Just as bad is that they sell actual used games for only about $2-3 less than a new one - now that's highway robbery (especially when they buy used games for only about a quarter of what they sell them for).

Yeah, I know it's a business... blah blah blah - I run a business myself and this kind of practice is just flat out gouging.

It really is kind of a non issue for me since I don't buy new games from them. Or at least very very very rarely do. I buy a couple used games every once in awhile and use them to look through and look at the back of the boxes but I have only bought a new game a couple times in the past decade or so. Then it is so cheap that I really don't care if it is already opened. But I do agree that if it is open then it is used. I don't mind so much on the carts though. I bet they would sell so much more stock if they did two things.

One, keep the games unopened.

Two, keep one display case and if that is the only one left then sell it at a %10 discount.

At least in my experience Gamestop is a much better store. They have decent prices on their used games, you have a week to return it opened for another title and they guarantee them for three months. Furthermore they are usually nicer (my experience at half a dozen of each store).

Don't forget Gamestop !!

I preorder "like-new" games from half.com at a price I'm willing to pay... I end up paying 50-80% off msrp for games that are in as good (if not better) condition as they are at EB and actually 1/3 of the time, the half.com people send me a factory sealed game! That alone is reason enough to never shop at eb or gamestop... I have a better chance of getting a sealed brand new game by ordering used games off strangers on the internet paying less than half the msrp than I do buying from EB and paying over msrp.

Opened....it is used!!! Had a friend a few years back who worked at Babbages aka Eb.....when a game was returned for no reason other than the person did not like the game.....they took it into the back and placed the plastic wrap over the case and heat sealed it all over again. Hopefully, you will not wind up with a "new" game that an EB employee has taken home and abused then brought back to the store for selling purposes.

I thought I should toss some info into this thread since I work at Gamestop

1) As mentioned before, if people did not steal, then we could put live games on the floor. Unfortunatley, that will never happen so we must remove the game from the floor and only place empty cases out there. The sad thing is, people steal those too...

2) Yes, we can 'check out' games for a few days, but we must buy them if there are any scratches. We mainly just take used games home since they have been played anyways.

3) I don't know why some of our used games are only $2 less than a new...it makes it really hard to sell some used games. The main drive of used games is that we make money 2 or more times on it, plus it helps sell our discount card and magazine subscription (which unfortunately is our job).

4) Pre-ordering: Everyone on this forum hates this for some reason. Yes, places like Best Buy may have 100 copies of the game, but we usually get it a day or 2 (or more earlier), and man Best Buy sucks. Also, if you 100% know you want a game when it comes out, whats the harm in putting $5 down on it...we even call you and hold the game for you. A lot of the time, we really don't get enough copies of a game...recently people that did not reserve Full Spectrum Warrior and Metal Slug did not get it for a day or 2. If its a huge title (and not Halo 2), you can most likely walk in and get it though

I guess thats about it....Gamestop is not too bad. If you really have a problem with an open game, tell them to take like 5 or 10 percent off for 'shopworn'...it is in our computers as a discount.

Stealing is a fact of retail sales. Every other store seems to be able to put out games (Best Buy) or keep them behind glass (Wal-Mart). EB and GameStop usually have two employees working at any given time, yet what are they doing? They're both behind the counter, or one's playing a video game while the other does work. No one is watching the customers, so of course some theft will occur.

Anyway, it's a stupid solution. Other places use the electronic tags that come in games to set off alarms if they're not disabled during a sale. Why can't those stores do the same thing?

Because of a braindead pricing scheme to squeeze every possible dollar out of a used sale (buying for $4 and selling for $27 or whatever). They fail to understand that they could increase their overall revenues by applying some sanity to their price structure.

It's not for no reason. Who doesn't want to wait a day or two and potentially save quite a bit of money? Preordering is financially dumb unless there's some kind of bonus with it. If they offered cool bonuses with most preorders (like the Master Quest disc for the Zelda preorder) the number would shoot up dramatically. Once again, profits would increase overall.

Keep in mind, I'm not directing this to you. I'm just trying to point out that a lot of EB and GameStop's practices are asinine. It's why I never shop at either one.

