GameStop tests Classic Console & Games Program

[MJMaranan]

IGN Article

I am somewhat into this since most retro-game stores available in Washington are too far from my house and most Goodwill stores are already fresh out of the games they receive.  Main reason that I'm not is how jacked-up would their prices be on the games once this becomes a nationwide program.  Thoughts to share on this?

[desocietas]

hmm very interesting. my bf (who works at gs) had told me about the PS2s being accepted back a few months ago, and we started wondering what GS has in mind.  I'm curious how profitable this will be for them, but having the product be accessible through web or web-in-store only makes sense, but it'd suck to not see the product in person.

The mark up in price is definitely the part I'll be wondering about, considering what they did with Xenoblade on Wii.

[fighterpilot562]

Finally!

[seberhusky]

They had all these stuff to begin with, and they took it away because it was "obsolete" and "outdated" and "uncool"....

Why are they bringing it back now? Did it take them that long to realize that people still play old games? 

[tafk]

I could do one of two things

1. They charge FMV from like VGPC or directly under, this causes all other stores to charge FMV and the grouping as a whole becomes cheaper, this is good for some things due to finding games as a whole for cheaper but you would never have amazing "Finds" again because people would sell to gamestop and there would be a constant market to compare prices to.

2. Resellers buy up everything from gamestop and continue selling at higher prices on ebay, the program flops and the bubble just gets even bigger

[argyle]

Was kinda shocked to see that Birmingham, AL is one of the test markets - that's about 1.5 hours north of me. Once it gets going I may have to ride up there one Sat. & see what they have. I think this is very good for those of us that don't have a lot of retro game stores in the area. Of course I wouldn't recommend trading anything into them, but non-collectors will just to get rid of it. Since GS typically sells well below ebay rates on most of their used games, it may end up making them a good source for older games.

Since I'm mainly a disk-based collector tho, I worry about how many of those will be traded in complete.

[abe]

I feel like this could end really poorly. As tafk mentioned already, their prices are either going to be too high or they'll be low enough that resellers will buy anything of value and they'll just end up with a bunch of shitty old games in stock nobody wants.

As much as I want to like this, I'm worried collecting old games could be made even more mainstream by this and prices could potentially go up even higher than they are now.

That being said, more local sources for old games isn't terrible either I suppose...

[kashell]

Was kinda shocked to see that Birmingham, AL is one of the test markets - that's about 1.5 hours north of me. Once it gets going I may have to ride up there one Sat. & see what they have. I think this is very good for those of us that don't have a lot of retro game stores in the area. Of course I wouldn't recommend trading anything into them, but non-collectors will just to get rid of it. Since GS typically sells well below ebay rates on most of their used games, it may end up making them a good source for older games.

Since I'm mainly a disk-based collector tho, I worry about how many of those will be traded in complete.

Birmingham is (somewhat) near me, as well. If anything, it'll be an excuse to visit since I've never been to Alabama. I can check another state off the list. XD

Of course, I'd still want to check out the goods and see this program face to face.

[devancowan]

I would love to see this catch on and move its way up to Canada. Where I live retro game stores are far and few between.
I don't know how they're going to do this because there is already very limited shelf space with all the skylanders and amiibos

[bloodybaron]

I really don't care either way.  It's a struggle to find any good deals on anything anymore because it is so popular so I don't think Gamestop will change this.  Resellers are resellers and as long as people online will pay top dollar they will always be running around picking up anything remotely good.  Just keep hunting for your treasures and if there is something you really want then buy it online and then resell it online so you got to play it for free.  It has gotten to the point where old games just mainly rotate between collectors with much less finding going on.

[foxhack]

Wait a sec.

Haven't they tried this before, and everything was ridiculously overpriced, with trade-in values being absolute garbage?

[rayne315]

How I see this going is that gamestop is going to pay people trash prices for trade ins and jack them up raising the overall price for each item then after a while they are just going to throw away what does not sell and common games will start to become harder to find but the rare games that everyone wants they are going to hoard in mass (for months without selling any) to intentionally raise the prices then dump them onto the market for a ridiculous markup.

[tafk]

You people who can test it out please report back, if this gains traction and seems like it may kill the market I may just bite the bullet on a few grails and buy em on eBay ASAP.

[burningdoom]

I'm quite excited and I REALLY hope it catches on in the test areas.

Not all of us have the best access to classic games locally. I'm betting a lot of people on here get their games much more frequently through online means, like myself. To be able to go to a store and browse through physical games would be fantastic! And I might be able to do something with those sports games or other bad games that I can't even seem to be able to trade away in bulk. (We do have a place called Video Exchange around here that does that, but she religiously follows eBay prices, and if she does that, what's the point? I can find a better selection on eBay.)

I wonder if anyone at GameStop Corporate at this point is thinking, "Gee, I wonder why we stopped doing that to begin with." lol. When they first took over FuncoLand, they kept selling their classic stock and took classic trade-ins for a couple years.

[gf78]

I've known this was coming for some time since my buddy is a Gamestop store manager.

The reason for this move is quite simple.  The future is inevitably in digitally delivered content.  I hate it, I hate it, I hate it.  But it doesn't change the fact.  More and more, games are released as download-only and pre-paid cards are taking shelf space.  Hell, the retail releases now are barebones for the most part, with toilet-tissue thick inserts, no manuals and those cheesy recycle cases with holes cut out all through them like a slice of swiss cheese. 

In order for Gamestop to not only survive this change and (they hope) thrive, they are going to move into the "retro" market.  Your new games will be purchased online or through a pre-paid card in store and physical games will be old stuff.  Guarantee this is where this move is coming from.