DragonGrafx-16 Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 Can't wait for the going out of business sales! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 Man I better use my Gamestop gift card! (from a refund).. hopefully they can hold off this shit until Yokai Watch 3 comes out on the 8th. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 Hey if they die it should be good for the industry. Knocking them out would leave a pretty large void for another few companies to swoop in and be more competitive in the after market goods, the fluff toys and clothes, plus the new things too since big box stores tend to stock less options. Well, at least until one gets the idea to eat the rest yet again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariboy Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 Their online shipping expenses don't help them any. Bought an exclusive game and a 4 GB SD card just now and the cheapest shipping option was $5.50. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 Their stock took a 27% tumble. The buyers aren't coming. Sounds like the average store lease is 2 years so we can expect them to close many locations. One analyst's opinion: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-01-29/no-gamestop--gme---buyout--no-surprise Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 Their stock took a 27% tumble. The buyers aren't coming. Sounds like the average store lease is 2 years so we can expect them to close many locations. One analyst's opinion: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-01-29/no-gamestop--gme---buyout--no-surprise Plus there's too many of them. We have literally two Gamestops actoss the street from one another in one busy shopping district. One of them was an EB Games prior to the 2006 merger. If there's enough business to support two locations on one city block, why not merge them and use a larger retail space to diversify product selection? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 I agree -- the real estate is like a noose around their necks, like what happened to Border's Books. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 I've seen that here too, they did get smart enough to close them when they were walking distance (>!mi) apart, but if you were to stand at a point in town and drive the roads you can hit like 6 of them in a 5mi radius in this area which is asinine. They act like Starbucks for locations but function nothing like them where they can't hack it due to what comes in for the offered product. Starbucks has cheapness, variety, speed, friendliness, a chill environment, and seasonal goodies and solid promos to get you to go in to encourage. Gamestop has diminshing values on product faster than a car off the lot, high prices, insulting resale value with nearly as high turn around price, hype, pressure, harassment, upsales, you name it. That dooms them as much as the location liability does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bojay1997 Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 Hey if they die it should be good for the industry. Knocking them out would leave a pretty large void for another few companies to swoop in and be more competitive in the after market goods, the fluff toys and clothes, plus the new things too since big box stores tend to stock less options. Well, at least until one gets the idea to eat the rest yet again. Nobody is going to fill the void. Most of the major retailers have already pulled out of the used buyback business and small independent game retailers are barely scraping by. You may get a few new entrants in the online used game resale marketplace, but physical retail for this kind of thing will die with Gamestop. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 Well if you're right, I won't miss it. I preferred the small shops back in the 90s when I got started doing this and avoided the funco type stuff which was there too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0078265317 Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 There isn't really much other choice though. Bestbuy and target sell video games. That is about it. Gamestop is still good for the odds and ends nobody else sells like spare used wii controller. Or I picked up a used DS LITE car charger for 1 dollar the other day. Anywhere else would of been way more. And ebay is ridiculous with over charging for things you can no longer get at the store. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Video Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 I thought GameStop pulled out of the sellout talks, I was thinking I was something on the news earlier this week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 I thought GameStop pulled out of the sellout talks, I was thinking I was something on the news earlier this week. They did pull out, but only because it was clear that no one wants to buy them. To do so would be a mess. This site lays out why GameStop currently has about $820 million of outstanding debt, $350 million of which comes due on Oct. 1 and carries a 5.50% interest rate. Paying that down would save the company the equivalent of 14 cents of per-share earnings and leave $385 million of proceeds that would cover the remaining $475 million of debt that matures in March of 2021. Those notes are even more expensive with an interest rate of 6.75%. Eliminating that debt would save about $32 million in annual interest costs, equal to 24 cents of EPS, he said. They also have a cute little GIF, which I aim to steal for purposes of Atariboxmockery. