410°

Can Best Buy Beat Game Stop At Its Own Game

TQ Author writes: I recently went to my local Best Buy to trade in a few games I don't play anymore. Normally I'd go to Game Stop to do the trade in, but I was also planning on picking up a few Blu Rays as well. Twenty minutes later, I walked out of Best Buy with an awesome experience that will only get better with time.

roblef4924d ago

The prices are WAY better than GameStop, to begin with.

fluffydelusions4924d ago

The only reason I'll probably continue to go to gamestop is because it's literally right across the street from where I live while Best Buy is like a 15 minute bus ride. Yeah, I guess I'm a bit spoiled from all the convenience of living in NYC lol

illmatic4924d ago

have you ever traded anything at Best Buy?

trenso14924d ago

at least you live near one i still have a bus or train to get to a game stop or best buy :(

Larry L4924d ago

Oh, Best Buy is REALLY trying to dig into GameStop's market share, and I applaude them for it. It's about time someone stepped up and challenged their monopoly.

Most importantly to me as a gamer, is that Best Buy offers fair market value for our trade-ins, like GameStop/EG Games USED to do before they got greedy. Back in the day EB/Gamestop would give you half of what they were going to sell it for, which imo is fair market value. I remember trading in my Soul Calibur 2 a bit after it came out, and they gave me $22 and put in on the shelf for $44.99. When I traded in Soul Calibur 5 a month after launch and they offered me $15 and their used copies were on the shelf for $55. I passed. It's such an unfair business model, but because of how they present it most gamers fall for it. And my local GS employees wonder why I always give them attitude. IT'S BECAUSE YOU'RE CORRUPT!!!! Now get a hair cut, hippie.

Also Best Buy has a FANTASTIC promotion I think is permanent for pre-orders. If you pre-order 5 games, after you pay for the 5th one you get $100 in store credit. It's incredible. Me and my friend this past July heard about the offer and cancelled our pre-orders at gamestop and put them to Best Buy. I had 3 PS3 pre-orders, he had 2 360 pre-orders. The girl at GS askedd why we were cancelling all our POs and we told her and she looked PISSED lol. We offered her a chance though. We said if you give us a $100 bill we'll keep our pre-orders at gamestop. LOL

Anyway. We already cashed in once after AC Brotherhood came out. We are working on our second batch of pre-orders now, but that's not gonna be fullfilled until next year. But we each spend $50 on a Best Buy trip to split the $100 gift card. Pretty good deal for just pre-ordering games I would've bought anyway.

If any of you people here have pre-orders somewhere else, I suggest switching them to best buy if you or you and a friend have at least 5 of them. No reason not to, really. It's a free $100!!!

SilentNegotiator4923d ago (Edited 4923d ago )

Not that I was searching Best Buy's used shelf out of anything other than curiosity, but I remember my local Best Buy's used ps3 game shelf going something like this:

Haze, Haze, Haze, Haze, Haze, Haze, Haze, Haze, Haze, Haze, Haze, Haze, Assassin's Creed, Haze, Haze, Haze, Haze, Haze, Haze, WW2 pilot shooter, Haze, Haze, Haze, Lego Star Wars, Haze, Haze, Haze......you get the idea.

So if there's a game I can't get a hold of new, I usually go to Gamestop.

Rainstorm814923d ago

@ silent

That mustve been sometime ago, i went to best buy after christmas and picked up RDR for 6$ used..and their selection had much more variety than that

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 4923d ago
MrBeatdown4923d ago

This is why I don't even bother with GameStop unless I have a gift card or know they have something that is basically MSRP everywhere, like PSN cards. They just don't have any worthwhile deals.

I bought all my new games from BB this fall and got incredibly good deals. I got in on their "Buy 5 games, get $100 in Reward Zone credit" deal. After price matching during the 30 days after purchasing each game, and spending the $100 in credit on something I would have bought anyway, it cost me $164 for Uncharted 3, Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, Rage, and Skyrim, all a day or two after release. That's about half off each game. Then I got Batman for $30 and Dirt 3 for $15 on Thanksgiving. And I got Transformers: War for Cybertron for $5 a week or so ago. I had so many games, I actually passed up WWE '12 on that same day for half price. Plus, I got Reward Zone points for all that which gets me $10 or so back.

Even with GameStop's best deal (Buy 2 get 1 free on used games), and assuming they had everything I wanted in stock, I wouldn't have gotten as good of a deal).

TheSuperior 4924d ago

GameStop really rips people off when it comes down to it.

illmatic4924d ago

Yeah, my experience with Best BUy has been stellar so far. My only gripe are the prices of used games. Im not sure if all Best Buys have the same prices for used games, but I feel they are a little too high.

