Gamestop shenanigans sell open games as 'new'

not only does gamestop involve in shady business practices, but they treat their employees like a serf treats those that works the land. i used to work there, and i quit twice. the first time was when they decided that they were going to introduce a new policy that the company, from somewhere in the nebulous "corporate," would start to issue the stores schedules. schedules that the stores HAD TO comply with. anyone incapable of working whatever schedule doled out to them would be asked to seek employment elsewhere. then they rescinded that order (maybe because they realized it was a dumbass idea? probably not.) and so i rescinded my two weeks.

the second time i quit was because i was going to get fired for playing games on the clock. nevermind that 1. our work was caught up, 2. there was only a single customer in the store (with two of us working), and 3. i'd said, "i'mma take 15 (that sounds legal, right?) and play on the xbox. if you need anything, shout," and i still performed my duties as required. greet customers, ask if they need help, yadda yadda.

essentially, if the antichrist was a videogame fanatic, he'd buy from gamestop and own stock. if the antichrist sold videogames, he'd probably buy gamestop.

". . .get over your OCD the game hasnt been played before and has not been sold, so its new."

Have you read anything in this thread? If the employees took it home and played it last night, it's used. If the employees let customers play it in a demo system in the store, it's used. If the employees mishandled it and/or scratched it up (even if it hasn't actually been played), I still consider this used.

In any of these cases I consider it used and will refuse to pay full price for it, and it looks to me like a number of other people reading this thread feel this way as well.

@ #10. The same thing happened to me. I went the week before launch to finish paying off my system and then was informed I wouldn't get mine until mid to late January. I told them I wanted my money back I just gave them and they lectured me on how I would be lucky to get one anywhere else sooner than the Spring. After finally having to talk to the manager I got my money back. I went home and ordered one from Sam's Club online and It arrived 3 days after launch... and I saved $30. I only go to Gamestop/EB as a last resort.

I used to work at Gamestop and can clear all of this up pretty easily. The reason the games are "gutted" (which is the official term used by the company) is for display/security purposes only. Say for example God of War II comes in a shipment. Since its a new game it is required by the manager on duty to make sure at least 4 copies are "gutted" and displayed. Customers bring the empty box to the counter and receive a sealed game unless they buy one of the last 4. Now am I condoning this practice? No. In fact there are a lot of things about Gamestops policies (which most of the bad ones incidently came around when they merged with EB) that I personally disagree with and ultimately led to me leaving the company. I was tired of hearing the bickering and complaints from customers. Not that they didn't have a right to complain, they just did it to the wrong people...the employees. None of the employees have any say in the policies they have to follow. And if they don't follow them they are fired. So take it easy on those guys/girls behind the counter at your local Gamestop. Whatever it is you are complaining about they've already heard it 2 million times before and could care less. If you want to complain effectively fill out Gamestop's online customer survey or contact your store's district manager.

I'm a GameStop ASM. Please don't throw rocks at me.

Anyway, I've always found the company's policies to be pretty frustrating. They send us tons of fake inserts for displaying upcoming games, so why can't we have a similar type of thing for games we have to stock new, and just keep ALL of our copies of the game behind the counter, shrinkwrapped?

I have been working for this company for WAY too long (on and off again for the past four years) and while it's a fun job, it doesn't pay me enough for the job I'm doing, and yes, there are those shady business practices I have to put up with.

As for copies being displayed and not being in stock... well, whatever. There are other businesses that do such a thing. Do you know how much of a pain in the ass it would be to have to take down display boxes when we're out of stock, and then have to put them back up the very next day if we get a shipment? Yeah, so screw that.

Gamestop is the worst! I had an employee leave the game out of the case once, I had an employee put the wrong Street fighter game in the case, and I had an employee give me a DS game that was NEW yet had a save on it, he told me that someone in the factory must have played it. yeah right! this all happened because the employee had to man handle my brand new game. I am never shopping there again.

