The Evil That Men Do January 26, 2007
It’s a well known fact that GameStop makes a killing off of selling used games. For example, if you trade in a game for $20 of store credit, GameStop can throw it back on the shelf for $30. Since you have to use the $20 towards a future store purchase, the $30 is pure profit that goes right to the store’s bottom line.
I’ve always made the argument that the GameStop can sell MORE if they actually kept the used game prices a little lower. If I walked into a game and saw a bunch of $10-$20 games, it’d be hard for me not to make an impulse buy.
Needless to say, it BLEW my mind to see that GameStop is selling used Wii games for FIVE DOLLARS off. Wtf! Who in their right mind would buy these?! GameStop is shooting themselves in the foot - if they sold these used games for significantly cheaper than new, such as $20 or so, they’d be flying off the shelves. Burn in hell, GameStop.
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agreed, but used titles also get an additional 10% of if you have a gamestop card. so 50 - 5 = 45 -10% = around 38 or 40 bucks, good enough for them i guess.
They do because they can. If they weren’t making money, they would lower their prices. Obviously people are willing to pay that kind of money for a used game. Also, they are willing to trade their games in for sucker prices.
What do you mean who would buy them?
I would buy a used game to save 5 bucks!
Well, for Gamestop to be able to sell used games for $10-20, they would have to buy said games for $5-10 in order for them to make money. You, as a consumer, aren’t going to be prepared to sell your new release game for that kind of money, so, they trade it in for $20, so, they have to sell it at a reasonable markup to churn a profit.
While most people wont understand this fact, it is expensive to run a business, wages, rent, electicity etc etc. Out of that $45, the Gamestop owner will not make a great deal of profit, like what you said, he makes the money from the trading in for another game.
My 2c
true phil, the other thing is that gamestop is not the only one doing that, most if not all other used game retailers sell for similar prices. don’t believe me? check ebay, the games there go for about the same, and you don’t even get to look at the game until after you buy it. so don’t go slamming something you really don’t know much about.
Agreed, burn in hell you plague on the gaming community!
GS is why I do all of my trading online with other gamers now. I refuse to shop at them anymore.
~HotShotX
I never understood why you would purchase a game new and then sell it for half the price to a game store. If you are unsure if you want the game, go rent it. I pay 10 pounds a month and get to rent all the games I want, well one at a time that is.
$5 isn’t much of a discount; nowadays I’m willing to pay the extra $5 so that the original publisher gets a cut. Also, you can get Best Buy Gamer Gift Cards that come with a $5 coupon.
I used to love when Game Stop and EB were different stores. Searching for used games was a lot of fun when each store had it’s own price. You could go from one to the other in no time looking for the best deal. Now everything is the same, and it’s all marked up so high because there is no competition for used games at retail stores.
You know who else should burn in hell? The guy that traded in ZELDA!!!!
Colleges pull the same shit with book buybacks, except here’s the sick shit: they’ll sell the same book over again for years and years. If you have a book that retails for $100 (not unheard of), say that’s 20 dollars profit for them; then they buy it back for 20 dollars (they don’t, usually less), and sell it for 70. That’s 50 dollars profit. They repeat this for 4 years, and they’ll make 250 dollars profit off of a single $100 book. Asshats.
EBgames always tells me there is a used copy for maybe 5 dollars or 10 at most. I always just buy the new one since its not much more and the fact that it is new… a couple of times ive bought a used game and ended up returning it for another used copy of the same game because it didnt work..whether its rotten luck or because people dont care what they do with their games i dont know but it has convinced me to just buy new games.
I don’t know, but I would definitely pay the extra 5$ to get the game new. Just saying it IS NEW, and besides, the game’s developers/publishers/etc get a cut, and I help increase the sales figures for that game.. 5$ is not so much a high price topay for all that…
One word: Craigslist. Just trade your game with someone in your area. I won’t sell my $50 game for $20. NEVER.
Since gamestop has practically monopolized the gameshop biz I pretty much sell/buy all my used games on ebay. At least EBAY lets me cut out the middle man. Sell a used Wii game for $35 and I get about $33 (after ebay/paypal fees) and the buy saves $15 off buying it used instead of just $5 if they bought it at gamestop used.
Ebay and paypal are the middleman
Phil, I agree with your point, but according to my research, most people trade in games for store credit, not for cash. Therefore, Gamestop doesn’t really have to jack up the price that much. ANY price that they set is pure profit for them. It’s simply a case of them being greedy.
Reefinyateef, even if it is store credit, the items that they use that credit for cost the company money. It is never *pure* profit for any business. Define greed. The employer has its employees to answer to, if they dont have money to pay them, they cannot keep the doors open, they have to make money somehow.
I live in Australia, is Gamestop a listed (on the stockmarket) company? If so, then they also have shareholders to answer to. Cash flow needs to keep increasing for investors to keep the faith.
Although, I admit, there is a fine line between greed and excess profits.
I made a mistake of buying a used Metroid Prime 2 from EB once, then later found out I could’ve gotten the same game at the same price brand new. Look first before you plan on getting a used game.
// Roth
To the poster of this thread:
Where have you been? That’s Gamestop’s motif. They have always made more profit than even paying the consumer less than 50 percent of what they’ll make on their profit. It’s business. All other places are the same, if not worse, when it comes to trade-ins. So if you burn down the Gamestops, then you’ll need to burn every used video game retail store…
Businesses have to make money to stay in business. I see everyone cheering Nintendo’s record profits, but booing GameStop/EB. Now I never buy used games at those places because there are better ways of getting them (http://www.itradevideogames.com for example). If a company makes a lot of money, I guess that’s because they know how to run a business. What you call greed is really capitalism.
