Another Reason I don't shop at GameStop

[SEgamer]

The only game store that I've enjoyed over the years has been Play N Trade that opened up last year. Their trade in prices are okay, not as good as GameStop's when GameStop didn't overrun the market. Prices on used games are good too. I think I got TMNT IV for $5, as well as Snatcher for the Sega CD for only $5 (because the price tag was mis-labeled as Surgical Strike )

 

Two things that annoy me with GameStop is that no matter which of the three stores I go to, the person behind the counter asks if I would like to pre-order a game, and the other thing is that they don't sell old games.

[CGQuarterly]

and for the guy that said that the guy from Acts of Gord should run a chain....I was talking to a guy that went to his store. He said that Gord was a huge douche, and that 90% of his stories are pure BS.

 

It's kind of funny that you should say that, because when reading through all of the Acts of Gord, I got that impression. It comes of as a collection of "What I should have done" stories, or fantastical recounts of benign dealings rehashed to make the storyteller sound greater than he really is. For example:

 

TRUTH: I was standing behind the counter one day when I noticed someone stick a game in their pocket and head for the door. I stopped him, stuck my hand on his pocket to verify that something was there, asked for the game back and told him never to come back to the store.

 

GORDIFIED: I was standing behind the counter one day when I noticed a punk kid stick a game in their pocket and head for the door with his 3 punk pals. I followed them outside and then yelled "STOP RIGHT THERE!" The punks ran down the street, splitting up when they reached an alley. I let the accomplices go and stayed on buddy's tail. I finally caught up to him and with one hand lifted him off the ground and slammed him into a garbage dumpster. Before buddy had a chance to say anything I grabbed the game out of his pocket and beat him with it until he begged for mercy. Gord is a merciful Gord so he let buddy go. Do not steal from the Gord, as his justice is swift and terrible."

 

I made that up, but you get the idea.

 

Chris

[Tempest]

and for the guy that said that the guy from Acts of Gord should run a chain....I was talking to a guy that went to his store. He said that Gord was a huge douche, and that 90% of his stories are pure BS.

 

It's kind of funny that you should say that, because when reading through all of the Acts of Gord, I got that impression. It comes of as a collection of "What I should have done" stories, or fantastical recounts of benign dealings rehashed to make the storyteller sound greater than he really is.

Those stories have to be either made up or deeply embelished. If that guy did 1/10th of the stuff he writes about he would have been sued into obliviion and/or put in jail. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that they're "What I really wanted to do" type stories. Still, it's interesting reading nonetheless.

 

Tempest

[godslabrat]

Those stories have to be either made up or deeply embelished. If that guy did 1/10th of the stuff he writes about he would have been sued into obliviion and/or put in jail. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that they're "What I really wanted to do" type stories. Still, it's interesting reading nonetheless.

 

I dunno... you work in retail long enough, you develop a strong lack of patience for human stupidity. It's natural to try and get away with stuff now and again-- when I worked for the late Circuit City, I pulled more than a few Gordisms, and I was just a low-level schmuck. If you own the place, as Gord claimed to, you could take certain risks. My antics weren't quite as brazen as Gord's, but they still fell way outside the realm of what would be considered "a positive customer experience". There were days that, were I to be the owner of the store, I would definately have invoked some Gordlike justice. That's not bragging, it's just fact-- I only eat so much shit before I spit it back out. Maybe Gord also has that kind of temperment.

 

Then again, maybe he's just a giant bullshitter. I dunno, but I won't discount either possibility.

[STICH666]

It just further makes me wonder what the purpose of stores like GameStop is. If I want to buy current gen stuff I can go to any store. GameStop is a specialty game store, and yet they really don't have anything special. For instance I went there a couple of weeks ago to buy the Korg DS-10 Synthesizer for DS, but they don't carry it. They were not out of it, they just never carried it in the first place. Well then what are they for? Thats the kind of specialty title that you may not find in a big box store, so you would think that you would need to go to a game shop to find it. But nope. All they have is 5,000 copies of Madden 07 for the 360 and a bunch of shitty 3rd party Mad Catz controllers.

 

It's just amazing how in the span of a few years they went from carrying stuff all the way back to the NES era to not even carrying last gen games. The only way this place makes money is by preying on people who are desperate to sell their games to buy new ones. They are nothing but a glorified pawn shop at this point. I understand that the profit margin for new games is very low, but I don't believe that it gives them the right to rip people off the way that they do, but it is the people's fault for allowing themselves to be ripped off. Why would you trade a game in to GS when you can sell it locally on Craigslist for free? If you are just going to buy a game, beat it, and return it, then just get GameFly or something. Buying a game for $59 and then trading it in to GS for next to nothing just makes no sense, but then a lot of people just don't seem to have a lot going on upstairs.

