Gamestop to quit carrying NES, SNES next month.

[Charlie]

I was just informed today that my local Gamestop, which has already phased out selling used Genesis games, systems, and parts, will no longer be buying or selling NES and SNES games, systems, etc next month.

This pisses me off something royal because the only reason I bought a Gamestop card was for the used classics. God knows that nobody in their right mind could afford what they charge for all the new stuff.

So can something who works at a Gamestop confirm is this is a national type thing or only happening on a local level?

[Chunky]

the 6 that i have in my area 2 of them already don't carry anything, and the 2 others are not buying/trading anymore. they will phase this out prolly.

but i think they are cutting their own throats. where will this lead?

either you will either find it harder to find games

or way easier in the garbage/garage sales/resales.

[Quazick]

but i think they are cutting their own throats. where will this lead?

Can I do it for them?

[kainemaxwell]

This is ridiculous. Isn't selling the older hard-to-find stuff part of the reason they bought (or created) Funcolands in the first place? And haven't they noticed a recent small, or steady trend in customers buying and wanting older systems and games?

This is killing a decent niche market here and a bad business practice...

[Six Switch]

Great,now I will never go there again. > > > > > >

[maxlords]

Good thing they don't have em in Ontario...makes it easier to boycott em.

[cerex]

maybe if we all write to them and bug them hell out of them and explain to them that this is a bad business move they will see all the money they will lose and not do this.

[hurstman]

Yea I called my local gamestop for a Sega Saturn system and was informed they don't carry that either.Thats the whole reason for stores like this ,for CLASSIC GAMES!!!!! This store is totally useless to me now.

[Captain Wrong]

I know what you mean about Saturn, but here's the weird thing, after I heard OFFICALLY that they aren't carrying Saturn anymore, stuff keeps poping up. There's 2 Gamestop/Funcos out here that get Saturn stuff from time to time. Word is, the warehouse sends it to them as a test to see if it will sell. Well, when they're sending 12 copies of NHL '97, DUH!!!!!!! It isn't going to sell!!!!@@#@!@!

As for the rest, I'm not suprized. Think about it, how often do you see the stock actually change in the NES/SNES section? Sure, there are people that buy it, but not nearly as many as buy the newer stuff. And, this is total guessing on my part, I'd bet the profit isn't as great either. Factor in how long they have to sit on this stuff, and the decision is pretty clear.

Keep in mind, when this chain opened (what? 1993 or so) NES was still a living system. Back then, it made sence to carry used NES games because the system was still being made. Now the NES hasn't been made in years. Sure there are still people coming in to get NES games, but most of them are people like us. Fact is, there aren't many people like us out there. Funco wants to sell as much stuff as they can and NES games is just not what most people want anymore.

Mind you, I'm not saying this is great news or anything, but it kind of makes sence from a strictly business point of view. I know most of you aren't going to agree with that, but if you can look at this detached a bit, maybe you'll see where I'm coming from. I really doubt Funco has any interest in being a classic gaming headquarters or helping people find hard to find games. They want to move as much product as possible. When half your store is full of dead stock, that can really hurt.

(Side note: I'll be interested to see if this effects the retro coverage in Game Informer. I always though having the retro arcticle and reviews was pretty slick considering it helped advertise these old games you could conviently find at your local Funco. If the games are gone, what's the point of devoting real estate in the mag to them?)

[Charlie]

The local gamestop here has, I shit you not, 20 or more copies of Mario 3 and just as many copies of Mario 2. And whenever they get new stuff sent to them, take a guess what the majority of it is? That's right, Mario 2 and Mario 3. It's unbelivable. Jee wiz, I wonder why they can't sell it.

[kainemaxwell]

The local gamestop here has, I shit you not, 20 or more copies of Mario 3 and just as many copies of Mario 2. And whenever they get new stuff sent to them, take a guess what the majority of it is? That's right, Mario 2 and Mario 3. It's unbelivable. Jee wiz, I wonder why they can't sell it.

Doesn't surprise me actually. I think I saw that many at the Funco I went to with a friend a couple months ago.

[christianscott27]

i sure hope this wont be a chain wide policy, i hit 3 gamestops on a regular basis and have built a good chunk of my NES/SNES/GEN collection from them. for the most part i find their prices to be fair and you just wont find that selection in any thrift or yardsale, it would be a real shame, especially in the winter time when there are no good fleas or yardsales to hit. from what i can tell they make most of their money off dumb guys 16-25 who show up and trade in 3 month old games and DVDs for a fraction of their value. that and whatever racket they're running with that pre-order madden crap, i dont see many other customers seriously checking out the old games when they do you hear things like this

15 year olds looking at SNES- wow remember this! look its the first madden

mother of an eight year old- no honey those are too big to fit into your nintendo

25 year old guy- wow i cant believe they get like $10 for a genesis game i wonder if my mom threw mine out
________
Video Reviews

[kainemaxwell]

Retrogaming wise my local Babagges (only one I can get too) has alot of NES, old Gameboy games and various controllers from Nes, Snes, DC and PSX along with (a ripoff to me) PSX AV cables for $3.99.