Hey I just want to throw my few cents into this.
EB Games and Gamestop are both highway robbers to consumer and their practices towards their faithful clients are somewhat slave like. We are the slaves and they are our owners.
I for one never shop at any EB or Gamestop for this purpose. I rather support friendly walmart which always has a smile and doesnt treat us like slaves. so people please dont purchase your new games from them, they will eventually get the point.
Hey I just want to throw my few cents into this.
EB Games and Gamestop are both highway robbers to consumer and their practices towards their faithful clients are somewhat slave like. We are the slaves and they are our owners.
I for one never shop at any EB or Gamestop for this purpose. I rather support friendly walmart which always has a smile and doesnt treat us like slaves. so people please dont purchase your new games from them, they will eventually get the point.
Look what happened to FORD, GM, CHRYSLER and now GAP
they all robbed their clients and people responded back. Microplay which is in Canada they are like gamestop but they rent games as well. they had the same practice as gamestop with the trading. They have gone down soo much they cant recover. I hope same happens to these greedy bastards. Start a revolution, dont be part of something that is unethical.
They’re greedy bastards, and anyone saying “a business is hard to run… they need to turn profit” doesn’t really know what they’re saying. They would turn profit, even if they lost money on selling used games since the only thing they pay you for it is store credit. It’s called drawing the customer in. It acts as a form of advertising. Get them in the door and they’ll probably buy something at the same time they’re trading in. Gamestop and EB are horrible, they’re hiking up prices in the gaming industry and it’s bad news… I just got Excite Truck at a pawn shop, in excellent condition, for 30 bucks. 15 bucks less than Game Stop offers used.
I feel the need to address this once again.
I am not trying to say that everyone should always shop at Gamestop, but I am saying don’t condemn it because it sells used games. I have been working at my store for over a year and a half now. It began as an EB Games and then converted to a Gamestop when the merger went through. At first, I was against the merger, because it meant I would no longer be able to purchase used PC games. However, because of my time spent there, I understand how things work a little better than most people who simply shop there.
For one, yes, many newer games sell used for only a slight difference from the new price, but I have many regular customers that would much rather buy their games used than new. They save money, and if they have the discount card, save even more. As far as how much profit actually comes from the selling of used games, the answer is actually not that much. The store has to purchase the games new from the publisher. The store then must mark the price up a bit in order to turn a profit. However, the actual mark-up is not that much, maybe a couple bucks or so. So in reality, yes, the company makes more money off the used games, but not that much. On a $45 used game, perhaps $2-3 is actual profit that the company can report, the rest goes to the various bills: paying for the upkeep of the store, paying the employees, purchasing new games, etc. There is really less profit gained than most people think.
Another thing is that when people trade in their games, it is because either they are finished with it and will not play it again (as I am sure many of you have at least one game that will fit that description), or they simply need the money for bills or other needs. Now, eBay is a good way to go, if you have the patience and are willing to gamble that your item will sell for the same price as some of the others out there. But what happens when 10,000 people try selling the same item on eBay? The price drops and you may end up getting less for it there than you would have getting cash at a Gamestop. When you use eBay, you also take a gamble that the person buying the game is actually going to pay for it, and not just wasting your time. Many times we also offer sales to help the customer. We have had it where you trade in 3 games and you get an extra $10. Not a bad deal, especially if you had 3 games that were worth only a couple bucks each on their own.
Personally, I do believe in supporting the developers as well. I really do, I pre-order many games (perhaps too many, ask anyone I work with and they will tell you). I also buy many games new. But I also track games. I watch and see how well they are selling. If a game isn’t selling very well, but I know it is a great game, I will buy it new, if I can. But if a game is already selling very well, then there really is no true need for me to purchase the game new. Also, in my position, I am able to help support publishers and developers by recommending the good games to the customers. That is something you won’t find at a Wal-Mart. That is why I do very little of my video game shopping there. They may be friendly, but they also are rather shady at times. I have yet to actually find an employee that knows alot about games. There may be some out there, but I haven’t found one yet. That is why I go to game stores, and have gone to them for years, because they know what they are talking about.
So please, don’t go bashing a store because it doesn’t discount the used games enough. We all want games to be alot cheaper when they are used, but there has to be a balance somewhere, too.
Oh and when you buy used games at a retail store, you can always ask to look at the disc(s), that is something you cannot do online, you just have to take their word, and to some people, the definition of a “clean disc” will be very different than it is to others. At least in the store, you can judge for yourself.
Gamestop employee, thanks for the post. You make several good points. Obviously, I’ve never worked for Gamestop or EB. With that said, I think that there is something wrong with the operating model of a store if the only way that it can succeed financially, pay the bills, keep the store clean, etc is to leech off of the used game prices. If it is a big hit to the store to sell a used Wii game for $35 instead of $50, what does that say about how the store is run on a corporate level? I don’t know, it just sounds sketchy to me …
man this post was heavy, and all because 5 bucks
How much would you get for a system trade-in?
It’s a business. Of course they are out to make money off of you. there is a reason the resale price is more than what they pay you- they need to pay their employees. Stop complaining and sell your games off craigslist or something else if you think gamestop is ripping you off.
I agree you are better off getting games for cheap at http://gorillaswap.com
well if you drove all the way to gamestop then wasted money on gas and then saved an extra 5$ on a game, you’re stupid. Spending 50$ to fill half a tank and buying a game for 5 bucks less than you could get it at a walmart, doesn’t make any sense. (i leave near walmart)