Shady Curcuit City doings?

[Xexyz]

Hey everyone, I've got a little experience to share here.

Precisely three Sundays ago I visited a local Circuit City after leaving a nearby flea market. Now, as I was browsing the PSP isle, I spotted three titles of interest. They were Bust-A-Move- Deluxe at $9.99, Guilty Gear Judgement at $9.99, and Sega Genesis Collection at $13.99. Since they were clearance titles, they were sitting on the store shelves without a security plastic case. Now, for some reason or another, I hesitated in picking them up because I didn't yet own a PSP (waiting for the redesign).

Two weeks pass, and it's Sunday again. Once again, after browsing the flea market, I decided to visit the same Circuit City again, with full intentions of picking them up. Now, luckily, all three were still in stock, but there was something shady abut them. What is it you say? The pricing...

Bust-A-Move Deluxe was still at $9.99, but Guilty Gear Judgement, for one reason or another, was bumped up to $12.99. I picked that one up still since it's cheaper than a used copy at any other game store, but the biggest offender was Sega Genesis Collection. Magically, they were put back into the security cases, and bumped back up to $29.99 ($10 above the price cut MSRP).

What kind of shady dealings is this? I could maybe understand that SGC was a mis-label... if it were bumped back to $19.99, but $29.99? And there's no excuse for a $3 raise in Guilty Gear Judgement. What's the deal with this company?

Has anyone else ever spotted shady mark ups at Circuit City?

[Leo_A]

If you really want Sega Genesis Collection, all GS/EB locations have been clearancing them out for $10 new. You'll likely be able to find a copy in the bargain bin at one of them.

[Xexyz]

Actually I stopped at a GS after my visit to CC and got it for $10 (they had 4 copies left). However, the point still stands. I know that retail stores have ruling over MSRP changes, but isn't a mark up for poor selling games considered a bit, I don't know, in bad practice?

[gepeto]

Hey everyone, I've got a little experience to share here.

Precisely three Sundays ago I visited a local Circuit City after leaving a nearby flea market. Now, as I was browsing the PSP isle, I spotted three titles of interest. They were Bust-A-Move- Deluxe at $9.99, Guilty Gear Judgement at $9.99, and Sega Genesis Collection at $13.99. Since they were clearance titles, they were sitting on the store shelves without a security plastic case. Now, for some reason or another, I hesitated in picking them up because I didn't yet own a PSP (waiting for the redesign).

Two weeks pass, and it's Sunday again. Once again, after browsing the flea market, I decided to visit the same Circuit City again, with full intentions of picking them up. Now, luckily, all three were still in stock, but there was something shady abut them. What is it you say? The pricing...

Bust-A-Move Deluxe was still at $9.99, but Guilty Gear Judgement, for one reason or another, was bumped up to $12.99. I picked that one up still since it's cheaper than a used copy at any other game store, but the biggest offender was Sega Genesis Collection. Magically, they were put back into the security cases, and bumped back up to $29.99 ($10 above the price cut MSRP).

What kind of shady dealings is this? I could maybe understand that SGC was a mis-label... if it were bumped back to $19.99, but $29.99? And there's no excuse for a $3 raise in Guilty Gear Judgement. What's the deal with this company?

Has anyone else ever spotted shady mark ups at Circuit City?

3 months ago that same scenerio has happened to me. i dove around like crazy trying to find the cheap (rumored)sega gen collection. Rumor had the sgc at 19.99 . Well the guilty gear was on sale at 9.99 the one week and when i went it was off sale the next week I went back to pick it up at 12.99.

The sega gen collection was never on sale and was 29.99. I drove around like a fool. Bottom line if you see it on sale pick it up because chances are the next week it goes off. Not so much shady as sale expiration.

[FantasiaWHT]

How is that a shady dealing? Stores are allowed to raise and lower prices as they see fit.

[neogamer]

How is that a shady dealing? Stores are allowed to raise and lower prices as they see fit.


Agreed! Bust A Move was advertised at 25% off! That makes a $12.99 game-$9.99! If you don't believe me guys, just dig up an old circular and you will see "25% off Cool Deal games." That is what you are referring to!

As for the Sega Genesis Collection: That was a sale item also. I know all this, because I took advantage of the sale! I love how people criticize sale prices after the sale! If you have the money, why not buy it why it is on sale? I own about 13 Sony PSP games, but do not own the system! I too, am waiting for the redesign!

