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Not long after Toys R Us started testing out the waters of the used game market, Amazon has now set up a way for people to trade in their games for Amazon.com gift cards (http://www.amazon.com/Video-Games-Trade-In/b?ie=UTF8&node=979418011&ref%5F=amb%5Flink%5F83643391%5F1).  Now I'm no advocate of trading in games, but I did find it amusing that Amazon managed to set up a fairly easy to use way of setting up trades online, as opposed to EB's "just bring a bunch of games in and hope they're worth something" method.  Obviously Amazon is an online only business so they have to have a trading system that's easy to use online, but I've always been surprised that EB doesn't at least keep a decent listing of game values up on their site.

Edit:  Of course the other benefit to using Amazon is that they sell a lot more than just video games making their gift cards a lot better than store credit at EBStop.

There is or perhaps was not any value in maintaining a published list of values for EB.  Now, maybe there is since Amazon has trade-in values online.  Competition!

It would be nice if that also got them away from the douchebucket tactic of setting the price of used games to 5 puny dollars less than retail price of a new version of the same game.

Can you see if Gamestop employees had to survive using a traditional sales model?  :why_so_serious:

Also, if I buy games on Amazon, I get triple rewards to buy more games. Gamestop is a pile of shit, I've had a horrid experience every time I've stooped to slinking through their doors. I have no idea why people still shop there.

I don't know why people shop there, either, unless they just don't have internet access or simply have zero patience.  The only thing better than buying games from Amazon is buying them from a digital portal (as long as it works, of course... HAY STEAM).

I also don't understand people who buy a used game for $55.  It is worth $5 only if the unit is pristine, but it seems that people like to rub the discs on their shoes and piss on their manuals before trade-in.

This can only lead to cheaper games. Which is a great thing in my mind.

If it causes Gamestop to lose money that is also a huge plus.

When I can't find a new game, of something old and have to find used, I demand to see the quality of what I'm getting into.

Little kids with greasy fingers and shit, yea, I don't buy their second hand goods.

This is not the best service for the internet, I don't think. Amazon is too big to have any sort of actual quality control :(

At the same time, I hope they fucking DESTROY GAMESTOP. DESTROY CRUSH KILL.

So really, it's like Dollhouse.

I love this move from Amazon. I hope this does force Gamestop into making some guide of used game values. Gamestop bought FunCo Land, which was a shop that ran similar to Gamestop (I don't know if it was only local to my area or not), a few years back and they used to do a monthly newletter showing various game values (including trade in) which was awesome. I would love to see this again while avoiding shipping to/from Amazon if all things are equal.


Also, as Schild mentioned, seeing the quality of video game discs is important to me. The few times I've bought games off of ebay it's been hit or miss on their condition. That is why I'd prefer to buy used in person. Sure, if the price was right from Amazon I wouldn't mind, and they'll probably have a return policy to include poor condition, but if I can stop at Gamestop on my way home instead of dealing with shipping to and from for a return/exchange, that would be my pref.

There's so many skanky fucking people in the world.  I trade games in, but almost always buy new.  I found a booger on a page in a Gamecube Smash Bros I got from Gamestop years ago.  Mmm Mmm good.  I got a refund.  

On the rare occasion I buy used, if there's even a scratch on the disk or any fluid marks on the manual, it's a no-go.

EDIT:  And even then I bring the whole thing home and scrub it down with lysol/windex before it can touch my console. 

Yes, yes, yes! I hope to god Blockbuster, Toys 'R' Us and Amazon crush the ever living shit out of EBStop. Finally their model of gouging people out of greed and bragging about it at every turn has a chance of coming to an end.

I really dislike the kids who work at the local one, they TRY SO HARD to be hip and with-it. They try and engage me with their witty banter, and I just shut them the fuck down as quickly as possible, the ignorant consoleturds. Get Cloud's cock out of your mouth and try getting in some PC games that people actually want to buy. Oh wait, I'll just go home and order it online, as I should've in the first place.

I've still got the $6 card from turning in like 20 xbox games last year  :why_so_serious:

Because prior to this, they were about the only place to buy used games, and some of us don't like paying full price for games. Hell, I bought my first full price game in over 2 years this week with Empire.

