Circling the drain - The use of this title (ITT Best Buy trying to rape EBStop)

[NiX]

[Kitsune]

Oh snap.  Gamestop execs have got to be shitting themselves right about now.

[Azazel]

Oh man, that's awesome.

Wish we had it here.

[Ookii]

I assume this is temporary or made up?

[NiX]

I assume this is temporary or made up?

Pilot. I imagine they'll be doing it for awhile.

[LK]

Holy shit.

[Rasix]

This is awesome.  Maybe EBStop will fire back by taking more than $5 offer for a disc covered in greasy finger prints.

[Hawkbit]

This is awesome.  Maybe EBStop will fire back by taking more than $5 offer for a disc covered in greasy finger prints.

If BB is in for a long haul with this, that's really all EBStops can do.  Put their used price point under BB's bulk cost.  Which, in turn, means EBStops are going to offer less in trade on games.  Then again, I never took Econ 101 so I'm talking out of my rear.   

All I know is that I'll drive an extra 20 miles to get a new game over used.  Last used game I bought years ago had a huge dried booger in the manual.

[NiX]

It doesn't require Econ 101 to see a price war at hand. Having worked at EB Games before and after the buy out, I can tell you two things: A majority of customers are like you and will drive that extra mile to get a new game. Also, EBStop has some seriously deluded people up at the top. When their margins get hit, they'll change. Otherwise they try and wait out the competition.

[Strazos]

In my experience, most people are fucking dumb cheap bastards, and covet that $5 saved by going used. As we don't currently have a BB in our immediate area (in southern NJ, so wtf?), I'm not sure how much that would affect the stores in my area.

[Goreschach]

In my experience, most people are fucking dumb cheap bastards, and covet that $5 saved by going used. As we don't currently have a BB in our immediate area (in southern NJ, so wtf?), I'm not sure how much that would affect the stores in my area.

I don't know what planet you're from, but here on Earth people love blowing money, and absolutely hate buying used stuff.

[Sophismata]

Also, EBStop has some seriously deluded people up at the top.

Only somewhat related, of course. In my personal experience, the few times (3) I've bought something used, I've had no problem. But I'll pay up to double or more to get it new.

[Malakili]

Also, EBStop has some seriously deluded people up at the top.

Only somewhat related, of course. In my personal experience, the few times (3) I've bought something used, I've had no problem. But I'll pay up to double or more to get it new.

I've never had a problem buying used console games, when compared to new ones.  In fact, sometimes I'll buy a super cheap console game that looks awful cause I can pick up a used copy for less than 10 bucks.  Of course, I don't play console games very much when compared to computer games anyway.  Granted, computer games aren't really what this is about.

[NiX]

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing really wrong with used and in some cases people do trade in brand new sealed games, which EBStop insists you gut. The problem being people are paranoid and don't want to have to drive back a potential 2-3 times to get a working copy. It's all in their head, but in some cases it is the result of buying used. I think what BB is playing off of is the fact that EBStop guts new games and that can leave some people buy a new game that could be considered used and often times it makes people buy the used copy. Now they have an alternative and can buy that new copy they want at the price point of EBStops used one. Even if it is $5 less, it's a savings and they don't have to put up with worrying they might get the dreaded gutted copy.

FunFact: Gutted copies, in all the stores I worked at, were often run in the consoles for long periods of time or taken home by staff. Canada doesn't have a "take home" policy.

[Azazel]

Only somewhat related, of course. In my personal experience, the few times (3) I've bought something used, I've had no problem. But I'll pay up to double or more to get it new.

Conversely, I'll only buy used if it's half as much or less than the new version. And it still has to be in good nick.

Actually, I'll consider it if something is under $20 (remember, $AU, not $US - new game here retails for $80-$120). Third category is if it's something totally unavailable otherwise.

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing really wrong with used and in some cases people do trade in brand new sealed games, which EBStop insists you gut.

What's "gutted"?

But yes, I've done the above. Buy 4x super-cheap POS games from department store to take to media store to trade in for 2x copy of RE4 (they had a trade in 2 games that aren't on their exclusion list for RE4 deal - so I did it twice - usually it's 3 games).

Take 1 copy of RE4 home for effectively 60% of the sale price.

Take 2nd copy of RE4 to EB in the same shopping cente where (since it was just released) the trade-in value is very high.
Buy other game I wanted anyway (getting EB to price-match the game from another dept store's catalogue)
Take home $30 in change on a EB gift card.

There were two guys ahead of me who had done pretty much the same thing (well, trading in the RE4s anyway) - that particular EB was well-stocked on brand-new second-hand copies of RE4, selling for $5 less than a sealed copy.

[NiX]

Gutted is when they open up a sealed copy and take the manual/disc out so they can display the case.

[Azazel]

Ah. Pretty much all their "new" games are gutted in the Australian EBs I've been to.

[Strazos]

It's funny when we gut something for an employee to sign out, and when they bring it back, wrap it back up and sell as new.

At least I simply peel back the security stickers for putting them back nicely later, and return discs entirely undamaged. I have a feeling people at other stores are not as careful.