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blainelocklair Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 Oh, my. I hadn't realized their stock was at $11.00 today. They were about $46 a share around 3.5 years ago. That's unmanageable financial loss. Any company that loses over 75% of its stock value in that short of a time is headed for disaster. They've done it to themselves, but I hate to see it. As I've mentioned before, I was a store manager for Babbage's in the early-to-mid 90s, so I have a connection to GameStop, even though it has become a shell of what it once was. Competition is good for us all in terms of having choices. I hope GameStop figures out what to do to right their ship. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digdugnate Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 my $.02, (really a penny, adjusted for inflation)- I was in GameStop last Friday because I had a gift card I was going to redeem. I picked up a 'new' copy of Octopath Traveller since it was $60, but used was $55. The sales clerk tried at first to sell me the used copy but i said 'No, the new copy is only 5 dollars more.' Then he pulls out the 'new' copy and it's in an unshrinkwrapped box. He assures me that 'it's a new copy, just a store demo'. I get home and immediately try to redeem the points off the game and the Switch comes back with 'this has already been redeemed for this title'. The sad part is that it's an hour drive from my house and the $5 dollars from used to new isn't even worth my effort to complain about. :/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godslabrat Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 I would love to see a new game store pop up and take the place of GameStop, offering better service and selection. Even excluding used games and just being a reliable source for new games would be nice. However, I just don't see that happening. Your new game purchases (brick-and-mortar style) can be handled by Best Buy, Target, and Wal-Mart... and even they are giving them only the minimum shelf space needed. Used games are becoming a non-issue due to download sales, and Retro is a niche that likely can't support a business that isn't already established. GameStop has done itself no favors, but it just has no place in the world we're going into, and I'm not sure being a better company could change that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 I would love to see a new game store pop up and take the place of GameStop, offering better service and selection. Even excluding used games and just being a reliable source for new games would be nice. However, I just don't see that happening. Your new game purchases (brick-and-mortar style) can be handled by Best Buy, Target, and Wal-Mart... and even they are giving them only the minimum shelf space needed. Used games are becoming a non-issue due to download sales, and Retro is a niche that likely can't support a business that isn't already established. GameStop has done itself no favors, but it just has no place in the world we're going into, and I'm not sure being a better company could change that. A partial list of places where I used to go to buy video games (including computer equipment, once upon a time): Kay-Bee Toy and Hobby Lionel Kiddie City Captron World of Nintendo Electronics Boutique Babbage's Software Etc. Toys R Us "R Zone" Sears Sears catalog KMart Blockbuster Video Hollywood Video Funcoland Egghead Software CompUSA Staples Computer City Tower Records Sam Goody BRE Software Toad Computers Borders Books and Music Caldor Murphy Mart (later Ames) Montgomery Ward Woolworth & Co. People's Drug JJ Newberry Nobody Beats the Wiz Incredible Universe HH Gregg Circuit City Telegames All dead, or in a few cases, an online-only shadow of their former selves. In typing out this list, I am able to recall specific titles purchased from each place. My SNES was from Woolworth, my Genesis from Funcoland, I got a buttload of Lynx games from Incredible Universe, my first computer modem from Electronics Boutique (remember when they sold useful things?), my Saturn from Toys R Us, my Nintendo 64 from KB Toys. An overpriced Mac version of Monkey Island 2 from the Software Etc in the Baltimore harbor mall. Cheap Genesis games mail-ordered from BRE. Jaguar rarities from Telegames. Rock Band from Circuit City as it was closing down. The displays of 8- and 16-bit consoles at Caldor. Riding my bike and blowing thirty bucks on the shitacular Vectron for Intellivision. I could go on. Where I buy video games and computer stuff now: Apple iOS App Store Playstation Network Steam GOG Xbox store Nintendo eShop Amazon Target Walmart MicroCenter Ebay Gamestop I've seen so much retail death already, I won't even feel the loss of a specialty shop. I hope something interesting takes the place of the Gamestop near me. It was a Mattress Warehouse before, which sucked even more. Maybe we could have a nice NY-style pizzeria with a few old video games against the wall. I'd go there at least every other week, which would be more than my biennial visits to Gamestop. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0078265317 Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 (edited) A partial list of places where I used to go to buy video games (including computer equipment, once upon a time): Kay-Bee Toy and Hobby Lionel Kiddie City Captron World of Nintendo Electronics Boutique Babbage's Software Etc. Toys R Us "R Zone" Sears Sears catalog KMart Blockbuster Video Hollywood Video Funcoland Egghead Software CompUSA Staples Computer City Tower Records Sam Goody BRE Software Toad Computers Borders Books and Music Caldor Murphy Mart (later Ames) Montgomery Ward Woolworth & Co. People's Drug JJ Newberry Nobody Beats the Wiz Incredible Universe HH Gregg Circuit City Telegames All dead, or in a few cases, an online-only shadow of their former selves. In typing out this list, I am able to recall specific titles purchased from each place. My SNES was from Woolworth, my Genesis from Funcoland, I got a buttload of Lynx games from Incredible Universe, my first computer modem from Electronics Boutique (remember when they sold useful things?), my Saturn from Toys R Us, my Nintendo 64 from KB Toys. An overpriced Mac version of Monkey Island 2 from the Software Etc in the Baltimore harbor mall. Cheap Genesis games mail-ordered from BRE. Jaguar rarities from Telegames. Rock Band from Circuit City as it was closing down. The displays of 8- and 16-bit consoles at Caldor. Riding my bike and blowing thirty bucks on the shitacular Vectron for Intellivision. I could go on. Where I buy video games and computer stuff now: Apple iOS App Store Playstation Network Steam GOG Xbox store Nintendo eShop Amazon Target Walmart MicroCenter Ebay Gamestop I've seen so much retail death already, I won't even feel the loss of a specialty shop. I hope something interesting takes the place of the Gamestop near me. It was a Mattress Warehouse before, which sucked even more. Maybe we could have a nice NY-style pizzeria with a few old video games against the wall. I'd go there at least every other week, which would be more than my biennial visits to Gamestop. I remember egghead. Edited January 31, 2019 by 0078265317 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted February 1, 2019 Share Posted February 1, 2019 That list creates some memories to pop up. My first full retail boxed game I bought as a kid for PC was Konami's expanded conversion of Simpsons Arcade Game and it was at an Egghead, before that the first floppy kind of game I got was Ep1 of Wolf3D from a pop up computer parts/store for a few dollars. I remember shopping Captron, Toys R Us, Good Guys, EB Games, Software Etc, Funcoland, Montgomery Ward(got the CDi I once had here), Kay-bee, Play Co, Target, KMart, Sears, JC Penney, Sam Goody, Tower Records, Borders, Incredible Universe, Frys, BEST Products, Fedco, CompUSA come to mind on my own and the big list there. Even in the 2000s before GS killed it a year later Rhino Games a couple times. The only mail order I ever did was once, Funco, they sent me 4 games, 1 was broken with bitrot or its equal (River City Ransom, which they replaced free.) Today it's just basically Amazon, Target, Best Buy, and Meijer in order of usefulness/frequency excluding ebay for new stuff too. Ebay I didn't put in the remember list because while I've been on there 21 years I didn't buy new until this decade. I'd still go to Frys if they put one local some day, did about a decade ago when I was last in Cali. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+x=usr(1536) Posted February 1, 2019 Share Posted February 1, 2019 Nobody is going to fill the void. Most of the major retailers have already pulled out of the used buyback business and small independent game retailers are barely scraping by. You may get a few new entrants in the online used game resale marketplace, but physical retail for this kind of thing will die with Gamestop. I agree that used buyback is dead as far as GameStop and the like are concerned, but suspect that this will live on (and probably shift more heavily towards) thrift stores and pawn shops. Given that virtually all of them already deal in used hardware and software, it makes sense that a potential seller would gravitate towards them if there are no dedicated retail establishments handling this end of things. (Yes, I am aware that thrift stores generally only accept donations and don't purchase the items they're selling. However, they do operate similarly enough to pawn shops that they were included for consideration.