Goozernation takes a look at some of the big box retailers such as Gamestop, Best Buy, Amazon, Walmart, as well as the idea behind the Mom and Pop store and places like eBay and Glyde.com and asks who has the best deals for gamers these days? Can a independent video game store survive in this gaming economy?
A gamer tried to sell his PS4 Pro to GameStop USA and found out that he would actually have to pay the store.
Well there’s no stop like GameStop I’m surprised they didn’t go deeper into the hole with their USED cables and controllers prices.
Edit:
For those that don’t know if you go to trade a console you need it to be ready to go with all the controllers and cables if you don’t have them they ask you to buy them and deduct the price from the monetary appraised for the console
That makes perfect sense really, why would you be selling your console without all the things it came with and needs to actually be used.
Not always I've seen plenty of refurbished units go cheap because people have picked them up broken then repaired and onsold with no controller or cable. When they are this old many people just want to replace the main unit
In the UK, eBay has removed selling fees, letting you list and sell any item for free.
I love gamestop. I still shop there. I prefer buying a game from a game store than a department store.
I preferred goin to Circuit City but that died out. Years back I'd go to Best Buy cause of Gamer Club, now Best Buy barely sells games and doesn't sell Blu-rays and looks dead most of the time. Same with GameStop, these stores look like a barren wasteland of Funko Pops and anime figures. These retail stores don't seem to care about pulling in customers. Those figurines are neat, I collect them too but they ain't pulling me into a GS. Rather than attracting gamers they've pay walled everything behind a subscription. As if they weren't already cheapskates back then with their trade ins.
I still go in there and browse, but never buy anything, the video game section is getting smaller and smaller, even the PS5/Series X/Switch game selection is getting tiny.
I miss Best Buy's Gamer Club, I used to get pre-orders for like 20% off often with other discounts then get points I could trade into discount rebates. It was so good, getting day 1 games for like $30.
When they shut that down I stopped buying games day 1 almost completely.
I stopped going to GameStop when they no longer let me use my monthly $5 rewards points towards PS network cards.
Weird I live in Canada and the Gamestop near me says you need the console, controller, controller cord, and an HDMI cord before they will take a console on trade. And if the console shows signs of being opened they still won't take the machine. And if you upgrade the PS4 HDD from 500 gig to a 1TB they will count that machine as modified and label it as a 500 gig model. Better to just sell it on Facebook Marketplace.
I also live in Canada. I had a similar experience trading in an Xbox One S. Gamestop would give me a pittance for it, so I sold it on Marketplace for almost as much as the original selling price.
GameStop has announced plans to shut down stores across the country after closing 300 locations just last year.
The popular gaming retailer says net sales have fallen 20 percent, now sitting at $860 million - a drastic change from its $1.08 billion in 2023.
Also giving you about $5.00 off for buying a used game is just bullshit. For example: https://www.gamestop.com/vi... New is $59.99, if your going to sell it for a used price it needs to be at least $10-$20 less. I hope GameStop just goes away.
Same nonsense they were doing 20 years ago. 🙄
Time to take old yeller out behind the shed...
One of the reasons I went digital. I used to trade games in back in the day when money was tighter. Trading a game in for 10-15$ isn’t worth the trouble. Especially when they turn around and sell it for almost full price.
Not surprising, but sad. WooT is killing it with their game discounts...on new games.
This is just market forces adjusting for GameStop’s long-time practices of nickel and diming the consumer. I feel bad for the workers though. It’s not good that they have to lose their jobs over this.
Not too surprising. Lots of people buying digital.
And GameStops trade in and resale pricing strategy is awful for customers. I will miss them when they are gone though.
Most I will miss being able to trade in a console, get a couple hundred towards the new model like PS5 to PS5 Pro.
I’ll miss the midnight launch parties. Standing in line with strangers sharing our excitement about a video game. Digital took that from us. I wish younger audiences could experience how joyful it was
I often think about times like that and how good we had it, before social media and smart phones gave way to a generation that expects instant gratification.
Pokémon Go is getting a crossover with Walmart that introduces more PokéStops and Gyms and physical gift cards.
Amazon is my #1... it's tax free for me and I have Prime so I get free 2 day shipping and free release day shipping on pre-orders. Oh, and when they have the $ credits with pre-orders... that makes me all kinds of happy. Next is Wal-Mart and Best Buy, they have good online sales and I can buy it and just run in the store and pick it up. I really don't care for GameStop unless they have some exclusive pre-order bonus like they did with Starhawk. My main gripe with GameStop is when they sell a new game and it's not shrink wrapped.
Besides selling your games to them of course, I would say Steam trumps all of these in sheer amount of dollars saved. That's without any type of rewards program either, their deals are straight up amazing and you don't need to be a special type of member or anything like Gamestop's PowerUp Rewards Pro.
So basically this article states that we should look everywhere does the best deal. That's what I do for buying and trading in. Sometimes eBay is good to buy and sell. If the market is saturated then buy and so not sell and vice versa. If u r really in tune, u can actually make money or play games for next to nothing. Many times, $10 isn't enough of a saving to forgo a preorder bonus. I know gamers both slot about pricing, but an astute shopper can find great deals if u r patient. And it's easy to b patient this year. I can't keep up. Rpgs have me very happy right now but way behind.
Amazon for sure.
I just bought 5 games for 2.50...total. After two promotions applied and stacked.
Tomb Raider Underworld, and Guardian of Light.
Command and Conquer 2,
Just Cause 2
and
Kane and Lynch 2
I'm pretty happy.
As for myself, I've found that a combination of Amazon and Gamefly seems to offer the best prices almost all around. Especially if you're a Gamefly subscriber. If you check out Gamefly's store prices, there are a massive amount of games you can get "used" for lower than anyone else offers. The reason I put the word "used" in quotations is because those games can hardly be considered used. The games themselves have been played before (the copies they send to customers), but they are all guaranteed to be working copies of the games (I haven't received a game yet that's had more than a few smudges that I could wipe off, no visible scratches at all), and they always come with the case and manual, including any downloadable content or online passes that normally would come in a new copy of the game.
A few examples of deals I've checked out... I was able to get SOCOM 4 and Fist of the North Star for $7 each back in December, Rage for $5 in February, FFXIII-2 for $7 in May, and Soul Calibur 5 for around $10. If you are a Gamefly subscriber you also automatically get free shipping, and every three months you get $5 toward their used games, as well as getting a 5% discount on any purchased games after 6 months, and that goes up to a 10% discount after hitting a year as a subscriber.
And as I said, Amazon is another obvious choice due to their pre-order benefits for upcoming games (often times $10 to $20 credits are given out), the free super saver shipping (plus 99 cent release day deliveries for pre-orders, and the free 2-day shipping for Prime members) and sometimes they can beat out Gamefly's prices for slightly older titles. As for new releases, there really have not been any places I've found that offer decent prices until three to six months after release.
As for other places, I've noticed Best Buy can have great prices on certain specific games and awful prices on others, but the real issue is dealing with their customer service. I have had some of the worst and most atrocious experiences with Best Buy's customer service departments (both on the phone and in-person at my local store). And aside from them, I could also mention GoHastings. I haven't used them a whole lot, but of the three or so purchases I've made on their store, I've bought three games each time (on their buy 2 get 1 free sales) and have received all games with their original case, manual, and the games themselves have been in pretty good condition. Definitely playable. I hope this helps some.