I hate starting what looks like a reactionarily title thread, but...

I was just at a BB returning a BB.Com order, and my stepson had wanted an X-Box memory unit thingy which is $29.99 (we didn't want the cheaper Mad Katz thinking they aren't good, right?).

So, it was near 9pm closing time, so instead of searching for a card like I usually do, I asked the dude, and he confidently said "oh yeah, we pulled them now that the holidays are over, since they figured out that it wasn't making them any money".

There wasn't one to be had in that store (and I searched all the usual places, finding tons of those crappy Mickey Mouse ones).

Did I fall victim to more Best Buy employee bullshit, or could this be true? Anyone buy one today or later? I was able to find plenty over the holidays of the 12/31/04 variety, but hadn't been to BB since 12/27.

Either way, I'm ready to go to another location tomorrow and buy every one I can find and put $.01 on it. I have two here at the house with $5 on the gift card, but I certainly didn't stock up.

My local (3)Bestbuy's have hundreds of the new Black ones that expire 12/31/04. Used one over the weekend. Scattered all over the place including the checkout lanes.

They had a bunch at mine as well.

I'd say employee BS. Hopefully.

The newest ones have the gift card but they don't have the $5 off coupon, which was the reason everyone bought them.

Everyone and their soccer mom knows about this trick so maybe they're starting to wisen up tot his, get the black ones while you can before they're out.

They'd have an easier time removing all the Rolling Stones box sets than getting rid of all the Gamer's Cards in my local store. My feeling is that they'll both be around for a good long while.

Mine got the black ones in a while ago, but they all dried up during the holiday shopping season and all they had were the regular holiday gift cards. Lame! I was going to pick up FF:C for PSX

My 2 local BB have tons of at Customer service Desk, Every Cashier Registers, Videogames Racks, and More more near music Racks.

All Coupon expire till Dec. 31, 2004.

I bought one of the black ones a while back and used the $5 off coupon last week. The cashier had a tough time taking the $5 off though; had to enter an override code or something. Not sure why there would have been a problem.

Good line

There are hundreds of the old and new ones at my local BBs also.

I have used one of the old ones this year, btw.

BB coupons historically never expire.

I still see people buying games without using the coupon on every trip I make to BB. I try to educate people on them, but many people seem to think its 'too complicated' and prefer to pay the extra $5.

I'm glad to see that these coupons are so popular here now. I almost changed my sig to 'Promoter of the BB/CC $5 coupon' back when I first starting raving about these coupons and a lot of you weren't that excited.

Well apparently the old "green" coupons would take $5.00 of any purchase even if they were under the specified $19.99 price point. The newer "black" cards require the cashier to manually adjust the price themselves.

As far as stocking up on these cards as some have talked about. BB now specifically says that the cards must be loaded for no less than the $5.00. I've been seeing that in their ads recently.

I had no trouble finding the new black gift cards at the one store I went to last week. They were not in as much abundance as the older green style which they still had all over the place as well.

I think this may be the case. This goes along with how difficult corporate has made it to pricematch - a yellow carbon form has to be filled out and printed on by the cash register, etc. Just another tactic to get people who think they can just show an advertised price for a buck less and get it for that that without a hassel it may not be worth their time.

Quote:

As far as stocking up on these cards as some have talked about. BB now specifically says that the cards must be loaded for no less than the $5.00. I've been seeing that in their ads recently.

Boo! Can anyone else verify this?! I mean I didn't put a penny on each, but I'd rather get a couple for $1 a piece rather that $5 each!

Tons of both the green cards and black cards at my local Best Buy. Used one of the black ones this week to buy Rebel Strike (GC) for $24.99.

I used to put money on them but now I just grab one and stick it in my bag at checkout when I use one. They are worthless unless activated so both my local Best Buys have never say anything(they don't know if I came in with it or not anyway).

Now i'm not saying be a jackass and try to go out the door with a stack of blank Gamer Giftcards though

I was at my local Best Buy store last night (Jan 5), and there were plenty of both green and black gamers gift cards to be found.

green ones are expired. I guess they still work though, right?

I don't think the coupons work anymore, but you can certainly charge up the gift cards in the green ones.

Just a little warning about the coupon. Don't use the coupon on a game that you expect will drop in price within 30 days. I bought True Crime for $50 (minus 5 - coupon and 15 - reward zone certs) before Christmas. This week they're selling it for $35, so I went in to get the difference refunded, and they said that since I'd used the coupon, I couldn't get the pricematch (even if I just took $10 instead of $15). So I'd stick to games that have been out a while.

Couldn't you just buy it at the new price and return the new one with the old receipt?

No big deal for me, I've always put $5 to $10 on the cards when I buy them.

I'm on a pretty tight monthly budget, so that way I can spend $5 one month, and then when I go to buy a game the next month I get $10 off the game at time of purchase which helps out my budget that month. Spreading out the costs basically.


As for the topic on hand, my BB still has a ton of the black cards, so I'd guess it's either employee BS, or the management at the one store may have decided to stop carrying them (if they have that kind of power).

From my experience, they only fill out the yellow copy about 1/3 of the times i go to pricematch.

yep I've seen the same thing, only some of the time.

You're lucky. My Best Buy not only fills out the yellow form, but takes my fingerprints, makes me take a polygraph, and asks for my blood type as well.



For some reason, I always get the female employees when price matching. They tend to be more "by the book" and strict, I have come to find out.