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Everyone knows how Gamestop rips us off when considering used title trade-ins and resales.

"Turn in newer game for 15 bucks store credit and see them turn around and sell it for 55 bucks (or 5 dollars off the 'new' price)"

Knowing this, I was in a local chain (privatly owned) video game store called "Replays" yesterday. Asked if they had Batman: Arkham Asylum used. The one by my house did not, BUT they had a copy at the Replay's on the other end of town and could transfer it to my store by the next day. I said cool, go ahead.

I didnt want to drive OR wait though. I went to gamestop, knowing their practice with used titles and figuring that they would STILL make money off of me if they price matched a used copy of Batman.

When I told the guy that I was on my way out to the other replays to pick up Batman at the price of $40 and asked if he'd like to have my business (taking it away from a competitor) and would he match the price of the used title, he snydly told me "thats a good price" and said nothing else. "so you guys wont match the price?" I asked. "Nope" He said dismissingly.

I immediatly drove out to the Replay's on the other end of town with vengeance on my mind and gave my 40 bucks to their competetor. F U Gamestop!

In my opinion...that was a STOOPID business decision. I'm COMPLETELY done with Gamestop. Replays will be the only place I buy games from now...as I never buy at full "new" price and always wait for the game to go down a bit before purchase.

Batman: Arkham Asylam ; used

Gamestop-No price matching $55
Replays-$40

Fifteen dollars cheaper and bought from someone who takes pride in undercutting the corperation. My new favorite place to shop for games.

By the way, $40 was a small price to pay for this excellent game that is helping me get over my Fallout 3 addiction.

Basically, DONT go to Gamestop for used titles. Do your best to find a local privatly owned store...they prolly have a better deal for you conserning used titles.

Deadshane1 wrote:Basically, DONT go to Gamestop for used titles.

Don't go to Gamestop period, imo. I do not think there is ever a good deal there. I am not surprised they didn't pricematch though. I am sure the lackeys in there adhere to some sort of policy and never actually have needed to make such business decisions.

I hear that. I just wait for retailers to start clearancing their games. I got God of War and God of War 2 for 10 dollars each, and the orange box and oblivion for $9.98 each. I also got pokemon sapphire for $5.00 all new. While gamestop sells them used for $20+. Pokemon sapphire sells for $30 at gamestop.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, Afro Samurai for $15.00

I love Gamestop. When you preorder you get cool stuff.
And ofcourse they sell it for more then the bought it that is business.

I'm really not a fan of gamestop, but they are the only video game store in my area..unless I want to go to walmart.

I'll buy a game from anywhere for $20, $25 if I really want it. I'm still playing Mass Effect and just bought Resident Evil 5 for $20 used at Game Crazy. By the time I finish that one, some other really good game will have come down in price.

Paying more seems silly to me.

Amazon.com is the only place I buy games from.

Hell, I got the Prestige Edition of Modern Warfare 2 for $125 and the Dragon Age CE for $82.

Axyl wrote:I'm really not a fan of gamestop, but they are the only video game store in my area..unless I want to go to walmart.

You are using the internet. Use Amazon or Ebay.

Gamestop/EBGames is a specialty Pawn Shop with all the glamor that implies. It preys on peoples impatience. Sell Batman: AA on ebay for$30 instead of the $12 in store credit they give you or conversely you can get it $30~40 instead of the $55 they charge. There is almost no good reason to shop there unless you just have to spend extra money/make less money and you can't wait a few days.

Honestly, i am not bothered by their "rip off" practices on trade-ins, because whenever i go in to trade stuff in, i have such a stack that normally, i could walk out with a new system (should i ever want to do that)

The real evil behind Gamestop is that there is a multiplier effect. See they give you a $15 trade in, then resell it at $55 (why anyone would buy a used game at $5 off retail is beyond me, but apparently there are people), then someone sells that item back for $15 and they sell it again at $55 (or $50 or $45, etc). Keep rinsing and repeating and they end up making much, much more than the $60 one time sale they would otherwise have made.

Frankly, I buy new games off Amazon and I never spend more than $25 at Gamestop for a used game (usually a year old by this point). Also, I wait for the buy 2 get one free deals and spend $50 on 3 games.

I buy from EB Games.

Ahtman wrote:

Axyl wrote:I'm really not a fan of gamestop, but they are the only video game store in my area..unless I want to go to walmart.

You are using the internet. Use Amazon or Ebay.

But what if you want it that day and not wait a week or 2 to get it.