Best Buy does this too. My copy of Mario&Luigi Partners in Time had a gamesave on it.

I don't want an opened copy of a game for one LARGE reason...

That "Factory Fresh" smell of the jewel case, CD, and manual... thats like, special air they've shrink wrapped INTO the box... I have no idea what the deal is WITH that smell... But that smell is like a slice of heaven. *Drools*

I love all the little GS/EB drones running to defend their precious employer. It must be great being the top cat in your senior class. Working video game retail must get you ALL the tail. (I managed a GS for two years, trust me, it doesn't.)

Gutting is a CRAP policy meant to deter the discerning customer from buying new. Why buy the new game that the pimply faced kid behind the counter probably smudged up, or took home and played. (Not many people know that GS/EB employees are allowed to "rent" new product and take it home, they generally take the gut copies. It's not so "new" anymore is it?) And what if you were buying the game as a gift, and the recipient received two copies? The store would NEVER accept it as a return because "It's not new, you opened it." ignoring the reality that the STORE is the one who opened it.

Gamestop wants nothing more than to eliminate it's new purchasing customers by focusing on draconian "Pre-Order Only" policies and impossible return conditions. The managing staff is generally unable to wipe their own ass under the pressure of "Pre-selling more copies of that madden football." from their DM's, and God help you if you don't want to get a subscription to the magazine, that almost Guarantees that you'll find a big thumb print or scratch on your "New" disc.

Gamestop is a shit company that preys on kids as cheap entry level labor. It panders about aimlessly riding whatever trend it can find, it's only core tenant being to pay as little as they can for games and sell them for BIG BUX. Customer service is non-existent as the company guts it's existing managing staff to replace them with young untrained Ambercrombie Corporate Office rejects. GS has a BIG lesson coming. Soccer moms who only shop there because they don't know any better aren't going to support you for much longer.

I wait for a GS/EB drone to try and tell me otherwise.

That's just a norm in Australia. I work in an independent store, and we gut game boxes and put them in plastic sleeves, using the case as a display box. Needless to say, this also happens in the larger chain stores like EB.

It's just how we operate because most of the time we don't have enough spare cases to place POS displays in.

Even though I am an assistant manager at an EB, there are times when I don't agree with this practice either. But in our defense, I have had many customers comment that our guarantees are considerable better than any guarantees Best Buy offers. If you buy a new game and it doesn't work, gutted or not, we'll replace it, no problem. We are very careful when we gut the new games so as not to damage them.

As for why we don't use cardboard displays, I don't actually know, but I would guess it would be too expensive to manufacture that many display boxes, and also, it wouldn be difficult to keep tracj of which games are in stock and which aren't that way. At least with the gutted games, when the last copy is sold, we no longer have a box on display to tease the customer with.

I worked next door to a Gamestop a few months ago. THe guy would always come in and order a sandwich and I'd ask him about games...Then one day I asked him about a new game that had come out, and the subject came up about them being able to take home games like a book at the library. Not just used ones, but new ones also. So, they DO take these so called "new" games home and play them, then they sell them to the public as new...how is that still new? I understand that sometimes it is the last copy and whatever, fine. But when this is a constant thing, they should be giving some discount because most of the time, you ARE in fact getting a used game. The real reason this is a problem is if you get home and decide that maybe you really don't want that game (without even opening it yourself), you can't take it back and get a refund. How do they know you didn't open it? I think it all boils down to finding the nicest way to screw you without you even realizing it. That better not happen when GTA IV comes out. I want an unopened copy. I want to open it myself and get that brand new game smell...mmmm

Sorry for a double post. But I just thought deeper about this "gutting" nonsense...and that's exactly what it is, nonsense. They say they do it for display purposes...that's B.S. I worked at a video store and when we needed display cases, we printed up the cover art and put it into extra dvd cases we had. If they are a game store, they have extra cases and access to the artwork, so this "display case" excuse just got derailed.

Regardless of handling etc... By opening the seal on the box you release that wondrous "Factory Fresh" smell thats locked inside that shrink wrapped piece of heaven...


