Video Game Store Pet Peeves

[Trade-N-Games]

totally off-topic but....hey Trade-N-Games, how does it feel to live in the number one most dangerous city in America.........

i used to go up to saint louie all the time when my grandparents were still alive and lived there...

now my asshole uncle is the only one left up there

I have been in this town for a long time and I go all over the place and I strongly disagree with that rank. I just dont see it that way. I think the numbers might be from a small area of the inner St Louis City much like many other inner cities have a way higher crime rate. As a region I think it is very safe and take my family all over the place without problems.

[Famicoman]

Mmmmm... 2004

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...c=52486&hl=

[PressureCooker2600]

Mmmmm... 2004

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...c=52486&hl=

 

always fun to bring up topics again and again

[Mark III]

I think part of the problem is that the profit margins at small stores aren't as high as some of you seem to think. After paying rent (have you ever checked out the prices for retail space in a commerical district?), utilities, etc, I'm surprised stores can even stay in business.

 

I believe that most stores don't have the money to hire anyone with experience and knowledge about the industry, and hire staff for minimum wage, just the same as a McDonald's.

 

Depends entirely on the store. An owner who cares will hire gamers, an owner who doesn't will hire whoever is cheapest or someone who will relentlessly push a sale on you.

 

 

There's nothing wrong with a store charging market value for rare games either. You have to remember that the person trading the games in has other options like ebay as well. Therefore a store will have to offer a good price to get in good stock. Although I won't defend the $15 ET's and Mario/Duckhunts that someone mentioned seeing, that's absurd no matter how you slice it.

[devils advocate]

Mmmmm... 2004

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...c=52486&hl=

 

 

What is this? Digitalpress?

[Student Driver]

I haven't had many problems over the last, say, 4 or 5 years when shopping at game stores. I think it's mostly due to the fact that the idea of "retro gaming" and collecting for older systems has become more widespread. I remember at the tail-end of the Sega CD's life, I picked one up and went to a nearby Funco, and was literally pointed-at and laughed-at for wanting "old crap." That kind of thing doesn't happen anymore. Nowadays, if I go somewhere slumming for oldies, at worst I get indifference, at best I get some guy behind the counter geekily bonding with me over old games. I get asked things like "hey, got the Atari 5400?" or "got the Coleco Intellivision?" or other questions that show a lack of specialized classics knowledge, but that's fine.

 

My last bad non-classics interaction: EB Games. I preordered Arc the Lad Collection for PSX, because I wanted to make sure I got the gaudy/cool Working Designs pre-order gifts. Preorders of Arc the Lad got a pocket watch. Nice! Waited until the release day, and didn't get my usual telephone call letting me know it had arrived. Drove over to EB, only to be told that they'd given my watch to another customer who really wanted it, despite not having preordered the game. When I got mad, I was simply told "well, you should have come in earlier, then, when we had it. It's not our responsibility to get you people to come into the store for your orders."

 

I fumed, got a refund on my preorder, then wrote to corporate. To the company's credit, the local district manager actually called around, found an unclaimed watch from a cancelled preorder sitting in another state, had it shipped to Indiana, whereupon I finally purchased my game. Unfortunately, the guy who rang me up was the guy who'd told me it was my fault he'd given away my earlier watch. As he rang me up, he began muttering to me how I'd gotten him in trouble, there was no need to have contacted corporate, I was an asshole, etc. I've never been back to that location since, lest I have to deal with him again.

[Gabriel]

I remember at the tail-end of the Sega CD's life, I picked one up and went to a nearby Funco, and was literally pointed-at and laughed-at for wanting "old crap."

 

Yep, that's my experience with Funco too.

 

My last bad non-classics interaction: EB Games. I preordered Arc the Lad Collection for PSX, because I wanted to make sure I got the gaudy/cool Working Designs pre-order gifts. Preorders of Arc the Lad got a pocket watch. Nice! Waited until the release day, and didn't get my usual telephone call letting me know it had arrived. Drove over to EB, only to be told that they'd given my watch to another customer who really wanted it, despite not having preordered the game. When I got mad, I was simply told "well, you should have come in earlier, then, when we had it. It's not our responsibility to get you people to come into the store for your orders."

 

That's my experience with Gamestop pre-orders. They don't call to tell you the order is in, and they'll happily sell your reserved stuff to whomever walks in the door. Then, when you complain, it's not their fault, it's yours.

 

I forget the title, but I remember some game I ordered, I wasn't called to tell it was in yet. I called the store, because people online were saying they had bought their copies that day. When I called, the answer I got was "Oh yeah, we got it in today. You better hurry if you want it, we only have a few copies left." When I pointed out that I had pre-ordered the game, the guy got quiet and we were "disconnected."

 

Anyway, I get to the store, and they tell me they only have a single copy left, but it's been stripped. I ask why I even pre-ordered if they didn't bother reserving me a copy and the copy they did have for me had been opened. They responded with the usual spiel about the pre-opened games which they give everyone. They even slipped in a little bit how it wasn't their responsibility to make sure they had enough games to fill pre-orders.