[portnoyd]

i sure hope this wont be a chain wide policy, i hit 3 gamestops on a regular basis and have built a good chunk of my NES/SNES/GEN collection from them. for the most part i find their prices to be fair and you just wont find that selection in any thrift or yardsale, it would be a real shame, especially in the winter time when there are no good fleas or yardsales to hit. from what i can tell they make most of their money off dumb guys 16-25 who show up and trade in 3 month old games and DVDs for a fraction of their value. that and whatever racket they're running with that pre-order madden crap, i dont see many other customers seriously checking out the old games when they do you hear things like this

Yeah, most of my Genesis was built off of Funco. A shame that they are phasing this all out. This hurts, and will make SNES and Genesis (relatively new collecting systems) much harder. However, I'm sure fleas and yard sales will be populated, and we all know how price forgiving they can be. Looks like my Funcostop time will switch over to Salvs and the like during the winter...

And yes, they make a killing when Joe idiot shows up with 3 games he bought last week for $150, and gets $60 for them. And the new games sell, so they clear $30 a game no sweat. And they only get store credit, which means they get even more money, and yet even more if they buy more used games. I'm sure these stores could even function phasing out everything but PS2, GC, and XBox....

dave

[Syclone]

As for the rest, I'm not suprized. Think about it, how often do you see the stock actually change in the NES/SNES section? Sure, there are people that buy it, but not nearly as many as buy the newer stuff. And, this is total guessing on my part, I'd bet the profit isn't as great either. Factor in how long they have to sit on this stuff, and the decision is pretty clear.

Actually i have a few friends that works at funco/gamestops, from what they tell me, funco/gamestop dont pay much more than $5.00 for any used NES or Genesis game. And no more than $7-8 dollars for SNES games, And most of them NES/SNES/Genesis, are around $.25 - $1.50 and the only ones hitting high prices are Dragon Warrior 4, Final Fantasy 2, 3, Chrono Trigger ect... So there profit margin is actally rather large on each game. Now keep in mind, this was a pretty recient change that took place about 4-6months ago. They use to pay high. But from what i have heard, there plan as of last year was to have all NES/Genesis stuff gone, and some will still carry SNES stuff for a few months after to see if it sells well.

Keep in mind, when this chain opened (what? 1993 or so) NES was still a living system. Back then, it made sence to carry used NES games because the system was still being made. Now the NES hasn't been made in years. Sure there are still people coming in to get NES games, but most of them are people like us. Fact is, there aren't many people like us out there. Funco wants to sell as much stuff as they can and NES games is just not what most people want anymore.

As for this i agree, Funco wants to appeal to the mass's and they want to sell as much as they can of whatever sells the best, and well lets face it. For every Classic Gamer there are say 50 people with a PS2. Now on average lets say each classic gamer visits a funco once a month, and buys 10 NES games at $3.00 each. Thats $30 in funcos pocket $27.00 if you have the gamestop card. And the 50 people with PS2 visit there that same month and buy one ps2 game at $50.00 Thats $2500.00 in funcos pocket. Even if 50 classic gamers visited there, and bought an average of 10 games for $3.00 each, it still wouldnt ad up to the 2500.00 from the 50 ps2 owners. And i garuntee you, funco sells more than 50 ps2 games in a month! So its a no brainer why they are dropping the NES/SNES/Genesis stuff..... they are gready little bastards and all they care about is profit.


Now what they dont realize is..... Half of the Classic gaming crowd also owns a ps2, and those people are going to start taking there business for that stuff to k-mart, wal-mart, ect... where it can be purchased usually 5-15 dollars cheeper than funcos prices.

So even though profit wise droping NES/SNES/Genesis to make room for more ps2/gamecube/xbox stuff is better for profit. They are royally fucking themselves out of business from classicgamers who own both new and old and use them to buy mainly old stuff, but also pick up new stuff there cause its convienent.

[bargora]

@Syclone: I agree with your conclusion. I just thought I should point out that when Funco takes in $2500 in PS2 software sales, they probably had to pay out $2250 to get the stuff in the first place, so it's really more like $250 "in their pocket".

[rbudrick]

Where I work, we buy PS2s for 195 and sell em at199.96 like every one else...there's only like 2.48% profit in the consoles.

-Rob

[Charlie]

Good news on my front. They agreed to pass along my number to anyone who wants to sell the old stuff. They already do it when people try to trade in their 2600 type stuff. Oh, and NEC Graphix type stuff. So I really don't lose out on anything. But for the record, they quit accepting Genesis stuff for trade (and quit selling it altogether) like four months ago here, and they're also phasing out any pre GBA games. Seriously, that's just plain stupid. Since the Gameboy Advance is backwards compatiable and thus has the largest libary in the history of video games, they are going to lose a ton of money. They also quit selling DVDs a few months ago. They're no longer going to take Dreamcast games, and they're even phasing out the toys. THE TOYS DAMNIT! To quote Homer Simpson "Did we lose a war?" Oh well, at least I got some Dragon's Lair toys sealed (albeit, plastered with stickers) on clearence.

[hamburgler]

They stopped selling all nintendo and genisis games at the gamestop near where i live.

[kainemaxwell]

Babagges in the Rockaway mall sells:

PS2/GC/X-Box stuff (new and pre-owned)
PSX games (Many the commons they hav ein bulk ar epart of a $9.99 sale- mostly non-GH packaging.)
N64 games (in cd jewel cases)
NES and GB carts loose
PC games
Extra controllers for the big 3 and DC, and some NES and SNES. Also various AV cables for PSX, VMUs
Toys