Is it possible to find rare games at Gamestop?

[debian4life]

I have been a regular buyer from Gamestop for many years, back when they still had NES and PS1 games, I was able to find some real gems of games. But unfortunately now it seems like all they have is common games. I guess my question is, has anyone been able to find any rare PS2 games, Dreamcast, GBA, or Xbox games?

Regards,

Brian

[Mayhem]

You missed out the Gamecube. And yes I've picked up the Cube version of NCAA Basketball 2K3 at a Gamestop. I've also seen a copy of Bust-a-Move 3000 as well in my travels.

[orangest]

not one of the systems you listed, but i found a gamecube NCAA college basketball 2k3 at a gamestop (i think Mayhem did too, IIRC).

edit: jinx!

[cyberfluxor]

You missed out the Gamecube. And yes I've picked up the Cube version of NCAA Basketball 2K3 at a Gamestop. I've also seen a copy of Bust-a-Move 3000 as well in my travels.

BAM 3000 is quite difficult to come by. Pretty much forgot about it but I saw it a few times way back around it's release.

As for the topic on hand, can't say I'm too much ontop of the whole modern gaming prints, but when they were still selling classics it was quite uncommon to find rares for me. They're just a big outlet for gamers and don't doubt the employees could get the goods before my next visit. I remember someone posting a scan of a FuncoLand ad with Stadium Events listed as $0.49 or something.

[TonyTheTiger]

Um...it might not be all that rare as I also found the GCN NCAA College Basketball 2k3 at a Gamestop a week ago.

Gamestops are a double edged sword. On one hand, if you do manage to find a gem it might be priced reasonably provided it's not a "big name" rarity. NCAA cost me 10 bucks. Other times they gouge like crazy, presumably based on Ebay prices. Jurassic Park for the PS2 and Xbox go for $50 there and I'm not even certain they're all that hard to find.

The thing is, it's really not a problem with Gamestop that keeps people from finding rare games. It's the fact that they're rare that keeps people from finding them. The real trouble with Gamestops is that you won't find any rare PS1/Saturn/N64/Dreamcast games there because you can't find ANY games for those consoles there. But, truthfully, if you're looking for PS2/Xbox/GCN stuff, there are no better places to scour than the used bins at those stores. They still have, in general, the largest selection of used last gen games so you're probably better off with Gamestops than anywhere else.

[snes_collector]

With a print run of about 5,600 copies(I believe) its not that easy to come by. Most people just pass it up as another sports game and think nothing of it.

And back on topic, not at GameStop, but I didn't find a loose Aerofighters at a rhino games shortly before GS bought them out.

[emceelokey]

It is if you work there :P

[figment1988]

one time i found a copy of Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 for the Playstation 2, but the price was quite high for it (as in $80.00 USD)

[DefaultGen]

.....

[ProgrammingAce]

Um... folks... Rare games are rare. Hence why they're not easy to find...

If you're looking for rare titles, then gamestop is a good place to go. If you're looking for expensive titles, then no... because they're expensive.

[walrusmonger]

Back before they stopped taking in PS1 games there was one Gamestop that had Suikoden I and II plus a bunch of other hard to find RPGS, all at decent prices (Suikoden II was $34.99). They must have had a foolish person trade them all in and none of them were "in the know" enough to snatch the stuff up.

It's all hit or miss, but now it's going to be hit and pay big time or miss.

[Coldguy]

Yes, I got Ikaruga for $40...so overpaid for it but now I can say "I've played Ikaruga"

[norkusa]

If by "rare" you mean stuff like Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 and SMT Nocturne, then yeah, they're pretty easy to find at Gamestop. Mainly because nobody wants to pay crazy Ebay prices for used games at retail stores.

I rarely go into Gamestop anymore but the last few times I did, I saw several used $60+ games, collecting dust on the shelves.

[Famidrive-16]

The only problem I've had with Gamestop is that some of the Used games they hold are in horrible conditions. I know, it's probably a pain in the ass to check all those games, but come on.

The used Simpsons: Hit and Run I got didn't load at all. The KOF: Maximum Impact wouldn't go past the character select screen. I almost bought a copy of CvSNK2 on the Gamecube until I asked to look at the disc and it was scraped and torn in every single way.

I've come across quite a few uncommon games there but now I'm too much of a wuss to check the Used/Gamecube sections anymore.

[Trebuken]

I rarely find anything rare, and by rare we are only talking relatively.

Etrian Odyssey for the DS seems rare...found it a month ago.
Firefighter FD18 for the PS2....found it about a year ago.
Electroplankton for the DS....found it about 6 months ago.

Every six months then...

I haven't really identified all the rarities yet so I've probably missed a couple.
Also, take a look behind the counter on the shelves. Sometimes they hold the good stuff there. Though it's often being held for an emplyee; not all employees respect the 'holding area'.
I too had great luck there with PS1 RPG's back in the day. I think there was a day when someone traded many in and I walked in a few hours later and dropped $200 on the ones I did not have at the time...

[Overbite]

early last year I found Valkyrie Profile for PS1 (Complete and mint!) at a Gamestop for $60. I went home to see if that was a good price and when I went back to buy it it was gone!

I found a complete Lunar Eternal Blue for PS1 also and bought it. It even had the little stand up things.

Other "rare" games I found at this particular gamestop:

Intelligent Qube
The Red Star
Persona
Marvel vs Capcom 2. At least they think it is with the $80 price. They have 3 copies for PS2 and 1 copy for the Xbox, it's not rare!

[ChronoTriggaFoo]

I remember when Gamestop prices used to be based on their OWN data. If games sold well, they would price them relatively higher. Many unknown or harder to find games would be priced cheaply because there was not enough copies of them to gather significant data. Now Gamestop monitors the eBay scene and reflect their prices based on the data gathered there. They still use their own sales data to price games, but the only games that are really affected by this data are the 17.99 and under games.

[pugmagician]

a few months ago I actually found quite a few PSX rpgs at a Gamestop at 85% off with my discount card.

I got 4 copies of Persona 2 all complete and mint, 2 Copies of BOF IV one missing manual both mint, BOF III complete, Suikoden disc only, 2 copies of Rhapsody both complete and mint, and a couple other cheaper rpgs I can't remember.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

No....

[TonyTheTiger]

I remember when Gamestop prices used to be based on their OWN data. If games sold well, they would price them relatively higher. Many unknown or harder to find games would be priced cheaply because there was not enough copies of them to gather significant data. Now Gamestop monitors the eBay scene and reflect their prices based on the data gathered there. They still use their own sales data to price games, but the only games that are really affected by this data are the 17.99 and under games.

That's why NCAA Basketball 2k3 is such a strange situation. By most accounts, this is the rarest commercially released game of all last gen. You'd think that would garner some fanfare and if it were some Atlus RPG it certainly would have and Gamestop would be charging $90 for it. But their price? $9.99. That's noticeably less than the game goes for on Ebay. I've seen it go for at minimum twice that and even now there's some lunatic who thinks he's going to get over $70 for a disc only copy.

But I guess Gamestop sees it like most other people do. It's just a basketball game. A basketball game that's also on the PS2 and Xbox. Though, at the same time, those versions are priced at $3.99. So Gamestop definitely knows to apply some additional value to the GCN version but why not Ebay prices? The only thing I can think of is that they don't think it's worth it because it's not a "fanfare" title like MvC2 or Nocturne is. I'd bet it's because a copy of NCAA could potentially sit on the shelf for over a year without being touched. Who's looking to buy it other than the people who know there are fewer than 6,000 copies?