Report: GAME bought 3DS stock from Tesco to resell as pre-owned

@Dalrint Violating ethics is wrong though. The upside though is that buying used from GAME basically means you're getting a new 3DS for less money, which isn't a bad deal.

@DrDrew Pinsky
No it doesn't, it actually means you'll be buying used at full price from GAME. According to the memo, the stores are supposed to hold onto the "used" 3DS systems until it's out of stock everywhere. Then they're going to sell the systems that they got at a discount for full price because there is a demand for the system. They aren't planning on selling the "used" systems at a discount.

@Dalrint

Actually that could be construed as intentional fraud and they could be sued by any seller they did this to for using a discount under false pretences and then returning the game for a full refund. It would be one thing if they sold the games as used too, but they are refunding them.

@3dpenguin

That isn't correct.

Fraud is a concept in tort (contract) law. In tort law, fraud has two components: 1) intentional deceit, and 2) unfair profit at another's expense.

First of all, who was deceived? Tesco? They sold the products for a discounted price, and GAME employees bought the products for this. That contract was perfectly above board. Then, the GAME employees sold their 3DSs to GAME, who chose to give them the exact price they paid at Tesco. Again, perfectly above board. Third, GAME is going to sell these units at an elevated market price, should there be a shortage of product. Those who buy these "used" 3DSs for more than they were new are doing so knowing fully well the MSRP.

Since no one is being deceived, there is no fraud.

Now where GAME "might" get into trouble is their distribution contract with Nintendo. Nintendo will want their hardware to remain available in retail channels at affordable prices. No products, no money. I wouldn't be surprised if this violated several aspects of their distribution contract, which could mean GAME will /only/ be selling used 3DSs soon . . . :)

Oh, and I still think GAME are dicks for doing this.

@Dalrint

GAME occasionally has offers that can be exploited in much the same 'legal, but perhaps not ethical' manner and are obliged to abide by the terms and conditions they themselves set.

The run-up to the last DS launch was a good example of GAME opening themselves to such dubious tactics within the market. They offered a £2.50 trade-in value (Policy was read differently dependent on store manager) for ANY DS game to bolster the amount of pre-owned software they had to offer.

Needless to say there's an awful lot of already pre-owned software available for less than that, and reports came in that people racked up quite a bit on their loyalty cards before it was all over.

I suppose GAME are just as open to legally playing the market any way the can as much as your average budding consumer is. For much the same reason.

@PointlessPuppies

I believe the key point is that Tesco is selling it on sale. They are essentially flipping it at their own store as stock for GAME's profit.

@PointlessPuppies They bought them at a discounted price from Tesco, sold it to themselves used at the same discounted price, and then intended to sell the them used for the same as the retail price of a new unit due to the high demand.

@PointlessPuppies
Stores get more money from pre-owned stock all of it in fact although maybe not on hardware. Which why they shouldn't be be allowed to do this.

@MLC
Gamespot IS bad. When you open up a game just for the sake of using it for advertisment, allow the box to get beaten up and the game to sit in a drawer for who knows how long getting possible scratches and dings and then sell it as new, that's the definition of shady. Then there's the buying up of rare or small print run games to have a monopoly on it in their area they're basically doing the same thing.

@PN04

You know the only way to avoid that is to have all of the games behind glass cases like they do at Wal-Mart, right? How annoying would it be to have to get the attention of a worker every time you wanted to pick out a game? And then if everybody was trying to get their attention it would take 30 minutes just to get your game out of the case and it would just completely slow down the entire store since there's usually only 2 or 3 people working at a time. So unless you can find a better solution to the problem, stop complaining.

@Ospov You already do have to get the attention of a worker to get a game. Because they're in the big cabinet behind them. And you have to ask for it. Plus you have to wait while they put the game back in the case. You just get a shitty beat up box for your trouble.

There are two solutions. There is the CD store solution, which is to put a thingy on the bottom of the case removed at the counter. This is used in CD stores which sell games a lot more lately, and some other stores do it now as well.. There is also the jewelry store approach, where the games are either lined up on the walls or in a glass case, and the employees are behind the case. I've seen both used successfully, and my favorite game store in the world - they had a huge variety of stuff, including really rare stuff and really old stuff - used the jewelry store solution.

The Gamestop solution is inefficient, isn't significantly more secure than other solutions and the consumer doesn't benefit. Don't know why you defend it. Or, well, shop there.

@Ospov The problem is more that just because they're willing to repackage a display case and sell it as new, who is to say they don't do that for trade-ins of newer games?

Also Amazon usually gives out good deals on new games and does excellent pre-order shipping, so there's really no good reason to shop at a POS like Gamestop in the first place.

@Ospov

Or...

You could get blank DVD boxes and print out the labels to put in them while keeping the actual $60 game case sealed. Not that difficult to imagine...

@MLC Gamestop is bad. I hear they run puppy mills as well.

@Breakdown I remember the days of Funcoland/Early Gamestop where they did just that. There was ONE display box, and new games were kept behind the glass case at all times. Now there's that policy where every new game(aside from perhaps games they just got in that week) are opened, and then the game sits in a paper sleeve getting light scratches. What I didn't like about this model was that the guy who gave me Phantasy Star Portable 2 used the wall box to sell me the game for full price, and then just opened another one to put another empty box on the wall. There's a DLC code in there that allows for online play, and you cannot get one if you buy the game used(or someone steals the DLC card from the box). I wonder if people will be stealing in-box DLC cards next.

@MLC

Gamestop also let's employees check out those display games a week after they released. I bought a "new" copy of chrono trigger that had a 40 hour save file on it! That isn't new, it's used. I've also had the employee at the register refuse to return my "new" game because it was opened! Problem is I bought it that way ... Still had the "new $59.99" sticker on the front and I made the clerk write that it was already opened on the reciept! I just asked for the number of the district manager. He called the store 5 minutes later and told the punk kid to return it ... It wiped that smart ass grin off his face. Since that day I absolutely refused to buy a new game from Gamestop that was a display box / employee check out copy. Those games should be sold as used. If it's been opened and played or just opened it's no longer new.

@Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell
I wouldn't be surprised if it was that same punk kid who made the 40 hour save file in the first place.

I will never understand why anybody shops at GameStop. For new games there's absolutely no shortage of places to buy from and for used games online used game sites (obviously NOT GameStop's) are far cheaper and ensures more money goes to the person selling the game rather than the store making the transaction.

@SynthOno

I'm not really defending it (although it may have seemed like I was), but I am sick of people complaining about it all the time. I know most of their complaints are completely valid, but that doesn't mean I want to read about it every day. As a lot of other people pointed out: if you don't like it, then don't shop there. Pretty simple.

@TCJJ
What they're doing is gaining a profit for selling the discounted game systems at a higher price than the discount price of the unit at the other store. If they got it for 209, they can then sell it for 225, still less than the 250 price (or the euro equivolent) and while they might make only a small profit on these "used" systems they're also depleting the stock of their competitor and making them look like the place to go for the system as well as the games that customers would no doubt want with it.

@PN04 I REALLY hate it when people state the obvious. I'm not THAT dumb. I get it.

Yeah those suckers that pay new prices for new systems but think that they are used systems.

@(Unverified) Capitalism is a filthy business. They are all as bad as each other. Some maybe more than others but they all have dirty hands.

@Lekko That was meant to be a reply to PointlessPuppies.

@spin cycle

That is not really the same though. There isn't anything shady about that. They are just buying stock from another store.