But yes, shopping at Gamestop is a penis-smashing pain in the balls. When I worked at EB in the early '90s, I thought there was no way that company could get worse. But I LONG for the days of EB. Gamestop is just excruciatingly bad in every way and always has been. I was disappointed when they bought out EB, and EB managed to maintain their separate identity (with less suck) for years. But it was like one day the EB became Gamestop and it turned into a festering pile of ass overnight.

You mean the same Blockbuster that just had a bankruptcy scare that tanked it's stock and is working on restructuring and refinancing, which may or may not still involve bankruptcy?

Blockbuster can eat hobo dick.

Yep, haven't used them in nearly 10 years because they called my house on Christmas Eve to tell me that I had $4.50 in fines on my account even though nothing was checked out.  Then the dumbass proceeded to not understand why 3pm on Xmas eve isn't the proper time to call someone.  I told him to shut the account down and stcik the ppwk up his ass, merry christmas mf'r. 

Amazingly, the last house we bought (6 years after the incident) the $4.50 charge showed up on my credit report and I had to finally go pay those jackholes. 

I'd rather not watch movies at all than have to borrow from them. 

I hope GS gets slaughtered by this, and I say this as someone who still works there every now and then. :drill:

And to be fair, I actually try to leave people alone when they're in the store after asking them what they need when they walk in. If a Dist. Mgr saw how blaise I was, and how I refuse to hustle people, I'd probably get fired, but...we're a quiet store most of the time.

They've been doing used games long before this, so it's not like their trade-in stopped the minute the word "bankruptcy" was thrown out.

Well, I can see the problem from here. :grin:

Actually, it's the perfect time to catch someone.  Just like all the folks who bitch about getting "dinner time" calls. They call then because they know you're most likely to be home and answer the phone. They're attempting to collect a debit, after all, and debit collectors aren't going to be nice about it.

You shouldn't be amazed it showed on your report, either.  They do that almost as soon as they figure out you're not going to pay them and they don't have a CC on file.  (Had it happen to me in college.)

My point was more that I don't see how Blockbuster is going to be eating anyone's lunch when they're on the defensive in their own home turf.

I completely understand your point, but I figure I spent maybe $20 a month with them.  It really was about ten years ago, so that's roughly $2400.00 (120months x $20) they lost out on.  Minus my $4.50, of course.  If they called me at 3pm on just about any other day, ok.  W/e.  I guess I should thank them.

GoDaddy Outbound calls people on Thanksgiving. Myself and Cory Jacobs were assigned to that one year. After making 2 calls, we both stopped for the whole day, ate catered food and played Line Rider and Grow. It was pure evil, a surefire way to lose customers. One of the many reasons I left.

This always annoyed/annoys me. They haven't called me in a while, but GoDaddy always called my house at the most fucked up times to thank me for my business and make sure I was satisfied. Hell, it was probably even you.

No, it wasn't. When I was in the outbound time, the rare few times I thought I might be calling an f13 member, I crosschecked the email addresses to make sure it wasn't.

I've been buying some secondhand xbox and ps2 games over the past year or so. Mostly upgrading pirated or original PS2 games to Xbox versions so I can play them on the 360, or PS2 exclusives that I only had the eyepatch version of which are now out of print.

The stuff off eBay is pretty hit-or-miss, but it's overall better quality/condition than the stuff I find at EB (and then refuse to buy).

You guys in the US must have a totally different situation to us here. In EB, secondhand games tend to be like $5 cheaper than EB sells the same game for new. But you can generally go to the department store (Target type places) or the big Hi-Fi chain and get the same game for $10-20 less anyway.

Their older-title secondhand stuff is often priced higher than new stuff in those same dept stores or the hi-fi chain when they have their weekly selections of specials (there's something every week). I honestly don't know how those fuckers stay in business.

No no, exact same here.

Then why is Haemish going on about preferring to buy secondhand? Or is it the whole "trade-in" thing?

He's part jew.

Que?  Most other stores I've been to have prices as bad as GS or worse.  Target never knows when to start charging less for a game, and you'll see last year's Madden for full price.

I don't buy used there unless it's dirt old and thus around the $20 mark.  The couple of other places that sell used games usually have crap selection and there's no break on price. If there were a place to get new and used games cheaper in my area, I'd go there.