That smell is what its all about, ladies and gents.

We don't actually have a magical database of cover art, as many people think. I sure wish we did, it would be really awesome to have actual pictures to display our used games in instead of the ugly ugly generic boxes we use with the horrible drawing on it.

My biggest wish is that people would stop treating us employees like we're the bad guys, and stop bringing up the whole minimum wage thing too. A lot of jobs, not just this one, start out at minimum wage, and I worked my way up from minimum wage to more than twice that in about two years. But I digress. We don't have any say about what the policies are, and we aren't in it to screw you out of your money. The company is. I'm not trying to make your life hard by not letting you return a game. If I see the sticker still on the front, I'll let you return it, and generally, most returns are for defective games anyway. That means that nine times out of ten, I personally am not reselling a used game as new, I am sending out a new game that doesn't work. Used games should be returnable no matter what because our policy says so. Also, not allowing a customer to pick up a system without purchasing a game is completely, utterly wrong. End of story. If that happened to you, then you should definitely complain because it is absolutely against company policy to do that.

And the pre-order and sub spiels? We hate them, it's a waste of time and I know I feel silly every time, but I need to do it. There is more pressure from above than many of you realize, and it shows with employees who have less than stellar customer service skills. But pre-ordering isn't really all that bad because it's not like you're losing any money. Whatever you put down goes toward the game and if you don't want it, get your money back. Again, if they don't let you get your money back, this is wrong too and you should complain.

But anyways, please stop taking it out on us. We only work there, we need money just like the rest of you. I can't leave because I have a car and a laptop that need to be paid for.

I work at a Gamestop and employees are allowed to "merch out" a game meaning they can take it home and try it for four days. So those "new" games you get unwrapped have been likley taken home and played by some gamestop employee.

I don't particularly have a problem with it but I get a little worried seeing as though EB does an 7 day exchange (even if played) on any new game bought. What if I'm getting a game that has already been out in the wild.

As for HAVING to gut the case for display purposes, I go to my local video rental shop and they have seperate cases for this purpose. Not that hard to have one display case FAKE or otherwise.

as someone who is trying to open their own store, this practice makes a WORLD of difference.

its not like its a book store where if someone takes somehting off the shelf you lost out on like..15 bucks. new games cost the retailer about 90% of the cover price, so you can be damn shure they'll do whatever it takes to protect their assets. the games are still "new". its not like they take used games with scratches on them and sell them as new...they just need somehtng to put up on the shelf. and no, they can't just make a cardboard cut out or whatever..that looks like crap and no one would think it was a nice place to shop.

this isn't a huge deal. it isn't any sort of deal. its just a way to protect the store so they don't lost a ton on theft. the real solution is if you are unhappy with a gutted copy, then ask for a new one. if they don't have one, don't pitch a fit - just go someplace else as if they were sold out, or take it - they should replace a game if it doesn't work right anyways.

I used to work for both EB and Gamestop. I understand the need for a gut but also the absolute hatred of receiving such.

They used to reshrink them before stickering them. Which I think would go a long way to alieveating alot of the complaints. And no, before you start complaining about it, you CANT replicate the factory shrink in the store. You can do something similar but it is NOTICEBLY different than the factory. Most notably the seam ,around the outside edge,from the shrink machine(which is basically a roll of plastic and a heating wire).

Gamestop however has gotten VERY greedy. They treat their employees as disposable, because they infact are. Everyone of the people you meet in ANY Gamestop/EB could be replaced THAT DAY. The pay is atrocious and the benefits...riiight. Yet their seems to be an endless line of teenie's that think working for 'the man' would be 'kick ass'. So yeah you can pretty much think of those guys like you would any fast food employee, aka not interested in you AT ALL. While I am sure there are the occasional exception my own experience and the testimonies of others prove this to be the case.

