Hey everyone, last time I took kind of a left turn and talked about reproduction cartridges and what to look for and how to avoid being screwed over sort to speak. I made several mentions of Gamestop in that blog and today I'm going to be again looking at Gamestop. No I am not going to be talking about trade values for the most part and no I am not going to be talking about preorder bonuses or anything of that nature. I am going to be looking at how they stock up when it comes to retro gaming. Personally, I stand by my feelings that Gamestop could potentially be a major player when it comes to retro games, but only if they do it right.
Back in 2015 news broke that a couple Gamestop stores were going to start accepting trade ins of retro games. My first thoughts on that were along the lines of "great, now Gamestop can capitalize on rising retro game costs, offer pennies for them, then sell them at whatever they are going for on Ebay". Basically I thought the future was going to be Gamestop becoming the largest pain in the neck reseller on the planet. Fast forward to the launch of Gamestop's retro gaming web page. It's basically an online store packed with all kinds of retro games, consoles, and accessories. The first thing I noticed is that the majority of the games advertised were "Out of Stock" and none of the games that were in stock were available for in store pickup. I kept asking at local Gamestops and many of the employees didn't even have a clue about the web page or that other Gamestops were accepting retro carts. It was very weird and apparently communication between Gamestop and it's stores was not clear on this.
Finally though the website started to get stocked with games. As I started paying attention I noticed that the prices in some cases were quite different. Gamestop came back to the retro gaming world as prices were really hitting high points and anything from label colors to boxes to instruction manuals made all the difference. My first gamble with Gamestop involved Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for the Sony Playstation. The situation was this. On Ebay, another retro game store, and at local flea markets the game was selling for around $80 for the version that had the original black label. For the green Greatest Hits label it was selling for around $60. I went onto Gamestop's infant retro website and found the game, out of stock, with a picture of the game with the green label, for $30. My jaw dropped, but of course it was out of stock so I kind of wrote it off for the time being. I went and talked to one of the vendors at my local flea market and they simply did not believe that Gamestop would sell the game at such a low price. Well... Just a couple weeks later the game was in stock so I gambled. There is a warning stating that the game may or may not come with it's original box and manual. I gambled and what arrived at my house was the game in it's original disc case and with a black label, not the green. I took the game to the flea market to show the proof and the guy simply says something along the lines of that changes the game and he might be in some trouble now.
The win here though could have been a loss. I could have easily had gotten the game in some kind of paper envelope or something like that, but this time I got the more expensive version of the game. Since then on Ebay, the price remains much higher than at Gamestop, but at least on Ebay you know exactly what you are going to get. As for the retro game store, it's still sitting on the shelf for $70. That was my first experience with Gamestop and their new retro program. Since then I have gotten a few cartridges for good prices, but none came in their boxes or had their manuals. Another win that I see that collectors hate is that Gamestop does not care about the box or the manual. They will offer the same price for the game with or without the manual. To me I think that's great because I for one am not a fan of old cardboard and paper causing a game's value to go up an insane amount. I don't see it as a problem also because I cannot see many collectors taking their complete games to Gamestop to sell anyway.
The main reason for that is of course because of the trade values. While Gamestop has certainly undercut resellers with certain games, they have joined right in with them on others. The example here is Earthbound. For the longest time the game had sold on Ebay for around $200. It has come down a small amount recently, but Gamestop continues to sell it for $200 ($179.99 for pro members). If you bring the game to Gamestop you'll get a trade value of up to $27. Ouch. So they'll give you twenty seven and sell for two hundred. Still just as brutal as ever huh Gamestop? I guess now it's time to look at the scariest stuff though.
The scariest thing about what Gamestop is doing is that in some cases they are not actually checking what they are buying from people. For example, there is a video floating around of a guy getting a copy of Conker's Bad Fur Day in the mail. The game sells on Gamestop's website for $90 for non pro members. The cartridge the guy got was red, but had a Conker's Bad Fur Day label on it. He popped it into his Nintendo 64 and wouldn't you know it, Spiderman booted up! So someone sold Gamestop a Spiderman game after slapping a reproduction label for Conker's Bad Fur Day on it and Gamestop sold it and shipped it to someone. That's scary. Yes they do have a seven day return thing, but the fact that it happens period is scary. Another scary thing is apparently how they are selling accessories such as controllers. In this case they sell Super Nintendo controllers for $10 which is not a bad deal. However people are getting off brand controllers as opposed to official Nintendo controllers. Gamestop does say the condition may not be as pictured, but it doesn't say that it would not be the same product as pictured. Kinda shady, but all they have to do to fix that is put a picture of an off brand SNES controller or make a statement saying the brand could be different than pictured as well. The last thing is getting discs. The more I think about it and now the more I see retro games popping up in local Gamestops, the more I think I got lucky.
Just today for example I went into two different Gamestops. The first one had Kirby's Air Ride, Resident Evil, and a Dreamcast game I can't remember the name of all in little yellow envelopes they use for games in the drawers or games that do not have a case, which tells me they don't have a case and when I asked the guy behind the counter I get told that's how all those games were sold like I'm some kind of idiot. I leave and go to another one. There they had Mario Party 4 and 5, NHL Hitz 2002, Splinter Cell and a couple of others all in their original boxes. Apparently it's hit or miss on the disc cases which leads me at least to hesitate because I hate having disc games without a proper case for them.
To wrap all of this up. I do think that Gamestop has a spot in the retro gaming world, however I don't think what they are doing is firing on all cylinders. Retro game stores have been offering far better trade prices that what Gamestop is on these products for a long time. Until Gamestop changes that, the retro stores are still going to be just fine and Gamestop will continue to have Out of Stock listed instead of Add to Cart on many products, especially the high end products. Not knowing if you are actually going to get what you are paying for is a major problem. Issues like the one involving Conker that I mentioned before simply should never happen. Whoever accepted that game as a trade into the store should have had to face some penalty or Gamestop should be hiring people with a knowledge on how to check if a game is legitimate. I know cartridges like that have been gone for many years, but still. The nicest thing though is that they have helped to bring down some of the insane prices out there. So there ya have it. Gamestop is back in the retro game and nobody knows what is going to happen because of it. Will they continue to help prices fall a bit or will their terrible trade situation cause them to fall back out of the game? Will they actually check their products before they ship them or will they keep screwing up people's orders? Who knows. As for me I'm going to keep giving them a chance for a while. If it winds up working it could be a good thing, but Gamestop being the giant that it is will have limited chances because they are just too big to have these issues.
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