My point wasn't the crap price, it was that they were selling it a hundred times more than what the trade in value was. I know it was a common pack in game, so I didn't expect it to be extremely valuable. I was just giving that an example because when I said they give a person only 1/10th what they charge it for you made it out like I was exaggerating, but often times that really is the case, and in some cases like this its only 1/100th. I'm not saying that's typical, but it happens sometimes.
A) Which is it? Often, not typical or sometimes?
B) 10 year old extreme example isn't very relevant today.
C) You originally said 1/10th of what the game "is worth" - now it's 1/10th of what they charge for it? Very different things, these are.
D) Again, even with your example, we don't know how much they charged for it... or if it even sold. We know what they priced it at as soon as it was returned to the shelf and that's it.
E) I gave two current day extreme examples based off their current trade-in prices (without bonus) and neither one of them hits the 1/10th based on going eBay prices or current GameStop sell prices (Madden 09 is currently priced at $1.99.)
F) Let's look at Madden 09 again. Twenty five cents. But, right now, you can get 50% bonus on all trade ins. Also, an extra 10% if you're a rewards member. This bumps your TIV up to 35 cents. I can buy it online and use a Rewards card (if I had one) and get 10% off. Then, use coupon code CAG16 for another 16% off - $1.47. So, they make $1.12 on a three year old game that they had to pay an employee to process when someone traded it in, process it when they had to send it to whatever warehouse their online site uses, process it when it arrives at that warehouse and process it when it ships out. And this is all based off current trade in values. How many copies of Madden 09 do you think GameStop has? Probably a ton. How many of these copies that they currently have in stock do you think were traded in before 10 came out? Before 11 came out? Before 12 came out? What was the trade-in values then?
I have no way of knowing. But before bonus, here's the current TIVs for the most recent Maddens for the 360:
10 - $1.00. 47 cents profit.
11 - $5.00. $3.26 LOSS.
12 - $21.00. $19.53 LOSS.
So, again, you can't just go by the price they slap on it when they throw it back on the shelf. That assumes that the game sells immediately at that price. Chances are, it doesn't (unless it's a hot game, which, as we already established, they give you much, much more for). If it is that easy to resell, then you should do it yourself. Take your $1.99 copy of Madden 09 and list it on eBay. Subtract your listing fees, PayPal fees and your time involved (let's say, ten minutes listing, dealing with the buyer, shipping, etc (all hoping you're not scammed at some point) ten minutes at minimum wage, that's $1.20 you could have made flipping burgers instead of reselling your game)... Assuming your game sells (again, looking at all the eBay auctions that didn't get a single bid with bidding starting at 99 cents or less, good luck), how much profit did you make vs. just selling it at GameStop when you're in there buying a game anyway (if you're the type of person that sells to GameStop, you're likely the type of person that buys from them).
Look, I'm no GS fan myself... but there's plenty of reasons to hate on them. The price they give you for trade ins is hardly one of them. And crying about the price they gave you for some 17 year old pack-in game ten years ago is plain ridiculous at this point.
Topic: GameStop Says Goodbye to the GameCube (Read 14299 times)