If anything about Gamestop practices should be looked its how they WILL sell a game WITH NO BOX OR INSTRUCTIONS AS NEW. I have been the unlucky recipent of such and I could go down the street this very day and show you a store that has such on the shelf. While the have made a makeshift box to stick the disk in, the original cover art and instructions are gone but you WILL be asked to pay new price for it. That is I would think somewhat illegal..yes?

Oh and if you doubt me email me and I will give you the address of the store.

Okay, seriously guys. Most likely you ended up with one of the gutted copies. Which means you ended up with one of the last copies. Yes, I work at Gamestop. Trust me, I'm definitely not advertising for the company because I hate most of their policies.

A customer asked my Assistant Manager why the new game was out of the box and it was explained that developers used to send us a display to put on the wall, but it became too expensive so they stopped sending them.

The entire idea you guys have of a small store with usually only 2 or 3 people working at a time having a ton of live copies of games out is completely stupid. There's this thing called "Loss Prevention" and Gamestop is BIG on that. You're getting a new game, it just doesn't have any plastic on it.

I think alot of you people sitting here have absolutely no idea of what's actually going on behind the counter and think you do. Big retailers like Best Buy, Wal Mart, etc have so much space they can afford to have tons of live copies on the floor. My store alone has about 40 copies of God of War II, if we were to put every box on the floor that'd take up our ENTIRE new PS2 section. There are MAYBE 3 copies of GoW2 gutted for display on the wall, one for the New PS2 area and 2 for the New Releases area. The other 37 are all in their factory sealed cases behind a security case, behind the counter. There is a small chance you'll end up with the gutted copy, so what? The stickers are easy to peel off if you're careful. I do it all the time when I buy the gutted copy, you'd never know there was a sticker there.

About the check outs, we're only allowed to check out used games, and only if there are at least 3 copies available. Whoever complained about that was once again talking about a subject you know nothing about.

For the people with the 360 reserve...seriously, how in the world can you blame Gamestop for that? Its not the company's fault they were out of 360's. If you want to know why you had it reserved and didn't get one here's the ordeal: Microsoft told the company to preorder as many as they could, stating they'd receive enough to cover pre-orders. Of course we alll know how well that went. Microsoft couldn't produce enough and alot of customers weren't able to receive their 360s at launch. So that's Microsoft's fault, definitely not Gamestop's. People complaining about that are just trying to find a reason to complain and make themselves look cooler for not buying from a big company.

What? You blame Gamestop for not having any Wii's as well? Right, because that's COMPLETELY the company's fault, not Nintendo's at all.

That has happen to me also.Why dont they make a copy of the cover and put that on display? If i buy a game for $69.99 go to my car open it read the booklet then decide i dont want it return it right then and there.they would say it is open it is used and give me only $20.00 for it.then there so called last copy should also be marked as USED P.S.half hour later i send my friend in and told him to ask for the same game he was also told it was a last copy and they sold it to him for $69.99 and i got only $20.00 for as used what gives???? if i buy a pair of fruit of the loom i want them to be new no crap marks in them

P.P.S.S.how do i know it was the same game my name was on the inside of the booklet i want new closed unopen game.next time i get a game i am going to use monopoly money and tell them its the same thing see if they will take that

then if there is 37 copies behind the counter then let me get one of those factory sealed games and put the gutted one back yes no??????? if the game is $69.99 and i give you $29.99 are you going to take it.all we want is sealed games that's all p.s. i will still buy at GAMESTOP

@421 Unless all we have are the gutted copies, I will ALWAYS give a sealed copy. All of the employees in my store will do the same thing. I'll sell 37 sealed copies before I sell any of the gutted copies. If you REALLY want a sealed copy that bad (which is pretty stupid IMO) then ask for one. If they don't have a sealed copy, its not their fault. We don't have an infinite number of sealed copies, y'know?

what is so stupid about wanting a sealed from the factory game.if i went to your store and ask for a FREE copy of G.O.W.and you gave it to me that is stupid and you would be out of a job no- yes. why not scan the cover of the game put that on display when a paying customer comes(not me i get my game's free)lol hand them a sealed game and then put the copy back and you will have 40 sealed game's to sell and your customer will like it more and keep comeing back have a good night

Do you honestly enjoy the game less when you don't get to take the wrapping off? We don't have the time or means to scan a copy of the cover art and put it on the floor. Plus a lot of people mention about having a desire to look at the back of the case and such, you can't look at the back of a scanned cover art.

