Yeah, I never buy new games from them, but there are some great deals on old games that I pick up on.

 

From my personal experience, the employees are gamers that get paid to sell something they enjoy. I frequent 3 stores and the guys and gals in there are pretty damn nice to me. I never buy a game, but I'm always checking out clearance accessories. (Just scored a PS3 fan / integrated 3-way HDMI switch for $20)

Their business practices are questionable though. Ex. "Hey, I'll give you $25 in trade for Little Big Planet then mark it back up to $54.99!". "The next customer can save a whopping $5 over the new price, we get a $30 profit, and you end up buying something we just short changed another person for!".

Customers need to wise up, sell on eBay or Half, and force GameStop to offer FAIR market value for trade-ins.

 

I wonder why that is....  

The GS near me has consistently had polite, and helpful staff. I get the feeling that is not the norm.

 

Gamestop for me has become almost a video game version of BBTS. The only thing I use them for is either to preorder a game I feel I have to have on day 1, or to find something that may have been out for a while and you can't find at retail anymore. Just like I use BBTS to preorder toys to guarantee getting them.

I used to work for them years ago and was breifly a manager. First, just like any retail chain, they pay diddly squat. So, don't expect better service then you would a fast food restaurant. Second, you have to watch out for Gamestops that hire hardcore gamers. That sounds good in theory, but their enthusiasn always turns to bitter opinions of EVERYTHING. I have no idea why, really. I actually avoid befriending hardcore gamers and posting on video game chat forums (besides here since it's a sub forum of TFs) because I get tired of hearing why everything besides SNK, Sega, and Treasure made games are bad. Third, they're trade in policies are robberies. Sell your games somewhere else.

I used to think I was a hardcore gamer, then I realised I liked video games too much.

 

My gamestop'ness is either hit or miss. One gamestop would have agrovating employees. I would buy a few items, games & MechWarrior figures mostly, and the guy just wouldnt cash me out unless I bought some extra stupid thing, like a preorder or some candy. I had to keep saying no multiple times and then be on my way. Those have been very annoying and embarrassing 5 minutes, and it would happen again later on.

Their trade in values are still garbage though.

Now, there's other gamestops I've been to that's been fantastic! One gamestop that I thought was a joy to visit was a small one that was on my way home from work. Those guys loved to talk about games and show you all sorts of stuff, but they dont keep you, if you had to get going or you wanted to leave, no problem! One time a employee went out of his way to show me Bioshock for the 1st time. He had some promotion material to show off and would pop in whatever DVD was in the TV to display it.

Also just recently, one of the guys was sampling Far Cry 2 in the shop. He had to get busy so he just passed the controller over to me to try it out, instead of being uptight and turning off the system and assuming I'm going to be some douche and steal a corded controller.

 

Because no one gets between me and Barbie Horse Adventures.  

 

Wow this must be a tough time of year for you.

 

I own Dogz for the DS.   I'm ashamed.

 

Well, if it makes you feel any better, I got the 1st one when it came out for PC.

 

Game Stop ate and murdered Funcoland. No love from me.

 

That's why I got it. Back in the day I loved the Dogz/Catz games  

 

Well in all fairness, pre-ordering is a good way of ensuring yourself a copy of a popular game. Put $5 down a couple weeks or so early and you're free to simply walk-in when you feel like it on the release day and pick it up. Sure, a store could get a bunch of copies, but when it's a game everybody wants there's still the possibilty of a sell out until their next shipment. Why take the chance?

Heh, that reminds me of what happened to a friend of mine that used to work at EB years ago. Some guy came in one day with some trade-ins and my friend started going through them(checking for manuals and the condition of the discs). He flipped one disc over and immediately dropped it because it had dried up white stuff and hair on the back of it   Gave the guy back his games and sent him on his way since they couldn't take them in that condition.

But yeah, I really hate their trade-in policy. Nothing but a ripoff. Give you as little as possible and resell it for much higher. It sickens me. The last time I traded something in was the Transformers movie game for the 360. I got like $15 for it. Later on I looked it up on the website and saw it was like $40 preowned and still full price new. Ah well, I was just glad to be rid of that terrible game.

 

Well that's because all the stores have gotten better prepared the last few years or so. They didn't used to be that way. I've been gaming since the dawn of the Nintendo and I can remember atleast a few times, from the N64/PS1 era and on, when a store only got enough copies in of something to fill pre-orders, with maybe a few left over for regular sale.

I remember back when WWF No Mercy for N64 came out. I had pre-ordered it ahead of time and eagerly rushed down to EB to get it after they called. And I clearly remember, while standing there and paying for it, another employee answering the phone and telling the caller that they had none left, unless they preordered. But nowadays that doesn't happen since the stores eventually cleaned up their act. True, a sell out is a very slim possibility, but with gas prices today, who wants to drive all over the place incase it does?

 

I have one particular gamestop in mind when it comes to bad service. There's one guy, and I think he's the manager there.