 

Did they ever apologize for not holding my pre-order? Nope. Did they apologize for stripping the copy they were trying to sell me? Definitely not, they acted like I should be overjoyed they had taken it out of the package for me. Did they exhibit even the slightest concern they hadn't called me to alert me about my pre-order being in? Not at all.

 

I'm sad to say that in this instance I didn't just walk out. I wanted the game, so I just paid my money and left. Plus, I had already been attempting to get my money back on the pre-order deposit and they had been giving me the run around. I kept on being given the line about how it could only be refunded as store credit. I, of course, didn't want store credit because I wasn't going to shop there again.

 

(But, I did. And I had another irritating episode.)

 

Ironically, I'm thinking the game was Dynasty Warriors 4, or something like that.

[PressureCooker2600]

man....if they laughed at me for buying my Sega CD games...i'd grab my big hulking Sega CD unit and crack it over their skull...."hows that for old crap"

then id spit on their twitching body

plus id walk away with a free copy of Willy Beamish

[Wester]

[gdement]

man....if they laughed at me for buying my Sega CD games...i'd grab my big hulking Sega CD unit and crack it over their skull...."hows that for old crap"

then id spit on their twitching body

plus id walk away with a free copy of Willy Beamish

 

Who knew Hogan's Alley could spark such violent thoughts.

[PressureCooker2600]

man....if they laughed at me for buying my Sega CD games...i'd grab my big hulking Sega CD unit and crack it over their skull...."hows that for old crap"

then id spit on their twitching body

plus id walk away with a free copy of Willy Beamish

 

Who knew Hogan's Alley could spark such violent thoughts.

 

[Swingtown]

All of these come from one store and most of the quotes come from the owner of it...

 

The first time I went into this place I asked how much all of the Atari games were. I was told $3.99, so I picked up a few 2600 titles and some 5200 ones. When I got to the register the guy tried charging me $10 for the 5200 games. I reminded him that I was told $3.99 for all of the Atari games.

 

him: You know these are for the Atari 5200 right? (as he says this very slowly)

me: Yeah I know. I have a system and games at home.

him: You know these are arcade-like quality games, right?

me: Yeah.

him: Do you know how to properly care for and clean these games? I won't sell them to you unless you do.

 

Another time the same guy accused me of "shopping for the competition." I was making a list of some games they had because I wanted to check to make sure that I didn't have them before buying them and he thought I was making a list of games to give to another video game store in town. Even after I told him what I was doing and one of the other clerks told him that I shopped at their store all the time, he still believed that I was a "spy."

 

One of the other clerks at the store (on a few occasions) said, "Don't ever blow into a Nintendo cartridge. That's how they all get ruined. Promise me you will never blow into your Nintendo games."

 

One other store in another town doesn't price their Atari games. When you being them up to the counter they do an eBay search on each game and then tell you the price of them...

[Uzumaki]

Setup a fake auction featuring game like Quadran or SQ: Water World with a $1 BIN, print that auction, and show it to him next time he looks it up.

[Inky]

An incident at Scamcoland that happened to me once...

 

A friend of mine who had a Genesis, liked the rapid fire controller I had for mine, so we went into scamcoland to buy a used one.. Save a few bucks and all. Checked the price and noted the used ones were more expensive (by $5) than the new ones. Asked the clerk about this. THe response? "There's more demand for the used ones"

 

So we bought a new one.

[Shannon]

Stinkoland... although it's been years since I messed with them it seemed like everytime I went in their the employees were too "pre-occupied" to even bother with me.

 

Gamestop... Never EVER liked them.

 

EB Games... Used to get alot of great deals online from there until they were bought out by Gamestop. Then all of a sudden the good deals stopped.

 

Had a local guy that did pretty good with keeping older stuff until they started selling on ebay. At that point I just stopped bothering.

 

Anyways I pretty much do not step foot in these places anymore. Who know maybe I'll get the retro kick again, but for now I'm trying to clean up on current gen price drops as the new gens come in.

[PressureCooker2600]

Stinkoland... although it's been years since I messed with them it seemed like everytime I went in their the employees were too "pre-occupied" to even bother with me.

 

Gamestop... Never EVER liked them.

 

EB Games... Used to get alot of great deals online from there until they were bought out by Gamestop. Then all of a sudden the good deals stopped.

 

Had a local guy that did pretty good with keeping older stuff until they started selling on ebay. At that point I just stopped bothering.

 

Anyways I pretty much do not step foot in these places anymore. Who know maybe I'll get the retro kick again, but for now I'm trying to clean up on current gen price drops as the new gens come in.

 

does gamestop carry atari shit?

[Uzumaki]

Yes they do carry Atari shit. Formerly Infrograms, the Atari games are for modern consoles.

 

If you mean pre crash era game carts, then nope.

