@stan_boyd Also, I don't know old you are, but college bookstores are the exact same way. You buy a text books for $120, then at the end of the semester, they offer you maybe $30 if you sell it back... then they turn around and sell it to someone else for $100. That's just how these places work. Someone has worked out a formula for the minimum amount of money most people will be willing to accept for selling back an item as opposed to keeping it or going through the trouble of trying to find someone else to buy it, as well the maximum amount they can turn around and sell the used item for that will entice enough customers to buy it instead of a new item. Maximize profits.
@emperiox Actually, "factory sealed" means factory sealed. As I said, you and GameStop have differing ideas on what's considered new. I'll refer you to the dictionary definition:
fresh and unused; not second-hand: a new car
Not second-hand. Meaning, that it was not previously owned by someone else. A new car is a great example because even when you buy one new, you're not necessary getting it with 0 miles on the odometer. When I bought my car, it had 31 miles on it, probably because it had been test driven a few times. You might be of the opinion that this should have entitled me to used pricing, but the dealership would likely disagree with you.
As for knowing whether or not an employee has taken the game home and played with it... I'll refer you back to my comment about the disc being in perfect condition. Would it really eat you up that much to imagine that someone else might have actually enjoyed the game even though there's absolutely no sign of wear on it? It would be a different story if I were buying the game for someone else, but as far as I'm concerned, all they did is remove the cellophane wrapper for me unless I see evidence to the contrary. So no, you don't know. I'd ask you who cares, but you obviously do. I respect your opinion though. For years, I was opposed to buying used games, but then I realized that:
1. I could save a good bit of money, especially if I waited for a B2G1 sale.
2. If the game sucks, GameStop's policy allows me to return it within 7 days for a full refund. Have you ever bought a game, played it for a few minutes and been pissed at yourself and the world because you wasted $40 to $60 on a piece of crap? Yeah, you don't have to go through that.
3. It's also possible to find a really good game you might have missed a year or two back that is now considered rare being sold everywhere else for $100. If you're a fan of Atlus, you know what I'm talking about.
@mysticstryk That's not necessarily true. I purchased Assassin's Creed Revelations for $39.96 at Wal-mart the day it was released. I don't know if it was a clerical error or a promo though since the price was back up to $59.96 by the weekend.
@emperiox You and GameStop have different standards for what qualifies as "new." You are the belief that "new" means sealed in box and never opened. To them, it means, never played and never previously sold. They will take games out of their boxes to use as display cases, and once the other copies sell out, they will sell it as new because it has never been played before. I've had them do that to me before, but since I was buying it for myself, and the disc was in perfect condition, I didn't have a problem with it. You always have the option of not accepting their offer, as you obviously did, since you said they lost a sale.
@stan_boyd If you're a PowerUp Rewards member, you get an additional 10% off the used price, so instead of $59.99, you end up paying $49.49. Now instead of $5, you're looking at $10.50. Still a ripoff? Then shop smart and wait for one of their many B2G1 offers, and then you can end up paying 98.98 for 3 games, which comes out to $32.99 per game. And if you consider saving $27 on a used game a ripoff, then you, sir, have some serious entitlement issues.
@vchadl That's kind of naive, don't you think? Unless you're talking about developers selling the games on their own sites, there will *always* be a middleman. And no, we wouldn't want developers to sell their own games because then if the company goes under, and the site goes down, you can kiss your game good-bye and you'll never be able to find a legal copy of it ever again. That's why you need companies like Steam and GameStop to make the digital media available. Also, you shouldn't get your hopes up on digital media being cheaper than physical copies--if you check out Amazon, GameStop, Steam, etc, you will find that digital copies are usually the same price as physical copies, and in some cases, they're actually even more expensive.
@Stonecutters908 You're welcome to your opinion, but:
1. Amazon often offers $10 - $20 promotional credits on pre-orders that GameStop and other retailers offer at full price.
2. In my state, I don't get charged sales tax on my Amazon purchases. That means that I end up paying $59.99 on a new video game instead of $64.94 at amazon.
3. With Amazon Prime, I get free release date delivery on most video games. Maybe you find midnight launches appealing, but I would rather wait 12 hours for the UPS guy to hand me my game than be crammed inside a tiny store with 100 other gamers, some of which have not discovered the merits of regular bathing.
4. I have only ever traded in 3 games, and only so that I could get the GotY editions or some dual pack in order to save space on my shelves.
That said, I love GameStop too, and will often go there to discuss upcoming games with some of the employees, or to take advantage of their B2G1 used game deals. Amazon doesn't always have the best prices on games that have been out for over a month, so it's always good to comparison shop.
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