I remember once that my bro and I were in the store looking for a DS Lite. The employee looked through and found some but my brother wanted a blue or black one. He said he didn't see one, but he'll check again anyways. There was some regular DS too he said. We said only looking for a lite. He said he'll check the ds pile just in case, since they were stacked next to each other. Then he looked weirdly and pull out an opened ds lite box, took out the ds, which was in a black protected cloth cover and it was the Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass DS Lite gold one. He still looked puzzled by it and ask if we wanted this instead. We ask to take a closer look at it and inspected it, it had a chipped end and it looked in a moderate used condition. We said nah, and gave it back to him. Just as we were doing that, the ass came out bursting out "What are you doing?" to his coworker in a nasty manner, dropping his box he was carrying from the back. The guy stared at him in a dazed sort of "wtf" look and said in an uneasy manner that he was letting us see it. The guy replied back, "That's not for sale!". The employee that was helping us still had that look, and didn't say anything. Then, the guy rushed over and took the lite from the the guy repeating "That's not for sale." He then hid the ds in the same place where the guy first found it at.

Okay, so nothing is for sale then. I hate how GS employees can do this to you. Even if the online thing said it's there, and you go there and they act like they don't have it or, better yet, act stupid or treat us like we are stupid.

I keep seeing him there, and I don't like him. He's sort of snotty, and he gives off that vibe right away. You know? I only go there for the halo figures and it's pretty near my house, the other one are a bit father like, 4-8 miles away.

I go only when he's not there. I remember going there and asking if they had halo figures and the employee said that they aren't getting them at all. Lo and behold, I go there on a whim and see them. I go home and check online about the availability and bam, they do indeed are listed.

Recently, I didn't see him at first, I went in and saw him. I was like, "shit..." anyways, luckily for me he was busy with some notepad or something and writing, so I go to the employee at the counter. I asked him if they were going to get the third series figures in. Right before the employee could respond, the ass chimed in "We not getting any." and didn't even lift his eyes off the notepad. I looked at him, and ask him if he's sure. Then he finally decides to look up and said, "We aren't getting any." and the face he just made was so...ARGGH. Hell, the employee looked dazed, cause you know, don't you hate it when you are helping someone and they ask you and your fellow coworker chimes in and takes over?

Anyways, I can say for sure that GS always have him and most employees are seasonal. I liked Funcoland better, when they actually let you try out the game before buying it and that they had those newsletter with the games and their prices every two weeks I believe. They might not have them, it gives you a idea on price. EB games is the lesser evil, plus they are the ones with the dvds.

I like the GS girls though. They are always the helpful ones, except this ONE GS were the girls a butch and rough looking, maybe crack whorish. That's place is the scary place. I mean, they are helpful...but their mannerism...*shudders* I don't want to be mean but think old lunch lady hag, with a butch look and skinny, unclean scratchy throat voice with huge bags under the eyes and was waering a really dirty T-shirt...for some reason.   Never again...

 

Geez man, that sucks ass.

 

The only positive thing I can say about GS is that they are nice enough to give socially inept assholes (who wouldn't last 2 days at any other a job) a steady paycheck. I've never met a GS employee who's head I didn't want to pop like a pimple. Nothing but disrespectful snot nosed little dorks and the occasional "eye candy"...both equal useless, yet for completely unrelated reasons.

Trade in values and used game prices...give me a break. I do better with both on eBay any day of the weak.

And the constant "do you want to pre-order (insert mega game here)"...nope, not a chance. Why do I need to pre-order a game that will be in abundance at every store other than GS? And the only reason GS won't have a shit ton on day one is because all the wackos who NEED to have games on day one go there. Leaving plenty of copies for me at Target, BB & TRU. And guess what? If I do decide to pre-order I can get cool freebies at other stores too! And theirs are usally better (IME), since it's harder for them to get pre-orders.

And then there is the $10 gift cards and B2G1 deals on new games that they always have at TRU. They may take a small hit on VG profit, but it actually fattens the bottom line because it gets you in the store and shopping. A very smart move on TRU's part taking advantage of the fact that parents are gamers too. That's something that GS, EB Gabes, or any other evil nerd video game store can't compete with.

 

Yep Gamestop sucks, nice sig by the way.

 

No offense intended here...but Circuit City and TRU may give a "great deal" with the $10 gift cards and selling games at a loss...but as for it being a benefit to the bottom line? Last quarter CC posted losses of over 162 million dollars, has posted major losses in 4 of it's last 5 fiscal quarters, almost got bought out by Blockbuster Video before BBV looked at the books and couldn't run away fast enough, and is now looking to close 150+ stores in the hopes of avoiding bankrupcy...which most analysts doubt it will be able to in the long run. Their stock is barely over 25 cents a share currently...As for TRU, they closed half the chain just a couple years ago and are trying to sell PET TOYS to help their own survival. Sales at TRU have fallen every quarter for over 3 years! Selling at a loss is not a good business strategy and tends to be a move made by companies out of desperation.

 

I've been reading a lot of posts about the trade in values and such. Most used game stores make the majority of their money off of used games since the profit margin on hardware and new games is a lot less than we may think.

In order to make money they have to "buy low and sell high". Yeah it does suck, but from a business perspective I understand. I agree that one should get more for their game based on availability, completeness and overall condition. Being a collector, I don't tend to sell my games in unless I absolutely hate them or buy games as I'm very picky about the condition. Though I am grateful for the stores that do sell used games and accessories as there are times you can find some great deals.