Beware franchising a Play N Trade

[Jrecee]

In late 2007/early 2008 I came across my first play n trade. I was excited to find a new place that sold old games, since the only one near me (rhino) got bought out by gamestop. A few months after discovering that one, another opened up. A couple months later, another one. And a couple months after that, another. All these stores were 20 minutes away from eachother at least. The first one that opened had the best location, a high traffic area by a mall, and was always pretty busy. They usually had a good selection of old stuff, and I'd go there probably once every few weeks, and would almost always walk out with at least one (retro) game.

After only a couple months the 3rd one I had found went out of business. Another one closed after about 6 months of being open. Both of these places had subpar locations, and I figured that and the economy probably did them in. The 4th one I had discovered I gave up going to after seeing that they had jacked up the prices on all their old stuff to an absolutely insane degree. I believe I even made a topic on here about it. They had a very large collection of retro stuff, bigger than even the one by the mall. Not hard to figure out why. Loose copies of mario 64 and goldeneye going for $30. Megaman X for snes, loose for $20. He said "that's what it goes for on ebay". Bullshit.

About a month and a half ago I got an e-mail that the one by the mall was going out of business so I went in to see if there were any decent deals. I said I was surprised they were closing since they had been around the longest, seemed to do good business, and had a good location. He said they had suspicions that the play n trade business model was created only to sell franchises and not to create sustainable businesses.

http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/play-n ... layed-out/

A couple weeks ago I pulled in by the play n trade I figured I'd never go to, thinking maybe they had lowered their prices after having 6 months of retro crap stack up. They're out of business.

So to anyone who thinks selling new/retro games sounds like a good career, and that a play n trade franchise might be the perfect business, I would say don't bother.

[pepharytheworm]

I wouldn't neccesseraliy blame just the franchise as a lot of the owners have poor business skills and don't really try to go the extra mile. Recently in my area 4 have closed in the past year and only one new store opened up. I find that the Playntrades doing the best in my area are the ones that are the furthest from other playntrades. Frequently owners ask me advice on how to get cheap deals, I tell them to hit up craigslist, ebay, flea markets and thrift stores and always bid or buy in lots. Not one has tried to follow my advice, they seem like they want money but don't want to do the groundwork. One told me he was afraid to use craigslist and I told him, find all the deals you like then invite the person to the store to finsh the deal, whats safier than that.

Remember if you own a business that business is going to be your life. No more 40 hrs a week and just because your not at the store doesn't mean you can't still be working. Why wait for business to come to you, bring business to you.

[Xonticus]

I think with any business, there is an inherent risk to closing fast. Most small businesses fail within their first year. Sounds like many of the business owners near you didn't do their homework.

From what I can tell, Play N Trade itself doesn't seem like a bad franchise to be a part of. Most of the people I see fail like that believe that it is an easy money operation; you open a store and profits will start pouring in. That illusion hits many new retail owners who don't do their research. Play N Trade is a fairly new company, and it seems, a new vessel for these overly optimistic rich dentists and pharmacists to try and make easy money.

Like any business, do your homework, put a lot of personal time and effort into researching, marketing, and stocking your business, and you should be fairly good to go.

@pepharytheworm: You are correct sir. I work at a Play N Trade as a manager, and the store manager here seems to not see the long term goals, and only sees it month by month. Deals usually just walk right in the store.

[FiftyDollarCurse]

Who cares. They sold me Skitchin' for 99 cents. Suckers.

[pepharytheworm]

@Xonticus
I agree they don't think longterm. I had an interview at a playntrade, told him my motto for working. Don't think how much money can I get off this customer right now, but how can I get that customer to make my store a palce they will return to again and again. Don't just sell customer stuff they don't need to get those extra sells because that person my never come again after they realize they didn't need all that extra stuff. I would rather sell a customer $20 worth of product a week, than $500 one time and never see them again. Needless to say I wasn't hired and now that store is closing.

[Yiddishpilot]

All the play n trades around the portland metro area went out of business a year after they opened.

[Medical Dust]

^ I was going to add that, being a Portlander myself. The one near my house closed within a year.
Strangely the employee there said they were in "legal" trouble with certain used games they were selling, not sure what that meant.

[the7k]

^ I was going to add that, being a Portlander myself. The one near my house closed within a year.
Strangely the employee there said they were in "legal" trouble with certain used games they were selling, not sure what that meant.

Probably means he was selling stolen goods.

[J T]

The Alderwood mall in Washington has two GameStops in the same mall and one across the street.

Similarly, in the University District we have Pink Gorilla, Big Al's, and Half Price books all selling used games and within walking distance of each other.

[Ack]

Three Gamestops where I live, roughly along a ten mile stretch of road. I hardly ever go there, and when I do, I usually just end up checking out the PS2 games, which I hear they're dropping. I think I'll just go to Hastings or order online from now on.

I wish a Play N Trade would open here.