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Literally a used Switch game in a big, ridiculous bag with a “New” sticker on it. Imagine going into a GameStop with a game in a bag like this and convincing them to give you credit for it as “New”.
Don’t buy online from GameStop. Actually, just don’t buy from GameStop.
I mean, GameStop's entire business model is that they're a chain of predatory pawnshops that prey on children so I'm not terribly surprised.
The second they started taking phone trade ins was the death of the classic GameStop. I remember even late 2000s picking up used GameCube games for a STEAL.
I went in to a GameStop to buy a new switch charger because my kids lost it on vacation. They told me you have to buy the right kind of charger, I was very confused because I thought Nintendo only sells one kind of charger for the switch. I told the guy I'm using it with a docking station and he pulled out some shitty GameStop branded charger and I said no thanks. The guy proceeded to tell me I would have to buy the charger directly from Nintendo...I went down the road to target and bought one off the shelf after like 5 minutes of looking. Fucking shameless GameStop...
Just to make sure I wasn't going insane, I looked at Nintendo's website, and sure enough they only sell one kind of charger for the Nintendo switch. There's some weird smaller charger they sell for accessories like the pokeball thing for let's go Pikachu but they very clearly spell that out when you purchase the charger.
Not related to your point at all, but: The switch uses USB-C. Pretty much any USB-C charger will work. For the dock you do want to make sure it can push enough power, but it's a rather low requirement. I use the same charger for my SteamDeck dock and the Switch dock. It's the great thing about USB-C. But of course gamestop would try to sell you their generic crap instead of an official one.
Same thing happened to me recently with their stupid BOGO sale, I bought Xenoblade Chronicles DE and Skyward Sword "New" and they sent me both packages with no plastic wrapping whatsoever, the pre-owned stickers very obviously ripped off and lots of damage to the cases. I went to a brick and mortar to return it and they didn't reimburse my shipping fees, I had to call customer support for them to give that back to me.
I tried to just buy them new in store and they told me they "don't carry rare games like that anymore." I said fuck it, and went to my local Walmart for Xenoblade and Target for Skyward Sword and it cost me less. What a fucking joke. GameStop is trash.
My most recent gripe is with Amiibo, Nintendo literally announced some new ones recently and yet none of their supposed retailers carry them, aside from Amazon who have ridiculous upcharges on them. Went to GameStop and the employees didn't even know what the fuck I was talking about. So if you can't buy them directly from Nintendo you're shit outta luck cuz good luck finding anyone that sells them for retail price.
So if you can't buy them directly from Nintendo you're shit outta luck cuz good luck finding anyone that sells them for retail price.
This is par for the course for basically any physical Nintendo product. Ninty is categorically allergic to manufacturing enough supply to satisfy demand and the resellers figured this out about 10-15y ago. Any limited production run product is almost immediately bought out on Amazon and the other big retailers websites and relisted at a markup on Amazon/eBay. If resellers smell blood in the water around a manufacturing run of a popular game (ie: Nintendo is close to selling through the available physical cartridge supply) they'll buy that up and resell it too. Nintendo would rather their products be unavailable for however long it takes them to decide to manufacture more (usually somewhere between two and six months) than have excess stock on hand.
GameStop is trash.
Yup. And none of this is a surprise or new revelation - they've been trash the whole fucking time. Some folks just got so into their 'big short' fanfic that they thought keeping this company alive would be fun and profitable.
hopefully they had fun. it's gonna crater sooner or later thanks to their business practices, and thank goodness. Mom & Pop shops like Pink Gorilla are way better any day.
GameStop went to shit a long time ago and should have gone out of business and folded their assets. Instead because of some redditors they think they still have a valuable business with loyal customers.
Once they hard focused on NFTs I knew it’d never get better
I tried to just buy them new in store and they told me they "don't carry rare games like that anymore."
Wait, was that bullshit, or was that game still a ridiculously limited release in America? Does NoA really hate this game that much?
In Europe physical XCDE doesn't really look that rare.
I remember back when - at least over here in Germany - Gamestop were... cool. When they were just shop for consoles, games and some gaming geek stuff. And the whole used-sales was a small small side-business.
That was a long time ago, but damn was it awesome to have dedicated game shops.
This “New” game was in the same order. Looks like they fished it out of a dumpster.
And this is the company wallstreetbets wanted so bad to defend. It should have died. It DESERVED to die but Reddit wanted it alive because if there's anything Reddit hates more, it is short sellers. But the reality is that most of the time the companies that get taken down by short selling aren't healthy to begin with. After all, why push a strong company off the cliff when you can push a weak one that is overvalued?
