Even though I spend a good amount of my free time playing video games, I don’t shop at GameStop very often. However, I do go in occasionally to shop or to browse. This happened today and I was reminded exactly why I don’t shop there very often.
I mainly went in to pick up a DS game that my brother wants for his birthday. They had the game, but for reasons that are a mystery to me, even though the game was new, they had to get an empty box, get a cartridge, put the cartridge in the box and seal the box with a sticker. Why couldn’t they stock the game in its original factory shrink-wrap? Is there any reason that even their new games should look used? It can’t be anti-theft; the box and the game were both behind the counter.
Before asking about the game I went in for, I browsed the used PS2 bins for a little while and found a game I was interested in. Taking it to the desk, the girl at the counter proceeded to spend about 5 minutes looking through several drawers for the disk before ultimately checking the computer to find that, despite the box being out in the bin, they don’t actually have the disk. How does this happen? I’m stumped.
Can anyone shed any light into these two circumstance?
I understand the practice of not putting boxed games on the sales floor. My problem is when the games kept behind the counter aren’t even in their boxes.
To clarify: neither the game nor the box thereof was within reach of a potential shoplifter. Both box and game were behind the counter in disassembled state. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have the game in the box (in the original manufacturer’s wrapping and all)?
I don’t think so. As the employee was boxing up the game, I asked if they had any that hadn’t been unboxed. She talked like they had multiple copies in stock and they were all unboxed. I didn’t get the off the shelf display box which a disembodied cart/disk which is what I’ve had happen before in “last copy” situations.
They probably unbox all games as they are unpacked from the delivery containers/boxes. It makes it easier when they later move the behind-the-counter games to the main floor as the workers don’t have to keep track of which boxes have games and which don’t. That being said, I understand your frustration.
If you’ve never seen these videos, check them out. They’re a knock-off of Yahtzee’s Zero Punctuation and are done (allegedly) by a former GameStop Employee. There are a couple videos in the series and with some interesting facts put in there.
Interesting indeed. I knew a lot of what they mention (like the heavy skewing on the “trade-in” values and the rip-off that is their discount card/magazine), but I hadn’t heard a lot of the other stuff the videos mention. (If they’re to be believed, the 7-day return scheme is rather diabolical.) Suffice it to say that even if, after today’s experience, there was any chance of me going into a GameStop any time soon, it’s gone now.
True enough. I was just pissed enough at the store when I posted that I felt like throwing one more log on the fire of my displeasure.
I’m sure it’s not the whole story, but I have heard that they let employees ‘check-out’ new games, then sell them as new when the employees bring them back. You can usually get a shrink wrapped game if you demand it.
How in the world do people manage to lose their disc cases?!
A friend and I were trying to find a copy of “Demon’s Souls” to rent, and got to talking about buying used games. We both discovered that we ahve the irrational habit of refusing to buy games at GameStop that don’t come in the original box, but use GS’s generic “I lost my case” case. Seriously - I take care of my stuff meticulously. And if I do leave a game out of its case, it’s usually sitting right on top of its case. Yet about 40% of the used games at GameStop are out naked.
We like the magazine, though. We keep it in the bathroom. I skim through it to start with, and then when there’s nothing else to read I end up reading reviews of games I’d never play and for like thirty seconds think, “Man, maybe I should play a wrestling game!” And then I come to my senses and flush.
I shop at Gamespot now and then, although I am a heartless monster about it. I buy msot of my stuff at Best Buy, or more recently, Play’n’Trade. This was good. PnT went out of business recently though, and I had even got to the point where I just didn’t buy something unless I could get it there. Gamestop is almost the only game left in town, because BB doesn’t stock much.
That said, I like to rip them off as much as possible. I “buy” used games and return them 6 days later for full value. I don’t give them any cash, but rather sold off some used items and never add any new cash to the pile. Of course, I will prolly get Dragon Age there, but that will exhaust my little stash and I can then fly free. I’ll probably wind up buying all my gamnes online from now on, or at BB.
Despite my generic nerd rage at Best Buy, I’ve generaly found that compared to much of the competition, they at least avoid deliberately cocking up my gaming experience. Which is something, I guess.
I can’t speak for anyone but myself (obviously) but I can kind of understand how it happens. I, for one, keep my games in a CD binder and keep the boxes in a couple of Rubbermaid bins in the closet. It takes up a lot less space around the TV, is way more portable and I still have the boxes standing by if I want them. It would, however be fairly easy to lose a box if I didn’t keep them as well organized as I do (I organize my DVDs the same way and will admit that i have lost one or two of their boxes; they eventually showed up but they were lost for a while.)
As I understand it, buying or selling used stuff to them is pretty much the exact opposite of sticking it to them. When they resell your stuff, they have much greater profit margins than when they sell new stuff.
Taking advantage of their return policies is still fine for abusing them, though.
I don’t give a hoot about cases and manuals myself. When I get a brand new game, the second I’m home from the shop, I go “wheee !”, ravenously claw through the plastic wrapping, put the CD in the machine and play the tail off of it for the rest of the day. And the day after that. And so forth. The CD will always be easily found : in the machine. When I’m done with it, it goes into the big DJ-style CD binder, with its own little OCD nametag on its little space in the binder.
The case ? Errr… well, it might have been flung across the room. It probably was if the wrapping plastic was being a douche, and they often are. Or it could have fallen behind the couch. Or it could have been used as a bookmark. Hell, I don’t know. It might even be stored properly in the Big Cardboard Box - some days, I’m crazy like that. God knows the proper storage place is the last place I’d look for them.
Of course, things were even worse back in the days before every PC game came in a DVD sleeve (and with no manual to speak of. But that’s another rant). Oh, what fun it was to sort and store cardboard boxes of different sizes, different shapes, different heights…
ETA : of course, I would never sell a game in a million years. That would be gasp uncluttering ! The Earth might stop rotating if I did that.
What’s the problem with Best Buy? I’m thinking of running out there, because Newegg doesn’t even seem to be processing my order. They went from “pre-order” to “auto-notify” on Dragon Age without my pre-order having been processed at all, which suggests to me that they don’t even have them. Since the online outfits no longer offer real premiums like tote bags or t-shirts anyway, I don’t know why I bother to pre-order anymore.
I know my local gamestop, for some reason, won’t buy back games that you bought from them. They can tell by the yellow sticker on the box. So most people just bring in the bare disc and the workers are non the wiser.