I just think its ridiculous people get so up in arms over a friggin peace of plastic.

I'm not really seeing the argument in the free GoW btw, where were you going with that?

The arguement that the game is not new is so stupid. While even I agree that I would prefer a new copy factory sealed, if the game is the last copy then I have no problem with it being open. It is like a car, when you buy a car new you do not go "No! I want the car that has never been opened." It is just part of the business, new means not used it does not mean unopened.

what i am saying is sealed that is all. the disk goes into a paper dvd jacket.and when they slde it out i have seen workers at game stop drop the disk blow on it with some spit mark's on it look at it see some thing and rub it on there gamestop shirt. by the way i just made a copy of the cover art need for speed most wanted.looks great front and back took less the 5.min dont get me wrong i like gamestop just let those who are in charge what the public wants no public money no gamestop

I managed a retail store that sold games, and this was common. We'd take the game and package materials (a practice called "gutting") out of the box so we can put an empty box out for display. If someone stole the box we wouldn't be out a game. If that was the last copy, we'd put it all back in the box and sell it like that. We'd never do that if there were copies behind the counter, though.

This has happened to me almost 10 times at eb/gamestop. The last time it happened I actually got into an argument w/ the employee about how I don't get a discount for an open copy yet if i bought a game, opened it, and never played it, and brought it back, i'd be lucky to get half my money back. So i left and the "manager" told me never to come back on my way out. Needless to say i almost punched him in the face, but i even called their corporate office to complain, and i talked to a supervisor but he apparently did nothing about them treating customers like crap.

So after numerous attempts of them trying to give me open copies and many other things, I will never shop there again. I'd much rather just go over to bestbuy.

today went to gamestop, like always bad customer service but worse today 3 people behind counter unlike usual talking to friends on phone, they were doing stock work but line of customers 1 person helping when I asked if someone could help me they said only he could customer, then called me rude and they agreed!!!! crazy I walked out leaving my 200.00 sale behind. Went to trus

This has happened to me before, as well. Rather annoying, if you ask me...

Why must GameStop clerks be so elitist? I once went in with my brother and friend to buy a new Xbox headset. The clerk was incredibly condescending towards the fact that my brother "still" played Halo 2. Mind you, this guy was at least twice as old as my little brother, and he just continued to mock us.

No, I don't want to reserve games -- you know what? It'll be there when I come to buy it. Besides, I take such a long time to beat a game, I'm in no real hurry to buy it on release day.

And the whole practice of selling my $55 games for five bucks sickens me...

This isn't a new practice among GameStop/EBGames. I worked for EBGames back in 2001 when it was still Electronics Boutique and we did this. We'd open one new one and use the case for a display box, put the game and booklet in a Ziplock bag and keep the rest locked up in the display case or in the back room.

But we only sold the opened new game when it was the last copy.

But you can always tell a new game in it's wrapping from a shrink-wrapped game. The unopened new wrap is actually wrapped. With part of the plastic overlapping itself. Shrink wrap has jagged edges where the wrap melted and shrunk together.

