Gamestop to start buying/selling retro games again

[munchiaz]

At least 50 UMDs have come out since the first of the year, so it's clearly not dead.

Speaking of idiots.....

ohhh kill em!!!

[cr8zykuban0]

man I  hope this flops. I dont have good expectations but I guess we will have to wait and see what happens.

if they throw away boxes and manuals, im check out the dumpsters and pick that shit up!

[xelement5x]

I figured this would be a good thread for my story...

So I bought from Gamestop's "retro" store since they had a buy 2 get 1 sale earlier as a Black Friday promotion.  They do not guarantee their games being sold as having cases and manuals, but I had purchased these three titles with the intent of keeping them if complete and returning if they were missing stuff.  Not uncommon to hear of and I was delighted when it was delivered today and I saw these inside!



Until I opened them and saw this...



NO GODDAMN DISC IN THE QUAKE III ARENA CASE!

Come on GameStop, what kind of QA are you running here.  You can't even check the cases when they are traded in to see if there are actual games in them? 

I figured I would try to contact their customer service, but the contact form on their website doesn't post either, awesome.  Way to go GameStop/eGain!  I sent an email back to the confirmation address, and will probably try calling later again tonight, but this is just ridiculous.  I know it's only a $5 game, but it was MY $5 game that was supposed to show up, not just a case. 

[SignOfZeta]

Yeah, these stories are all over the place. Even if half of them are fake it's still extremely obvious that the QA at GameStop HQ is the same as it is at the store, and all the details they gave us regarding the inspection process are total fabrications.

Not surprising from the worst place in America to buy a video game...

BTW, why would you even pay shipping on those DC games? That's like $2 worth of super common junk.

[johnnykonami]

I figured this would be a good thread for my story...

So I bought from Gamestop's "retro" store since they had a buy 2 get 1 sale earlier as a Black Friday promotion.  They do not guarantee their games being sold as having cases and manuals, but I had purchased these three titles with the intent of keeping them if complete and returning if they were missing stuff.  Not uncommon to hear of and I was delighted when it was delivered today and I saw these inside!

Until I opened them and saw this...

NO GODDAMN DISC IN THE QUAKE III ARENA CASE!

Come on GameStop, what kind of QA are you running here.  You can't even check the cases when they are traded in to see if there are actual games in them? 

I figured I would try to contact their customer service, but the contact form on their website doesn't post either, awesome.  Way to go GameStop/eGain!  I sent an email back to the confirmation address, and will probably try calling later again tonight, but this is just ridiculous.  I know it's only a $5 game, but it was MY $5 game that was supposed to show up, not just a case. 

That blows.  Gamestop blows.  Hope you get it sorted out!

[xelement5x]

Yeah, these stories are all over the place. Even if half of them are fake it's still extremely obvious that the QA at GameStop HQ is the same as it is at the store, and all the details they gave us regarding the inspection process are total fabrications.

Not surprising from the worst place in America to buy a video game...

BTW, why would you even pay shipping on those DC games? That's like $2 worth of super common junk.

Shipping was free.  If you will sell me your copies for $2 I would be happy to take them off your hands, I would even give you shipping costs on top. 

[crazydean]

My favorite story is the Sega Genesis with the "void warranty if removed" sticker placed over the CD expansion port.

[ProfessorProfessorson]

I probably forgot to mention this, but awhile back I purchased some Nes games from a business on ebay. Evidently it was a business with ties of some sort to Gamestop. All the carts had stickers on the back with info printed on them indicating they came from a Gamestop distribution center. Wish I could remember who it was, I do remember their ebay seller account was from Grapevine, Texas location wise.

[technozombie]

I probably forgot to mention this, but awhile back I purchased some Nes games from a business on ebay. Evidently it was a business with ties of some sort to Gamestop. All the carts had stickers on the back with info printed on them indicating they came from a Gamestop distribution center. Wish I could remember who it was, I do remember their ebay seller account was from Grapevine, Texas location wise.

That's kind of weird I wouldn't think a company like GameStop would need to use eBay as an outlet. Maybe the person  works for them and stole them lol.

[ProfessorProfessorson]

It wasn't an individual seller on ebay. It was some large business with 50,000 feedback. I think it was called Greengadgets maybe.

[xelement5x]

It wasn't an individual seller on ebay. It was some large business with 50,000 feedback. I think it was called Greengadgets maybe.

That is weird.  Maybe they bought out a lot of their old stock back in the day or something. 

No news back from customer support yet, I didn't have time to call this evening.  If I don't hear from them before the afternoon I will get on the horn I guess.

[xelement5x]

Double-post, but I did hear back:

Thank you for contacting GameStop, we will be more than glad to assist you with any request that you may have regarding the order #4151203132904230. We understand how important is for you to have the order delivery correctly.
Don't worry we will take care of this situation immediately, we have placed a request to send you a replacement for the item Quake III Arena, the order will be processed and shipped at not extra charge as soon as possible.   
We do apologized for any inconvenience that this may cause you and we hope everything gets resolve promptly. 
Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of any further help.
Best Regards,
Customer Care

I have yet to get a shipping confirmation or anything sooooo, I'll hold my breath for a bit.

[bartre]

i dunno, i'd have a hard time even throwing down the $10-15 you probably spent on those via gamestop.
i'm not sure how legit the stories are, but i've  heard of several people getting faked out because gamestop didn't test their shit.
IE - buy earthbound, get NBA live with an EB sticker.

[wilykat]

It happens.  People who handles mail order sales don't know how to check the game. They look at the CD cover or cart cover, credit the seller a whopping 15 cents for the used game, and list it in the inventory as $100 game.  Never checks if the CD is correct, not scratched to heck or cracked, and never checks if the cart is working and not switched internally.

It's no different from when Gameshop accidentally sold used system that had porn on it because they never wiped it as they were supposed to.  I am surprised there hasn't been any child porn incident yet consdering how easy DSi and 3DS camera are and how an 8 year old kid may photo himself naked not realizing it's bad, then later sold the system to GS who never checks it and sells it with porn intact.

I don't know how often the bad game deal happens but I have heard of a few complaint. So maybe one-tenth of 1% of all web page only sale ends up with dud?

[SignOfZeta]

For the purposes of the average retro video game fan, at least the ones I know, this system simply cannot work. I've never met someone who buys 20 year old games and doesn't care about condition, or is interested in buying a game for a set price but doesn't care to even know if that game comes with a case or not until it arrives at their place. I've never met that guy.

Other than entertaining us, I don't know what/who this system could work for and I'm having a hard time trying to think of any place that just sells "used game" or "used anything" where you can't see the thing first, there is no description of that specific copy, and there is no way to talk to anyone about it.