Quote Originally Posted by PapaStu View Post
Car dealers have been doing this for years. The only reason they do this is because it 'sounds' better to the consumer. Used comes across as a harsher thing beacuse you conjure up in your mind that it was heavily used, damaged ect.

When you hear about those factory 'pre-owned' cars, it conjurs up an image of them being in great condition and that they've had all kinds of checks done to them. Its the same thing with games. Oh, would you like a pre-owned copy, or a used one?
QFT. In all the years I spent working for GS, I never cared for the term "USED Games" and always preferred referring to them as "Pre-Owned". I know a few years ago when GS and EB merged, they released an internal memo stating that the official/correct terminology they wanted us to say to customers was "USED". I of course refused to comply.

It would seem that now they've reversed that stance and prefer the "Pre-Owned" terminology again. I find it mildly weird that after I left they started to fix up thing that I long railed about and have been (slowly) working on improving their image. They've got a LOOOOOOOONG way to go and one thing that will help reduce people raising an eyebrow at the change in terminology is them cracking down on their trade-in policies and being more strict with what they accept. Now that Game Crazy has severely scaled back operations, you'd think they could stand to be a little more selective but we'll see (I assure you I'm not holding my breath).

As for the pennies they offer on trades....well I don't ever see that improving.