Aren't EB games and Gamestop under the same ownership now? In any case, it has always seemed a big scam to me, so were I to want to buy a game, I'd look for either a local retailer or order it from somewhere and make sure that I get a new product.

the guys at one of our gamestops FETHING HATE ME.

a guy came in there with an x-box 360 controller with rechargeabe pack and cable. i waited till they told them how much they were gonna give him for it, and offered him 5$ more.

he got a bit more $$ and i got a controller for much less then i would have spent. its a win - win situation, cept for the gamestop manager that asked me to leave.



gamestop dose have its place though... i mean, who else will pay you 75 cents for copy of madden 2002?

garret wrote:

Ahtman wrote:

Axyl wrote:I'm really not a fan of gamestop, but they are the only video game store in my area..unless I want to go to walmart.

You are using the internet. Use Amazon or Ebay.

But what if you want it that day and not wait a week or 2 to get it.

...then you pay a couple bucks extra to upgrade shipping, and order it on a Monday/Tuesday rather than a Friday?

I mean, I'll have MW2 before the folks who wait in line all night, due to the way Amazon works. You can nab "Release Date Shipping" and it WILL be there the day it ships to all retailers.

Cheese Elemental wrote:I buy from EB Games.

Which has turned into GameStop. At least near me.
I rent from blockBuster if I get the chance. The last things I bought was a used Oblivion for 13 bucks from Gamestop.

Personally, I'd rather keep the games I've bought if I ever wanted to play them again rather than turn them in for a paltry sum towards buying some other used game. It seems to cater to the compulsive game buying types who measure their lives as periods between release dates for the next big games.

Down in Australia we have place called JB Hifi which is basically big chain store that only deals in entertainment products. Their newreleases are usually around $15 cheaper than the ones at EB games. So, no contest

Golden Eyed Scout wrote:

Cheese Elemental wrote:I buy from EB Games.

Which has turned into GameStop. At least near me.
I rent from blockBuster if I get the chance. The last things I bought was a used Oblivion for 13 bucks from Gamestop.

yep. EB Games (electronic boutique), Babbages, Software, etc. and Game Stop are all part of the same company now. the gamestop company has bought out all the others, and sometime in the near/far future, they will all be renamed to game stops.

I buy from EB here in OZ, and they have never done anything like this to me.

-They always undercut the competition
-They know me by name and give me free old games that wont sell when I buy a few games at a time
-Give me a discount out of nowhere of 5% [one day buying a few games the manager goes, "mate you work here almost more than me, have a staff discount", and all I do is re-order the games when im browsing, force of habit]

They are better than any competition around here, like GAME, who constantly try and rip me off in the middle of the day.

Well, if you've built such a rapport with the staff at that store, great. Most of our experiences are negative though.

I'll go to Gamestop only to find an older title. The used game shops around here aren't that great, but I have found some gems at Gamestop on occasion, such as Conan for the 360 for a whopping $10. NEW.

I've occasionally seen that sort of miracle happen, but usually that isn't the case. However I'm usually quite reticent to buy any sort of game "disc" used. At the rate my x-box violently devours game discs the chance that the used 360 games are irreversibly damaged or otherwise not worth the expense must be extremely high.

It's the same in the UK. I am surprised that high-street gaming stores are still operating. GAME sells their products at about £10-15 more than anywhere else. And anything they sell pre-owned I can find brand new for about £5 less. Gamestation is the same but they do have some steals on older PC games.

My theory is that they rely on the stupid to keep their doors open.

infilTRAITOR wrote:
My theory is that they rely on parents to keep their doors open.

Fixed.

Yep, that's the truth. There's a lot of parents that say that they'll go to gamestop to get it cheaper used than buy it new from my store.

Good news is, my store does trades in as well now. Not only will we give you a bit more than .75 for madden 2002, we'll give you .50 for an atari 2600 game. Point being we take in titles that gamestop doesn't.

is this battletoads?

Ensis Ferrae wrote:
yep. EB Games (electronic boutique), Babbages, Software, etc. and Game Stop are all part of the same company now. the gamestop company has bought out all the others, and sometime in the near/far future, they will all be renamed to game stops.

And to top it off, they're in partnership with Barnes & Noble. Part of the reason I used to enjoy working at B&N(cross-company employee discounts). And unlike B&N, they allow combination of Discounts and Employee discounts(at least the ones in Baton Rouge did, we could combine Employee with their Discount Card thingie).

I haven't had any real problems with gamestop, I just prefer my local store. I like them because they also deal in music and movies any all sorts of other things. Its called the exchange for a good reason. I always get better deals there on used games. If I want something new then i go down to gamestop, or more likely steam. Just my .02 USD

This is a place of rage against gamestop, not the place to say that gamestop has its good points. This is an ANGER thread and so I think I must yell now.
GAMESTOP IS A VERY BAD PLACE TO SHOP BECAUSE THEY RIP PEOPLE OFF AND ISN'T AFRAID OF ANYTHING!!!!!!!!