Back to the 1st idea (starting a store/chain)...I was also 1/2-thinking about a "Sale & Re-sale" 'Window'...
...Something to the effect of entering into an agreement w/ the producers, (I guess) where it would eliminate the GS practice of displaying a used game, right next to the same new game; for, say, $1 - $5 less than the new one.
Maybe something like a 3 - 6 month 'window' before I'd start re-selling the newest games?
A window might work. I wouldn't push it as far as 6-months, however. With the sheer volume of new titles released in this day and age you have to consider the actual time period of demand for different titles. Games like the newest CoD will likely only have a heavy demand cycle that lasts about 3 months. If you really want to play the newest CoD, you're more than likely going to pre-order it or pick it up in the first 2 months of release. I would say the same thing goes for RPGs. More times than not, people are either anticipating the release and are prepared to pick it up at launch, or they will find out about it within the first few months of the games release date. I honestly think that a 1-month window should be sufficient. It gives you time to sell your new titles to people in the know, and it gives those people the time they need to complete a game before returning it. I think that one of GS's biggest used game fiascoes is the fact that they'll take a used game in on the day it's released. That totally screws the publishers/developers and, if a game is garbage, keeps them from getting rid of their new inventory.
Regarding the 2nd idea - would it be legal/any conflict of interest for a company to be selling both new & used copies of their own games simultaneously?
I don't know for sure, but I highly doubt it. The biggest issue I'm imagining is that the publishers more than likely have an agreement with the developers of the game. If the publishers have contracts in place (like the developers get a percentage of new game sales, etc) then you could run into some issues getting the developers any profits from used games sales. Contract law is pretty crazy sometimes, something you are going to need to educate yourself on before getting into any of this (especially if you end up signing contracts with game companies).
Is the technology there to, say, by scanning a bar-code when selling a used game...for the agreed-upon amount to be automatically forwarded to the relevant party...or would that part still need an accounting/book-keeping person to deal with?
I would image that you'll need something beyond a typical PoS system to pull this off. Also, imagine how many times a year you would have to update the system to accommodate new releases/new games that come into your store that were not on the initial inventory list? It sounds like a nightmare to me. Now, does that mean that you have to pay someone $80k/year to do all of your finances? No. If you implement a system that requires the input of the developer/publisher from day 1, it shouldn't be too difficult to keep track of everything. Hell, you could probably do a little Excel programming/pivot tables and get everything in some type of orderly fashion. You could set it all up to output a weekly/monthly run of all of your transactions separated out by whatever criteria you wished and go from there. You would need all of the data (price you paid/sold, the percentage you were wanting to pay the developer/publisher, etc etc etc). Not difficult at all, but will require constant easy maintenance as you add new titles, developers/publishers etc).
I've also considered 'older' used games where the makers of the game may no longer exist; however, *someone* still retains the rights to those properties & would be happy for (even very small) residual profits versus none; right?
Meh, you can probably figure out who owns the rights to the older games, but I don't know that it would be worth the effort to pay anyone for anything that's not current gen. Honestly, if the company has moved on, who cares?
Lastly...does anyone have any idea concerning who the right people/positions would be to approach (in any of the companies) concerning something like this?
Would the "idea" be something that I'd have to worry about presenting to any of these companies for fear of them just proceeding to take my idea(s), cut me out, and do the same thing w/o me...is there any way to (pre)-protect myself w/ things like this?
Unfortunately you're more than likely going to have to sit in front of a board of directors or something similar with the big guys. I would focus more on the smaller companies from the get-go. You'll need to prove that you can pull this all off before you're even going to raise an eyebrow of an executive from a company like EA. You might have some luck with a company like Ignition or Atlus? I don't know. You'll have to put in some serious research either way.
As far as someone stealing your idea, you'll need to have an attorney write up a NDA (non-disclosure agreement) and make whoever you speak to sign the agreement before talking about it with them. That way, if someone does try to steal the idea, you'll be in the clear. Once you get everything up and running you can protect yourself with a patent or something similar (trademark the name of your proprietary inventory system, obtain a patent license for your idea, etc).
