Opening Soon: Video Game Trader.com Retail Store (Brick, NJ)

[Cornelius]

I'm sure you've read the past threads about new stores that I have, but I'm going to pass on what I've seen Joe write many times (in case he doesn't see this). ... GameStop is your best friend. Or, at least, the employees can be if you get to know them, cut them some deals, and make sure they'll send customers to you when they can't take the old stuff for trade-in.

I don't have any hated GameStop practices that you likely haven't read 1000 times. For the vintage game shops what bugs me is when even super common low-demand games are priced high. I understand stuff like SMB3 being marked up since there is demand and will sell that way just fine. What would get me into the store, though, is a chance to find any NES (for example) game I don't have and get it for maybe 5 bucks. Doesn't have to be rare at all, or maybe it is but also shitty and worthless, just something I don't have. It really irritates me to see games that won't sell on ebay for $4 shipped marked 8 bucks in a shop.

[videogametrader]

I'm sure you've read the past threads about new stores that I have, but I'm going to pass on what I've seen Joe write many times (in case he doesn't see this). ... GameStop is your best friend. Or, at least, the employees can be if you get to know them, cut them some deals, and make sure they'll send customers to you when they can't take the old stuff for trade-in.

I don't have any hated GameStop practices that you likely haven't read 1000 times. For the vintage game shops what bugs me is when even super common low-demand games are priced high. I understand stuff like SMB3 being marked up since there is demand and will sell that way just fine. What would get me into the store, though, is a chance to find any NES (for example) game I don't have and get it for maybe 5 bucks. Doesn't have to be rare at all, or maybe it is but also shitty and worthless, just something I don't have. It really irritates me to see games that won't sell on ebay for $4 shipped marked 8 bucks in a shop.

Thanks for your post. I agree with that you have to say. The most common complaints i have read about game shops in general is pricing & trade-in credit.

On pricing:

Our goal is to price things at a reasonable competitive rate. Games that are popular, Like SMB 3, might be priced around $10 - $14 but we would price a very common game at between $3 & $5. I also don't plan on pricing new release used titles at near their NEW retail either. You wont see a used game sell for $55 when the new copy goes for $60. Most prices will be a few percentage points higher than you would see online. I think its worth a SMALL premium when you get that instant gratification, instead of having to wait for the mail.

On trade-ins:

We should be very competitive for trade-ins and should pay at or above local retailers for store credit. Using Mass Effect 3 (for 360) as an example, our current trade-in price is $29 where Best Buy is $25. We also pay cash and deduct 25% for cash. So you would get almost $22 cash. Even though our focus will not be on the current generation of gaming, we will be taking pre-sales of new releases that should help with getting trades.

And on PS2 and earlier games, i believe we are the only shop in the Brick/Lakewood/Toms River area (Please correct me if I'm wrong). I know places like Cash Converters and Fast Cash buy these but from what I hear they don't pay much at all.