As a current employee of gamestop, i will tell you that if i didn't work there and get a fair discount for being an employee i wouldn't shop there.
Everything thats being said is true, i hate putting price stickers on the box, i hate gutting games, i most of all i hate pitching reservations and subcriptions just as much as you hate hearing it everytime you walk in the door. But unfortunatly if we don't ask we get fired, on the other hand if we do ask and still don't get "enough" people to agree to it...we get fired.
BTW there are no security devices in the games,accesories etc. there are also no security alarms in the majority of US stores.
Bottom line...gamestop sucks. That's the simple truth

Oh boy where do i start. First of all Gamestop hardly makes anything on the "New" games and systems, their buisiness coming from the reselling of used products, which they give fair credit for you to buy more games. Some may question the fairness of prices but you try to resell a "New" car that you have driven around for two weeks or a month (that bieng how long it takes an average gamer to beat the new GOWII for instance) and see if you arn't horribly disappointed at the price they want to give you. Last week they were still giving 30 dollars for it two months after it came out, which is more than 50% of what you paid for it.
Second of all security systems cost a lot of money. Which would make prices go up, which is also why Walmart and Bestbuy can lower their prices because there are tens of thousands of them as opposed to around 4000 Gamestops give or take.
Third I have never run into a problem with returning a defective game, if it doesn't work they don't make you keep it, unless you bring it back 3 weeks later with your own grubby prints and scratches on it.
Lastly if they can take games home to try them out it could prevent you from making a bad mistake, wouldn't you rather here an honest opinion of the game before you buy it or do you want the Bestbuy guy to tell you everything is great, then you buy a crappy game and they won't return it for you. Yeah I work for Gamestop but I've been buying used games for years because I don't have a lot of money. It's great for all you rich people who can afford to be so picky about a factory seal and all but a game is a game and as long as I can play happily uninterupted with my used/new, sealed/unsealed copy of whatever I'm happy.

Well, I've read *lots* of comments here from people who have bought "new" gutted games from Gamestop and ended up with something less than they paid for. If this happens to you, *always* call the Gamestop complaint line and *always* call the better business bureau in your area. If you have used a credit card dispute the charge due to "misrepresentation of merchandise".

Credit card disputes are an *excellent* way to get their attention, because most issuing banks levy a stiff "investigation charge" against the seller every time a charge is disputed.

Selling used items as new (and this in my mind includes discs "borrowed" by staff) is _fraud_. Credit card companies don't like vendors who routinely engage in fraud.

Here are some other helpful suggestions for those shopping at Gamestop...

If they try to sell you a gutted game, and won't sell you a sealed one upon polite request, simply refuse to buy it and walk out of the store. Buy it on eBay/Amazon/etc. if it's obscure. Buy it at Target or Best Buy if it's not.

To ensure that you don't get a gutted game, don't bring the case to the counter.

To further ensure you don't get a gutted game, refile the case of the game you want among the 10 copies of Madden 97 in the $10 or less rack.

Or, if you are there with a friend, have them pick up the gutted copy and walk around the store while you go to the counter.

Don't buy used games from Gamestop. Ever.

Don't ever, ever, *ever* sell used games to Gamestop. Sell 'em on ebay, sell or trade with friends, give 'em away to Goodwill.

Gamestop rips folks off coming and going on used games - cut off their air supply.

When they try to sell you a pre-order, ask about what games you can preorder. For every system you have, and for any system you *think* you might someday buy. Pre-orders are important! That is the only way you'll be sure to get a copy of the game on Game Day! (Unless you shop at Target) Consider each one carefully, then decline each one individually.

When they try to sell you a magazine, ask them how many pages does it have, and whether the reviews are any good, and who their favorite columist is, and whether they read the magazine themselves, and what was the best article that they've read in it lately. Then decline to subscribe.

When they try and sell you "game insurance" ask if they have a written copy of the policy coverage. Inspect it carefully - it is a binding contract! Ask about what sorts of damage are covered - fire, earthquake, acts of god, deep scratches, deliberate damage. Then decline the coverage.

If, after all this, you do still break down and buy a gutted game, don't despair. Play it for a few days, then discover that it is "defective". Go back to Gamestop, and see for yourself whether the claims of "gutted game returns are treated as normal defective returns" or not. With luck, you walk out with a brand new sealed copy...

If Gamestop gets to occasionally define "new" as "only played by staff" or "a really clean used copy that will pass as new", then I think customers are well within their rights to define for themselves exactly what "defective" means.

