GameStop Rises 4% as Collectibles Sales Jump 57% and a Director Buys $1M

GameStop Rises 4% as Collectibles Sales Jump 57% and a Director Buys $1M

David Moadel

Wed, September 9, 2026 at 6:13 PM GMT+3 5 min read

Quick Read

• GameStop's collectibles jumped 57% to $356M, powering record Q2 operating income and an EPS beat of $0.27 against a $0.19 consensus.

• ESPO dropped 1% and peers Take-Two and Roblox offered no lift, confirming GME's 5% rally is stock-specific, not a sector-wide move.

• Director Lawrence Cheng purchased $1M in GameStop shares the same day results dropped, lending corroborating insider confidence to the quarter.

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GameStop (NYSE:GME) stock is up 4% to $19.59 in Wednesday morning trading, powered by a fiscal second-quarter earnings beat, a surge in collectibles revenue, and a same-day insider purchase from one of its directors. The move caps a choppy stretch for the retailer's shares and reframes the business mix that investors have been valuing.

The session gain still leaves GameStop stock down 2% year to date, so today's rally hasn't yet pulled the shares positive for 2026. That's the cautionary note in the story: a single strong session doesn't undo a flat-to-negative run, and it doesn't yet mark a change in trend.

For context, the VanEck Video Gaming and eSports ETF (NASDAQ:ESPO) is trading at $96.77, down 1% on the same session. Meanwhile, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) sits at $762.02, down 0.5%, so this reads as a single-name reaction rather than a broad bid for gaming equities.

Collectibles Surge Reshapes the Mix

GameStop reported fiscal Q2 2026 adjusted earnings per share of $0.27, above the analyst consensus estimate of $0.19. GameStop's revenue came in above the consensus estimate but fell from the prior-year quarter, which GameStop attributed to the prior year's Nintendo console launch, planned store closures, and the divestiture of its France operations.

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GameStop's collectibles net sales rose 57% year over year to $356.3 million, a mix shift that has the trading-card, plush, and pop-culture category carrying growth while the legacy retail line shrinks. The company's operating income was the highest for a second quarter in its history, and management raised its full-year adjusted EBITDA outlook.

The mix change matters because collectibles carry higher margins than physical software, which has been the retailer's shrinking core. That shift helps explain why Gamestop's profit expanded even as headline revenue slipped. It's the kind of quality-of-earnings improvement that tends to draw a second look from investors who had written the story off.

Notably, there was no formal earnings call accompanying Gamestop's results, so the release itself is doing the talking. That leaves the mix shift as the reason today's reaction diverges from prior quarters when reports were greeted with skepticism.

Insider Buy and Sector Divergence

GameStop Director Lawrence Cheng reportedly purchased roughly $1.03 million of GME shares through Cheng Capital LLC on the same day results were published, increasing the entity's declared stake. The timing reads as corroborating rather than causal, because a director bought after seeing the quarter's numbers rather than before.

GameStop also holds a substantial equity position in eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY), which adds a non-retail asset line to the balance-sheet story that isn't reflected in day-to-day comp trends at the stores. That stake has periodically fueled speculation about strategic options, though nothing on that front was disclosed today.

Gaming comparables Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ:TTWO) and Roblox (NYSE:RBLX) aren't providing sector lift today, reinforcing that this is a GameStop-specific reaction. With the sector fund down and the broad tape lower, the divergence itself is the takeaway.

What to Watch Next

With no conference call to shape follow-through, the next signal for GameStop stock could come from sell-side notes and from how the collectibles line trends through the back half of the fiscal year. Investors can watch for whether today's gains hold into the close and whether the raised EBITDA outlook prompts estimate revisions across coverage.

Position sizing on one's GME stock exposure should stay measured given the stock's flat-to-negative year-to-date run and the sector fund's decline on the same session. The setup rewards patience over chasing, particularly with the mix shift still needing another quarter of proof for GameStop.

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