by Felipe Parada

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A while back I wrote an article about how GameStop was on the verge of extinction because of their questionable business decisions, you can check out that article here. After all this time has passed, they still can't seem to get things back on track. I’ve noticed that my visits to GameStop have stopped completely but I never really gave it some serious thought as to why, until now. It’s no secret that you're not going to have a pleasant gaming experience going into a GameStop, well at least not anymore. Sadly, here are just some of the reasons why I stopped shopping at GameStop.

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They have really sketchy business practices

 

This reason can be an entire article of its own. Whether it's the overpricing used games, selling used games as new, or the Xenoblade Chronicles controversy of 2012, there is no shortage of sketchy business practices at GameStop. You hear about these stories all the time but you never think that it will happen to you. This is just ONE of my stories.

 

I encountered one of these slimy business practices while picking up my new copy of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor back in 2014. It started out like any normal transaction. The employee in question, I’ll call him Samir Nagheenanajar, began to ring me up when I noticed something rather odd. Instead of just turning around and taking a game off the shelf behind him, he proceeded to open the drawer and pull out a disk of the game. I kindly stopped him and told him that he must be confused because I wanted a “New” copy, not a used copy of the game. He assured me that this was a new copy.

 

This is where things turned bad. I told him that the game he was trying to sell me WASN’T New because it was out of the box. Be proceeded to stick to his convictions and tell me that it was a new game. So I kindly pointed to the games in the back and asked him “Well what about THOSE new games, you know, the factory-sealed ones?” He proceeded to tell me that “Those are reserved for pre-orders” and that he couldn't sell me those games. So to expedite the process I told him to ring me up for a USED copy instead of new, I don't mind paying the price for a discounted game. He still stuck to his guns and told me it was a new game. 

 

By this point I had enough and I just walked away because I remembered that there was another GameStop about a mile up the road. It was a smaller GameStop and I knew that not many people shopped there so I can easily pick up a copy of the game and be out in less than 5 minutes. As I reached the door the associate chased me down urging me to buy the NEW GAME. Sometimes people only understand when you get nasty with them, so I told him that if he didn't get out of my way I was going to fold him up like one of the display models. Safe to say I NEVER returned to that GameStop ever again. 

I didn't realize till much later when a friend of mine, who worked at GameStop, explained to me that there was this thing called the “Check-Out” Policy. This was also confirmed by Jason Schreier when he worked at Kotaku. The policy allowed GameStop store associates to check out 1 item for personal use for up to four days. He claimed that it was for “research'' purposes to help sell games. Depending on the store, some managers would force employees to sell these games as “New” but some other stores have such a poor inventory management system that the games would get mixed into the new games inventory for sale. Either way, this is a terrible business practice. 

 

Their Used Games Market is an Absolute Rip-Off

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This also can be placed in the previous category but I wanted to single this one because this was one of the MAJOR reasons why I stopped visiting GameStop. I know everyone has a GameStop trade-in story, and it has become so ingrained into the gaming culture that it has become its own meme. Have 10 games to trade in? GameStop will give you $1.47 for it. 

 

It’s no secret that GameStop puts a large emphasis on its used game sales because that’s where they make most of their profit. But there is no excuse why their trade in value for games is so low. It’s so low at times that it's not even worth trading in games at all. What makes matters worse is that I have personally seen games that I traded in sell for 3x the amount of their trade in value. The game was about 6 months old from the time I bought it and I only received a single digit trade in value. Come on GameStop, REALLY?!?!?