Interesting note: If you do get a Guilty Gear Judgement, Game Crazy will give you close to $14.00 for it in trade! I traded mine in!

[heybtbm]

The prices on the games themselves mean absolutely nothing at Circuit City. They print price tags when the games come in. If the game is on sale that week, the cheaper pricetag gets put on the game. It's a incredibly inaccurate way to price things. The general rule for shopping at CC is: "never believe the pricetag".

However...this often works out in the consumers favor. Most games at Circuit City are cheaper than the pricetags indicate. Check out www.cheapassgamer.com (http://www.cheapassgamer.com) for the lowdown (as if anyone here doesn't go there already).

[neogamer]

The prices on the games themselves mean absolutely nothing at Circuit City. They print price tags when the games come in. If the game is on sale that week, the cheaper pricetag gets put on the game. It's a incredibly inaccurate way to price things. The general rule for shopping at CC is: "never believe the pricetag".

However...this often works out in the consumers favor. Most games at Circuit City are cheaper than the pricetags indicate. Check out www.cheapassgamer.com (http://www.cheapassgamer.com) for the lowdown (as if anyone here doesn't go there already).

This is true! I have gotten a lot of great games at blow out prices this way! A lot of Sears stores are the same way! I just got Y's for the PSP for $3.97 BRAND NEW-yes you heard right $3.97 for a new PSP game at Sears! Go figure!

I always had a "knack" for finding stuff at ultra low prices though. I originally bought all the Tekken 5 joystick bundles at EB and Game Crazy for $29.99. I actually had them price check them a few months ago, and the clerk looked at me dumb-founded when he saw they were only $29.99 each! Heck, Tekken 5 alone new goes for $29.99!

I also bought all of Sears Game Boy Advance Players (for the GameCube system). They were clearing them out for $24.97! I went to every store in my area and bought all of them! They easily sell on eBay for close to $100+.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Up until December of Last year I worked at a CC for 4 years... and For quite a while I was in charge of signage and planograms... So periodically CC gets a list from corporate of game Markdowns... It is sent via email and this may or may not get passed on to employees. It is not a very high priority list. In the system the game is marked down, but a lot of times price stickers are never reprinted and therefore the game on the shelf may say 29.99 or whatever... and in reality it may be 14.99. I found two copies of Silent Scope Complete for XBOX while I worked there that had been overlooked for months. The price said 39.99 and they were really 1.99. I put those on ebay right away. Now every once in a while (rarely) there were mark-ups on price- and again those may be overlooked as well. It sounds like they were aware and had the sticker changed. And from experience- Markups are a much higher priority than markdowns. Now those red and white price tags that change every week are only for sale prices, so that may change from week to week. My best advice is to bring a copy of the game to a register and ask for an associate to verify the price. And I've found CC to have the best prices on games a lot of times because of their tendency to reduce quantities of older titles by price drops. A game over time starts out at 40 or 50 bucks and a year or so later may be 8 bucks. Check their bargain bins though. I have personally priced and bought a lot of older titles there @ or below 9.99. Hope this helps some of you bargain hunters out there.

Also one thing I forgot to mention. Those stickers are the circuit city retail price of the game. So say if a game goes on sale (versus an actual price drop) for a week from 19.99 to 14.99, and you were to try and print a price sticker... the sticker would print for 19.99. This insures that when the price goes back up to normal you don't have to replace every sticker on every game. Associates just remove the red and white sale tag at the end of the week that's on the front of the shelf. So in a nutshell- stickers are regular price and usually only go down in price... but those sales tags fluctuate depending on advertised and sale prices.

[Barbarianoutkast85]

Like you said when you went in 3 weeks ago the three games were on CLEARANCE, or on SALE!!!! Usually chains like that runs specials/sales/clearance for a week. Then on Sunday or Saturday whatever there "roll-over" day is, new products go on sale and the products that were on sale go back to normal price. That isnt shady to me. It just means the games were on sale and the sale expired. You should of bought them 3 weeks ago.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

CC ads run from Sunday morning to Saturday Night. Tags are all changed Saturday night after the doors are closed. I think best buy does a similar thing. I used to have to sit in front of a tag printer every saturday about 5pm and print, sort, and tear the 1000+ tags for all the store.