 

In that article you linked to, I saw that they are currently giving about $12 in trade in value (~$9 cash) for an XBox system. Meanwhile they sell them for $50. I cringe thinking what the trade in value of a Gamecube must be since it sells for $29.99.

 

Chris

$9.99 is the trade-in value for a Gamecube now. Gamestop sucks since they drove out all the competition. I only shop at Play-N-Trade now. It's funny but Play-N-Trade is actually taking over Gamestop and since they are each independently run we don't have to deal with corporate bullshit. Here's a store locator if anyone is interested. http://playntrade.com/storefinder

Edited January 23, 2009 by STICH666

[pinball22]

I went in Play-N-Trade yesterday... first time I'd stopped in in a couple of months, and I was disappointed. The large stock of older (NES-N64 eras) stuff they previously had has been reduced to one small "retro games" shelf. I asked if they had any even older stuff, but they didn't. While I'm still glad it's there as another more independent alternative to GameStop, I wish they'd try harder not to just have 95% this and last gen stuff. We do have a local independent chain with three stores that stocks a lot more, fortunately, but the more choices the better. And even they have little to nothing pre-NES.

[CGQuarterly]

I went in Play-N-Trade yesterday... first time I'd stopped in in a couple of months, and I was disappointed. The large stock of older (NES-N64 eras) stuff they previously had has been reduced to one small "retro games" shelf. I asked if they had any even older stuff, but they didn't. While I'm still glad it's there as another more independent alternative to GameStop, I wish they'd try harder not to just have 95% this and last gen stuff. We do have a local independent chain with three stores that stocks a lot more, fortunately, but the more choices the better. And even they have little to nothing pre-NES.

 

The only thing I can say to that is that the amount of shelf space dedicated to products at stores like that is generally directly proportional to the amount of that item that they sell. If the CG stuff there is down to one shelf, it is because no one at that location is buying it. They could go the other way and really try to push the stuff, but if they are doing well selling the modern stuff then they have little reason to worry about older stuff. It's unfortunate but that's the way it is. The majority of customers dictate what stores stock, and we, my friends, are not in the majority.

 

Chris

[STICH666]

I went in Play-N-Trade yesterday... first time I'd stopped in in a couple of months, and I was disappointed. The large stock of older (NES-N64 eras) stuff they previously had has been reduced to one small "retro games" shelf. I asked if they had any even older stuff, but they didn't. While I'm still glad it's there as another more independent alternative to GameStop, I wish they'd try harder not to just have 95% this and last gen stuff. We do have a local independent chain with three stores that stocks a lot more, fortunately, but the more choices the better. And even they have little to nothing pre-NES.

Play-N-Trades are privately owned. The lack of retro games are the owners fault not the chain itself. The one by me sold replacement games and controllers for the Magnavox Odyssey up until a couple months ago. Now the oldest they have are 6 switch Atari 2600 consoles and some launch titles. I'm pleased with their NES selection but disappointed with their Master System games. They have maybe 10 games and most are crap.

[pinball22]

Yeah, I know it's up to the individual owner... which is why I was disappointed, since I know other PNTs have a lot more. It's probably true that it's demand driven, though the guy's response when I asked about older stuff gave me the feeling that a lot of people are coming in asking for it.

[+wood_jl]

Over the holidays, the Xbox 360 packages had 2 kiddie games - Lego Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda. If you didn't want those games, just the system, and wanted to trade those 2 new games back in, they'd pay you $6 for them - that's $3 EACH for the games that were on the very shelf for $40 EACH.

 

The only thing I buy at Gamestop is SOME of the used accessories in the bag, when they're sometimes cheaper, after I've looked on Ebay and Amazon.com.

[Atari_Owl]

and for the guy that said that the guy from Acts of Gord should run a chain....I was talking to a guy that went to his store. He said that Gord was a huge douche, and that 90% of his stories are pure BS.

 

It's kind of funny that you should say that, because when reading through all of the Acts of Gord, I got that impression. It comes of as a collection of "What I should have done" stories, or fantastical recounts of benign dealings rehashed to make the storyteller sound greater than he really is. For example:

 

TRUTH: I was standing behind the counter one day when I noticed someone stick a game in their pocket and head for the door. I stopped him, stuck my hand on his pocket to verify that something was there, asked for the game back and told him never to come back to the store.

