Saying Goodbye To GameStop

 

Like so many of you (except for SSG CodeMonkey) I am constantly trading in my old games to get new ones.  Chances are if you’re trading in games you’re doing it at GameStop, where they’ll gladly offer you maybe 10% of what you bought the game for, if you’re lucky.  GameStop is a ripoff to the consumer trying to sell their old games and it’s a ripoff to the consumer looking to save money and buy a used game.  Just look at a game like Call Of Duty: Black Ops, GameStop is selling it new for $60 and used for the reasonable price of $55…  So you’re only saving $5 measly dollars and risking getting a disc that someone used as a coster.

 

Everyone knows they’re getting a raw deal when they go to GameStop, but where else is there to turn?  If you’re lucking enough to have a local mom and pop gaming store you could try that, and of course there’s the internet: eBay, Craigslist, Amazon…  What a pain.  Amazon and eBay you’ve got to ship of the game and collect payment or a gift card and let eBay/PayPal take it’s cut.  With Craigslist all you get is people that want to haggle you down to a rock bottom price, oh and TONS of spam.  But as I learned today, an unlikely suitor has stepped up big time into the used/pre-order market:  Best Buy.

 

 

I had a gift card to Best Buy, so today on my way to pre-order hell at GameStop I stopped by my local Best Buy first.  So as I made my way to the pre-order section, nothing new to Best Buy, I was greeted by a ‘Gaming Expert’, or so his shirt claimed.  Having ‘dealt’ with hundreds of sub-par Best Buy employee’s over the years and hearing them spew misinformation to me and other customers, I immediately rolled my eyes as this so called “Expert” came over to assist me.

 

As it turns out, he was an expert.  He was knowledgable, kind, and helpful; not what I’m used to seeing at the Big Blue.  So as I pick up the Gears Of War 3 pre-order card, he asks me if there are anymore games I’d like to pre-order.  As I’m about to tell him “no” and rush out the door to GameStop he mentions that if you pre-order 5 games I’ll get a $100 gift card after I pay for the last game.  As I had six games I was going to pre-order this peeked my interest.  So I told the expert that although that is a good deal, I’ll be doing the rest of my pre-ordering at GameStop.  You see, I have no impulse control, and no patience, so I want things the minute I can have them and GameStop does midnight releases for major titles.  That when the expert smiled at me proclaiming, “Well Best Buy has just started doing midnight releases beginning with Madden 12 this year.” Including all those title I was looking to pre-order.  Interesting.  Then I frowned, telling him that I was going to trade-in several games to help subsides the cost of all these games, so I was still going to GameStop…  Seemingly prepared for my response, he quickly replied, “We take trades now too, in fact on average, we give you 50% more that GameStop pays out.”

 

 

So they’ll pay me more for my used games, give me a $100 gift card, and have my game ready for me at midnight?  Sign me up. The real icing on the cake though was their mobile app iOS or Android.  Right from the app you can see how much your games worth and even keep a “virtual library” of all the games you own and their current value.  Of course you can also do this right from Best Buys website via their Game Center.

 

So today I walked out of Best Buy with 5 pre-orders in my hand: Gears Of War 3, Battlefield 3, Call Of Duty 3, Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, and Halo: CE Anniversary.  As these games get closer to launch I’ll be trading some games in (and regretting it later [MW2…]) but for now I’m just happy that I never have to spend a single dime at GameStop again.  Now I know that Best Buy is no saint either, but at least I won’t feel like I’m getting ripped off (as bad) had I kept going to GameStop.

 

So friends, spread the word.  Let GameStop know that there is competition in town and we’re not taking their shit anymore.