Video Game Store Pet Peeves

[jpfalcon2003]

I like getting my Nintendo Gamecube stuff from EB games because their used games are kinda affordable on some titles. I've seen some Sports games in there for $1.99. of course the title is 2 years old. But a complete set for $2.00 is a steal.

On the other hand, some stores that sell older game systems and games, tend to be way overpriced. Game Trader at the new Orleans mall is famous for this. Another thing is, if you are trading some games in, you are getting ripped off severely. You'd be better off putting them on the bay, and going back with the cash to buy what you need.

[blastermaster]

stickers on the label....always kills me...

[Video]

One thing I hate, I went into a store, I think Gamestop or something. And I was looking for a game, and I found lots of copys of it, but no boxed ones. And I asked the dude working there if they kept them somewhere else and he just said "No, we throw th boxes away cause they take up to much space"

 

?! What the feck? For relatively new games, I won't buy it if it doesn't have the box and dox with it. New stuff needs it, and for the most part, the boxes aren't that much bigger than the games itself.

 

Dumbasses, if they weren't seriously over charging for the game I wanted already, they could have put $5 more on the one with a box and I would have bought it.

[Uzumaki]

Storing games in direct sunlight. Hello faded label! Some cheap windows don't block enough UV to prevent fading.

[Rik]

I walked into a EB one day and was looking around at the previously bought game section,and these two guys walked in,and started talking to the clerk,then the customer started yelling,something about his disatisfaction with their pre-ordering policy and something else,the clerk got pretty mouthy,like they usually do,he picked the WRONG guy to get smart with,because it resulted in the clerk getiing punched in the face,by the one guy who was a burly biker type,and nearly blacked out.Im not for violence,but someone has to teach these weasels some manners,i'm pretty sure this clerk will watch his mouth the next time!

Edited November 11, 2006 by Rik

[rustblackend]

Well today the used music/game/movie store had a copy of Castlevania IV for SNES. It was marked 15 bucks which I'm not sure is high or not, but I picked up the game and someone had drawn stuff all over the cart!!!! Flowers, Mario's and a full color Nintendo logo! To high of a price to me for something defaced that way.

[Uzumaki]

You passed up a Picasso version of Castlevania 4???? Shame on you.

[Avid Fan]

I'm lucky I havent had any bad EB incidents in a while, but I'm friends with the manager. Who is very knowlegable and a cool guy.

I've had some bad experiences with Gamecrazy, but its usually just one dickhead clerk, while the rest are cool.

A year ago, Midway Arcade Treasues 3 came out, but the Gamecube release was shifty. I asked the clerk (manager, for a very short time) what the deal was, and he told me that if the game wasnt preordered, they wont get any in stock, ever. He then goes on to tell me that I can "special order" one for an additional 10 dollars. Well, lo and behold, they had the game a week later, and the dickhead was gone.

 

I get really sick of the preorder thing. Especially when I flat out tell them "I don't buy $50 dollar games, I have a shitty job and a kid" and they will still insist. It was like when Halo 2 came out. Every F'ing clerk at every gamestore was trying to get me to preorder it. Even though I had already told them "I DONT OWN AN X-BOX".

But they would try to feed me some BS (Best buy, EB, Gamecrazy, Software ETC)about how if I dont preorder it I will never ever be able to get a copy of the game because it will be so hard to get even years from now. Its funny because you cant go to a gamestore without tripping over copies of Halo 2, even limited. I would tell them about Titanic VHSs, and how there more than enough to meet demand, and Halo is NOT a household name, Titanic is

[shadow460]

One thing I hate, I went into a store, I think Gamestop or something. And I was looking for a game, and I found lots of copys of it, but no boxed ones. And I asked the dude working there if they kept them somewhere else and he just said "No, we throw th boxes away cause they take up to much space"

 

?! What the feck? For relatively new games, I won't buy it if it doesn't have the box and dox with it. New stuff needs it, and for the most part, the boxes aren't that much bigger than the games itself.

 

Dumbasses, if they weren't seriously over charging for the game I wanted already, they could have put $5 more on the one with a box and I would have bought it.

 

They told me that same exact garbage. I decoded it instantly:

"We threw out the box to StarCraft 64 because the boxes take up too much space" means "I'm a stingy tightwad who doesn't respect my customers, so I hogged up the bos to StarCraft 64 since I didn't already have it, and since I'm better than you you can't have it at all."

the first sentence takes less time to say, and the less time wasted by telling the truth, the more time that salesman can spend hounding me to pre order Halo 2.

Halo what? Is that a VCS game? You don't know what a Video Computer System is!? Were you born on Mars or something? No? Neptune, then?

 

Catch 'em at the right time and you'll score boxes every time. Either that or you could just dumpster dive the place. If they really don't care about the boxes, then I bet they don't even take the time to rip them up before they toss 'em.

 

One thing that does burn me about Game X Change is that they take in stuff they can't test. Since they can't test it, they throw it away. This tends to include Atari equipment like keyboards, paddles, etc. There are also plenty of items they are not allowed, by store policy, to resell.

They crush anything they throw away before it gets near the dumpster. That means each time someone brings in something like an Ultra Racer or a VCS, it's got a very good chance of simply being destroyed.

 

Maybe I should talk to them--I repair games and hardware anyway, and I might have brought back one game out of the hundreds I've bought there. I've had quite a few that didn't work right away when I got home with 'em, but I got them going with a good cleaning or maybe by reflowing the ROM boards.

I'd love to be able to pick a couple things up from the crush bin before it gets crushed. There's actually some useful stuff they smash, like Atari Paddles and the Saturn 4 in 1 carts.

 

Oh, I don't do the preorder thing at all. I want the game in my hand right stinking then, so I just wait until it's out.

 

lol, someone walked into Game X Change the other day asking if they sold new games. It's pretty obvious that the store deals in used stuff only.

[7800Lover]

Most of my bad experiences came about due to long lines and slow clerks. That's my pet peeve.

[Atari_Elite]

Usually games stores are slow because they only have one worker at a time for some reason. That happened to me yesterday at EB Games.

[MegaManFan]

Store has the box for a game, but won't sell you the box WITH the game, even if it's the only copy of the game they have. (A certain Tulsa store with NES games drove me crazy on this one.)

[Rik]

Store has the box for a game, but won't sell you the box WITH the game, even if it's the only copy of the game they have. (A certain Tulsa store with NES games drove me crazy on this one.)

Thats so if they get another loose copy of the games that go in those boxes,they can re-seal them,so they look like new,sell them for more$ as new,thats something the mom and pop shops are more likely to do,I've seen it done many a times,you really gotta watch what you buy in some stores.

Edited November 20, 2006 by Rik

[BassGuitari]

This one guy comes into the store and demands far more for his games than they're actually worth, and acts with a false sense of superiority when the clerk kindly and calmly explains why he won't give him $10 each for his super-rare Combat, Pac-Man, and ET cartridges. Never mind that the dude just walked past a pile of Combats for $0.50 each, but then the customer gets all huffy about how rare Atari stuff is (for no other reason than they're Atari cartridges; apparently, he saw Antiques Roadshow) and starts babbling about how the clerk doesn't know anything about video games and how grateful he should feel that he was even bringing his Atari games in. What an ass.

 

But yeah, I can't stand people like that act like that.