Ironic because Gamestop's purchase of Funcoland is what ended the market here.

Screw Gamestop; I'll never buy games from them, again. After that whole balogne they pulled with... I forget which game it was, but essentially a game was released, which came with a free copy of the preceding game... or a voucher to get a copy of the preceding game, and they opened each box and removed it, then resealed the boxes and sold them without the free game/voucher, obviously for profit reasons. BS! Screw Gamestop!

I have several retro consoles, but I'll absolutely sell them, privately rather than to a franchise who will give me next to nothing for them.

Logistics wrote:

Screw Gamestop; I'll never buy games from them, again. After that whole balogne they pulled with... I forget which game it was, but essentially a game was released, which came with a free copy of the preceding game... or a voucher to get a copy of the preceding game, and they opened each box and removed it, then resealed the boxes and sold them without the free game/voucher, obviously for profit reasons. BS! Screw Gamestop!

They've actually done this with a number of games 😵 - they open lots of the things they sell, and generally remove or lose any sort of vouchers or paperwork that should otherwise be in the package. I think the specific story you're remembering was probably Deus Ex: Human Revolution, where they deliberately removed download codes from every retail package before sale.

As far as I know they do not attempt to re-seal the packaging though. IME they will tape the boxes back shut, but its very obvious they've been tampered with. Now that you mention this though, I'm curious if Microsoft's sticker-sealing (with a barcoded sticker) of Xbox One games is potentially a response to this practice; to guarantee that customers know if the packaging has been opened.

I buy used games from Gamestop occasionally. Sometimes they have some really cheap deals. I got into 360 and PS3 fairly recently so have been scavenging. They actually shipped a 99 cent copy of Too Human from another store for me. 🤣

I'm also a former customer of Impulse, which is now Gamestop.

Around here in thrilling northeast WI, retro gaming stores fold or just barely persist. Almost all are gone now. Some had been around for 20 years or more. I don't see this helping Gamestop much in my area.

I have the impression from the article that it will strictly be an online thing, which makes sense, as it would seem absurd to consume valuable floor space with something with such limited appeal.

Jorpho wrote:

I have the impression from the article that it will strictly be an online thing, which makes sense, as it would seem absurd to consume valuable floor space with something with such limited appeal.

Limited appeal? What rock have you been under for the past few years? Retro is huge, at least here in the United States it is.

Compared to the number of people buying and playing new games, yes, I would consider the number of people interested in buying and playing older stuff to be limited. I suppose consoles like the RetroN 5 are a thing, but offhand I barely know where I would buy one hereabouts.

I have nothing to back this up but I'd agree with Jorpho, the number of people playing older stuff is probably limited, and the number of those people who are willing to pay for retro games (as apposed to downloading ROMS, etc) is probably even more limited still.

I'd back it up with the fact that all of my local stores that sold old consoles, games and accessories have folded. 😁 I also think Gamestop may be somewhat doomed because consoles are going to online downloads as PCs have. This retro thing may just be desperate diversification. They have also expanded into refurbished tablets and phones.

IF I had to guess most brick and mortar retro stores closed to focus on selling on ebay or the net in general.

If I can get some decent Dreamcast games for actually GOOD prices, not overpriced ebay garbage, then sure. But I doubt that's ever gonna happen, they probably just wanna get stuff for cheap and resale it for stupidly high ebay prices 😒

I used to like Funcoland/etc back when they had massive quantities of NES and Genesis games for sale. It was almost heaven. That was a long time ago. The last Genesis game I saw in a modern Gamestop was some sports title for 49 cents. It was all they had left.
I made a few shopping trips for N64 games and hardware, but that was the end of it for me.

Gamestop long ago left the retro market behind, and that group of customers has forgotten and dismissed them from our shopping habits. I think they're going to find it difficult to make retro customers aware that they stock anything we'd want to buy. I have a feeling this experiment might come and go without most potential customers even knowing it happened.

I recently was given a Gamestop gift card and didn't even know what to do with the thing. I nearly traded it online for cash. Ultimately I found exactly 1 modern game on their site that I was willing to buy and which didn't require an in-store transaction. Putting old games back on the site would be a nice improvement for me, but I still doubt I'd shop there.

They need a system like FuncoLand used to have on their web site, where you can place an order for a game that they don't actually have. They'd take the order for a stated price and then contact you when one of their stores acquires a copy.
They could also benefit from having a really good refurbishing capability, such that people associate their hardware as being better than typical 2nd hand stuff you'd get on eBay. I doubt they will do this well enough to set themselves apart though.

swaaye wrote:

I also think Gamestop may be somewhat doomed because consoles are going to online downloads as PCs have. This retro thing may just be desperate diversification. They have also expanded into refurbished tablets and phones.

Awesome - sounds like they're going to be the next Radio Shack.

I don't see this as working too well, most Gamestop patrons I come across are too busy talking about the latest Halo or Gears of War to really give a crap about some 10-20-30-40 year old game console. Plus, one of our local ones (Montlake Terrace to be exact) had some NES stuff the last time I came in there 3 years ago so this feels like it's nothing new. Unless they start carrying Atari stuff.

If I felt I was in a prime location and a realistic prospect, I would love to start a full-on retro-computer/gaming shop were we would rebuild/repair/resell vintage hardware and software + vintage game systems and related periphery (including CRT monitors and TVs). The world needs more beige and woodgrain IMHO.

Like someone mentioned before, Gamestop has to do something if they want to still be in business 5 years from now. Downloads are becoming the norm and whether we like it or not, some form of preventing used games from playing is coming. Microsoft backed away from it this time, but I wouldn't count on them backing away next time. If games are tied to consoles and hard copies of games are going away, that pretty much guts Gamestop's business model.