Gamestop Store Inventory Search

[TonyTheTiger]

I keep hearing people talk about checking the inventory of nearby Gamestops to see if they have something beforehand. How do they do this? Is there some secret website I don't know about that taps into the POS systems of all the stores? The reason I ask is because I hear people talk about searching for a Wii but apparently it's good for other stuff too.

[sirhansirhan]

Just go to gamestop.com, and search on the item you're looking for. When you find it, click on it, and then on that page it lets you search store inventory (which is mostly but not 100% accurate) from within 10-200 miles of your zip code.

A word of warning, though: you can't search on half of the new items that they may or may not have in stock, and to get to a lot of the used one you first have to search on something that is actually in stock on gamestop.com (any new release will do), and on the bottom of the results page click on "show" items that are backordered that may be available in stores.

I hope that all makes sense.

[Darren870]

I think its only updated at the end of the day, so i would keep that in mind.

[s1lence]

Shhhhh....Its a secret to Everyone......


I've found that its pretty inaccurate and a call to the stores is still needed to be for sure.

[Gabriel]

I've found that its pretty inaccurate and a call to the stores is still needed to be for sure.

Me too. Back when I shopped at Gamestop I often found their system would say everything had "1-3 copies remaining." A call to the store would result in being told they had some remaining. And actually visiting the store would reveal that, in truth, they didn't have the game at all.

[gepeto]

The thing use to be accurate up until about a year and a half ago then they did something that messed everything up. I use to find tons of stuff there but I think they did it on purpose.

[TonyTheTiger]

Yeah, I guess what I meant to ask is how do I manipulate that store availability list. For instance, if I were searching for any random used PS2 game that may actually not be on the site. I heard stories of people having the actual web address and being able to change a few parameters in that address to search for anything under the sun.

[heybtbm]

The "secret" people refer to is clicking on "show backordered or used products". A year or two ago, Gamestop stopped showing all search results on their site. If you click on the link pictured below when you're on the Gamestop/EB website, you can actually search a store's entire inventory.

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/1415/cap1ld4.jpg

[TonyTheTiger]

Ah, thanks. I feel really stupid now.

[Darren870]

you could just go to the store on a non busy day and ask them to print the inventory list for used ps2 games or whatever your looking for.

When I worked there I did it for people.

[TonyTheTiger]

For me it's more about just scanning the whole area for something specific as opposed to checking out the entire inventory of just one store. And it turned out it worked tonight. I did an inventory search for NCAA College Basketball 2k3 for the Gamecube and found a copy at a store I never go to about 25 minutes away.

[gepeto]

I am telling you that was my friend. I found starblade fox hunt psychic detective for the psx. I was using that thing religously. It just took a turn for the worse. In my eyes it is practically worthless now. WIth the changeover in systems even with the new one like psp if you do a used search it is only like 2 rows when there use to be 10 -20 rows. Just horrible.

[MachineGex]

The "secret" people refer to is clicking on "show backordered or used products". A year or two ago, Gamestop stopped showing all search results on their site. If you click on the link pictured below when you're on the Gamestop/EB website, you can actually search a store's entire inventory.

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/1415/cap1ld4.jpg

Thanks for the tip!
I never figured that out. We use to use that site to price match but never figured out why sometimes a game was missing.

[TurboGenesis]

I am telling you that was my friend. I found starblade fox hunt psychic detective for the psx. I was using that thing religously. It just took a turn for the worse. In my eyes it is practically worthless now. WIth the changeover in systems even with the new one like psp if you do a used search it is only like 2 rows when there use to be 10 -20 rows. Just horrible.

Quote for the truth…

The Gamestop search was wonderful a few years ago… pretty much until they stop to carry PlayStation game. I find many game this way and save time but now it is "broken" and only show new and popular mainstream game in the database. Now when search for a game that is more than 6 month old or a bit of obscure, it will turn up no results… it is useless now.

[Oobgarm]

I have used this a ton to find stuff, though I've always just dropped the SKU number in the web address. I might have to call and ask for the SKU, but I've found the whole system to be fairly accurate. Some things don't pop up on the site, even when you click the BACKORDER link from above. Like new copies of Hotel Dusk, for instance(which I used this to find over the weekend).

I remember back in the days before the closeout of 8/16/32 bit stuff, I used that 'trick' to find many a bargain. It was also fun to use it and find stores that supposedly had copies of uber-rare NES titles like Stadium Events. Of course, they never came to fruitition, but it certainly was fun to call and ask.