It's not that they wanted GameStop to win. They wanted Wall Street to lose.
I think you are right, at the start they had noble intentions hidden behind a get rich quick scheme.
But then they all became GME holders, they had a vested interest. So now they act like the shitty video game store in the mall is actually cool and innovative and soon some management changes and NFT nonsense will turn the company around.
In some small way, they became what they sought to destroy.
So now they act like the shitty video game store in the mall is actually cool and innovative and soon some management changes and NFT nonsense will turn the company around.
Outside of people clearly being facetious on WSB, I literally never see anybody genuinely have this attitude toward GameStop.
If every pro-GameStop post on r/WSB and r/Superstonk was actually a joke then they have achieved levels of sarcasm far beyond what I thought possible.
What starts out as a joke turns real as people who don't understand it's a joke join in.
The act is very important in the event of an SEC investigation. Since I don’t hold stock in the company, I’m safe to say this, but basically if they wrote “Yeah, I don’t have any faith in the company itself, I just caught Wall Street tycoons making an insane short sell” then that comment could become a major exhibit in an exchange fraud case that makes them forfeit their shares.
I think there was more to it than that. It seemed more like a situation where they could kill two birds with one stone. They could destroy, or at least severely damage the stock market by ensuring the hedgefunds couldn't buy back the shorted stock, and even if they didn't, they had the chance to become extremely wealthy while trying.
It probably would have worked too if it weren't for ~~those meddling kids~~ stock brokers like Robin Hood working with hedgefunds to claw back stocks and the SEC towering over them with potential charges of market manipulation.
It never would have worked. The absolute best case scenario was one hedgefund company has less profit that year.
Destroy or severely damage the stock market? It was just one stock, some people lost money but it didn't affect 99%+ of the stock market or its traders.... Just a little meme blip on the scale of things.
Watching that all was a bit like watching a sped up version of the crypto boom.
It started off with a bunch of well-meaning weirdos that were sticking it to the man. Then a few people made a whole bunch of money and from there it got super popular and turned into a weird libertarian cult.
It got me interested in stocks. I blew a few bucks on their wacky schemes, but for the most part I put in some long term investments that are slowly climbing.
Back in the day they would tell me the only game they have left in stock is the wall case copy. So you can take it but the case was opened and disc removed and put into a drawer behind the counter in a cd envelope. They would tell you it's new and they can't give a discount but assure you it's new. I hated that, still took it but I really hated it. Give $5 off or something... the worst part is it probably happened to me like 3 times which I couldn't believe.
I wonder if the copy in the pic is the same deal that I had.
I hated that, still took it but I really hated it
they fucked you because they could. you kept going back, that's part of growing up I guess.
they're just awful.
I worked at Electronics Boutique over 20 years ago, and we'd do the same thing. If someone brought a game back and got a refund because they didn't like it, or they got it for the wrong platform we'd just re-shrink wrap it and put it back out as new. But the lazy person who did yours didn't even break out the heat gun smh
Also, I'm not sure if GameStop even allows this, but back in the day employees were allowed to borrow almost any game in the store to try it out, so we could know about it when selling. And we'd re-shrink those too
I bought a new game. I brought it to the counter and paid for it. They opened the display box I'd handed them, they pulled a cartridge out of an envelope from a drawer and put it in the display box and handed that to me.
What the fuck?
Standard practice at game stores for over 20 years. They do this to prevent theft. Before this policy got instituted we'd have angry people showing up with empty cases because someone slipped it out of the box and then out of the store
Still had customers show up with empty boxes because my associates would forget to put the game in and the customer would walk out without checking 🙄
"Why are these box stores failing?"
Stop fucking punishing me for what the thieves do. An opened box is not new.
Every game on display has to have the display copy opened. The game itself is kept behind the counter, the case is put out for display. It's to prevent theft. You got the last copy of the game in the store. It socks, but that's why. When I worked there I let people know it was the last copy and that the game had been opened but was still "new". Gave them a chance to change their mind. Alas, corporate doesn't offer discounts on display copies, and employees have no power to lower the price.
“Open box” isn’t the same as “new” and it shouldn’t be allowed to falsely sell “open box” as “new”
No. There is just no way it is the last copy so often. Also, there is no reason to do that. Laminate a card with all the box info. Keep unboxed, sealed copies behind the counter. Voila! With about 5 minutes of work I've just solved the entire problem!
Every copy on the shelf was a display box
Something about it just seems illegal! Or maybe violating some FTC regulation, right? It’s infuriating, nonetheless.
Former Gamestop employee, AMA.
I have questions. First of all, how dare you?
I would also like to know: what gives you the right?