Selling Games | a Ticked Off Gamer's Rant

It's completely understandable that game stores need to make a profit to strive, especially in today's economy. With stores like GameStop, EB Games, GAME, and Gamestation, which are the distributors or middlemen for developers and publishers of games, one needs to understand that when companies sell new games, they aren't making much of a profit for themselves, considering that a larger percentage of the proceeds go toward the creators of the game. "Well how do they make a valid profit, then?" The answer is simple: preowned games and merchandise.

When a game is sold by a consumer to a game store, the game was already purchased new at some point, and as such, the proceeds already went toward the creators--this allows the game to be resold at the store's discretion at a price that allows them to make a profit. However, these prices aren't always ideal, considering that most gamers would go for the new copy if there isn't much of a price difference between the new and preowned copies of the game; say for instance a new copy being $59.99 and the used copy being $54.99. True, there are benefits of purchasing a preowned game (as outlined in my blog 'New v. Preowned Games') such as the ability to return the game within a certain number of days for any reason, and getting a full refund.

Nevertheless, one cannot deny the extent of how much one is practically ripped off when it comes to selling video games to these companies. What annoys me the most is that there seems to be a repulsive lack of consideration for the customer--they're taking the initiative to go to your store and sell their game to you, so that you can make a profit off selling it to another; have some consideration and offer them a reasonable amount for the game. GameStop has improved when it comes to "trade-in" values, even if one isn't trading anything but selling. With these companies, there seems to be some sort of given percentage by the corporate offices to which the stores adhere to. With my experience, the percentages seem to be improving, as one tends to get a better deal.

Now, with these "Mom and Pop" game stores that are simply put, a single store--no corporation, no chain of stores, just one on the corner of the two busy streets. Not every city has them, but for those who do, you lot will know what I'm talking about in the next few sentences. What properly grinds my gears is how these stores pretty much tell themselves, "Right. Well considering how we're on our own without any funding or help from a corporation, we're going to need to make profits solely on buying games off customers and selling them to others. With that being said, do your best to ensure you give them the least amount of money as possible so that we make more selling the game."

Pardon my language, but it's !#@%$&#(! aggravating. I can empathise with these stores. You need to make money somehow. But don't piss off and shoo away your clientele by committing robbery. I can't tell you how infuriated I was when I made the effort to drive down to the Mom and Pop game store (called Games to Gold where I live) with a practically flawless copy of a video game that was released a few months prior to my wanting to sell it. Those bastards offered me $15! You expect me to take a $45 hit just so you can make a profit? I'd rather just eat the game!

It's downright offensive and it's a good slap to the face, in all honesty. I would have accepted half of what I paid for the game, even if I only had it less than a week and there wasn't a speck of dust on the disc. But I won't even go as far as to empathise with them and say, "Well yeah, I understand that since I used it, the value might go down and they'd need to buy it cheap to sell it higher to make money." Why? Naturally, because I bought the damn game for $60 and sure, they'll offer $15 and maybe even $20, but they'll turn right around and sell it to another customer in front of you for $60. Way to screw over the customer.

It's reasons like this that I tend to either keep all my games or sell them either online or to friends, that way I don't get screwed over nor do I have to take a hit just to get the game out of my possession. Seriously folks, the next time you want to get rid of a game, don't insult yourself and take it to a game store. Sell it online or to a friend at a price you desire. If all else fails, lay a napkin on your lap and dig in.