Is Gamestop Evil? The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

[CRTGAMER]

I actually went into a couple of them in the last few days because of the Wii as I was curious about stocks and pricing. Crass, blunt, to the point -- Fuck em.

I wondered why they always had so much, and not just filler, it's because anything that's decent they're selling at a 25% mark-up over what the stuff actually values at on paid ebay or just anywhere else really, and some of them the margin was more like 33-40% more. Yes let's pay $20 for a used copy of Super Mario Galaxy, when the NEW copies are that, and yet online you can bag the game for $12 shipped complete.

I'll go back, when they have like a buy one get 2 free dumper deal on old crap, otherwise, not a chance.

Hit the Gamestop website for Wii games, you can list first by lowest cost. There are quite a few games under five bucks well worth snagging while still available. Use the site for a shopping list by clicking which stores have the games in stock.

Do not order at the Gamestop site or telephone to hold a game, but go in person to ensure completeness and prevent an employee snagging the killer deal such as WiiU/Wii combo Rodea mentioned earlier. I keep a list with the two or three nearest stores on my cell phone and check when I am near the area. Recent CIB finds include another copy of the flight sim Sky Crawlers as well as Obscure, Rockstar Table Tennis, Lost Blue, Jambo Safari (Naomi Arcade port not released on Dreamcast), Go Vacation and Gravity all at great prices.

Their business model sucks in my opinion there are 7 of them within probably 30 miles of me and there are 2 pairs of them within 3 miles of each other. They have literally put one in every shopping center and mall regardless of how close they are to another gamestop. Amazon is also beating the shit out of them now with the 20% off preorders as well a Best Buy which was the first company to do that with their GCU program.

You are not kidding, the locations too saturated and with locked digital downloads of newer consoles this has caught up with Gamestop. In my area, most Gamestops located in Shopping Malls were removed many years ago due to higher monthly rent vs a nearby strip mall. The consumer wins in the short term before locations shut down, jump on the site for games in stock before doing the on the road search.

[Tanooki]

Sigh I could stomach going in again over that reasoning.

So I look at the website. There are 3 or 4 stores seriously within 3mi of my address. Look up a game I want. Then I find let's say store B has Rodea that came up.

I go to store B, show them their WEBSITE price if they're playing games on the sticker, and they honor it? I know better NEVER to trust them on disc based media at all from the website, they'll send you the turd first(or by bad luck) and hope you keep it. In store you can eyeball anything.

One thing is clear though, watch for their next buy something get a few somethings free deal, then ransack the 3mi area or fan out to 5-10 which doubles or triples the stores by my memory. They're so oversaturated as a chain, as are Wii games in general, so hunting isn't an issue.

I worked up a list yesterday after skimming a few US lists and I came up with a lot of stuff I'd go after. It's a mix, but I grabbed around 35 games onto a list. Half of them were games I had before and the others were I missed out on as I ditched buying Wii when I got caught up in the PS3 wave when Circuit City folded and I grabbed one of those for insanely cheap with some games.

If you care

That's a generalized list of games for any system I have I care to snap up stuff for outside of MVS.

[retrosportsgamer]

^ With the Switch now, definitely could see a new flood of Wii stuff, although I'd guess most have already traded in. I will say - I *do* have experiences where they're system is accurate. Head on into the store - yep, they have it. Just don't be afraid to ask. Most understand wanting things complete also.

[Jagosaurus]

Looks like they're closing approximately 225 stores. Hate to see folks lose their jobs, but I can easily see them being the next Blockbuster.

[Omerta]

There isn't a Gamestop within a hundred miles of me and they highly irritated me a few years back by ordering online. Apparently it was really hit or miss whether they have the original case and/or manual on used disc-based games. A box of various forms of completeness arrived at my door. The single new game I bought had no plastic on it and a sticker over the edge of the box - I'm assuming in attempt to tell me that it's new even though they fingered it all up for whatever reason.

Is this still the case? Is there a way to tell what you're actually getting these days? They have decent sounding deals from time to time but I usually ignore them.

[Fragems]

Nope it's all a toss up online and I would say expect to get loose stuff 99% of the time unless it's a really new game and even then your odds probably only go up to 50/50 .

They do have some really solid retro flash sales anymore though and all of the cartridge based games I've gotten off of them have been in really great shape.

As for new stuff they still count shelf copies as "new" and regularly the online store will just have a store ship out inventory if the warehouse is out of stock so getting a "new" unsealed game probably isn't very uncommon especially on the harder to find stuff.

[Michi]

... I can easily see them being the next Blockbuster.

It's a bit of a sad thought, but I can see it too. The question is, how long would something like that take? The business models are quite different. Sure, you could buy excess movies from Blockbuster, but unless I'm mistaken, they wouldn't buy them back or let you use it towards trading it in for something else.

I imagine as long as there are physical games that can be easily sold or traded in for some quick cash or towards the newest, shiniest game, Gamestop will still be a thing. But with the industry slowly headed for digital (much as I loath it), I don't see them leaving quite yet.

That or they'll be forced to go full-retro if they still want to go the physical media route. Wouldn't that be a hoot, them being forced to go full circle like that after they took over the other used game stores and ditched all the retro games?

[Omerta]

Yuck. Yeah... it's probably a good idea to stick to "retro" carts.

The bootleg scenario - how often does it happen and how's the customer service / return process (if there's any at all)?

[Fragems]

Honestly what I would consider a smart move for them is doing the following.

1. Closing 50% of their stores. They have way over saturated the market. There should be at max 1 store every 15 miles.

2. They need to find a better way to draw in perorders exclusive shitty DLC only gets you so far when your competition is offering 20% off on new sealed copies.

3. They need to expand and improve their online store. Right now condition is a toss up which is a huge turn off, checkout breaks way to frequently, and the system fails to track which games are still in stock properly only indicator is check out breaks during the processing phase and your are left fiddling around with your cart till you figure it out which is a pain on bigger orders.

4. There needs to be better consistency between stores. I can easily tell you which locations are going to have shit stock, customer service, and etc. in my area. It never changes it's like management cherry picks the best employees and merch for one location and throws the left overs everywhere else .

Edit:

Yuck. Yeah... it's probably a good idea to stick to "retro" carts.

The bootleg scenario - how often does it happen and how's the customer service / return process (if there's any at all)?

I have yet to bump into a bootleg and I've ordered probably 50-80 games through them over the past few sales(I've opened them to verify). Surprisingly I haven't even had any games with even moderately damaged labels either. As for returns you can simply take them into any gamestop store and get a full refund if you have an issue same as any other game you would purchase from them. Can probably mail them back as well, but I haven't had to bother with returns yet.

Last batch I got through them.



142. Yoshi Topsy-Turvey (GBA) $4.85
143. Sonic Advance (GBA) $4.00
144. Kirby Nightmare in Dreamland (GBA) $7.28
145. Harvest Moon (GBC) $8.08
146. Yu-Gi-Oh GX Duel Academy (GBA) $2.40
147. Ice Climber (GBA) $4.85
148. Super Mario Land 2 (GB) $4.85
149. Legend of Zelda Link to the Past Four Swords (GBA) $7.28
150. Legend of Zelda Oracle of Ages (GBC) $10.50
151. Golden Sun (GBA) $5.65
152. Zelda II: Adventures of Link (GBA) $4.85
153. Golden Sun The Lost Age (GBA) $7.28

[retrosportsgamer]

^ Nice haul. The ease of making returns mitigates a lot of the risk. Compare that to the hassle on eBay ya know