the pricing of used games at ebgames

[shadow460]

Perhaps the price of a game should be determined, in small part, by its condition. I've seen 20 year old games that are immaculate. I've also been the unfortunate person who tore the shrink wrap from a new but terrible looking cart.

 

For example, a new Lumines might be worth $50. A used one might go for $40, but if the new one's got loose inside the case and the UMD's shell is all scratched up, whereas the used one has been well treated and generally kept on a shelf, the new copy is definitely not worth as much as the used one.

[Scumdogg]

Perhaps the price of a game should be determined, in small part, by its condition. I've seen 20 year old games that are immaculate. I've also been the unfortunate person who tore the shrink wrap from a new but terrible looking cart.

 

For example, a new Lumines might be worth $50. A used one might go for $40, but if the new one's got loose inside the case and the UMD's shell is all scratched up, whereas the used one has been well treated and generally kept on a shelf, the new copy is definitely not worth as much as the used one.

 

 

That would definitely be great, but i'm skeptical that GameStop could put such a massive pricing scheme into effect. In the long run, it could also have the detrimental effect of nice condition games not going down in price.

 

Personally, i think the entire used games situation at GameStop could be made SO much better if they'd just stop taking loose disc-based games. All it does is encourage theft. Nobody actually loses the case to a 360 game. They're games either kept in binders and stolen, or the game that happened to be in the 360 when it was stolen. I'd say probably 3/4 of the time, easily, this is the case. I own exactly ONE loose disc game, and it's some GameCube wrestling game that someone left in the tray when they sold it to me. I refuse to even list it as part of my collection, but just can't seem to throw it away. It sits in limbo, unwanted and unloved. With the exception of certain titles on the Saturn or Sega CD (and their easily-shattered cases), there's certainly nothing that's rare enough that gamers should be purchasing and encouraging the sale of loose discs. I shudder everytime i read in a thread on here "Purchased at GameStop-Disc Only".

For that matter, when Blockbuster or anywhere else that puts big ugly labels on their stuff sells a game, that should be the LAST time that game shows up in a retail establishment. The game is permanently damaged at that point, and GameStop shouldn't be selling it at all, much less at the same price as an undamaged game.

Edited July 4, 2007 by Scumdogg

[Bruce Tomlin]

EB Games is still in business? All the ones near me have turned into GameStops...

It's all the same, they just retained the EB signage in some of the stores. Helps maintain an illusion of competition, especially if there's a GameStop and an "EB" in the same mall. Most people wouldn't bother going to two GameStops back to back, but they'd hit up a GameStop and an EB.

The mall in Arlington, TX has two GameStops, on different floors and ends of the mall. I would guess that they just don't want to break the lease early, but then why go to the trouble of rebranding the EB store?

 

Anyhow, the problem with pricing games based on "condition" is that most people just don't care, as long as the game plays without locking up.

 

I do think that they should charge a couple of bucks less for missing instructions ("box" these days being nothing more than the cover sheet), but some places (particularly Blockbuster) you won't even know until you take the game to the counter. Blockbuster is of course notorious for throwing out boxes (even though they are now just cover sheets) and instructions, or for not caring if instructions disappear after renting. They also tend to stick the games by a window, and by the time they put them up for sale, the covers are all faded to an ugly shade of pink.

 

One GameRush store (I like to call them "Game Crush") in San Antonio has taken to putting the disc under the outer plastic cover, then putting tamper stickers with evil adhesive on all three edges. As if someone (other than an employee, and that's a whole different matter) could steal the disc after it was in the box! I would rather see the instructions put out front if they really want to stretch the game case's plastic cover.

[Bruce Tomlin]

These days the selection at any decent-sized Target style store is just as good as GameStop's.

I gotta call you on that. A month or two ago, I was looking for Izuna DS and found out that it wasn't even in Best Buy's computer system. Yep, that's right, someone at Best Buy corporate had decided that they would simply not sell that game, period. (FWIW, this is the same company that decided they would never sell any anime title with the word "Princess" in the name, presumably because the loli series Sister Princess didn't sell well)

 

Walked over to the nearby GameStop, they had one on the shelf behind the counter.

 

The simple fact is that there are niche games which the big box stores aren't going to sell.

[Scumdogg]

(FWIW, this is the same company that decided they would never sell any anime title with the word "Princess" in the name, presumably because the loli series Sister Princess didn't sell well)

 

 

But i've seen Princess Mononoke there.

[Bruce Tomlin]

(FWIW, this is the same company that decided they would never sell any anime title with the word "Princess" in the name, presumably because the loli series Sister Princess didn't sell well)

But i've seen Princess Mononoke there.

That was long before this decision, and already on their lists. They only stopped buying new titles. That's the specific reason why "UFO Princess Valkyrie" was renamed as "UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie", showing the inherent stupidity of the whole idea.

[JimmydelaKopin]

Sister Princess a loli series?!

...er, only if Dennis the Menace is a MILF-incest comic strip.

 

Sheesh, if Best Buy makes its retail decisions based on words in a title..no wonder it's hard to find anything worth buying over there.

That's even nuttier than the Wal-Mart "Al Snow" decision.

 

Anyway, to segue back partially on topic, this one company owns Gamestop, Funcoland, EBGames, and Babbage's.

Wouldn't it be funny if a mall had one of each store in it? I could imagine that as a gag for a movie or TV show, where the same employees keep appearing in each store, running behind the scenes from store to store as the same customers check out each store.

y'know, like it was done in Sister Princess.

