GameStop Shrugs as Best Buy Enters Used Game Biz

"GameStop understands that trading in used games and consoles is a highly-assisted activity. We are very confident in our business model that allows our expert associates to help consumers trade in product, a fact not addressed with a self-serve process."

I had a couple co-workers look at me funny when I burst out laughing at this.  The people at my local gamestop are actually pretty cool and knowledgable, especially compared to most of the other gamestops I've been to, but even they don't do much to "help" people trade in their products.  They just take your games, scan them through the system, then tell you how much you're going to get in store credit.  When a game's not in the system, they reject it, just like a kiosk would.  Only difference between a kiosk and a clerk is that the clerk will make conversation with you about the games your trading in, which can sometimes be annoying.

I still don't trade my games in anymore, I can make more money selling them dirt cheap to co-workers than I would trading them in at gamestop.  You get a game that's around a year old, and it'll only be worth 10 bucks, tops, as a trade in at gamestop, anything older than that and you're hitting the bottom of the barrel.  Now, if BestBuy offers a reasonable trade in price for used games, then I might consider trading them in again.

>hand wringing

Improving, but I fail to see how a group of people saying that they're aware of something that exists constitutes "hand wringing".

/b

I have a friend who owns a guitar shop.  Not a big name dealership, not a franchise, but one shop.  He specializes in Guild, Gibson, Alvarez, Fender, and a few lesser brands, so he has a cheap offering for beginners.

A few months back, I (owning stock in best buy) got an email explaining their future movement into guitars.  I laughed and laughed.  When I went to my friend's shop to purchase strings, he said he was a bit afraid.  I told him next time I was in a city with the Best Buy/Guitar shop combo, I'd check it out.

Last Winter, I found myself in Minneapolis.  At the Mall of America, the Best Buy does, in fact, have an attached guitar shop.  However, their wares were crap, most poorly maintained, and the staff lacked basic knowledge.

This is exactly what I see happening with their bid to enter the used game biz.

Well the process takes time, when they refine the process and you get instant credit after doing a few games(and if a bad item shows up they take that money back as quickly).

I am a criminal because I purchase media,I am a criminal because I use media, I am a criminal because I chose to own media..We shall remain criminals until Corporate stay's outside our bedrooms..

http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com

While I can't help but laugh at the idea that your average GameStop employee is some sort of "expert" in the art of trading preowned games, I pretty much agree with their statement about this. I personally would not be comfortable trading my games in to an automated kiosk rather than dealing with an actual person.

Good, maybe GameStop will stop treating their inventory and customers like shiat.