PixyJunket

Let's get Gamestop in the BBB's crosshairs.

If you have been affected by Gamestop's shady practices.. FILE A COMPLAINT.
https://odr.bbb.org/odrweb/public/ge...spx?siteID=113

This is the only way we can fight the highly unethical and sometimes HIGHLY ILLEGAL practices.

If you have been sold an OPEN AND THEREFORE USED game as NEW, FILE A COMPLAINT.

If you have had a pre-order you paid for, EITHER IN PART OF IN FULL, sold to someone else, FILE A COMPLAINT.

Here's the 2008 original post for posterity.

BravesMG

Holy crap. That really sucks, I don't have as much hatred for GameStop as a lot of people, but that is really freaking low.

Is this documented or just rumored?

PixyJunket

GameStop was charging something like $59.99 or $69.99 for used copies of Nocturne until about a week ago. It's now $39.99 and most stores have a copy or two in stock. An administrator on the Atlus forums confirmed that the game was just reprinted and almost the entire stock was purchased by GameStop. There may not be a press release on the situation, but you do the math.

The Bus

Blame Atlus for selling it all to Gamestop.

slop101

They really are just a glorified pawn shop.

slop101

How could Atlus have known that GS would pull something like this?

Michael Corvin

I hate Gamestop too, but have to agree with Bus.

pinata242

Perhaps they should have read parts I-XXVI of this thread.

This is really super shitty of GS but, while completely shady and immoral, it probably isn't illegal unfortunately. They're creating an artificial market. If Atlus would sell to the common man, this sort of scalping would still occur, but for it to be done by a retailer is unthinkable.

Hopefully Atlus takes this under advisement and either stops dealing with GS or greatly minimizes the % of stock they allocate to them.

PixyJunket

I'm not sure how the whole process works, but Atlus could very well have not had a say in who was buying it. Reprints like this are handled by a third party, usually GameQuestDirect. They made a niche for themselves reprinting sought-after games like the GameCube Resident Evil games, Gitaro Man, Persona 2, Rhapsody, etc.

C-Mart

I would bring it to the attention of Atlus and GameQuestDirect either via email or phone call to a sales department or higher up if you can get ahold of someone. At least make sure that they know what is going on. Is there a variation on the cover that would identify a reprint vs. an original? Because without proof there would be nothing you could do.

Having used copies at $10 more than the listed price of the new reprints should be enough, but sadly it probably isn't.

zero

DAAAAAMN that is fricking low. Gamestop still sells Ikruga (GC) for 39.99 used and Marvel VS Capcom 2 (PS2) for 79.99! This makes me glad I grabbed that used copy of Nocturne at my store, and I think I only paid about 29.99 for it as well.

fujishig

I don't get why they don't just sell them for 40 bucks new? Why open them and mark them as used? They obviously have no problem with charging above retail for some games... I think I bought Firepro wrestling from them for 10 bucks over MSRP because they were the only ones I could find it from at the time.

edit: ok, it was 5 bucks over MSRP. It's a 15 dollar game that they sold for 20 bucks.

Also, does the reprint of DDS 1 come with the case that houses both games? Are they reprinting DDS 2? Why not freaking reprint Persona 1 or 2?

PixyJunket

I've heard two stories on it, one is that they no longer have entries for them as new games in their system, so they open them to make them used. But hey, they didn't have an entry for "Grand Theft Auto IV - NEW" in their system at some point either. The second thing I've heard is that they're free to price them as they see once they're open but as you've pointed out, they price over MSRP regularly on some new items.

I don't know about your second question, but I think it probably won't. The reprint of Nocturne does not come with the soundtrack as the original did. Also, I think DDS2 is still a bit easy to find (I show a few GS locations near me with new copies in stock still) and Persona 2 WAS reprinted about a year ago before GameStop rid their store of a PS1 section.

fujishig

But it was still the gimped Persona 2, right?

Looking at CAG, it looks like Amazon had a few Nocturne's available a few days ago, also priced at 39.99. Are you sure they were supposed to retail for 29.99?

Ocelot

^^

Thanks for asking my question, fujishiq.

PixyJunket

Oh, was it actually Amazon or a third party seller? The lowest third party seller right now is listed as $56.95. I heard the $29.99 price came from Atlus themselves, I'll try to get better confirmation on that. It certainly makes sense though as when Gitaro Man was reprinted you could get it sealed and pristine at Fry's for $39.99 but GameStop opened all of theirs and sold them for $44.99 or $49.99 used. They also listed the reprinted Cube versions of Resident Evil 2 and 3 for $39.99 used but I don't recall seeing them elsewhere for comparison.

On the plus side, having them listed as used opens them up to a number of deals, I'd imagine.

fujishig

It seems like it was Amazon itself, as they apparently had a counter with how many were left, and I'm not sure they do that with 3rd party vendors. It was also just today that they had them. Hard to say for sure, though, because they're out now.

What kind of system makes it easier to input barcodes for "used" games than "new" games? It just makes no sense to me that they have to open up all the games... why not just input them in the system as used and keep them wrapped? This just baffles me.

The Bus

It's still Atlus's IP. I don't see how they could lose control on what retailers it gets to. Companies should be allowed to allocate stock as they wish. Putting all the stock in one retailer's hands is complete idiocy.

Either way, Atlus and the consumer lose. Had Atlus sent even a handful of these to Best Buy, Circuit City, TRU, K-Mart, and Wal-Mart, this problem wouldn't be happening. They may have even sold more of them.

What benefit does the distributor have? "Here, let me sell you this game for $15 eventhough I know you will mark it up to $50... Enjoy your extra profit!" Why not sell it to them at $40?

dvd182

I haven't seen the reprints at any less than $39.99 online, but I can't complain about Gamestop opening all of them because I just snagged them both as part of the B2G1 sale running right now. It's a pretty strange situation, though.

PixyJunket

If I can't find confirmation on the supposed price other than conjecture on various forums, I'll remove one of the adjectives from the thread title, they still don't get a pass on opening these before selling them.

The Bus, none of the retailers you listed carried these games when they came out, why would they stock them now?

fujishig

Yeah, especially if this is really timed to coincide with the release of Persona III FES (Great game by the way, only 30 bucks even though it meant I double dipped on it). I don't think any of those stores even carry FES. I can't blame Atlus too much, as they probably sold it to whoever wanted it... anyone see FES sole anywhere besides online, smaller stores, Fry's, and Gamestop/EB?

maxfisher

I've read many times about GameStops that open all new games before selling them. Not sure where the logic is in that, but it's definitely nothing new.

The only time I'll consider spending money at a GameStop is when they have a B1G1F, B2G1F or 25% off on used games. Even then, it's usually just to grab a couple games that have high trade-in values at Blockbuster/GameRush, i.e. spend $20 at GameStop, flip it to $60 at Blockbuster and basically get the next new title I want for 66% off.

BravesMG

There's a B2G1 going on now?

slop101

Unfortunately, these sorts of niche games will never move at those kinds of stores.

Knowing the razor-thin margins that stores make per new game sold, it's not surprising that an unscrupulous company like GS would do this - but the fact that they're making only $10 more in profit per (obscure) game, to risk losing hundreds of customers that might find out about it, shows how desperate and pathetic they are.

fujishig

The other (inadvertant) possible plus side to this: this may dissuade hoarders from buying up all the copies. Apparently, a lot of the Amazon stock went to ebayers. At least, these being opened and "used" should mean that people that actually want to play the game can get ahold of one.