GameStop to Offer Trade-ins on Classic Consoles/Games

[Ryannumber1gamer]

The only thing that bugs me about this is that rumor that Gamestop destroys games they can't sell. These games come from an era where games were lucky to see a print run that broke 500,000. If they destroyed mass quantities of these games the retro market would be even worse than it currently is.

 

That rumor is true. There is Gamestop Dumpster Dive videos on Youtube that show games that have been forcefully scratched to ensure it can't work and accessories that have the wires cut to ensure no one can use them

[PSI Wind]

That rumor is true. There is Gamestop Dumpster Dive videos on Youtube that show games that have been forcefully scratched to ensure it can't work and accessories that have the wires cut to ensure no one can use them

[Solkia]

 

Ian of Luna Video Games points out why this is an awful idea.

[Tara]

The prospect of fake games being sold due to negligence on GameStop's part hadn't crossed my mind, but that is a good point.  I'm not really sure if that's a common enough offense to worry about it having any sort of damaging effect on the market or on a good deal of consumers.  As it was stated in the actual video, they're only doing it online, and chances are barely anyone's going to be even using GameStop's website for that.  But that also poses the argument that GameStop's sub-quality standards and negligence will draw in more people who would want to make and sell these fakes.

 

Either way, yeah, even at the smallest level of damage, there's really not enough benefits to it, as far as I can see, and several bad possibilities to make the decision seem terrible.

[Solkia]

The retro market is basically flooded with fakes.

 

He's said it's at the point where if an Earthbound cart came in, he's starting to consider just not taking it if the label looks good.

[Tara]

That's perhaps where the biggest fault of the whole being sold exclusively online thing.  I don't think GameStop is willing to do this even with contemporary games mind you, but in most stores that sell retro games here, you can bring a cartridge (or disk if that is the case) up to the counter and ask them to see if it works.  They're usually really nice about it and will hook up a spare console to a TV, put the game in, and let you play for a few minutes to make sure that it works to your liking.  Granted, I don't know if a lot of people know that you can do that, so I'm sure even those stores still have plenty of people buying games blindly, but yeah, if it weren't online, then that problem could be easily rectified.

 

Again, though, I don't know if GameStop even does this.  In fact, they once refused to refund me on a game they sold me that was obviously broken.  Granted, the reason for doing so would have made sense if the game were in working condition (GameStop doesn't allow you go back on a receipt twice; I had bought a game from them I didn't like, so I returned it for another one, which turned out to be broken), but since it wasn't, that should have been an exception.  So yeah, even if they weren't online, the problem might still persist, but I mean, it would at least have some kind of feasible solution.  It wouldn't exactly take a great deal of education on the part of the employees to simply let the customer see if the game is working like it's supposed to, since in the collector's market, most consumers know what they're getting prior to purchasing.

[goku262002]

Uh, Akito, this isn't just limited to online. a few stores are doing this as a beta test as well, with the rest coming through later on.

[PSI Wind]

My GameStop actually does normally check to see if the game you're trading in is working. I'll say it as many times as I need to, but I feel like peoples experience with GameStop is a huge YMMV in germs of customer service and the like. I know that's basically every store, but GS seems to have it moreso.

[Tara]

Uh, Akito, this isn't just limited to online. a few stores are doing this as a beta test as well, with the rest coming through later on.

Which essentially means that more than 90% of the ordeal is online.  So until they actually do branch out (which can take a long time to implement overtime), their local practices for retro games are negligible factors as far as the primary demographic is concerned.

[Solkia]

As a disclaimer I should note that half of the time, Pat and Ian have no fucking idea what they're talking about.

 

But both of them have been big contributors of the retro market for over 20 years so generally their analysis on it is worth keeping in mind. They may have the wrong info of how Gamestop is distributing this, but they're on the money about how this will turn out.

[goku262002]

Which essentially means that more than 90% of the ordeal is online.  So until they actually do branch out (which can take a long time to implement overtime), their local practices for retro games are negligible factors as far as the primary demographic is concerned.

Yeah, your right all branches wouldn't even be adapting this until a year from now at the least. so for now mom and pop shops are safe.