's a lot of speculation that Gary Gintler, um, it's going to be replaced by someone who's potentially more crypto friendly. Uh, which is interesting. Um,
00:29:42
Manny Cray
And then you know just based on their involvement and support with Bitcoin, um it's not too much of a stretch to assume that this administration would support legislation that provides clearer guidelines for digital assets. So I think I could see how all this regulatory environment under a Trump term, a Trump credits the presidency,
00:30:03
Manny Cray
would be impactful for someone like Ryne Cohen um and the board and GameStop as they're looking at potential partnerships and strategies moving forward. The regulatory environment, environment I think it'd be very impactful if it's you know leaning in this favorable direction for where they'd like to take the company and where they failed previously. So they had some framework, which is an easier endeavor, less expensive endeavor.
00:30:33
Manny Cray
to pursue when you've already tried it and failed. I know there's a lot of dollars wasted from that but hey if legislation is gonna change in your favor, then it makes sense to lean into those partnerships and get ahead of it.
Timing of Buck the Bunny's Return
00:30:47
Manny Cray
So that's ah interesting. And the timing makes a lot of sense, right? With Buck the bunny coming back, Trump was just announced president a couple of weeks ago at this point. i And recently we got a new board member. So let's let's pivot. Let's look at all the board members and there's now six. And what's interesting about,
00:31:09
Manny Cray
Um, we'll just start at the five.
GameStop Board Overview
00:31:11
Manny Cray
So before Monday of this week, there was only five board members and all of these board members were appointed in 2021. So you've got Ryan Cohen, um, appointed in January, 2021. We all know who Ryan Cohen Cohen is, but in January as well, we have Alan at towel, um, which he was.
00:31:36
Manny Cray
He's got like two decades of experience. He served as chief marketing officer and chief operating officer at Chewy. So that Alan was one of the ah homeboys Cohen brought over from Chewy. Then we all know our beloved Larry Chang.
00:31:53
Manny Cray
When was he appointed? He was appointed in June 2021. So about six months after Cohen and Alan Atal. So yeah, we know him. He's co-founder and managing partner of Volition Capital, ah their growth equity firm. And he has over two decades of venture capital um and growth equity investing experience.
00:32:19
Manny Cray
So he likes to focus on disruptive companies and e-commerce and consumer brands. So very on brand there. He's been very vocal recently.
00:32:30
Manny Cray
What are some other career heights? Let me dig in here for a second. So I guess, yeah, we'll just start with Alan. So we know his involvement, CMO and COO at Chewy. He was also an entrepreneur.
00:32:43
Manny Cray
and e-commerce marketing. Okay. So that's all on brand for him. Larry chain. I think we got him. Then we have Jim group, which he was also, he came from Chewy. He was a former CFO over there and he helped guide the company through periods of rapid growth and operational scaling. Yeah, we know that story. Um, so really good expand, uh, experience on this board, but he also had some experience with Amazon and Hilton.
00:33:09
Manny Cray
So he held senior financial leadership roles um at both of those companies, which I think is some great background to have on your board, especially if potentially, potentially if one of the highest theories comes true and you want to take on Amazon, that's really good experience. Okay. Then you have Yang, Zhu, X, X, you, I don't know how to pronounce that. I apologize. Um,
00:33:37
Manny Cray
But yeah, he was CFO at Strowman Group. I'm struggling on this one. Here's the one I got. um At the Kraft Heinz Company, he held significant finance and strategy war roles, and then he worked at Whirlpool Corporation and General Electric Healthcare. Interesting. Okay, so really good experience there. Yang was appointed in June, right around the same time as Larry Chang.
00:34:04
Manny Cray
And then Jim Groove, the other chewy homeboy, um, appointed in January with Alan and Cohen. Okay. So those are the two chewy homeboys. And then Nat Turner was appointed November, just a few days ago.
00:34:20
Manny Cray
And what we know about Nat Turner is he's the chairman um over at Collectors Holdings, which Collectors Holdings is the parent company of PSA. um PSA is that writtener recent partnership that GameStop had that allowed some to grade cards.
00:34:38
Manny Cray
um And then he was also an entrepreneur, so he co-founded Flatiron Health, which was a cancer research and tech company, which was acquired by Roche for $1.9 billion dollars in 2018. Interesting. So he kind of has a similar background to Cohen, where he found a company and he sold it for um I guess we can almost call this multi-billion dollars, 1.9 billion. I mean, Cohen's going to be there with his 3.3 billion Chewy sale, but similar background.
