Pre-owned market is "defrauding the industry"

[Frodaddyg]

Final-Fan said:

Frodaddyg said:

Final-Fan said:

So Zero Originality seems to have gotten kicked off of YouTube.  Here is the (first half of the) first episode at GameTrailers:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/263243.html

I got through about 1 minute of Mumbly Mumblington's very aptly titled thing before I shut it off. Neat, I get it. There's alternatives to Gamestop. There always have been, and yet people don't use them. Shocking.

I admit it's a bit much to ask you to sit through several episodes of that thing, but he really does do a great job of listing every one of Gamestop's deficiencies in terms of what we were talking about (along with many other unsavory qualities the stores have which are less relevant to our discussion).  Just keep in mind that the minute you saw was just the warm-up. 

And the main counterpoint would be: What kind of value will a place like Best Buy or Walmart give you for a used game? Oh, right, nothing. Gamestop is a specialty retailer selling one thing, video games, and their pre-owned business works well not only for them, but for the customers as well. Could you make more selling them online through eBay and the like? Sure, but then you have the hassle of processing the payment, dealing with shipping, possibility of shady transactions, etc. Or, instead, I can drive 10 minutes to Gamestop with a newer game, get my $30-35 in credit for it (instead of the $35-40 I'd likely get for it selling it online) and have half a game paid off. Gamestop isn't Walmart of Best Buy where they have big ticket items liek appliances to allow them to take a hit on new game prices, and the used games ARE their bottom line. And in terms of the amount of effort I'd have to put in to make that extra $5-10 dollars selling a game on the internet, I'd much rather just go to Gamestop and shell out 5 more bucks to have it in my hand that day instead of theoretically getting it a week later when my online transaction has possibly completed itself.

By this same token, should all pawn shops also be shut down? I'm sure jewelers would prefer to sell brand new jewelry to everyone worldwide every time a relationship goes downhill. Not to mention the used video games, guns, electronics, CD, and DVDs. I'd bet Sony would prefer everyone buy a new $500 stereo setup, and not get it for 1/5 that price from a pawn shop.