He said Target type, meaning big box. And generally, where you'd go for games out here that aren't Gamestop, i.e. Fry's and TRU, it's generally the same scheme he was saying. Particularly Frys.

We pretty much have this.
http://palgn.com.au/article.php?id=13784&sid=1020688948731822b714e23cf2170623 (http://palgn.com.au/article.php?id=13784&sid=1020688948731822b714e23cf2170623)

Linky is a weekly-updated compilation of all the discounts/bargains of interest from the big box retailers, EB and EB-alikes, JB Hi-Fi, TRU, etc.

When checking it out, bear in mind it's a shitty time of year right now, and also that A_NEW_RELEASE_GAME_001 comes with a RRP of AU$90-110.

 :awesome_for_real:

Which is why, you know, fuck EB and fuck trading-in a game for $9 credit against a RRP of $110

This. I don't tend to buy shit new AT ALL. Empire was an exception. The stuff that's still at full priced new is only $5 off at Gamestop, and I usually will just pay the extra $5 for the new copy in that situation. But again, I rarely buy games at new prices at all. schild got it spot on.

In Canada they've been trying very hard to push the GameRush brand and their trade in is about the same as EBStop, which has something like a 300%+ mark up and the overhead is not that high when it comes down to it. Blockbuster typically has more competitive prices here and is actually willing to lower game prices when they get too old. Of course, it could be completely different across the border and would explain their money woes.

I hardly buy new either.  Wait till its discounted mostly.  I hardly even buy used unless its ancient.  (Though by current standards ancient is now September 08 or something.  Oh the 8bit days where a game was available for YEARS..)

Why spend full dollar unless I HAVE to have it now or its some niche thing Atlus made a half dozen copies of, or a non Nintendo published DS game that isn't a kiddie licensed pile of shit?

I buy most of my games at Wal Mart or Target these days, with Amazon for whatever they only stocked a minute amount of copies of, or the aforementioned Atlus/non crap DS game.
Which is how I had to get Castlevania Ecclesia.  What kind of world do we live in where Castlevania isn't stocked in the 2 biggest retailers in the fucking USA?
Once in a while I will see what I want at Best Buy, but its rare. 
Gamestop is sometimes easier to procure the niche at, but as mentioned in this thread and so many other places, they are a steaming pile of shit.

My economic sense is so low it's nearly in the negative. Not only do I buy my games at full price, I'm also a fan of instant gratification and will buy the very first copy I come across even if there's a cheaper copy being sold online somewhere - or even in the next store over.

This.

I think I could count the number of used games I've bought on one hand.  I'm a frequent visitor to cheapassgamer.com though and pick up stuff I'm only mildly interested in when I see it on sale cheap enough (Ninja Gaiden 2 for $10, Virtua Fighter 5 for $15).  Stuff I'm really interested in I'll almost always pick up new on release day (SFIV, Dead Space, RE5).

you can get release-day-delivery for a couple of new titles via AMZN

I've also seen a lot of complaints though from people who pre-order a game from Amazon, only to have Amazon delay the shipping until one or two weeks after the game's release.

they should be refunded then with something extra

Who cares if you get it day one?  If you NEED a game day one something is wrong with you on SO MANY LEVELS. 
It'll still be a good game 2 weeks from release date.  Shit, it should still be a good game 2 YEARS later.

That's part of the reason we are in the economic state we are now.  Worrying about having pointless crap, and wanting it NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW.

Let me know when you're done talking to that wall.

It's not about needing the game itself now.  It's the social aspect of discussing the game with others who are experiencing it at the same time.  Playing RE5 online with someone who is going through it for the first time at launch is going to be different than playing it online 2 years later.  Having a discussion about Fallout 3 when everyone is talking about all the cool shit they've come across is different than just reading through 10+ pages of a thread after the fact.  Playing Left 4 Dead with people the first couple weeks when people were still trying to figure everything out was different than playing Left 4 Dead for the first time today.

Wanting something NOW only has an effect on your economic state if you can't actually afford to buy it now.

Late to the party threads are goddamn boring indeed.