TheSuperior 4924d ago

Somtimes i dont even think used games are a deal especially if you take online pass codes into consideration. if i but used i usually stick to gamefly because they send the codes with the games since the box doesnt go out to everyone.

spektical4924d ago

i buy games used.. recently used games i bought are assassins creed revelations, arkham city, and nba 2k12, all for $80.. i say i got a steal.

idc for assassins creed MP

kma2k4924d ago

@thesuperior gamefly doesnt send out dlc codes? at least the 6 games ive bought from them have never had any dlc codes in it?

MrBeatdown4923d ago

@kma2k

That's strange. Every used game I've ever bought from GameFly has included everything a new copy would come with. Case, manual, DLC, online passes... it's all in there.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 4923d ago
Spenok4923d ago

I have a question, my brother went in to Best Buy to trade in some games and when he did they told him he was only allowed to trade in games he had purchased FROM best buy... either that or he misheard.

Is there any validity to this?

RXL4924d ago (Edited 4924d ago )

my homie just sold his ps3 at gamestop and they gave him 60 bucks*....(criminal if you ask me)

bestbuy says they would've given him 100 dollars*...BUT he needed actual cash...

so that's what gamestop has over bestbuy...for those who need actual cash and not store credit or giftcards..less money...but actual moolah..

(*estimated prices)

SoapShoes4924d ago

Why didn't he just use craigslist?!

MariaHelFutura4924d ago

LOL.

I'm just laughing at the "estimated prices" part.

Funny stuff.

Lex_Dangerously 4924d ago

Exactly. If best buy did some sort of cash trade in I believe that they would seriously hurt gamestop.

RXL4924d ago

yup...well..there are always pawn shops...but the ones around me way aren't cool like the ones on t.v....you have a good chance of getting stabbed with what ever you wanted to pawn and have a significantly high chance of contracting some strand of hepatitis

RXL4924d ago

@estranged...he needed the money that day....or else im sure he would've...or at the very least tried to sell it to a friend...not me...i would've tried to buy it off of him for 20...trying to convince him somehow all the porn he downloaded on it degraded the value

SSultan4923d ago

Your friend should of craigslisted that! I got rid of my PS3 for 250 easy. (Excellent condition)

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 4923d ago
4924d ago
metsgaming4924d ago

Is it only certain best buys with used games because i have never seen these used games at best buy. I think they have them online but i never seen them in store. Second is do all of them do game trade ins and if so where do you go customer service of the people on the floor in the game area?

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1240°

Gamer Tries to Sell PS4 Pro to GameStop, Ends Up Being Asked to Pay the Store

A gamer tried to sell his PS4 Pro to GameStop USA and found out that he would actually have to pay the store.

Lionsguard103d ago

Gamestop: And I'm taking a huge risk here.

1Victor103d ago (Edited 103d ago )

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

Gamingsince1981103d ago

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.

jznrpg103d ago (Edited 103d ago )

eBay.. not having anything for it makes it seems stolen though

Profchaos103d ago

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

jznrpg103d ago

I doubt those people are selling at GameStop

BeHunted103d ago (Edited 103d ago )

In the UK, eBay has removed selling fees, letting you list and sell any item for free.

andy85103d ago

Correct. This is why day one games cost me practically nothing now

Eonjay103d ago

They are gonna take that same console and sell it for $300.

Inverno103d ago

GameStop era ended in the teens. Let it die bruh.

S2Killinit103d ago

I love gamestop. I still shop there. I prefer buying a game from a game store than a department store.

Inverno103d ago

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.

FinalFantasyFanatic103d ago

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.

tiron8102d ago

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.

raWfodog103d ago (Edited 103d ago )

I stopped going to GameStop when they no longer let me use my monthly $5 rewards points towards PS network cards.

Knightofelemia103d ago

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.

clevernickname103d ago

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.

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250°

GameStop plans widespread store shutdowns after closing 300 locations last year

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.

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PRIMORDUS190d ago

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.

OtterX190d ago

Same nonsense they were doing 20 years ago. 🙄

Time to take old yeller out behind the shed...

Grilla190d ago (Edited 190d ago )

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.

RhinoGamer88190d ago

Not surprising, but sad. WooT is killing it with their game discounts...on new games.

raWfodog190d ago

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.

P_Bomb190d ago

Unfortunate for the staff, but not unexpected.

46player190d ago

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.

SonyStyled190d ago

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

Kombatologist190d ago

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.

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50°

GameStop Retro: Too Little, Too Late? | 1-up Geeks

GameStop is one of the last remaining relics from a bygone era where stores like Blockbuster, Game Crazy, Hollywood Video, and many others were found on every corner. If you…

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