I think Breakfast for Girls summed all that up pretty well.

But I have to add in another over what good preordering does me. Why lock myself into a price/store before hand, I'll just wait til it comes out and get the best advertised price if I must have a game. Game availablility never seems to be a problem. Now if they give good stuff away for preordering then I will consider it.

You DON'T lock yourself into a price/store beforehand. At GameStop (and I am sure EB), you put $5 down. If you decide otherwise, then you can get your money back, no hassle. Pre-ordering is an insurance on getting a game. Even stores like BB have started to allow preorders.

Now, some people say they just walk into BB and grab what they want, but it is different everywhere you go. I live in a college town and there are some games that are either gone when the store opens or get stocked very rarely.

Disgaea was one of these (knew some people looking for it). No where in town had it in stock, and GameStop got literally 3 copies because no one preordered, hence there appeared to be no demand. Then, the store would only get a couple copies in every week or two, making people who wanted the game have to wait, visit another town, or order online (and wait again unless they wanted to pay higher shipping costs).

I ran into the problem with Tactics Ogre myself, same situation. No one carried it and GameStop was out of stock for months (getting a copy or two in very rarely).

Some people will argue the store should just carry lots of every new release, but unless they are big stores like BB, it is not practical. Again, local GameStop has stacks of Bruce Lee for the Xbox because the game was believed to sell, and never did. Can't give the crap away. So, preorders help judge interest in a title.

I guess what I don't get, is besides being annoyed by being asked repeatedly, why is everyone so touchy about preorders? People on this forum preorder DVDs ALL THE TIME, I don't see them attacked over in DVD Talk or DVD Bargains, yet preordering a videogame is a cardinal sin?

If you don't like it, don't do it, I don't.

Now, since this thread was originally about opened games, um ... I don't think it is a good practice, but the time or two it has happened to me, I did not mind much.

Reprehensible.

One of the MANY reasons I don't step foot in game stores anymore.

word. what's the big deal if some people do it or not? it's a free country.

--
back on topic, to add to breakfast's post - if you create a policy which basically treats all of the customers as potential criminals, of course we don't like it. we're not the enemy. don't base your policy on a minority of people who steal (which include employees, i bet).

Pre-ordering is great for those that have to have the game/movie/whatever as soon as possible.

I'm not one of those, so I don't do it. My BB usually has everything I want when I go as well.

Are the huge empty game case displays so singularly wonderful that they justify all of the hassle for customers?

I sure as hell don't think so.

That is exactly the point. They hassle you and hassle you and think you are an idiot for not doing it. It is the same effect as extended warranties.

The reason why people pre-order DVD's is there is usually a good deal on them and they are online. There isn't a guy at Wal-Mart that says "If you don't pre-order it you will never get it."

Besides the big chains usually have a much better offer by at least $5 and up to $15 the week it releases. And the price usually drops by %50 within four months.

We don't mind if someone pre-orders it. It is just the business model and attitude that surrounds it that annoys us and mainly that business attitude rests exclusively on the laurels of Video Game specialty stores.

Of course this isn't always the case and of course it is store dependent but the general practice of those type of stores is to prey on people who don't know any better.

This thread makes me miss when I was the store manager of the only remaining true Blockbuster Games. I know some of you may have a Blockbuster Video with a games store in it now but it is not the same thing.

We were only retail and bought and sold new as well as used video games. We had a display copy of every game to prevent theft but also because we had at least one of every system setup and would let you try any game on the shelf before you buy. As a result when we could no longer reorder a title the last remaining copy would be sold as used. Most people also found are buy back prices comparable to the Software Etc and EB but are used prices were actually cheaper. I never sold a used game for more than half of what I paid for it and I never sold it higher than a 10.00 dollar differance between new and used such as 39.99 new was 24.99-29.99 used depending on demand of the title.

I personally don't like the practice as I've been stuck with some scratched discs that were so called "new" games. Game store employee's play the hell out of these games and then sell them as new. Very bad policy. If you need to take it out of the box, then take the loss and sell it used.

