Another dumb question

[miner2049er]

Here's another dumb question from the miner.

What is gamestop?

Is it like a trading post for games etc?

We have a few chains in the UK called gamestation and game.

[Shane R. Monroe]

www.gamestop.com

"Thank you for calling GameStop -- where we buy and sell new and used games... This is John Minimumwage ... how can I help you?"

Gamestop is the MS or EA of the videogaming world. They pretty much own every mall-chain game store now, they give you pennies on the dollar for used games (I think we figured out they pay like 30% value, sell for 75% value) and are a HUGE part of the VG corporate machine. They also sell gaming guides, used DVDs, used older stuff, etc. all at GREAT marked up prices. They make a killing on used games and are the premiere place to 'preorder' games (apparently management kills and eats employees that don't make a certain quota every month on game preorders).

[miner2049er]

A most enlightening description Shane.

Our Gamestation is similar though in a less world dominating kind of way.

Prices vary but I can pick up things like a NES controller for £1 or a Genesis for around £15.

Gameboy colors go for less than £10.

I personally got my used DS for £65 boxed after checking all 4 they had in store to get the best conditioned one.

I guess the staff could be described as those not quite intelligent enough to work at McDonalds. I swear one day I'll buy a Memory card and be offered fries with it.

[Shane R. Monroe]

N64 and PS1 is as far back as this goes, but OCCASSIONALLY you'll run across a store with something older.

[miner2049er]

So where do you get your retro stuff from?

We have Cash Generator and the like which are pretty much pawn shops for absolutely anything but they sometimes get some good gaming stuff in there. Can be pricey though.

Don't tell me you just use swap meets!

[Shane R. Monroe]

There is no outlet for Retro here. Not even yardsales work out here anymore... there are no deals, hell - not even the occassional 2600.

[B_Rik_Schitthaus]

The two Gamestations near me are great for retro stuff, Very often they'll have Atari 2600, Lynx, Jaguar, Vectrex, G & W, Neo Geo etc games and they always have a huge supply of Megadrive, N64, Snes, Nes, Dreamcast (ok not strictly retro) and Saturn games. I even picked up an A1200 and games from there. The rarer games and hardware are displayed in a seperate glass cabinet usually with quite high price tags.

Maybe they have differnt store policy across the board, I've also found the staff to be quite helpful although they do tend to lean towards the modern end of the market.

[B_Rik_Schitthaus]

I personally got my used DS for £65 boxed after checking all 4 they had in store to get the best conditioned one.

Yeah I noticed the price drop of the DS, hell of a reduction. Makes the DS kind of a must buy or at least impulse item even for the typical generation gimmie, sheep UK video games player. I saw 9 pre-owned ones in the local gamestation 4 unboxed with 1 game and the rest boxed with the metroid demo.

Good call on checking the Units, I think it was flare who said be wary of the pre-owned DS's screens and after seeing not just the demo units but the open pre-owned ones he might be right.

[miner2049er]

Flare's right, 2 of the ones I saw were in pretty bad condition with even the top screen scratched, now how did that happen?

Mine has a perfect top screen and 1 mark on the touch screen.

As for price, I was surprised I must say.

Weird thing is the unboxed and boxed with demo are the same price!

[Antiriad2097]

GameStation don't take condition into account when they buy or sell. I've used this to my advantage a few times, picking up multiple copies of games elsewhere, combining all the best and worst bits. You can then keep the best copy and trade in the damaged one. Great for DC stuff given how fragile the cases are on those. Anything bought is just scanned at the till, staff aren't given discretion to change prices.

My nearest GameStation has some decent staff. There are one or two who aren't really interested in older stuff, but they're always helpful when I need something of them and the others are pretty clued up and will try out most anything regardless of age. There's a few MegaDrive and SNES owners among them.