Always remember that the Gamestop employee you are dealing with is a fellow human being, and deserves courtesy and respect - even when they are being surly and unhelpful and arrogant and trying to sell you worthless add-ons and barely discounted used games and crappy magazines. After all, they're "just following orders" like any good corporate soldier. So as you go through the simple steps above, remember to SMILE!

Have fun! And thank you for shopping at GameStop!

Just a little tip from an ex-assistant manager at Gamestop. If you get a "New" copy and are given the display box, there is actually a "Opened and or Shopworn" discount in the computers for this situation. Thing is, employees generally won't tell customers about it unless they complain.

If they used a display case instead of gutting the game someone would forget to remove case from the floor. So think about it. You bring up the display case and you get the sealed game from behind the counter. The employee is not gonna have any idea if this is the last copy without having to constantly doing an item lookup. So they are going to put that display case back on the floor. The next customer gets the case and goes to the counter and they are sold out. So whats wrong with gutting the game when they sell the last one the case is removed showing the game is no longer in stock. You guys bitch too much. Also if its that big of deal why dont you reserve the game. You dont pay any extra. You get your copy held for you and its still in plastic. So if your not gonna reserve you cant bitch.

Quote= "There is no good way to limit the space on our walls without gutting one copy, and putting it's display out, leaving the other 60+ copies in a cabinet."

Quote= "It's called a cardboard print out with a picture on it. Shit, I guess that's too complicated."

Yes, America is getting stupider and stupider is it not?
Why don't the managers do that? I would definitely do that if I "Obvious Man" was Manager. Even it they used some four-year olds drawing, that would be fine with me!


Quote= "So yeah, when me and my buddy talk about this stuff, we laugh. Because a lot of people get up in arms about a gutted copy of a new game, claiming that it's no longer 'new'. When in reality, and I don't mean this to be disparaging, merely frank, the reality is that if you guys knew what happened to your games, especially factory-sealed ones, before you got them, you'd be very happy to buy your new games from a place like GameStop because there's such a small chance of anything happening to those games, even the gutted copies."

Want to know why everybody does not like it? Want to know why people want the newest of new copies?

This is the freaking answer.

Let's stroll down the street to the neighborhood video rental store.
Now, let's see. I know! "Gladiator"! HOLY SHIZZNIT BATMAN! LOOK AT THESE SCRATCHES!
What the crap do they do to the disks? How freaking hard is it to press Eject, and put the disk in? It is as if there is some secret daily Olympic event to see how well you can scratch up a disk! What do they do to these disks you may ask? Do they try to shot-put them in from ten feet away? Or perhaps they scrape them between their butt-cheeks, and dance the night away!

And this is proof they do not care about the game, just the money, and it is not about security or any stupid business nonsense, all you have to do it look at their stupid used games. They take them re-sell them, jack up the price, yet they don't even clean them. I don't care if they try to repair the disks, they should always at least clean them! I've gotten disks with freaking stains and fingerprints! I've had cartridges full of dirt. And once there was some sticky residue on one, and on another, there was one with strange stuff on it, and pieces of crap—it smelt bad—it probably was crap!

So overall, it is just business practice that needs to be changed.

These people make me laugh. I reserved BOTH Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, because of the Stylus offer. I asked the guy when I would get the styluses. "When the games are released." But, they're right behind your head, can't I just get them now?
Anyway, go there on April 22nd, and on my receipt I was GARUNTEED Both Styluses. I get the games, but guess what, they're out of the styluses. So, I give them a hard time. I wanted my money back, for false advertising (note the receipt) I ask for the manager, and the guy picks up the phone, to call the manager but calls the police instead. They come in, and try to arrest me, for misconduct. I tell them my story. Nope, don't believe you. Anyway, after 12 hours at the police station, I realize one thing, they took my receipt. I had paid $70 towards the games (paid them off), and now that was gone. So, I called headquarters, and attempted to talk to them. The first person hung up on me. Then, I got in touch with mr. big manager. Nope. No money back. So, I started putting up signs all around there, and people didn't go to the store. It turns out they had to close the store, and the last thing they did, gave me the styluses. Apparently, someone lost them in the back. and it took them a month to realize this?

