Pre-owned market is "defrauding the industry"

[Frodaddyg]

mrstickball said:

Now, as for rocketpig's argument about used games: The issue isn't that used games are bad, but that Gamestop is bad. They are inherantly focused on used games, and NOT new games. Go to any GameStop in America: 50% of the items they have are used. Where I live, it's even worse, because they FAIL to purchase new games unless you pre-order! So 80% of the time, you can only get a game used - which leaves the distributor out of the loop, and murders them from getting compensation out of the game.

How exactly could Gamestop "focus" more on new games? They heavily stock all major releases, and generally will get a few copies of even the most obscure titles. Saying they "only stock for pre-orders" is just wrong. Those games do get shelf space, but stores don't get as many copies, because by nature, they don't sell as many copies, so how can they "focus" more? By having TWO cases of each game instead of one? Well, people already bitched about the "opened" new copies, and stocking more on the shelves makes for more of those. (The reason they do that, is that Gamestop as a whole doesn't use security cases like a Best Buy or other major retailer, so they don't leave live copies of games out on the shelf, or they'd have a nasty habit of growing legs and walking right out the door on their own.) Should they stock large quantities of niche titles they'll never sell through? That would just be a complete waste of company resources.

Having 50% of space dedicated to new games, and 50% dedicated to used makes sense, since very often, you have the same games out there. You can't force people to stop trading in games, and you can't force more new games out onto the shelves if it isn't a game worth carrying, since nobody will buy it. It's business sense, and Gamestop is incredibly savvy when it comes to dedicating their shelf space intelligently. Used games are far and away the biggest part of their bottom line, and frankly, I'm amazed that they still dedicate half their shelves to new games. At the Gamestop I managed up until a few years ago, we had a tiny store, and we had to waste stupid amounts of wall space on new PS2/Xbox/Gamecube games which had no chance of selling, while basically stocking our used game sections bookshelf-style. (Only the spines of the cases showing.)

Bitching about this is fine. Go ahead, don't shop at Gamestop anymore, and give it to a "nice" company, like Best Buy or Walmart. But, truth be told, though I have no love for the company as a whole (I quit after having intolerable working conditions forced on me. 70 hour weeks on salary? No thanks.) but their used game program is well done. You may only save 5 bucks at first, but if you have the discount Game Informer card, you can knock another 5 bucks off, and you're now at $10 cheaper. Throw in the far better guarantee (7 days return, no questions asked, and 90 days against defects) and it's a no-brainer, since with any new game you buy anywhere, once you open it, you're generally screwed if it has a problem. You're lucky to get a lot of retailers to exchange it for a copy of the same thing.

It's bizarre that someone who probably has more justified, rational dislike for the Gamestop corporation than anyone on here has to be the one to point out the common sense inherent in their company policies.