More like Gameslop! amiright?!?!1

I was in my local Gamestop looking for a copy of Uncharted (original… which I didn’t find), and I  thought I’d browse around the store and see what else was cooking.  After winding my way through stacks of Rockband boxes, PS2 bargain bins and “pre-order NOW!” displays, I found myself looking at the desolate PC games section.  We all know that gamestop still stocks PC games so they can sell mountains of World of Warcrafts as the expansion packs come out, but they usually have at least 1 copy of other major titles.  I guess it’s just habit at this point, if a PC game and worth anything… it’s on steam.

There are lots of things that piss me off about Gamestop.  The only reason to shop there is the convenience of the locations and being able to walk in, dodge a few pre-order offers and walk out.  I will not buy a used game if I can find it new.  Anyways…

While browsing through the PC game section I came across a gutted Collectors Edition of the original release of Lord of the Rings Online.  Gutted!  This is one of the worst Gamestop practices.  They take a new game, remove the contents, put it on the shelf for everyone to handle, and then if it’s the last copy of that particular title, they take the display box, put the stuff back in and sell it to you as new.  Their justification is: “It still has the same guarantees as if it was new, and you can still return it if you have this little sticker seal on it.”  Stupid.  Absolutely ridiculous.  If you find a game like this, chances are it’s the last copy they have and has been on the store shelf for months (if not years) being handled by every greasy high school kid and sticky fingered toddler (I know because I’ve taken mine there) around.  Remember that EVERY video game box on the shelf of gamestop is a NEW game… even though it is not sealed and the disc is stuffed away somewhere behind the counters.

My original point is this.  What is the point of picking up a collectors edition of a game if you can’t collect it!?  For some people those collectors edition bonuses are not enough and these collectors just want to collect the game.  The Lord of the Rings collectors edition is beautiful comes with some pretty cool stuff and believe it or not, is still played today after a couple expansions.  I imagine the collector’s edition is also pretty hard to find now days.  A SEALED collector’s edition of the original World of Warcraft sells for upwards of $1000 right now on ebay.  I know this is a different case than the Lord of the Rings game, but the idea is the same.

One more example before I stop this rant.  I went into Gamestop to pick up a very niche Persona 4 for the Playstation 2.  Since this game was just barely released and such a niche title, of course they only had 1 copy and of course, the empty box of that copy was up for display in the dirty PS2 section of the store.  Being that Persona 4 is such a hard to find game (aside from the internetz) I gave in to the dark side, purchased the last “new” copy and went on my way.  Note that the terrible Gamestop pricing sticker was also stuck directly to the case.  Fast forward a few months.  I’m back in Gamestop looking for the Curious George PS2 game for my 2 year old.  What do I find?  Another Persona 4 game box up on the shelf being passed off as new.

Stupid.