# Is it hypocritical to hate GameStop but love used book stores? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 10, 2016, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-hypocritical-to-hate-gamestop-but-love-used-book-stores/757018 "2016-06-10T13:32:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ambihelical\_Hexnut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4491bb/32.png) [@Ambihelical\_Hexnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambihelical_Hexnut)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-hypocritical-to-hate-gamestop-but-love-used-book-stores/757018/21 "2016-06-10T21:31:51Z")
I think that all used video game stores should operate under the “gutted boxes” policy - I got burned once on a purchase from a store that displayed full boxes on the shelf. I found a cheap used copy of Metal Gear Solid 4, bought it, went home and opened it up to find… nothing. No disc, no instruction manual; just an empty box. Either: 1. Somebody successfully pulled a fast one by trading in the empty case, and the store accepted it without checking the contents, or 2. A thief made off with the disc and manual but left the box lying on the shelf. As travelling back to the store would have cost me almost as much as I had paid, I decided not to try returning it, and just used the case to replace a damaged one. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-hypocritical-to-hate-gamestop-but-love-used-book-stores/757018/22 "2016-06-10T21:34:07Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > 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. I’m not saying either one is right or wrong, but claiming that Gamestop is so terrible, and that somehow used book stores aren’t is confused. Both stores give you very, very little, and turn around and sell what you sold them (if either of them even can) at a colossal markup to someone else. Neither is in it to pay any more than the absolute minimum for the books/games they buy for resale. And why should they? What else are they competing with- the tax writeoff for donating to Goodwill? ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-hypocritical-to-hate-gamestop-but-love-used-book-stores/757018/23 "2016-06-10T21:42:14Z")
> [@bump](#): > > 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. I had this happen twice at a local GameStop and the second time was the deal breaker. I don’t shop there anymore ( mostly Steam these days ). But as you said I blame the branch/local employees rather than the company, as I’m pretty sure ripping off promo codes is not company policy. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-hypocritical-to-hate-gamestop-but-love-used-book-stores/757018/24 "2016-06-10T21:54:51Z")
> [@Ambihelical\_Hexnut](#): > > I think that all used video game stores should operate under the “gutted boxes” policy The issue is that they open and gut new product, not that they do it to used games. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-hypocritical-to-hate-gamestop-but-love-used-book-stores/757018/25 "2016-06-10T23:12:04Z")
I have to admit that I don’t understand the issue with “gutted boxes”. Is there a significant amount of value in tearing off the shrink wrap? Some stores have a practice of discounting a “floor model” if it’s the last one in stock, but there’s no reason anyone _has_ to. Presumably the display boxes are empty as a theft deterrent. If they didn’t do that, they’d either have higher losses or have to hire more employees, both of which would increase costs. Being annoyed with them for not paying much for a used copy of a game seems misguided. No retailer that sells used things pays very much for their stock. They couldn’t possibly stay in business if they did. ---
**Author:** ![oft\_wears\_hats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7993a0/32.png) [@oft\_wears\_hats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oft_wears_hats)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-hypocritical-to-hate-gamestop-but-love-used-book-stores/757018/26 "2016-06-10T23:19:55Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > 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 tend to buy digital these days, so I haven’t sold anything in a long time. If I was going to, I’d try to find a local place like Funco Land of old. Though I think the EBGames/GameStop merger all but ran them out of business. I don’t know why they sold that one game for $45, I just clearly remember being extremely irritated noticing it. Obviously someone was paying those prices, but it doesn’t make sense to me either. > [@Chisquirrel](#): > > Playstation store (now that they finally accepted my card) and Steam here. Instant delivery, automatic updates, and easy shopping make a good system. > > I don’t think I’ve stepped foot in a GameStop in years. Same here. But every now and then a good deal for a game or something tech related shows up on Slickdeals. I’ve passed on several good deals once I noticed they were being offered by GameStop. At this point it’s the principle of the thing. I don’t like them, so I won’t support them, no matter what they’re selling. > [@Tamerlane](#): > > I had this happen twice at a local GameStop and the second time was the deal breaker. I don’t shop there anymore ( mostly Steam these days ). But as you said I blame the branch/local employees rather than the company, as I’m pretty sure ripping off promo codes is not company policy. [It was company policy.](http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2391755,00.asp) > [@Linked Article](#): > > Gamestop representatives confirmed a report originally filed by Joystiq, however. “We pulled the coupons because, like all retailers, we prefer not to promote our competitors and their competing offerings and services in our stores,” a Gamestop representative wrote. “Unfortunately, the coupon was packed without our prior knowledge.” ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2016, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-hypocritical-to-hate-gamestop-but-love-used-book-stores/757018/27 "2016-06-11T00:20:29Z")
I can’t say the pricing, per se, is unfair. I’d like to see more physical retail of games. It’s frankly painful to download a very large games - and games are growing faster than my internet connection. I’d rather download a 2 gb patch than wait between one and three three days for it to download. Digital delivery is great, but it doesn’t actually save me money unless I’m getting a deal, and I’d really like to be able to give people gifts - and no, lovingly sending an email that the recipient can get click on to redeem a code which then gets added to a STEAM account is just not the same. And that assumes you know somebody’s email or have them friended or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2016, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-hypocritical-to-hate-gamestop-but-love-used-book-stores/757018/28 "2016-06-11T00:37:26Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > I have to admit that I don’t understand the issue with “gutted boxes”. Is there a significant amount of value in tearing off the shrink wrap? As mentioned above, you don’t necessarily get everything back that they took out. There’s also reports of employees taking the games home to play themselves and then still selling them as new. On a more personal level, since all of my console game purchase are gifts, the shrink wrap is an immediate indicator that this is a new game, not a used game I bought them. It just feels tacky to me and since there’s plenty of other places selling games these days who don’t gut the boxes, why shop at the one place that insists on doing it? ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2016, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-hypocritical-to-hate-gamestop-but-love-used-book-stores/757018/29 "2016-06-11T04:39:58Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > As mentioned above, you don’t necessarily get everything back that they took out. There’s also reports of employees taking the games home to play themselves and then still selling them as new. On a more personal level, since all of my console game purchase are gifts, the shrink wrap is an immediate indicator that this is a new game, not a used game I bought them. It just feels tacky to me and since there’s plenty of other places selling games these days who don’t gut the boxes, why shop at the one place that insists on doing it? My experience - both working in electronics retail and more recently as a customer - is that the display box is gutted (so there’s something to display) and the rest of the games are kept out the back or behind the counter. Some of the games publishers even provide dummy boxes to go on the shelf, so all the “fresh” copies can stay out the back. So yeah, not really seeing an issue with the “gutted boxes” thing. It was definitely common practice in the retail electronics field to offer a discount on the display model of stock - taking into account it had often been sitting there for weeks or even months with people fiddling with it, moving it around, pressing buttons and scuffing it etc. What’s happening to a video game an employee has taken home to play? It’s gone into their console, they’ve played it, and put it back. How is your experience damaged by this? (Assuming the game hasn’t become locked to that employee’s games service account or something). Actually, that’s a neat segue to my next question: How does the second hand games market work nowadays anyway? Pretty much all modern PC games are tied to something like a Steam or Uplay account so can’t be re-sold and my understanding was that something similar existed for Console games (Xbox Live or PlayStation Network). Can console games be re-sold, or is the second-hand games market entirely dependent on previous-generation consoles without the requirement for games to be connected to a user account? I’ve often wished there was a developer-supported option to sell or give away PC games when I’d finished playing with them, perhaps after a certain period of time (a year? two years?) had elapsed - I’m never likely to play _Tropico 3_ again, for example, but I if I had a friend or family member who would like to play it, then it’d be nice to say “here, have mine” - much as you can with a superfluous book or DVD. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2016, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-hypocritical-to-hate-gamestop-but-love-used-book-stores/757018/30 "2016-06-11T04:49:19Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > I can’t say the pricing, per se, is unfair. > > I’d like to see more physical retail of games. It’s frankly painful to download a very large games - and games are growing faster than my internet connection. I’d rather download a 2 gb patch than wait between one and three three days for it to download. What kind of godawful connection do you have? Typically I’ll set those to downloading, and go to bed, and it’ll be done by the time I wake up. I’d guess a gig worth of data would take somewhere around an hour at the most. And I have a middling-speed connection- 18 gbps VDSL (AT&T UVerse) that actually typically runs around 20 mbps. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2016, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-hypocritical-to-hate-gamestop-but-love-used-book-stores/757018/31 "2016-06-11T05:31:38Z")
> [@bump](#): > > And I have a middling-speed connection- 18 gbps VDSL (AT&T UVerse) that actually typically runs around 20 mbps. I would say that 20 Mbps is a quite powerful connection. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2016, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-hypocritical-to-hate-gamestop-but-love-used-book-stores/757018/32 "2016-06-11T13:33:40Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > What’s happening to a video game an employee has taken home to play? It’s gone into their console, they’ve played it, and put it back. How is your experience damaged by this? (Assuming the game hasn’t become locked to that employee’s games service account or something). Well, if it was played by an employee then it should be sold as used. That is, after all, part of GS’s model to sell used games and they certainly segregate a game any other person took home and played for a couple nights and otherwise returned in pristine condition. However, if you’re cool with it then by all means shop there. I’m not on a crusade about it (I’m a PC gamer anyway). I dislike it but can express that from buying new games from Best Buy, Amazon, Target, Toys R Us, Walmart or any other place that doesn’t engage in the practice. It’s not as though GameStop has better prices or anything. > [@](#): > > Can console games be re-sold, or is the second-hand games market entirely dependent on previous-generation consoles without the requirement for games to be connected to a user account? Console games are not tied to your account like PC games usually are. The disc is needed to play the game so, if you sell your Fallout 4 disc, you won’t be able to play the installed copy of Fallout 4 on your Xbox. Whoever has the disc can install the game and play it on their console. These days, many games are also available digitally much like PC games but those games can’t be re-sold. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2016, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-hypocritical-to-hate-gamestop-but-love-used-book-stores/757018/33 "2016-06-12T05:03:09Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Well, if it was played by an employee then it should be sold as used. That is, after all, part of GS’s model to sell used games and they certainly segregate a game any other person took home and played for a couple nights and otherwise returned in pristine condition. > > However, if you’re cool with it then by all means shop there. I’m not on a crusade about it (I’m a PC gamer anyway). I dislike it but can express that from buying new games from Best Buy, Amazon, Target, Toys R Us, Walmart or any other place that doesn’t engage in the practice. It’s not as though GameStop has better prices or anything. I live in Australia and we don’t have GameStop here; we do have EB games which I think might be owned by the same people though. I get most of my games from whoever has the best deal - sometimes it’s purely digital (eg off Steam) or other times I’ll find a bricks-and-mortar retailer doing deals (for example, _Fallout 4_ was $59 at one place when it was released - much cheaper than getting it off Steam) > [@](#): > > Console games are not tied to your account like PC games usually are. The disc is needed to play the game so, if you sell your Fallout 4 disc, you won’t be able to play the installed copy of Fallout 4 on your Xbox. Whoever has the disc can install the game and play it on their console. > > These days, many games are also available digitally much like PC games but those games can’t be re-sold. Thanks; that clears things up! ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2016, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-hypocritical-to-hate-gamestop-but-love-used-book-stores/757018/34 "2016-06-12T13:03:20Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > I live in Australia and we don’t have GameStop here; we do have EB games which I think might be owned by the same people though. In 2005 EB Games and GameStop merged and now GameStop owns EB Games. In the U.S. they rebranded the EB Games stores as GameStop but in Australia and Canada EB Games continues, and is a division of GameStop. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-hypocritical-to-hate-gamestop-but-love-used-book-stores/757018/35 "2016-06-13T11:04:15Z")
> [@YamatoTwinkie](#): > > 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. > [@oft\_wears\_hats](#): > > 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 just want to counter the idea that the publishing industry doesn’t need money in order for books to be written. Yes, at root, you can have one person with a pen and paper turning out masterpieces all by his or her lonesome self. But that’s really not the full picture. A solitary author might be able to write a _novel_ from their imagination, but do you ever read histories? Biographies? Investigative reporting? Travelogues? All of those genres require funding upfront. The author needs the resources and the time - i.e. the time not spent working a day job - to scour archives, interview people, go from place to place. It’s expensive. It adds up. And even novelists need the support staff of editors. I used to work in the publishing industry. Authors who can turn out a great draft on their own are extremely, extremely rare. The editing process takes time, talent, and money - money that comes from readers actually buying books. And what about copyeditors? You know how annoying it is to read a book and see typo after typo? That would happen a lot more if the publishing industry vanished. Finally, the publishing industry also acts as a great filter. It’s _certainly_ not perfect, but your average book that is edited and produced by a major publishing house is going to be of higher quality than your average self-published book. There are FANTASTIC self-published books out there, but they’re typically buried in a sea of dreck. I’m not a gamer, so I can’t comment on that aspect. I also understand the allure of a great used bookstore. But trust me, the publishing industry is worthwhile, helps to produce and find great books, and (my impression is) needs financial help far more than the gaming industry does. Even if you buy a classic by an author who is long dead, the money from that will go to help support newer authors. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-hypocritical-to-hate-gamestop-but-love-used-book-stores/757018/36 "2016-06-13T20:13:34Z")
Sure, but ultimately neither industry is “deserving” or “non-deserving”, and it’s really absurd to suggest someone should choose to buy a brand new copy of a 300 year old work solely to boost the publishing industry’s coffers, if they can buy a 1950 edition of the same thing for a fraction of the price. My point is that it sounds like 99% of the OP’s gripe against Gamestop boils down to atmosphere- Gamestop has a specific retail-focused atmosphere that is intended to sell used (and new) games and stop theft. Used bookstores typically have a more convivial atmosphere meant to appeal to book lovers. But make no mistake, they’re not fostering that attitude for any other reason than because book lovers are more likely to buy used books when it’s there. At best, they’re fostering it, and at worst, it’s some kind of self-emergent property of book-wonks when concentrated in one place frequently. Now don’t get me wrong- I don’t like Gamestop, mostly because they don’t pay enough nor discount enough to make me get off my ass and deal with them. Plus, they’re borderline incompetent in their business office from what I understand from several acquaintances who have worked for them in the past. But I don’t think somehow they’re doing something inherently different or more odious than say… Half Price Books or a mom & pop used bookstore. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-hypocritical-to-hate-gamestop-but-love-used-book-stores/757018.md?page=1)