00:35:11
Manny Cray
Um, but he has a ton of deep knowledge, um, in trading and collectibles markets. So, and he has an extensive, extensive, um, pro sports memorabilia collection anyway. So that's interesting. He's been appointed. Um, there's a deadline to.
00:35:32
Manny Cray
don't I don't know what all the like legal jargon is, but apparently his term only lasts until like 2025, 2025, like mid 2025 or something, and he's not getting a salary. But then you have to have some sort of share ownership in order to be on the board. So there's probably going to be a form for filing showing how many shares he actually owns of GameStop.
00:35:57
Manny Cray
and um all the speculation. why would Why would you join a board without a salary? So how is he being incentivized? And that leads us to a lot of speculation around future partnerships, um mergers, acquisitions that could benefit both companies.
Nat Turner's Board Addition
00:36:14
Manny Cray
So Nat Turner, who the hell is Nat Turner? Let's just lean into Nat Turner for a second.
00:36:21
Manny Cray
And this is where things get a little, little polarizing, little controversial, for sure. I cannot talk today um because they're Nat Turner has some ties to Steve Cohen and Steve Cohen.
00:36:39
Manny Cray
ah
00:36:41
Manny Cray
he He owned a hedge fund, 0.72 asset management, and 0.72, along with Citadel, Ken Griffin, Mayo Man, Kenny gri kenny G, they invested God, it was just under $3 billion into Melvin Capital to try to bail them out during the GameStop short squeeze. And I know Steve Cohen said he did something really stupid, like tweeted something about like trading being really hard. Right around the time, the buy button was turned off on Robinhood and GameStop just tanked. So everyone, you know, in the GameStop community hates Steve Cohen.
00:37:22
Manny Cray
rightfully so. He tried to support the enemy and he made fun of all the investors when retail saw their investments just fall like 90%. Terrible, terrible human for that. I get why he would, you know, in his position but as a hedge fund owner, why he'd try to bail out Melvin Capital, but to pile on and just, you know, put up a middle finger essentially to retail, that's messed up. So We don't like this guy. um But yeah, after the short squeeze, so .72, his hedge fund, Steve Cohen's hedge fund, she lost about 15%.
00:38:02
Manny Cray
So that was a huge loss for their company. And then he deactivated his Twitter at the end of January because he was getting threats to his family. I don't know if he's reactivated since then. But hey, what do you expect, man? You're a public figure. You're going against um the little guys publicly and making fun of them. Like, you got to be smarter than that if you're in control of billions of dollars.
00:38:28
Manny Cray
In my opinion, OK, so as of November, let's see. Yeah, so there's no other connection to GameStop other than through Nat Turner. So let's talk about that. How are Steve Cohen and Nat Turner connected? um Well, they're both on the board at collector's universe, and I might have to go into a little bit of history of Steve Cohen when he. Let me look at this for a second.
00:38:56
Manny Cray
So here it is. So Steve Cohen, I guess a little, he also owns the New York Mets. I didn't know that. So he owns this hedge hedge fund 0.72 asset management, and then he also owns the New York Mets. um But he's also co-owner of collector's holdings. So alongside Nat Turner and D1 Capital Management. So So yeah, Nat Turner, um he got involved in the collectibles industry after he sold that other company for $1.9 billion. I can't remember what it's called. um Rewind, let if you if you want to remember, if you forgot to. um But November 2022, he led an investor group that acquired Collectors Universe.
00:39:41
Manny Cray
which is the parent company to PSA again, that's who GameStop went into partnership with. um And they're a leading entity in trading card and autograph authentication authentication. So following the acquisition, Turner became the executive chairman of Collector's Universe. Again, similar path as Cohen after his major sale.
00:40:03
Manny Cray
So that's kind of interesting. These two, um, strategic, you know, successful entrepreneurs, I think have a lot in common, especially on their passions. Uh, so I think that's interesting. I think this could be very interesting. I'll be as, as I heard Richard Newton say in his video earlier today, I'll be cautiously optimistic on this one.
00:40:24
Manny Cray
but But yeah, I mean, he was just appointed to the board. And um Steve Cohen, so co-owner of Collectors Holdings, he's also on the board over there, but he has no involvement in GameStop. We just now have a mutual connection to Steve Cohen. Previously it was separated, but now there's, okay.