But being empowered to be silly because of the Internet is also how animetards and furries got to be the way they are.
Doing something to keep up with PEOPLE ON THE INTERNETS is a really, REALLY stupid thing IMHO.
I learned that lesson back when Xenosaga came out. 
And have I felt bad about not getting Orange Box (and all the titles on it) or any other hot new game when it was new?
Not really.  I either avoid the thread till I get to it, or use the thread to convince me why I need it.  (Hint: Usually it tells me I should fucking avoid the game.  It has saved me from loading hell of Mass Effect, and Bioshock not being as good as System Shock 1 and 2.)

Who fuckin cares about keeping up with the Jonesesesseses? 

One of my favorite 8 bit arcade styled games I didn't find out about till 2003-4.  (Gremlins, Atari 5200, 8 bit computers for the interested.)

Maybe I am weird, but I like stretching my dollar.  Why spend 60 on a game when I can get it for 20, and then be able to buy THREE GAMES FOR THE PRICE OF ONE. 
That's just smart thinking.  It doesn't hurt I like wierd ass niche shit hardly anyone talks about anyhow. 

Plus I have other dorky hobbies.  Being a cheap ass allows me to afford this lovely bit of stuff:
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3378/3342359328_768cdd9940_b.jpg)

I will never own 1/4th of what I want.  In many cases I look back and am GLAD I didn't just OOH OOH BUY NOW.  (In other cases it means I grew out of what I bought and want to sell it.  Like most of my toy collection.  And my Warmachine Cryx army.  Or my Warhammer and 40K Orc armies.)

I like to stretch my money to buy lots of fun things, or you know, put it away for  a rainy (what am I saying?  Every day is a rainy day for me.  Let's say more rainy then..) day.

Did you just try to argue with someone about consumerism by posting a picture of your miniature collection?

9/10. I salute your effort.

Who said anything about keeping up with the Joneses?

When I go see a new movie, I like watching it with other people who haven't seen the movie.  I like discussing the movie afterwards and seeing peoples' initial reactions.  I'm the same way with games.  A number of people at work (including my boss) picked up Street Fighter IV the week it came out, or at least played it.  It's nice to be able to be a part of the discussion, and to arrange playing against them online, whereas a year or two from now they'll have all moved on.

I've already said that I pick up a lot of stuff on sale.  The big games though, and especially anything with an online component, I think there's something to be said for getting swept up in the launch excitement.

I got those at 66% off dammit.  And buying cheaper games allowed me to get them at all.  The problem is I already want more of that army.  And I still dont have Dragon Quest 5 yet.  And Dark Spire is due real soon.  And I have yet to get Retro Game Challenge.

See, I have to be cheap because I want too much shit! 

I dumb.  But I have to be cheap so I can at least soothe my dumb consumer whore urges.

Clearly.

See, mate, it's already clear that you're batshit insane.

The discussion you're trying to establish also won't end with an interesting note. It's mostly a PoV battle. Subjective to the maxx.

Pre-painted? Pfft  :oh_i_see:

Painting sucks ass, and takes away valuable time I can waste on other things.  Like getting through my insane game and DVD backlog.
I'm paying someone to finish up my 40K Eldar for me.  Decent paint jobs at a buck a model, or more if I want fancypants.
I CAN paint and could probably do alright if I wasn't lazy and hated doing it, but I am both lazy and hate doing it.
Last thing I got off my keister and painted took me a month of casual painting.

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3189/3291631351_895f654af2_b.jpg)

And they are simple ass wee ships and it took me quite some time for a mediocre paint job that was assisted by Krylon Fusion spraypaint (God's own spraypaint.), and a healthy use of drybrushing.
(The little silver tank is 1/600 scale, roughly the same scale as the ships.  Picoarmor.com.  Cheap and fun ultrasmall scale modern and WW2 minis imported from Poland and cheap.  Like 8 tanks for 4 bucks!)

See that lovely AT-43 Red Blok COMMIES IN SPAAACE walker behind the boats?  It COMES OUT OF THE BOX LIKE THAT.  (Excepting the flocked base.  I did that.  Way to keep track of what's mine.)
I could spend hours getting the sub par results these boats show, or take it out of the box like that walker.

I know which one I prefer.  So does my gamegroup too.

For fuck's sake, why'd you have to give him an opening?

