@Murderstyle75 said:
Trading in two games is not getting it for $13. You got raped. Can't believe people are still stupid enough to buy into theses Gamestop trade in scams.
I mean, there's kind of two different ways to look at it, and really people who shop there without paying the business model any attention fall victim to both.
The first one -- the positive one -- you've played a single player game. You bought it new, you paid 60$ for it, you beat it in a week or two, and now it's not going to be played for months and months and months -- possibly even years, or maybe not ever. While getting 20 some odd dollars (sometimes even less) kind of sucks, it's taking money off a purchase with something that was literally going to collect dust and waste space in your home. Gamestop also runs plenty of promotions and specials that will net you a lot more credit if you milk the system. In this regard, you can actually net yourself some value out of this awful company.
The awful company part comes in the second part --
Part two -- the negative one -- the trade in program, if you don't utilize it conscientiously, is designed to sucker people out of their games, and in turn get them to buy even more games than they normally would. The mentality of getting a brand new game for less than 60$ by peddling off a handful of titles no longer used is often an enticing trick our minds play to get us to buy more games than we actually want -- this is also used by Steam with 5$ flash sales on more expensive games -- and in this model, we end up with a lot more titles we barely play because we never really wanted them to begin with, it was merely too easy to pawn off unused games and reel it in for less out-of-pocket cash. But here lies the awful cycle Gamestop can create -- you continually trade in games you're buying from them that you didn't actually want, and in turn using that credit to buy more games you don't actually want, and in turn trade those games in for more games you don't actually want.
Having worked for this company before landing a big boy job out of college, there are people who are smart enough to not let the system play them for fools, and then there are those -- far too many -- who fall into the endless cycle of mediocre purchases they don't really intend on buying. Gamestop is a scam only because their business model thrives on suckers, and for that, I can't blame them. Getting stupid people to buy things they don't want is one of the most constantly successful business models in this world. However, if you refuse to be played by the company and only utilize their model in ways that exclusively benefit you (side bar, when was the last time the word "exclusive" was used not talking about platform-specific titles?) then you can actually benefit from what they offer -- you just have to make sure you don't get suckered into their scheme while you do it.
For an example, I'll point out the time Gamestop implemented one of their first 50% extra trade-ins, where the newly-released Mass Effect 2 was trading in at a base price of 35$ and netted me 58$ at the end of the trade in (with their stupid club card, of course). I then turned around and bought it back with my employee discount for 42$.
Another example is when I got Knack in Target's buy two get one free ps4 launch promotion and sold it back to Gamestop for almost 40$.
To close it off, this is an awful company that milks suckers for all their worth and keeps them coming back, but it is possible to turn it in your favor if you're mentally strong enough not make rash purchases.
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