It was a smart move on GAME's behalf. If I owned a game retail store and I was facing low stock and could buy new stock and still turn a profit buying this new stock from another retailer. Heck I'd go for it in a second. Also the question of warranty. I haven't read my warranty but Nintendo traditionally gives a one year warranty I assume thats the case with the 3DS. So if a consumer bought one from GAME they could still send it into Nintendo for repair. if they returned the unit to GAME, GAME could send it into Nintendo for repair and sell the system used again as soon as it gets back.
The major problem is if the other retailer in this case the supermarket was selling the hardware at a loss or at very small profit margins. Then GAME is benifiting massively, they are stealing customers because when consumers go to the Super Market and find 3DS out of stock where are they going to go to get a unit? Well obviously GAME.
I have actually done this myself a few years ago. On Boxing Day several GameCube games were discounted 75% off so I got like 50% games for like 15$ or so. I realized very quickly that EBGames was giving like 25-30$ per game trade in value. So I went to the store and bought like 15 games everything I could afford. Then went to EBGames and trading the games in. I made a good 100$ though I couldn't repeat the process unfortunetly.
Today I buy many games on Black Friday or Boxing Day. Play them awhile till i get bored then sell them to EBGames for like 10$ less then I bought them. I find it works fairly well especially if I dislike the game I bought. However I traditionally don't like trading games in period but on super sales I sometimes make many spontaneous purchases. So some of them I end up trading in!
-JC7
"In God We Trust - In Games We Play " - Joel Reimer