Because I love painting minis. And I can't find my poly s fantasy paints anymore. For me, gaming was just an excuse to buy and paint miniatures. Don't tell HAMMER.  :why_so_serious: And I can post the one pic I have of a few of my space wolves (I never actually played WH40k, heh):

(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2295/2382666657_36bd180e17_o.jpg)

AT-43 is cool (i've got the starter set), but I just can't justify yet another wargame right now - WHFB and 2 4th ed D&D games chew up any free time I might have.  It also means however I have lots of excuses to paint. 

I hope to get back to it some day, if I can find some paints I like. Set up a new painting desk in my library....actually I need to work on getting that going. Really could use some non-GW paint recommendations. Just wish my local hobby shop were still here and I could just drop in and buy some floquil fantasy paints. Dammit.

Anyway, most of those wolves I posted were practice pieces working toward painting my better minis, I painted them in order of detail (4, 2, 3, 1) and was just starting to get down my concept for the unit's paint scheme. Then I was going to move on to my really cool pieces like the big khorne demon and eldar avatar.

I've always been really humbled as a mini painter because I grew up with two actual artists who painted minis. I learned a lot from them, one in particular was ridiculously good, I've never seen a professional paint as good as he did (he's a chef in LA now). But I never started painting until about 91 or so and stopped in 96 or 97 when I couldn't find paints anymore. Because of fucking GW buying out the whole shelf of paints and then driving the store out of business. Fuckers, the walmart of gaming, though WotC is sure making good progress of fucking up D&D :)

Vallejo is still good, but the new Citadel Foundation and Ink washes are actually fantastic and a billion times better than their old paints.

Also - my current project.  Need to do some detail work still (drybrushing and clean-up), but so far I'm liking this.

(http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b277/jwiv/DSC_7804.jpg)

Justify them at 66 or so percent off for quite a few unit types at Miniature Market and Warstore.  Its why I have  3 armies for AT 43, and 3 for Confrontation.  Especially when I would have had zero for the latter.

oooooo  66% justifies many things.     

JWIV, so glossy. That's kind of what I mean, painting has gone in a direction very different from what I learned back in the 70s and 80s. I like very matte paints. The whole ink thing, we used to just do washes with thinned paint. I'll admit your ink washes look really nice, though.

I'm trying some wacky techniques so don't base your judgement entirely on what I'm doing. ;)  It's referred to as dipping or glazing, and involves applying polyurethene stain to the mini - I did a bunch of my smaller orcs and skaven with it, so to keep the same look, I tried it with my wyven piece - it brought out the detail but is crazy shiny - part of the cleanup I want to do is to actually dull it down a bit - I'm just dithering over how to go about doing it.

As to matte - honestly, I do a lot of washes and drybrushing because I can't paint a clean line to save myself.   It's why the thought of painting an army that would demand it (such as High Elves) causes me actual anxiety.   There will _always_ be a place though for clean sharp painting.  Your space wolves look sharp and would look good on any table.

How did this thread turn into minis painting thread?  Go derail some other thread, geeks  :awesome_for_real:

Have you tried a matte clear coat or spray over the glaze?  Maybe even hairspray.  It should help, though it may make the clear layers too thick.

This. I don't buy used games. The only used things I've bought in the last few years were UMD videos for the PSP, and that ended when they dropped the prices of them to 2 for $10, even at airports. I generally just download the trial, and will maybe buy 1 in 5 of those. And usually be wrong.  :oh_i_see:

Thanks, as I said, I was still dialing in the colors and techniques at that point. I've got two unfinished that were following the blond mohawk guy that looked similar to him, should snap a pic of them to show some progression stuff. I'm not good at clean lines, either, as I said, I grew up watching /real/ artists paint and win competitions. Once you've seen an ancient mage painted with single-hair brush veins and liver spots and discolorations, it makes anything less look cheesy. The one dude was /so good/.

You can see some bad freehand on the grey wings of the plastic mini. I was trying out custom wolf logos, you can see some of one on the left pad of the plastic mini. Also, I completely suck at bases, I just drop green paint on it and leave it be.

Cyrrex, yeah, I guess we should hide a mini thread in the Tabletop forum :)

edit: And done. If any mod feels the need to paste the derail over, that would rock. (I know, I'm not the boss of you :)) http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=16395