Best Buy testing price matching of used games

I knew that there was still some bastion of hope left in Best Buy. I hope this tests well and they launch it store-wide sometime this holiday. It'll be nice to pay a used price for something and get, I dunno, the intructions AND case with the game when I buy it!

GameStop, pfft.More like LameStop.

Oh yeah, I went there.

i think gamestop's "used" prices are ridiculous, there should be a standard that used games have to be 10-15 dollars cheaper.

i hate gamestop and never shop there. i have no real illusions about bestbuy being anything but a ruthless chainstore, but they aren't a terrible choice when looking for something electronics/gaming in a brick and mortar store. as long as you go in educated.
either way, more competition is better for the consumer, and i'd much rather pay $5-10 less AND support the developers than support gamestop. This might even make me not shop online for my games (used or new) if it goes nationwide.
it seems like such a plan must have the support of the publishers. i just wonder how the money works out on the back end. who is taking the hit? best buy? the publisher? my guess would be best buy is taking most of it, hoping to make it up on the shopper buying more principle.
finally, on the matter of how would it work, i would always expect them to put the burden on the customer. so show up with a printed price from gamestop or whatever (from the website or sunday ad), or be prepared to call from the store...

This is awesome! Where's the local test??

I love it! Go best buy!!

This is just loss leading. Remember back in the 80's and 90's when there were music stores you could go to and buy used copies of music albums as well as new music? Those stores were everywhere until BestBuy started selling all new releases at prices lower than what the store actually paid for them.

The value for Best Buy is that you are already in the store so any other electronic purchases you were planning on making are that much easier to make. The extra, and less mentioned value is that stores like Gamestop, or any other mom & pop shops in your neighborhood aren't getting your business anymore. Eventually those stores are going to go where stores like Tower Records, The Wiz, and Circuit City all went and the only place left to go will be Best Buy.

Once they have no competition, do you think they'll still have lower prices?

Down with Gamestop! Illegal re-packaging, desperate attempts to sell pre,orders and subscriptions to lol Game Informer, staff too busy texting friends to serve customers, ill-informed and untrained staff, rediculous trade-in values, trying to charge tax on psn cards when Best Buy doesn't-- I could go on-but ALL of us have experienced one of these. Nuthin' but a pawn shop with red shirts. Same crackhead staff though.

Seems there's always a cheaper new copy than a used GameStop copy if you look hard enough, but having a retail store that would match it? That works too!

I work at Best Buy, so I get the discount as it stands (the discount is 5% over cost, FYI, but on video games is sucks hardcore).

Stores don't make much money, if any on video games. For instance, with the discount we get, it's only like, 5-10 bucks off of the retail price.

So, this price matching thing is not a profit thing.
Instead, it's to get customers in the door. Just like grocery stores actually lose money on selling milk... they do it to get people to come into the store, and potentially buy other things.
Most people think that retail is universally you charge the customer double what you payed to get the product in the store. For most mom-and-pop stores, that's the case. However, bigger stores flux their pricing. Going back to Best Buy again... we make almost no money on computers sold, we make almost no money on video games. However... cables... you pay like, 35 bucks for a cable, the store pays 5 bucks for it. Also, Best Buy makes a lot of money off of the services they offer.

I do not know why ppl do not buy their games from Newegg. Not only are their new releases normally $5-8 cheaper than retail, but most of the time they also offer free shipping on newly released games as well.

I'm down for this, for real. And, to be honest, I've actually bought some games CHEAPER brand new at Best Buy (mostly around the holidays) and Target (look around, look around. Target seems to almost always be clearing out some games, somewhere with red clearance tags. It may be store independent, though, like deals at only particular supermarkets of the same chain) than the same exact games used at Gamestop so this is kinda not quite new to me but if they are going to make this a year round, go hard type thing, I will completely abandon GS, then.


I have to admit, buying used PS3 games is not as bad as dealing with games on CDs since Blu-rays just don't seem to scratch unless u REALLY try to scratch them, unlike CDs. I also hate how GS puts the yellow USED barcode sticker on the binder of the actual cover sleeve and, sometimes, on the actual cover, not on the plastic. Trying to remove it only causes rippage to the sleeve/cover. Sucks. Won't miss that cuz I like my game binders to look like "new" when side by side on my shelf. Those yellow stickers mess up the look for me.

Hi there,

I did some checking to see what I could find out about this. It is indeed a valid offer, but also a local one, only available at the mentioned store. This is something this particular store decided on and got approved to run with. This means, at least for now, it won't be available to you unless you visit the West Jordan store.

Are you aware of what else is going on? I'm sure you've already heard, but in case you haven't: We are testing a kiosk in stores (currently in Texas markets) that accept trade-ins of old games and sells both new and old games. A trade-in would earn you an instant credit dispensed as a Best Buy gift card. They also have movie rentals. Read more about it on our CMO's blog at http://barryjudge.com/new-places-and-spaces-used-games-launch.

We're glad to see the positive feedback the community has to offer - you are being heard! If you have ideas on how to improve Best Buy, head over to bestbuyideax.com and let us know.


Cheers,

Jason
Community Analyst
Best Buy® Corporate
http://tinyurl.com/JasonBBY

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Susan

http://onlinemariogames.net

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Susan

http://onlinemariogames.net