As far as preordering. If I can get something cool for free with the preorder (like some of the free GameCube discs) and I really want the game I'll do it. If they aren't throwing in a freebee I'll just get it at a store later. Different game store people have tried the if you don't preorder you won't get it BS. I know better and don't fall for it.

I don't care about pre-ordering... that doesn't bother me that they push it - I don't talk to those people anyway if I ever go in there to just look around. I pre-order DVDs if I get a special price. Not so much anymore, but back in the day preordering DVDs was way cheaper. Games are always the same price pretty much everywhere, so that's why preordering is dumb. I don't have to have movies or games on release day - it's not important to me. With movies, if I was that anxious to see it I would've seen it in theaters. With games, well those take 10 hours or so to complete, so it's not like I'll get it and finish it on release day... I'd be lucky to even have the time to open it the day I get it. I've got lots of games I haven't even gotten around to yet. Patience pays for me.

when EB does that it is still a new game.

that arises when you are buying the last copy of the game and they have to use the box from the display area, obviously they would take the game out so no one is able to steal it from the store floor.

in that case, I feel they should at least knock the price down to a "used" price.

If 2 strangers walk into the store at the same time and ask for the same game and there's one sealed copy and one copy with the box on the shelf, who should get the sealed copy and who should get the opened box where the disc has been handled and is floating somewhere behind the counter in a drawer or something.

It's not like EB discounts the used games much anyway, so just give the customer the used price if you're gonna sell them an opened item.

Not just last copies. Sometimes other copies are opened for the employees to take home and try out, and then are re-shrinkwrapped and sold as new.

As soon as it's opened from the original shrinkwrap it's used and shouldn't be sold as new IMO. But even if they make it used, that's only going to knock $2-5 off of a new release. Which is why I stay out of these stores, given you can buy any game, all of which are new and unopened, for at least $5 off gamestore prices at Best Buy with the gamer's gift card coupon.

I guess one way to tell if it was reshrinkwrapped is the security stickers on the side/top/bottom of case. If they are missing, you know. You could probably tell if it was slit with a knife as well.

Well, it used to be worse, when all these stores had that liberal return policy (maybe some still do). You could return any game that you bought within a certain amount of days, and trade it in for another new game (saying that you didn't like it or whatever). This applied even if the game was opened and played. Most stores than took the new disk, shrinkwrapped it, and sold it as new.

Because of pretty widespread abuse of this policy (for people looking at this as a free rental service) I think most stores discontinued this, but I could be wrong.

I've never thought about it, but they don't do this with GBA games, do they? Ugh.

I can see the merits of preordering, as far as the business is concerned. They want to judge how well a title is going to sell before ordering it. That's fine, and while it's not for me, if people want to do that, it's up to them. What I don't understand is why sometimes when people preorder a game, they don't get it on release date because the store "ran out". Isn't that the whole point of preordering? Also, for a game like, say, Halo 2 that gets constantly delayed, do some people just put 5 bucks down for two years?

Anyway, I don't want to see this thread go down in flames. I mean, without EB, I would've never gotten Culdcept for 13 bucks...

Yep, none of the chains do this anymore. Too many people were using it as free rental, and likely even more to get it for free to burn in to play on modded systems.

I took advantage a couple times to return games that sucked or that I beat in a couple days.

Thats why I just shop at my local mom-and-pop video game store. This is a shameless plug but anybody in the Fullerton/Anaheim area check out Games-For-Less, which is my uncle's shop.

They have all the old school stuff like Dreamcast, N64, Genesis, Lynx, NeoGeo pocket and they buy and sell used games/systems as well sell new games. THeir selection of games is quite wide. New games go for 47.99 or 37.99 a savings of 2 whole bucks. as for used stuff they have great deals and a guarantee. if a disc wont load because its dirty or scratchy they have this professional cd buffer system that will buff it out (like that dr. skip thing but way better)

oh unlike Eb, this store is quite big and they keep their games on the wall behind them and in glass showcases. what u see is what you get.

Ebgames, best buy, they suck for video games.

I have been to the Games-for-Less in Culver City. Picked me up cubivore for $20 new. Pretty good store.