I hate GameStop. I hate most aspects of their business model. I hate their shady practices, I hate the gutted boxes, but most of all I hate how they handle used games. They’ll pay 20% for a used game in excellent condition, then turn around and sell it for 95% of retail price. Long ago I decided that I wouldn’t support them anymore, so I haven’t patronized them for years.
But I love used book stores. I love the unique atmosphere most stores tend to have. I love getting into conversations with the owners about various books. I love the economy of the discounted books and the utility of multiple people sharing books across the years. Of course, the authors and publishers don’t see a cent of that money.
So there’s the rub. Am I a hypocrite for hating GameStop while loving used book stores?
Sure, used book stores are often individually owned, rather than massive corporate entities. Sure, they tend not to sell their merchandise with the same kind of heinous markup that GameStop does. But is that enough? Or is it pretty much the same in the end?
Wegman’s and Whole Foods sell the same stuff, utilize roughly similar decor, and neither draws customers based on their prices, by any stretch, but I will happily shop at Wegman’s and am loathe to give Whole Foods a penny of my money. Why? I just don’t like them. That’s enough.
I wouldn’t consider it hypocritical. Illogical, perhaps, but not hypocritical. Of course, I don’t even have a clue what a “gutted box” is and why it’s a bad thing, so what do I know?
I think even if book sales went down by 99% (i.e, almost everyone purchased them used, or went to the library), great literature would still be generated on a frequent basis. Fundamentally a book is just a labor of love written by one person- overhead costs are low, and publishing doesn’t even require paper anymore. Obviously without much of a financial incentive, the quantity of new-releases would go way down, and it may require something like a wealthy patron willing to fund another Stephen King novel, but quality books will still be written.
On the other hand, if videogame sales went down by 99% (everyone purchased from Gamestop) - it would completely gut the entire industry. Sure, there may still be small team indie titles out there, made by people just for the hell of it, but anything beyond that would just cease to exist.
Well, it’s clearly a rectilinear container which has been disemboweled.
I am, however, somewhat puzzled as to how you would disembowel an inanimate object which doesn’t routinely contain viscera. And, worse yet, I am completely at a loss as to how this concept applies to a gaming-related retail establishment.
I’m a big reader but not a gamer, so I don’t have a lot of experience here but I think your issues makes some sense. For one thing the price is different between video games and books. Even if Gamestop and a used book store do the same thing percentage-wise with buying used products and selling them, a new video game looks to be around $60, while a new book is $20-$30 for a hardback or around $15 for a new paperback. Also, there’s usually minimal difference between a new book and used book; most aren’t too badly damaged if they’re fairly new releases, but even if the spine is cracked and pages are stained it’s still perfectly readable. But since video games come on discs that can be scratched, I’d assume there’s a lot more danger of a game not working if it’s used. And I don’t know what exactly is included in a box or what a gutted box would be missing, but that’s an issue with video games that’s not an issue with books.
A gutted box is when they take a factory sealed copy of a game, open it up, remove the disc and manual, and store them behind the counter. The empty box goes up on display on the shelf, and the customer takes the empty box to the register to purchase it. After the money changes hands, GameStop gives the guts (disc, manual, etc.) to the customer to go with the gutted box.
Several years ago, I believe GameStop did this for every single copy they sold. These days, I think they just do it with the one they display on the shelf. But if that’s the last copy in stock, they still sell the opened box to the customer at no discount. There was also some controversy a few years ago about GameStop employees being instructed to open all copies of Deus Ex: Human Revolution and remove a promotional code that shipped with the game.
This is a very good point I hadn’t thought of. It’s easy to forget how much the staffing and budget for video games has expanded over the years, while books are mostly still one or two people. Words is words, after all. You don’t need a fifty person team to make the words look prettier to take advantage of modern graphics and fulfill consumer expectations.
I think it varies based on their condition. About ten years ago, I bought a fairly new game from Target for $45 (retailed for $50). I played it through once and sold it to GameStop. I think they offered me somewhere between $20-30 for it, can’t remember exactly but I think it was closer to $20. Afterwards, I noticed that they had a used copy of the same game (in worse condition than mine), selling for $45 or $48.
I think this is a key factor. Most used book stores operate on the policy of paying 25% for books and selling them at 50% of the original price. So they’re essentially selling and buying for half price. This feels like a reasonable price to both the customers who are buying or selling.
I personally couldn’t care less; I tend to get my games digitally anyway; no discs or other crap to keep up with in case I want to reinstall later.
But yes; super-hypocritical. Around here anyway, the big used book store is “Half Price Books”. Have you ever tried selling books to them? You’ll literally take in like 75 lbs of books, and get back like $18 bucks, as they’re giving you like 10 cents on a 2.50 list-price paperback and turning it around for sale at $1.25. Every bit as extortionate as Gamestop if you ask me.
Second, the gutted box approach is almost certainly a theft-preventative measure. Think about it- a full game box at say… $45 is a tempting target for grabbing and running out the door for a robber with an Xbox or Playstation. But if the box is empty, there’s nothing to gain from snatching the box at that point. Video rental stores did that for years before they essentially withered on the vine, and nobody complained.
I would have an issue with store staff taking promotional codes out, or using the codes themselves or anything that would interfere with a customer getting everything he paid for in the box, just as if he’d bought it from Amazon or anywhere else. But that sounds more like asshole management and shady-assed store staff, not a fundamental problem with the business model.
Another thing to remember that may be coloring your perception is that a classic book will retain some intrinsic value as a source of knowledge indefinitely, while video games have a much steeper “depreciation” curve. I mean, you can still read a copy of “Jane Eyre” from say… 1950, and it’s still useful even today, even though the physical book is 66 years old, and the story dates from 1847. But what are you going to do with a copy of “Star Wars: Tie Fighter” from 1994? I mean, I suppose you can still play it with some degree of technical gyrations to reproduce the old DOS environment, but the gameplay, graphics, etc… are all horribly dated. So there’s not much of a market for games that are old like that- there are some retro gamers, but as far as the general public is concerned, it’s dead. Hell, nobody probably wants copies of “Titanfall” these days- it’s 2.5 years old. So the resale places like Gamestop have to try and make their money where they can- by selling them at a slight discount when they’re new-ish. I’d think they’d aggressively discount them to move them out the door after a certain time frame, but I don’t know if they do that or not.
Just curious–do you buy or sell used games somewhere else? Where?
What is their practice that you consider shady? Their business model is driven by economics. If you could sell a game anywhere else for more than 20% of retail, then why would anyone sell it to GameStop? If they sell used at 95% of retail, then who would buy it instead of just spending the extra couple of dollars for factory new?
GameStop is a marketplace for used games, although I don’t know why any other number of online marketplaces haven’t replaced them. Not sure why a B&M store that sells content that you can download for the same price is still relevant.
I use Gamestop exclusively, because I refuse to pay $60 for a freaking video game. I never saw anything wrong with their business model. What they pay for a game depends entirely on how new and popular it is, which is exactly what I would expect.
Their practice of gutting boxes makes me buy any new games from Best Buy, Amazon, etc. But the console games I buy are gifts and I just hate giving opened boxes. Makes me feel like I bought it from a thrift store (minue the thrift store price).
You’re assuming they actually manage to sell it. Any particular book is less likely to be sold than any particular video game - if they buy a dozen books for ten cents each and only sell one of them for $1.25, they’re barely breaking even.
