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Thread: Current generation used game pricing of small game store chains.

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    Pretzel (Level 4) Clownzilla's Avatar
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    Default Current generation used game pricing of small game store chains.

    Ok, many of you won't know what Entertainmart is because they only have about 5 store nation wise. However, I guess the question pertains to any used game store. Entertainmart is pretty much a game\movie store that at one time had OK prcing on games and movies but had FANTASTIC pricing on games and movies without a case or manual. Pretty much any game that didn't have a game or case was placed on a clearance rack. Xbox 360, PS3, DS games were $7.99, Wii was $5.99, and Gamecube, PSP, GBA games were $3.99 or $4.99. I would purchase games like Windwaker for $3.99, Black Ops 2 for Xbox 360 for $7.99, Pokemon White 2 for $7.99 and so on. I built up my collection quite a bit with their clearance games.

    In the back of my mind I knew that this would not last forever and they would eventually find a more profitable way to sell the games (as any good business should). However, they recently sold their company to Vintage Stock (another store like Etertainmart with more stores nation wide but mostly in the Midwest). Their new "clearance" games were all the sudden jacked up to insane prices. Funny thing was that they didn't even bother to take off the old price stickers and just placed the sky-high price stickers on top where you still can kind of see the old pricing if you look close enough. They pretty much priced their "disc-only" games the same as the games with boxes & manuals which were in themselves pretty expensive. One of the worst I noticed was COD: Black Ops 2 (disc only) for Xbox 360. The game had scratches along with a Netflix rental sticker on top for the low price of............$49.99! Or you can save money and buy Modern Warfare 2 (disc only and scratched) for.......... $24.99! These prices are insanity! My question is if there are really people who are dumb enough to buy these games at these prices. The company who purchased Entertainmart is apparently successful so am I missing something? Who are the people buying these games at these prices?!
    Wherever politics tries to be redemptive, it is promising too much. Where it wishes to do the work of God, it becomes not divine, but demonic.

    Pope Benedict XVI

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    Apple (Level 5) Gamevet's Avatar
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    Oh great!

    I was about to sell my copy of Black Ops II to Entertainmart. Hopefully I can still get the $30 they were offering last week.

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    I feel your pain, brother. We have a few game stores in our area, and it's sad that they still make money off of some chumps, when I could just go online and buy the games for the same exact price and have a better selection.

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    Apple (Level 5) xelement5x's Avatar
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    Hah! I wondered why the Entertainmart near me was kind of sucking for pricing recently. They used to have such amazing deals my wife and I would swing by every weekend to pick through new stock. Rule of Rose for $3, sure! And almost any PS1 game that wasn't a big name-RPG was only $5, not so much anymore.

    Their PSP and DS stock is really overpriced, but they are moving a lot of their XBOX/GC stuff kind of cheap still. PS2 is a crapshoot, but a lot of the GB/GBA and NES/SNES/N64 games are still cheap if you take the time to dig through them since they're flat rate priced.

    It's still a fun place to hit if you've got some time on your hands, but man I can definitely tell they changed hands.

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    Kirby (Level 13) Griking's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Clownzilla View Post
    Ok, many of you won't know what Entertainmart is because they only have about 5 store nation wise. However, I guess the question pertains to any used game store. Entertainmart is pretty much a game\movie store that at one time had OK prcing on games and movies but had FANTASTIC pricing on games and movies without a case or manual. Pretty much any game that didn't have a game or case was placed on a clearance rack. Xbox 360, PS3, DS games were $7.99, Wii was $5.99, and Gamecube, PSP, GBA games were $3.99 or $4.99. I would purchase games like Windwaker for $3.99, Black Ops 2 for Xbox 360 for $7.99, Pokemon White 2 for $7.99 and so on. I built up my collection quite a bit with their clearance games.

    In the back of my mind I knew that this would not last forever and they would eventually find a more profitable way to sell the games (as any good business should). However, they recently sold their company to Vintage Stock (another store like Etertainmart with more stores nation wide but mostly in the Midwest). Their new "clearance" games were all the sudden jacked up to insane prices. Funny thing was that they didn't even bother to take off the old price stickers and just placed the sky-high price stickers on top where you still can kind of see the old pricing if you look close enough. They pretty much priced their "disc-only" games the same as the games with boxes & manuals which were in themselves pretty expensive. One of the worst I noticed was COD: Black Ops 2 (disc only) for Xbox 360. The game had scratches along with a Netflix rental sticker on top for the low price of............$49.99! Or you can save money and buy Modern Warfare 2 (disc only and scratched) for.......... $24.99! These prices are insanity! My question is if there are really people who are dumb enough to buy these games at these prices. The company who purchased Entertainmart is apparently successful so am I missing something? Who are the people buying these games at these prices?!

    Their thought was probably that if digital game purchases that don't include boxes or manuals are surging then why should they have to discount a game disc that's missing the box or manual.

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    Kirby (Level 13) Tanooki's Avatar
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    I think consumer stupidity is far beyond that little chain. All it takes is to pick a game you know the name of that wasn't probably printed into the 250-500K or more range, that's on a cartridge most often than not, and do a SOLD search up on ebay.

    There are idiots everywhere. I'm not trying to be mean, but they are what they are for whatever reason drives the stupidity. Could it be being uninformed? A sucker for hype? Fools who just want the game and will pay even if it's damaged or missing all the other (box, sleeve, manual, maps, etc.?) Downright childish impatience? I'm sure you can ask another few questions on the why but one or more will fit. More often than not intelligence isn't the reason for paying $100, $200, $300, $500+ for a loose cartridge or a CIB copy of X game. You'll see all the stupid sucker baiting priced BINs that get ignored weekly but you know, eventually some dumb dumb will buy it. It goes for modern stuff too just on a smaller priced scale really. Look how much you can get for a loose copy of something hot like a Mario Kart 3DS or Wii game versus the complete copies, or the evil garbage Gamestop is pulling with Xenoblade on Wii with the overpriced opened up yet new reprints.

    As long as they can drop the bait into a large enough pond, eventually they'll find a nice fat suckerfish to take the worm. And when enough worms get snapped up, everyone else suffers as they'll feel the new price is the standard and more will emulate it.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Griking View Post
    Their thought was probably that if digital game purchases that don't include boxes or manuals are surging then why should they have to discount a game disc that's missing the box or manual.
    Yet another reason to hate digital downloads (and the people that support them ).

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    Pretzel (Level 4) Clownzilla's Avatar
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    Well, I went back through there on my lunch hour (I work down the street) and was able to pick up a clean copy of Ninja Golf for the Atari 7800 for $1. Their Atari games are bulk priced and they label the 7800 and 5200 games as 2600 games. They apparently really don't know their product which might explain their insane pricing techniques. Like others have stated though, as long as people buy these games at ridiculous prices then they will keep doing this. From a business standpoint I really can't blame them either. What will be interesting (atleast where I live) is that Vintage Stock has a store in the shopping center next door (less than 100 yards away). One store will be cannibalizing sales from the other so I wonder if Entertainmart will even stay open here after a year or so.
    Wherever politics tries to be redemptive, it is promising too much. Where it wishes to do the work of God, it becomes not divine, but demonic.

    Pope Benedict XVI

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