"This town needs an enema." There are too many game stores!

[Rob2600]

Here in Cincinnati, we’re literally over-saturated with places to buy games. One might not look at that as being a negative thing, but it’s seriously gotten out of hand.

A quick check of the EB/GameStop website show that I have 32 of them within 25 miles of my zip code. There are also at least 5 Game Crazy Stores, and 3 or 4 Game Rush stores. We also have one semi-large mom-and-pop with 2 locations, another large local chain with 4 locations, one small independent store, and one newer ‘national’ chain that just opened a store here.

If you think that's bad, come to NYC. GameStop is almost as bad as Starbucks now. According to Gamestop.com, there are over 50 stores within a 25 mile radius from where I am. The search results max out at 50, so who knows how many there actually are around here?

Of course, there are about 20 Best Buy stores and about 20 Circuit City stores within 25 miles, 15 Blockbuster stores within 5 miles, and plenty of video game/jewelry/cell phone stores in Chinatown and the Fulton Street Mall.

[mailman187666]

wouldn't it be so much better if all those gamestops around you still carried PS1 games? you'd have a ball looking for stuff. I know I would.

[Rob2600]

wouldn't it be so much better if all those gamestops around you still carried PS1 games? you'd have a ball looking for stuff. I know I would.

I don't know...even back in 2002, many of the used PlayStation games were beat up, scuffed, and scratched beyond belief. Imagine now, six years later?

[Gentlegamer]

This is one of the reasons I want to open a store here. Maybe that local gamers club idea would be a good start.

Houston gamers, unite!

Was the mall with two GameStops the Galleria?

[Rev. Link]

I dunno. I guess that particular place comes off as very condescending to me, and the employees there couldn't give a rat's ass about your business. Asking for help always seems like you're being a pest, and place shouldn't feel like that to a customer. I've never really seen much of a selection there either, and most of what's there is overpriced in my eyes. When you're charging $25 for SMB3, $20 for SMB2, and $70 on games like Earthbound and Mega Man X3, especially loose carts, that's a little much.

I have to say, I don't know what you're talking about there, man. I've never seen a copy of a NES Mario game go for higher than $10 there, usually lower. Mega Man X 3 and Earthbound go for a lot, but those go for a lot pretty much everywhere. Plus, I've always found the employees to be very helpful. I've never had any kind of problems with them, in fact I usually chat about games with them for a bit. The owner's a cool guy too. He often brings in stuff from his personal collection to sell. I bought his Breath of Fire I and II (SNES) CIB and in great shape for only $60. I would have expected to pay at least that for just one of them!

I have to disagree with that. Places that deal in used games have to go in with the knowledge that they will be handing out a lot in cash or credit. If you're offering a service of buying stuff, people WILL seek you out for it. I've always been of the mindset that an item should trade for at least 20-25% of the 'used' value, considering the number of backstocked copies of the title isn't crazy. If the customer is keeping the business in the store, they should be taken care of. I've noticed that GameStop is offering coupons to boost trade-in value, which would be great if they weren't already offering close to nil on trades. Of course, cash-only trade-ins should be offered at a much lower price, since you're not seeing any of that money directly back in the store.

I did trade in a bunch at Game City and 95% of the stuff I got rid of wasn't even in their system...which meant they were giving $1 apiece for the titles. And we're talking about some mid-high profile stuff. I was amazed that they wanted a lot of retro stuff, but weren't willing to give a fair value for anything. $3 for NES Final Fantasy and $3 for SNES Tetris/Dr. Mario were pretty surprising, since they'd both easily sell for over $25 each.

I think that if done correctly, money will be made over the long term. It's more important to build a customer relationship based on mutual respect that to take advantage and buy low/sell high. Look at the DP Store. It looks like he's got a great balance going there, and you don't hear about it being badmouthed at all.

You need to keep some things in mind when dealing with trades. One, they're there to make money, not to provide gamers with great deals all the time. If stores - especially independent stores - went around giving people, say, $10 trade value for every $20 game then it wouldn't be worth their effort to stay in business. It costs a lot to run a game store. Factor in the cost of the building, utilities, etc., and the cost of paying employees, and the cost of paying for all the trade ins. And don't forget that stores make very very little on new merchandise.

The second thing to remember is that no one's taking advantage of anyone here. Nobody's forcing people to trade in games. If they don't like the trade value they can always sell it themselves on eBay, or in a yard sale, at a pawn, to a friend, on Craigslist, etc. There are plenty of other options. I don't know about other stores, but the guys at the Lawrenceburg Game City always stress that to the customers, and give them every opportunity to change their minds up until the end of the transaction.

In my mind, trading in games at stores is not for people like us, collectors who know what stuff is worth. It's for the guy who happens to have a handfull of old Genesis carts and wants to dump them off, no matter what they're worth. Guys like us should stick to selling our games on our own.

[Icarus Moonsight]

Houston gamers, unite!

Was the mall with two GameStops the Galleria?

Don't recall other than the fact the damn place had two! Could have been the Galleria, maybe Katie Mills or even Willowbrooke. *shrugs*

I agree with the whole Houston gamers unite vibe btw. I think Damaramu would be all over it too. That guy has some seriously contagious enthusiasm and thats over the interwebs. This thread just may have started something... time will tell.