[cyberfluxor]

I haven't had any real issues in quite a while with game stores. I however do have 2 pre-orders right now at Gamestop which are the first I've ever done because I wanted to be sure they'd be in my hands at launch. If there are problems their corporate will hear from me, even if my packaged game is opened I'll throw a fit because I'm buying "brand spanking new", not we open it and stash the disk in a drawer to keep people from stealing it because I know you have a back stock room to hold it in.

 

There are only 2 problems I can think of:

1) There's a game store that I wonder to about once every 2 months even if I eat out that way I nearly refuse to wonder in. They have the largest selection of games in the area but their prices are so wacked out and the owner seems to claim the DP rarity guide as the bible and offsets by eBay. If you wonder to the SNES games the lowest price is $5 as if I'm paying shipping for a $2 game, just crazy when a pawn shop up the road doesn't care and sells for $1.

 

2) There seems to have been a downfall in classic video games around here in the past month or two. The usual shops I hit up and generally find ~10 new games a week for great prices appear to be not putting out. I think the area is going on a recession and hope some of my other favorite indy stores don't struggle.

[madhatter667]

What seriously bothers me is that in my area, there are only 2 mom and pop game shops, and one of them isn't dedicated to games and operates almost like a pawnshop that likes to charge on the higher side (but I have found some good deals there from time to time), and the other, while it does have some older stuff, is largely an import game store (I do buy from both the mom and pop shops though). The other game stores are Game Crazy, and Name Your Branch of Gamestop. That's not diverse enough... you cannot even pick up good PSX games anymore, unless you are lucky (cause most of them have been picked through), since the shops don't take them in anymore.

 

Really kind of sad to see the hobby get turned into just a mainstream money maker... I understand the business end of things, make no mistake, but I also miss the concept of passionate folks behind the counter, and a store owner who cares. Combine this with my taste for variety (games of all eras and most genres), and you have the reason for why I am going to open my own store.

[King_Salamon]

There's a local chain of Microplay stores in town and the manager/owner of one ended up buying another one of the locations. The difference between those 2 stores and the other Microplay stores is night and day.

 

I used to rent PC games back in the early 90's from him and eventually got into the consoles again when the PC rental market died. He didn't always know the answer to your questions and wasn't afraid to let you know that. I really can't stand asking someone at a store what they know about a game and then you get an answer that doesn't even make sense (read an ad in a magazine about it and they totally contradict it).

 

Some EB's get gamers as staff and that's a double edged sword... the good side is they have a knowledge about the product (and they also have a bias as well) but on the bad side... well they seem to have this arrogance that their knowledge provides.

 

Best thing to say when someone asks you to pre-order something. Tell them you already did at a competing store. They tend to shut up. If not, then you can mutter... no wonder I never shop here anymore. LOL!

[shadow460]

One of the above posts reminded me of an independent shop I got FF7 from recently. It's more of a movie shop, but the guy's got a few recent games, too.

The place is called Digital Video Depot. I think you can find just about any movie in there, and if he doesn't have it, the price automatically drops to $12.99 and he'll order you the current printing of that movie.

I'm not sure how he handles games--I think he just keeps a few PS2 and Xbox games for sale up there. Still, though, the guy is really cool and he seems to know his stuff about movies. Now if we could only get more game store types ike that, it would be great. Sure, Game X Change guys know their stuff, but I'd like to see that in GameStop, too.

[Emehr]

My video game store pet peeve? When I walk into GameXchange and the people behind the counter apparently have nothing better to do than stand and stare at me as I browse the store. Hey dudes (and dudettes), I have a lot of systems. I'm gonna be walking around for a while. Grab a chair.

 

I feel like I should start dancing or something.

[madhatter667]

"I have a lot of systems. I'm gonna be walking around for a while. Grab a chair."

Nyah!! No shit! I have had this happen a few times too. No Seriouly, I own just about every system for the games you sell here... I WILL enjoy myself and playfully snoop through the 'Cube, XBox, PS2, PSX, Dreamcast, Saturn, N64, SNES, NES, Genesis, GBA/Game Boy, Game Gear cartridges, don't rush me, I'm a patient person. Of course, there are plenty more systems I would buy for, if they were only considerate enough to carry the games for them (or if people were callous enough to actually trade off their oldies... and the stores accept them).

[Atari_Elite]

One time I saw a Silent Scope game for GBA. The new one was $12.50. The two year old one of the exact same kind was $12.45!

Edited November 8, 2006 by Atari_Elite

[mnbren05]

I've had ups and downs with local stores. The local guy is a complete jackass and constantly ups his prices and makes life hell. He had the gull to tell me I didn't know classic gaming. He had a copy of Mario/Duck Hunt sealed for a few hundred bucks and told me its pretty rare. Then he sold me a copy of Princess Tomato (great condition) and Caveman games (it was a buy 1 get 1 50%) for $15. Needless to say I walked in once looking for a Jaguar and got a look and "You want to take one home to play?". Wish it would have been a few years later so I could have said "Nope. I want to take one out on a date.... HERE'S YOUR SIGN!!!"