00:40:45
Manny Cray
Oh boy, you know, Nat nat Turner co-owns collector's holdings with Steve Cohen. And now we have an enemy within at GameStop. I don't think that's the case.
00:40:59
Manny Cray
um If anything, i I mean, I get why you would be hesitant to believe this is full-blown like like,
00:41:09
Manny Cray
You know, just full blown believe this is good. Well, you'd have some hesitation. um But I don't know if you have if you have like a previous enemy. That's having some sort of connection this way. I just feel like you've you're turning the tide a little bit. I feel like. I just don't see if if Steve was truly truly anti GameStop. I don't know.
00:41:35
Manny Cray
I feel like this is looking good. When you're turning your enemies into members of your team, it's probably good. But I don't think, that's the thing. I don't think Nat Turner is a bad person from everything I've seen in like brief interviews and what I've read about him. um I think he's a very passionate, ah very smart, savvy investor and business owner and leader.
00:42:01
Manny Cray
A lot of his success lines up with how Cohen achieved a lot of success, so to have someone on the board who technically only needs to own shares and it isn't getting a salary and can provide strategic vision and direction um I think it's a really good thing especially when you're turning enemies to your side because you can't can't always Be the David and overcome all these Goliath's at some point you have to become a Goliath So if we really want games up to be a Goliath you have to get some of your enemies on your team So that's that's my optimistic take
00:42:41
Manny Cray
Um, I've seen some people worry, you know, Boston Consulting Group, uh, that has a track record that Cohen's, uh, Ryan Cohen, the other other Cohen, they're he's not related to Steve Cohen, by the way. That'd be really weird. Um, but he's called them out because he's seen how that consulting group has the worst interest of the companies they're consulting because they work with these hedge funds that want to short said companies and they implement practice that makes those companies go down and in turn yields profit to the hedge funds that are shorting in those companies. So there's some speculation like, oh no, this is another Boston consultant group situation, but let's let's face it. I mean, if Cohen, Ryan Cohen is aware of that,
00:43:27
Manny Cray
and the bad actors can infiltrate a company and tear him apart. I don't think he's dumb enough to put himself in the situation where Nat Turner could potentially potentially be trying to do the same thing. So I'm not going to believe that one. I'm going to stay very optimistic on this one. So I love the Nat Turner connection. I think it's nothing but good for GameStop. And as you think about Buck the Bunny returning and Buck the Bunny is ties to digital ownership and NFTs and Nat Turner and collector's holdings and everything they stand for and PSA grading, you know,
00:44:04
Manny Cray
the the physical ownership. How can you tie digital ownership to that? And I feel like that's what this is all coming together.
GameStop's Future Ventures and Strategy
00:44:12
Manny Cray
That's that's what's coming together here. It's, I mean, all these circumstances are just, there's just no way it's just a big coincidence. So obviously something's cooking. We're gonna know what it is sooner or later, but for all these things to happen at once, I mean,
00:44:30
Manny Cray
Well, we're gonna it's it's got to be some sort of digital ownership, um some sort of mar merger with a collector's universe. So that's what I'm thinking.
00:44:40
Manny Cray
um Maybe we'll dive in to PSA and that partnership a little. So yeah, let's just focus on that. As we focus on some of these coincidences, like the PSA partnership before Buck the Bunnies return, before Nat Turner joined the board, um what does this all mean? So I think think it positions GameStop as a hub for collectibles.
00:45:06
Manny Cray
and enthusiast communities so of course we're already seeing that PSA partnership today people are bringing in their their cards they're getting them graded they're trading with other like-minded individuals so we're seeing that um This could help us leverage cross ah promotion with collector's holdings. So with NetTurner on the board, GameStop gains access to deep insights from a key player in the collectibles market. So don't think of that as just a one-sided relationship, where only collector's holdings benefits from having a you know one of their co-owners board at GameStop. That's a two-way relationship.
00:45:47
Manny Cray
Okay. um Collectors, whole things can also have exclusive offerings. there There could be joint marketing initiatives. So sharing the investment there is a huge advantage. ah And sharing the customer base is there is a huge advantage.
00:46:04
Manny Cray
Um, you know, thinking of the revenue streams beyond just gaming. So gaming is very volatile. There's hardware cycles. You know, last time DFE was doing all these live streams, there was console wars. We were talking about, you know, the latest X box and the latest PlayStation coming out.
