Is Gamestop punching holes in the game covers?

[equalsign]

Do you think this is a response to things like the Amazon barcode scanner?

[Michi]

This thread makes me sad

[TEKTORO]

I bought Rainbow Six Vegas,Sonic Tennis/XBLA comp and lost planet today and there were no hole punches maybe its an isolated incident or has'nt made it my way yet or even better maybe the games I bought were gonna get the cases tossed sooner or later anyways? B2G1 Free 2.99 each not bad

[CD AGES]

Damn! what the hell! FUCK LAMESTOP!!!

[KDub]

Do you think this is a response to things like the Amazon barcode scanner?

Not a bad guess, keep people from just searching Amazon pricing in the store so quickly.

My other guesses would be.
-They are "Not for resale" copies sent as demos to the store/a store
-Since Gamestop uses its own database and barcodes for pricing on used items the holes eliminate any possible mistakes in prices
-If you remove all of Gamestop's price stickers with the holes punched they would know the game was still bought used from them originally if you try to trade it in again

[CD AGES]

Do you think this is a response to things like the Amazon barcode scanner?

Knowing how fucked up this company can be with their business practices, I wouldn't be surprised

[Hobie-wan]

-Since Gamestop uses its own database and barcodes for pricing on used items the holes eliminate any possible mistakes in prices

Nah, they'll use a different bar code scheme. Not like they'd pick the barcode off game X and use it for game Y in their system anyway.

[CRTGAMER]

DRM and DLC is killing the used game market and Gamestop is not helping the situation!

It is strange about the hole punches to destroy the bar code. The Amazon cell phone lookup might be one reason, but not too many customers resort to that. The few customers that do a price verify, use name search not bar codes. I don't think it is the reason for the destruction. I suspect it is more of preventing a resale due to no bar code for redistribution once the consumer buys a game. I wouldn't put it pass Gamestop to start punching holes in NEW game case bar codes. Maybe the idea is to keep a competitor from buying the games for a resale. This would be ironic considering Gamestop is cutting into the new sales profits from Game companies by reselling used games.

The gamer collector loses here, like it or not Gamestop has the majority of used games for sale in a given location. Really makes one think how many PS2 games lost a chance of being bought CIB during the case toss and now possibly ALL games being killed with the hole punches.

As soon as I see this happen locally I will definitely fire off a paragraph or three to that direct complaint link.

[CD AGES]

Just when i thought they couldn't resort to more stupid bullshit...

Fuck This Company in the ASS!

[Luke]

What do they gain from this? They got shelf space last time, but what do they get here?

The satisfaction of f'ing with your mind.

Do we know for sure it is GameStop that's punching the holes? I only ask because I wouldn't be surprised if some manufactures got tired of large amounts of inventory being returned and they said "screw it, they're going to have to keep their purchase one way or another".

If GameStop is the one doing this, perhaps they have a specific way of counting inventory and do not want the original upc to be a part of that process.

Either way, it's a shame.