 

GORDIFIED: I was standing behind the counter one day when I noticed a punk kid stick a game in their pocket and head for the door with his 3 punk pals. I followed them outside and then yelled "STOP RIGHT THERE!" The punks ran down the street, splitting up when they reached an alley. I let the accomplices go and stayed on buddy's tail. I finally caught up to him and with one hand lifted him off the ground and slammed him into a garbage dumpster. Before buddy had a chance to say anything I grabbed the game out of his pocket and beat him with it until he begged for mercy. Gord is a merciful Gord so he let buddy go. Do not steal from the Gord, as his justice is swift and terrible."

 

I made that up, but you get the idea.

 

Chris

 

Absolutely right - that's exactly how it comes across and in particular he comes across as a colossal douche.

Edited January 28, 2009 by Atari_Owl

[godslabrat]

Over the holidays, the Xbox 360 packages had 2 kiddie games - Lego Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda. If you didn't want those games, just the system, and wanted to trade those 2 new games back in, they'd pay you $6 for them - that's $3 EACH for the games that were on the very shelf for $40 EACH.

 

Ummm... it's $3 for a game that was, essentially, free with the system. How much trade-in value does Super Mario Bros. have? How much does Wii Sports sell for separately?

 

I agree that gamestop sucks, but I can't argue with that logic at all.

[pinball22]

It's not really two games -- at least in the one I got, they came packaged together in a single case with two discs and the art for one on one side and the other on the other.

[godslabrat]

Just curious... how good of a game was KFP? I mean, Lego Indy is cool enough that I could imagine it moving a few systems. It's a game I'd want regardless of being included or not. But KFP... what's the appeal? Did that game actually sell a single 360 on its own merit?

[STICH666]

Yeah, I know it's up to the individual owner... which is why I was disappointed, since I know other PNTs have a lot more. It's probably true that it's demand driven, though the guy's response when I asked about older stuff gave me the feeling that a lot of people are coming in asking for it.

If that's the case, he's not getting the hint that people will play a lot of money for classic games.

[pinball22]

Just curious... how good of a game was KFP? I mean, Lego Indy is cool enough that I could imagine it moving a few systems. It's a game I'd want regardless of being included or not. But KFP... what's the appeal? Did that game actually sell a single 360 on its own merit?

 

I'm playing it right now... it's reasonably fun, looks nice, and isn't very hard, so I'd guess it's a big hit with little kids. Based on the commercials, that's the market the bundling of KFP and Lego Indy was trying to draw in to buying a 360, so while that might not be a system seller for adults, it probably works on parents.

 

The game has a few issues -- there's a lot of places where there are X things to collect, but you can go on to the next part with only X-1 or X-2. Unfortunately, it's really easy to accidentally go on -- for example, there will be a character you need to tell that you're ready to continue, and just getting near them once you have the minimum will trigger the cutscene -- and there's no way to say you want to go back and get the others. Also, jumping up onto things is a little awkward sometimes... if you're too close you'll sort of bounce off. It's fun enough to be worth playing if you got it bundled (or find it used for cheap, which I'm sure is going to be easy soon).

[J.Max]

I'm really unhappy with Gamestop right now. Usually, I don't love or hate them, they're just a place to buy games. However, right now they've done two things that have really irritated me:

 

1. I've had an SFIV TE joystick on preorder since December, and they are still "verifying" the order. Now, part of this has to do with Mad Catz not making enough sticks, but Gamestop could at least let people know what is going on with a pre-order; Best Buy has, and they are usually a far worse company than Gamestop.

 

2. Ultimate Shooting Collection for the Wii: I've had this pre-ordered since November. It still hasn't shipped, and it's not available in ANY store (including Best Buy, Micro Center, Target, and Wal-Mart) but the people who pre-ordered from Amazon have their copies. Gamestop has pushed back the ship date on this one no less than FIVE times. I called them about this one, and they didn't have an answer.

[J.Max]

Just to follow up...went down to Play N Trade, bought Ultimate Shooting Collection, cancelled Gamestop pre-order. They also had a Castlevania Double Pack for the GBA, which was going for a whole $5, so I picked that up too. Always good to support your local game seller, even if it's a franchise.

[esquire]

I cringe thinking what the trade in value of a Gamecube must be since it sells for $29.99.

 

Chris

 

Well it's not just the % markup on resale, but also the total number of sales on the used product that dictate the trade-in price. For instance, if Gamecubes are not selling, which is very likely, there is no reason for them to give a lot more in trade. The backwards capability of the Wii coupled with its popularity, means there is really no reason to buy a used Gamecube right now. It's the same analogy you would apply to old EA sports titles, i.e. no one buys last year's Madden. It kinda explains the reason why the system is only selling for $29.99 - no one is buying them and they are trying to get rid of them.

[NinjaWarrior]

I don't think it's helping tyring to the Gamecube's, It's still sitting there