00:46:23
Manny Cray
That drives a lot of revenue. We don't see new console cycles very often. They come out like every five years or so. um So diversifying is very good. It creates more stable revenue stores with high margins. um So that's very interesting. ah Reducing some of that reliance on gaming sales. So I think that's really good. This is a really good strategic partnership already.
00:46:51
Manny Cray
and just how it builds a marketplace ecosystem. So if they do turn to NFTs and like a blockchain technology to align digital ownership ownership in a very impactful way, they could kind of be pioneers in that space, which would be fascinating. They could reemerge, single-handedly reemerge NFTs and make that a thing again. So that's kind of interesting to think about. um It's also a cost-conscious.
00:47:17
Manny Cray
i mean NetTurner is joining the board without compensation. This partnership is much mutually beneficial. It's not requiring like a huge investment in a merger. This partnership just makes sense. So keeping hold of your huge cash pile, I don't know. It's very interesting. So I guess we narrow that down. Think about how you could integrate physical and digital assets.
00:47:45
Manny Cray
um and leverage you know both both platforms um to tap into both marketplaces and customer bases. ah Those synergies make a ton of sense. They can build stronger community engagement. And it doesn't take a lot to invest in this partnership. It's mutual benefit here.
00:48:05
Manny Cray
Uh, so yeah, I think that's, I think that's very interesting. So when we think about collectors universe, they're the parent company to PSA. The PSA is really, I was curious on this next size, just curious, like what are the other subsidiaries of collectors universe? And PSA is like the core business segment. They're responsible for pretty much like of the revenue. um So we know what PSA does, but some of the other subsidiaries, I guess total revenue for collector's universe, they bring in about 80 million per year. So, you know, take it or leave it. But other subsidiaries, you know, we've got, I guess the best thing that I'd want to look at there, there's
00:48:54
Manny Cray
You think of it, they've got 27% growth rate just in PSA. Wow. Year over year. So that's pretty interesting. Oh, that was in 2020. I need to get some updated numbers. um My research is all over the place right now. ah But other subsidiaries have collector's universe. So they also have a professional coin grading service. um They can authenticate like autographs and other memorabilia.
00:49:21
Manny Cray
ah They offer grading services for paper currency, which is kind of interesting. And then also they acquired a company in July of 2021, Wada Games, which specializes in grading video games. So the other subsidiaries don't have as much value. PSA is definitely the crown jewel there. So very interesting, unique partnership. I'm really excited to see what this all means, but it's all coming together.
00:49:46
Manny Cray
Nat Turner joining the board, co-owner of Collectors Universe, Buck the Bunny coming back and his ties the NFT marketplace. um Something's cooking here. Something's cooking here. We're about to find out what it is. And hopefully it's really impactful. I'll say this too. like i think I believe there's a huge transformation going on with GameStop.
00:50:10
Manny Cray
and I don't think they've got all their cards on this bat like all their eggs in this basket. I think they have many other um pieces to their transformation that they're pursuing, but this is looks like the most seamless ah piece of that transformation, with the least amount of investment. All you gotta do is frickin', what's the word?
00:50:33
Manny Cray
um Resurrect, that's the word. Resurrect an animated character, have a mutually beneficial partnership with a collecting ah service, PSA, grading service. Damn. I think that's a key critical um step to all of this. And I think the other piece of their transformation, and this is what was kind of cool, tying it back to that spreadsheet I was talking about earlier, there's something that I have ah searched and came across that was speaking to Cohen's success with Chewy.
00:51:08
Manny Cray
and how he strategically released um enhancements to their business model on it unexpectedly. And it caught all the competition off guard by surprise, and it helped him emerge chewy to the point of success where it got to. So I think we're going to finally start to see some of Cohen's ah vision and strategy um come through with GameStop in the same way. And this is a piece of it, but there's I'm just going to speculate right now. I think there's going to be something completely unforeseen that is implemented ah that completely transforms GameStop as we know it that's unrelated to this. This is just one piece. And I'm really excited to be part of that journey.
00:51:53
Manny Cray
um Thank you for listening to this episode. We'll have some more of these again. I've got like seven planned or so. There's going to be other current events that I can tap into different episodes. I hope to speak to some other enthusiasts, some other GameStop community members, but holy smokes. I got to get back to work, folks. It's been a long lunch break. But until next time, hang on tight, have fun. Peace out.