[sinij]

What really annoyed me is that ever since EB turned into pawn shop, and there is no market in used PC games, they eliminated nearly all PC games from offered selection altogether. Not having anything but used console games made shopping for a new game a prorder-agonizing experience where you have to keep track of release dates and such. Now I personally order from Amazon, despite in the past enjoying stopping by the game store and browsing selection of new PC releases.

[Lantyssa]

I only buy used if it's under $10 and I only buy new console titles from GameStop if I absolutely cannot find it anywhere else.  I loathe their gutting policy.

[NiX]

It's a terrible policy that my manager and I tried desperately to fight, but when GameStop took over they started doing quarterly store layout changes. When they came in to do ours they gave us shit for only gutting 1 copy and bugging vendors to send us display covers to fill out the rest.

[Tannhauser]

I never buy used anymore.  Almost every time the disc was scratched the fuck up and wouldn't play.
I don't understand how they get scratched from the case to the console.  

/edit grammer

[Strazos]

Children.

[NiX]

And they often get scratched going to opposite way. They're fine going in, but games rarely make it back to their case.

[Azazel]

I always make sure to check the disc beforehand, and make sure I can return it for a refund if there's any issues.

[Hawkbit]

I was in GS about a month ago to buy PS3 Bionic Commando, they were running a $20 new sale on it.  Of course I get last new (opened) copy.  I asked to see the disc beforehand and  superdouche says "What, you don't trust us?"  So I asked him if I could borrow his wallet for a little bit.  He declined, I asked him "what, you don't trust me?".  Of course that shut his ass right up.  Why the fuck would I trust a complete stranger, as if working at Gamestop makes one morally absolute. 

A few years back I bought a last copy from them and they sealed it with a sticker before I looked at the disc.  Of course, it was scratched.  I mentioned this story to the guy and he said that all the internet and Kotaku press surrounding the employee borrowing resulted in them not being able to borrow games anymore by company directive.  I was hoping that's the case, but I bet it still goes on under the radar. 

[Strazos]

Under the radar? As far as I know nothing changed.

For what it's worth, I explain the situation every time before I sell a gut copy, because most people are really confused when I hand them a "new" copy of a game that I have to put the disc into.



And to think, my last day is probably Wed this week...heh.

[Hawkbit]

Interesting.  Must be a story they were told to tell at that store then.  Dunno.  I so rarely buy shit from there because they so rarely put shit on sale.  I'm a cheap ass.

[Ard]

I only buy used if it's under $10 and I only buy new console titles from GameStop if I absolutely cannot find it anywhere else.  I loathe their gutting policy.

When I run into this situation, I just personally say fuck it and go order it off Amazon nowadays.  I refuse to give Gamestop money even if it's something they get almost no profit on.

[Margalis]

I've bought exactly two used items at Gamestop:

1. An XBox that didn't work.
2. A wrestling game that came with the wrong game in the box.

When you figure in the time and expense of returning those they were both net losses.

[MisterNoisy]

I must be an anomaly then - I've never had anything but good luck with both new and used purchases from my local Gamestop.  The staff is a bunch of nice guys that have been there a while and genuinely like games, so I don't mind preordering stuff from them to help pad their numbers when it's stuff that I know I'll be buying anyway.

[NiX]

It really depends on the staff. My main store was awesome and our regulars were great people, but the other stores were just terrible. I remember one mall store I worked at, one of the employees brought in his laptop, installed a gutted copy of Oblivion and proceeded to play the game for the entirety of his shift. At one point a customer asked him for help and he told them to wait. Then we get into management that doesn't know how to manage.. you get the point.

If you really want a personal experience at an EBStop, you'll have to go find it.

[Rasix]

The one outside of the crappy mall near my house is pretty good.  It must be nice for them at some point in their day to actually serve someone that knows about games.  Most of them aren't hard to talk to either and one even made intelligent conversation about Persona FES when I preordered it.

Probably better than dealing with the usual Mexican day shopper (they are a fun bunch), mouth breathing teens, and trailer park folk.

[01101010]

I never buy used anymore.  Almost every time the disc was scratched the fuck up and wouldn't play.
I don't understand how they get scratched from the case to the console.  

/edit grammer

This post struck me since I had this exact conversation with my then manager at the big box blue mafia store. I worked inventory there for a few years while moving around and country. We had a ton of preorders come in for their official copy of a game a couple of years ago. Almost 40% came back within a week due to scratching on the disc of a completely new, sealed case. At first, my manager and the rest of the crew thought it was a couple of kids coming in trying to pull some shit. However, when we got an influx of kids and adults all with the exact same problem, it became apparent something was amiss. Found out that there was a packaging fault in the process of applying the disc to the plastic tines that hold it in the case. Most broke and the tine that broke off was the culprit, but there were times the disc was completely loose and allowed to Smackdown inside the case while in shipment. Interestingly enough, this was so widespread that the company had to replace an assload of those discs which came in bulk in their own little paper sleeves. And that, my friends, is how Halo 3 was breech-born.

So actually, scratches can take place even before the shrinkwrap is off the package, let alone going to and from machine to case.

[NiX]

My main stores demographic was angry jews, soccer moms, university students and people from DreamCatcher. Best day ever was when two guys came in and asked about Painkiller. I told them it was a fun game, but the companies marketing efforts sucked and they needed to stop relying on a 2 year old game to make sales. Turned out those two guys were VPs at DreamCatcher.