GameStop Forcing Trade-Ins for PS3, Wii Reserves?

[wraggster]

A reader sent in this pic of what he says is an upcoming GameStop ad showing that they will require gamers to trade in $50 worth of their stuff to snag a pre-order for the Playstation 3 or the Wii. As always take this with a grain of salt. It could be that this is just one of the ways the retailer is pushing pre-orders, or the whole thing could be made up. Fortunately, we should find out by Monday, when these signs are set to go up.

Screen Via Comments

[razorak]

why stuff and not cash i'm wondering...hmm...

[cloud_952]

I'll be totally ****ed if they make me trade stuff in to get a preorder. They get my money no matter what, why would they demand I give them my stuff? -_- Especially considering they pay so little per game, I'd have to sell back 7+ games just to get that.

I'll be preordering elsewhere if they do that.

[J sims]

the plan is that they make more than 50 dollars selling your stuff back to people.

[Jenksie]

That seems a little unfair if its the only way. I've got mine pre-ordered from gamestation in the UK 7th on the list with a £20 deposit.

[dejkirkby]

It may be for people who want a preorder but haven't got the bucks to put a deposit down.

[razorak]

It may be for people who want a preorder but haven't got the bucks to put a deposit down.


if that were the case they would have stated that preorder payment by cash also applicable...most likely a $$ churning scheme

[gotmilk0112]

WHAT THE F**K?@?!?!? I AM NOT TRADING IN 20 OF MY GAMES TO GET A FRIGGIN WII.

seriously, game-stop gives you SH*T money for the games you sell them!! i sold them a copy of "Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire" for DS in MINT CONDITION (i never played it) and what do they give me? 2$..........then a couple days later i see it on the wall: "Used: 24.99"..... WTF IS WRONG WITH GAME STOP????:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: if i have to friggin trade in 25 of my games to get a wii ill go pre-order from nintendo!!

"we buy and sell games!" huh?? more like:

we buy games for crap money and sell them for 8x what be bought them for!

[SSaxdude]

You can only get a good enough amount of store credit if you trade in either DS or 360 games or games that are really new.

I really hope they don't make us trade in crap for this. But at least I know they will have reserves soon.

[fg-54]

they'r plan is to get even more used games to sell so it atracts people, i mean about 200 people are gonna wanna reserve a wii or ps3, multiply that by 20 (the abrage of game that need to be sold to get $50 in credit) and you get= 4,000, so if a total of 200 people DO reserve a wii or a ps3, then they are gonna have 4,000 used games ready to sell, and that is alot of money that they will be getting, not to mention that it will also atract costumers if they see the store full of games.

[gotmilk0112]

when i go there on monday ill ask the guy if i can jsut put down 50$ cash for it. if not then game stop is gay. and ill just reserve from nintendo online.

[Psphreak]

yeah, these places are total crooks. I don't buy used games/accessories cuz I know someone got ripped off, I instead go to Fry's electronics to buy my things

[blueraja]

I've always felt that folks that continue to shop at gamestop get what they deserve. Gamestop is the seedy pawn shop of the video game business. Where pawn shops prey on the down and out trying to make ends meet, Gamestop primarily prey's on kids to impatient to save their money or sell their games at anything close to real value.

There are dozens of alternative methods, heck even blockbuster will give you more for them if you insist on going the "rip ourself off" route of selling your games to a retailer. Better yet try GTZ, Craigs List or even Ebay.

Forcing your customers to work harder at ripping themselves off just for the "benefit" of preordering is wrong on so many levels. Employees tend to make the argument that there is a "cost of doing business" but when it takes a 300-400% profit margin on customer "trade-ins" then you have a crappy business model.

Do the math people, seriously look at the value of what your trading, explore other options. Dont rip yourself off on the hopes of being one of the few that get one of their shortlisted allocation on launch day. There are far easier and more surefire ways to get one day one...just use your head.

Anyway for the sheep still dumb enough to fall for this...enjoy trading your $300 worth of games and consoles for your $50 non-guaranteed preorder. The more the merrier since it will ensure more are available at places like target and wal-mart for us "non-hardcore" but evidently more intelligent gamers.

[dejkirkby]

Great rant Blueraja!

[Video_freak]

I rather pay $100 in cash... :(

[gotmilk0112]

i'd rather pay 150$ in cash and have that 150$ taken out of the price.

gamestop is gay with trade-ins and shit here is what they do:

you sell a game to them for 3-4$
then they sell it used for 20-30$

get it?

[emuking]

do you guys think its okay that i sell my ps2? its pretty old and i dont have much games for it and im thinking of selling it to save up for a wii or ps3, its the old big ps2 model and i have had it for 3 years, i dont even think its worth more than $80

[Video_freak]

I think they only accept games for this offer. :mad:

[emuking]

I think they only accept games for this offer. :mad:

omg are you serious, because i want to keep my ps2 games so that i could play them on the ps3 so i thought it was okay to sell my ps2 to gamestop so it go towards my ps3 purchase, damn gamestop is lame

[pibs]

man i traded in my ps2 a couple of months ago, and they are a bunch of @ss Holes >< just $40 because i didn't have the disk for my hdd adapter WTF they sell the adapter for the same damn price.

bunch of rip offs... the hell with Lame Stop, id rather pre order off a website cuz of no taxes.

[Shilo]

That sucks! It would take way to many games to add up to $50. I tried to trade in a copy of Sonic the Hedge hog 2 for the Genesis a few years back (had like 3 of them and was curious), and they said they would give me a nickle for it. A nickle for a game that they have a $10 price tag on it right next to the counter. I hope this is just a rumor.

[kcajblue]

that is the stupidest way to preorder.

[Amethyst]

If you need cash for games go to independent stores.

Non video game related: I had a bunch of sh't CDs I collected from a few yard sales for $10, some new. I went to the Warehouse to sell them, about 13 CDs, 5 bucks. I know they were sh't CDs but $5? I went to an independent record store and scored an easy $30 off those sh'tty discs.

Chain stores that offer trade-ins usually work off a preset price for games, Warehouse had it for my CDs, while some independents do estimate in their appraisals. They look at it and guess it's value.

[dejkirkby]

In the UK, stores like GAME or Gamestation won't accept wrestling or soccer games as they are too common.

[cloud_952]

Same thing in the US with sports titles. Anything that comes out every year (football, soccer, baseball, etc) they won't accept any previous edition.

[gotmilk0112]

game-stop's way of knowing the price of a CD game is:

they take off 1$ for every scratch (and or) smudge on the CD. i once tried to trade in "Crash Bash" (an old ps1 game that wasnt that old when i bought it) and he said: "okau......um ill give you a quarter for it okay?" and i saw it on the wall USED for 19.99 os im like no your out of your mind.

and once i tried to trade in these 3 gameboy advance games:

PokeMon Sapphire
Crazy Chase!
Advance Wars

and he said he'll give me 9$ for them all. and im like WTF?!?!?11?1/?1

Lame-Stop is indeed the seedy pawn shop of videogames.

[cloud_952]

So.. anyone been to Gamestop and checked this out today?

[gotmilk0112]

i just read about this at GameSpot. this thing was a test and they are testing it in hiwaii! (however you spell that >_<;) and if all goes well with it they will move it to the rest of the USA. OH KNOEZ!!!!!!