Shipments are not sales

[Munkeh111]

mike_intellivision said:
Items sitting on the shelf as shipped will usually, eventually be sold.

(The last time I remember a major recall of unsold stock was Imagic calling back Intellivision games. It probably has happened since then, but I didn't get the chance to buy those games for close to 15 years, so it is burned into my memory. Then again, if you hunt well enough, you could find SMS games at stores after 2000 and Wal-Marts with NGC Bongos today.).

The difference though is the mark-down that the retailer has to make to move the item and/or the rebate the wholesaler/distributor/manufacturer has to provide the retailer for the product that does not move. Of course, those eventual sales turn up in the sales calculations, further muddying the waters.

(This makes most Nintendo games very remarkable as they typically don't get markdowns as quickly or as severely. And I just don't mean first party. Look at MW: Black Ops and see how much the Wii version still costs.)

[On a side note, this price drop phenomenon is why GameStop often pays so little for games and sells them at such a high margin. When a AAA hot-seller goes from $50/$60 to $30/$40 after a few months, and GS paid $25/$30 in trade-in for a used copy it can't move for more than $26/$35 -- that becomes a razor thin margin which is not enough to pay the rent, utilities, taxes, and employees. And when it falls below what GS paid for the game, it is even worse.]

Mike from Morgantown

I think that price drop problem seems to be less in the US than the UK, it is rare that you won't get a brand new game for about half price within a month of launch, my friend picked up Mass Effect 3 for £18 (if I remember correctly) 2-3 weeks after it came out! So I think this is a problem, but from Gamestop's perspective, they are probably paying a similar price for the used version as they pay to actually get stock of the game (probably $5-10 lower), so it should kind of work out for them... I am sure they will adjust their trade in price based on how the stock is moving given this problem