Where the heck do all of you live? I have been shopping at the same 3 Game Stop, one use to be an EB Games, for the past 5 or more years and NEVER had that happen, even on the last copy. If you all want to get ripped off go to a pawn shop or worse yet your local Best Buy. As for the guy who went to get gears of war III and saw a seald one in the case,what did you do leave your back bone at home, speak up and ask for it!!

I'm here after a quick google. I bought two copies of Children of Mana for the Nintendo DS. One sold as used, the other sold as "new."

My problem's with the "new" copy.

In my case, they didn't pull the empty case off the shelf, put a game in it, and hand it to me. They pulled it out from behind the counter. So this wasn't a display copy.

Despite being stored behind the counter, it wasn't wrapped in plastic, merely "sealed" by a small transparent sticker. And for presumably not being a display copy, the case had quite a few scuffs on it.

But whatever, so they tear my shrinkwrap off my game and manhandle the case, and top it off with their own, shitty, never-coming-off-clean price tag. I can handle that. It's just the case afterall. It'd be fine if it just stopped there.

Now this is a DS game, that means it's a cartridge. Like most cartridges, DS games have multiple flat gold contacts that the pins in the DS system's game slot touch. Anyone familiar with any type of game cartridge can tell you the difference between a new cartridge, and a used one. The used one will have scratches and scuffs on those contacts, the new one should not.

Well this cartridge had obviously seen a DS Slot a few times. As a matter of fact, it'd be quite obvious to anyone comparing my used and "new" copy side-by-side, that the "new" one's been used _more_.

Maybe he mixed them up and put the old one in the "new" game case on accident (which wouldn't happen if they didn't take new games out of their cases in the first place). Even so, the used game isn't clean, it's got enough wear on the contacts for one to tell it's not new either.

Just thought I'd drop off my experience and leave readers with a thought:

Gamestop is a big game retailer, they might not sell more games than other U.S. retailers (like Wal-Mart), but they definately generate a lot of valuable advertising for game publishers with their own game promotions. If they need a game case for display purposes, why aren't they given a free empty game case like so many retailers in other industries?

I have heard a lot of convincing arguments from both sides. Personally, I hate the idea of buying a opened "new" game. It just seems stupid to open up a game, pull it out (thus increasing the chances of damaging it), and storing it. WHO DOES THIS??? As one commenter said, however, should clothes that are tried on be considered used? This is interesting question. Of course, many of us would greatly prefer clothes that have never been worn. But there is really no way to please both the store and the customer. Stores can't be discounting clothes that have been tried on. If there was economically more efficient way to improve this, I'm sure stores would do it that way. You have to draw the line somewhere. If you agree that selling opened games as new, and selling clothes that tried on are new also, then what's stopping stores from selling opened milk? Oh thats different you may argue, but it's essentially the same thing. The line has to be drawn somewhere, and it shouldn't be drawn at sealed or unsealed games.

Let's take a look at the reasons why a store may want to sell opened games..

It curbs stealing to a point
Haven't read their policy, but it may prevent returns.

That's about it!

Opening games and selling as "new" is time consuming and pointless!

A sure fired way to prevent stealing would be to store all new and sealed games behind counter, and just keep one box copy on shelf. If you're worried about keeping stock, you can easily make a chart, it's still far less time consuming than gutting games and replacing it after.

It is also pretty shady that they open the games because it prevents you from returning it as new, and from selling it on ebay, for instance.

What's stopping them from giving you a used game in a new box??

Perhaps I'm just angry at them because I'm pissed that i received a Wii unsealed and the sports game missing. But you have to agree there has to be alterior motives than their excuse that it prevents stealing. BS!