[2600Lives]

Any time I have a "loose" cd or dvd game, it gets a case. If I get a copy of something (Blockbuster is REALLY bad about this sometimes) for, say, the PS2 (like the Punisher game I bought a couple of years ago) that has no booklet or cover slip, I simply put it in a good quality DVD case and get a piece of paper, cut it to the right size, write the name of the game on the spine, front, and back, and slip it in. That way, I know what it is on my shelf, and I can still consider it part of the collection (though, I do like having some sort of instructions, be it the original booklet or some sort of printed. A game without instructions just doesn't seem complete to me). One thing I'm very anal about is the condition of my games that are in DVD cases. I HATE buying GameCube games used, as they usually have stickers all over the damn case, and I end up having to swap it with a DVD case. I've got a copy of MGS: TS that I got from a GameStop that had no less than NINE stickers all over the case, and since it's a dual disc game, you can't swap it unless you have another dual disc GC case. Well, I got a stack of dual disc DVD cases, and these work great for stuff like that. I also hate the fact that when you buy something like a Pro Action Replay, you get it in one of those damn cardboard slip cases. UGH. I always put these types of discs in a DVD case (for the PS2 and GameCube) or a cd case (for the DC).

 

About the GS employees, there was one GameStop I had to stop going to, though. There was this guy there that makes Rob from Ctrl-Alt-Del look like someone you'd want to hang out with. Good LORD he just wouldn't leave you alone. I was simply perusing some of their PC games, and he would just NOT SHUT UP about how I really needed to get this RTS or that MMO. When I'm in a store, I really like to be left alone. I never need any help unless I need to buy something that's in a locked case or something. If I can't find something, I figure that I'm stupid, and I'll leave without it. But DAMN, seriously, they need to teach some of these guys to simply leave people alone and let them shop.

[tantone56]

That whole "open but new" runs the other way, too. When I used to work at a game store, we got a LOT of douchebags coming in (sometimes I'm seriously ashamed to even admit that I belong to the gamer crowd. We're a bunch of assholes!). This one guy came in with a "brand new" copy of Hexen on the 64. This was when we sold the game for like 10 bucks. Anyway, he wanted a copy of Donkey Kong 64, which had just came out, and figured since he had "just opened the box and hadn't played it", it was brand new and he'd be able to get said DK game at an even swap.

 

WRONG.

 

He just kept saying over and over "But it's new!" while I tried to explain to him it wasn't because it had been OPENED. Finally I got fed up and grabbed a new copy of some random 64 game we had on the shelf.

 

"See? This is new. It's not opened. The second you tear off that wrapping, it's not fucking new anymore! Understand!? And even if it was still in the wrapper, you're still gonna get what we give for it used, and not a damn penny more!"

 

Yeah, I tossed his ass out after that, I'd had just about enough. We'd get the stupidest dipshits in there. Guys getting so pissed because I wouldn't trade their ass copy of Madden '94 on the SNES straight across for a brand new 64 game and crap. And hey, I'm no racist or anything, but I swear to you that EVERY black guy that came in there that felt he didn't get a deal on something ALWAYS said "This is only happening because I'm black." I gotta honestly say that I'm glad I don't work there anymore. It was even worse than the pawn shop I worked at, and that's saying something!

 

So, I usually (usually, not always) cut the game store employees some slack. It's hard to give a shit about anything when you make minimum wage and have to deal with a steady stream of dickheads all day long. 95% of the crap they gotta do and say the management makes them do (and I wouldn't honestly be surprised that the managers make them do that shady stuff, too), so I understand.

 

 

That sucks man. Retail jobs are the worst because the portion of the public that you seem to deal with is a buch of total assholes. I had to work a 6 flags awhile back and because the company is ripping people off on the price of food I would get yelled at like it was me stuffing the cash into my pocket and profiting. Screw retail man.

[2600Lives]

I hear ya. I think that every single retail place in the US should have a troop of guys there with shotguns. They follow you every step while you're in the store with the gun to your head, and if you so much as look crosseyed at an employee, BAM. The worst was working at a pet store, though. Old people + little education on their part = one pissed off me. Sorry, but seriously, I've got better things to do than to compare the amounts of protein in dog food, or tell someone all about a product that they can read on the goddamn label.

[Gabriel]

That sucks man. Retail jobs are the worst because the portion of the public that you seem to deal with is a buch of total assholes. I had to work a 6 flags awhile back and because the company is ripping people off on the price of food I would get yelled at like it was me stuffing the cash into my pocket and profiting. Screw retail man.

 

Minimum wage retail only excuses so much. Similar behaviour from a McEmployee would not be accepted at all. Even Wal-Mart has higher standards of employee behaviour than Gamestop/EB.

[causeican]

When I moved I trade in a whole shit load of games that I never played at Eb. I never should have done it. What I got for everything was significantly less than what I paid. When I moved to Daytona Beach were there is a local shop. The owner and myself were talking one day and I just happened to have had the reciept in my wallet. He looked at the games and told me flat out that he would have given me more.

I guess the lesson to learn on my end of things is "STAY AWAY FROM CORPORATE STORES. GIVE YOUR BUSINESS TO THE LITTLE GUY THAT IS TRYING TO MAKE A NAME FOR THEMSEVES.".

Oh well you live and learn.