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0078265317 Posted February 3, 2019 Share Posted February 3, 2019 (edited) https://investorplace.com/2019/01/gamestop-gme-technologys-sell-by-date-nimg/ https://www.gamerevolution.com/features/415397-gamestop-closing-would-hurt-the-gaming-community-game-revolution Edited February 3, 2019 by 0078265317 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhd Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 I agree that used buyback is dead as far as GameStop and the like are concerned, but suspect that this will live on (and probably shift more heavily towards) thrift stores and pawn shops. Given that virtually all of them already deal in used hardware and software, it makes sense that a potential seller would gravitate towards them if there are no dedicated retail establishments handling this end of things. Has the consignment shop model ever been used for selling video games? I have seen many consignment shops for clothing (usually higher end, fashionable attire) and a few for children's stuff (e.g. car seats, strollers), but not for other products The main problem I see is that the margin's are going to be very tight. Even if the retailer takes a generous 20% of the sale price, that is only $5 revenue on a $25 used game. On the other hand, capital outlay going to be is minimal as the "stock" is all owned by the consignors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+x=usr(1536) Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 Has the consignment shop model ever been used for selling video games? I have seen many consignment shops for clothing (usually higher end, fashionable attire) and a few for children's stuff (e.g. car seats, strollers), but not for other products The main problem I see is that the margin's are going to be very tight. Even if the retailer takes a generous 20% of the sale price, that is only $5 revenue on a $25 used game. On the other hand, capital outlay going to be is minimal as the "stock" is all owned by the consignors. Good question. Thinking about it, I've seen a couple of boardgaming and comic book stores that also have a section for old hardware. Whether or not they're doing it on consignment, though, I have no idea. Where I can see retailers not wanting to touch consignment (other than the margins) is twofold: first, even if selling everything as-is, untested, and with no warranty, they're still going to have to deal with irate customers who found out that something was wrong with their purchase; second, the amount of time it takes to turn over the inventory in that section of the store (coupled with the low margins on consignment goods) may be unprofitable in comparison with other products that they carry. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 I don't think consignment would work well on depreciating mass-market media like games, movies, or books. Most of the commercial value of these items is realized within a few weeks of release; and sometimes a little while later for a secondary release (paperback for books, home video for movies, "greatest hits" for games). As a seller, I'd rather cut out the middleman and get as much as possible for myself. Ebay's got this covered well, Amazon/Craigslist too. As a buyer, I'd rather pay the seller directly and avoid any markups. I think consignment works well for kid stuff because the initial purchase price is so high, but strollers etc don't really go out of style or demand, just get passed from one affluent parent to another. Nice kids clothes usually get outgrown, not worn out. Maybe trades on virtual goods will catch on someday, if they haven't already. I know Steam allows some of this, but I don't know if it's worth doing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhd Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 I was thinking in terms of directly replacing Gamestop. I agree that selling something yourself is always the best way to go, but the very fact that Gamestop exists (albeit barely) means that there is a demand for people to get some revenue from their games even if they do not wish to sell them themselves. As noted above, pawn shops already provide this service; I was wondering if one could offer potential sellers a better deal if they are willing to wait for the item to be sold through. e.g. A pawn shop will give you 25% of the value of the item in cash today; a consignment shop will give you 80% of the value if/when the item actually sells. (Donating to a thrift shop gets you 0% of the value.) Personally, I would use such a service. I have no desire to deal with the hassles of selling anything online, yet I have some items that I would prefer to realize revenue from rather than just donate them to charity. Heck, I have used the Gamestop trade-in service in the past (mainly because there was a location within convenient walking distance of my apartment). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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