GameStop to Offer Classic Consoles and Games

[TDIRunner]

Thoughts?

http://m.ign.com/articles/2015/04/15/gamestop-to-offer-classic-consoles-and-games

[banisher]

I like the idea, at least a store that will charge more reasonable with some sort of return policy. 

[CMDLineKing]

People who INVEST in retro games should be scared..  Gamestop will drive a lot of the pricing.  And you can almost bet they will be LOW for a while, then adjusted over time.  Should definitely shake up the environment over the "pricecharting" site.  The nice part might be some new interest in Retro games over all which will help create a more fluid market, vs. the stagnant one you see right now.  Might actually find more games at more yardsales!

[TDIRunner]

Might actually find more games at more yardsales!

On the flilpside though, I'm afraid that many people who don't know any better will assume that any old video game will be worth a boat load.  You'll see people asking $30 for Mario/Duck Hunt because it's "old."

[cojack16]

People who INVEST in retro games should be scared..  Gamestop will drive a lot of the pricing.  And you can almost bet they will be LOW for a while, then adjusted over time.  Should definitely shake up the environment over the "pricecharting" site.  The nice part might be some new interest in Retro games over all which will help create a more fluid market, vs. the stagnant one you see right now.  Might actually find more games at more yardsales!

Really? I feel the opposite and eventually there would be a lot less old games at flea markets

[palmer6strings]

I'm going to stress that this is NOT a good idea.
There is going to be pros and cons to this subject but the cons deffinitly outweigh the pros.

Pros:
• It could help settle the game market and make some of the common overpriced things more affordable.
• You may be able to find that game you've been looking to purchase outside of eBay.
... That's about it.

Cons:
• The thrill of the hunt will become nonexistant due to everyone selling their shit to gamestop instead.
• It will drive up the price of cheap games.
• Those expensive games will most likely still be expensive. Just like any other retro store, they will go off of eBay.
• It will put smaller "BETTER" retro stores/resellers out of business. (And yes, I will say it. I search for old games at sales and flee markets and if I can turn a profit on it I will. And honestly, everyone on here pretty much does the same thing through trades, just to sell, or to collect.)
• It's going to make a big business that likes to rape you for your money even bigger to rape you for more money. Who wants that?

[wiggy]

Nobody's gonna trade their old games in at GameStop.  This idea is DOA.

[gam3rz3r0]

The only people I see trading in any retro games are people desperate for immediate cash.

[FritzWhite]

The only people I see trading in any retro games are people desperate for immediate cash.

Nobody's gonna trade their old games in at GameStop.  This idea is DOA.

There are lots of desperate people. As late to the party as they are, everyone knows who Gamestop is. I bet you'd be blown away to see how much good stuff people bring to them and how little they'll take for it. Besides wanting cash now, most people don't want to hassle with selling something themselves and will gladly take it to a store like this to take the work out of it for them, even at a huge loss. It seems stupid to those of us that are more in tune with market value, but people do it all the time. Gamestop's used games business is a huge part of their revenue because many folks will take pennies on the dollar for their stuff.

[ZX the Hedgehog]

There's actually a local chain store in my home town that actually caused my local Gamestop to close down, simply as they sold retro games as well as new ones (to be fair, they did also have better trade-in values too, but the retro market takes up most of the store). Many other buisnesses  are popping up like this nowadays, and it's putting a lot of stress on the smaller Gamestop locations. If Gamestop is selling older consoles, it is likely to cash in on the growing retro gaming market instead of the declining new consoles, which you have to admit is declining to PCs as of recently due to lower costs and most games coming out for both PCs and consoles.

[CMDLineKing]

Might actually find more games at more yardsales!

On the flipside though, I'm afraid that many people who don't know any better will assume that any old video game will be worth a boat load.  You'll see people asking $30 for Mario/Duck Hunt because it's "old."

People already do that.  If nothing else, it will normalize pricing in a lot of cases because they can look it up on gamestop, or see how much gamestop is asking for it.  Now, it gamestops pricing is CRAZY high, that will suck.  If it's not... Great!

People who INVEST in retro games should be scared..  Gamestop will drive a lot of the pricing.  And you can almost bet they will be LOW for a while, then adjusted over time.  Should definitely shake up the environment over the "pricecharting" site.  The nice part might be some new interest in Retro games over all which will help create a more fluid market, vs. the stagnant one you see right now.  Might actually find more games at more yardsales!

Really? I feel the opposite and eventually there would be a lot less old games at flea markets

Why? Right now you have just a few game shops and some e-bay markets for older games. Basically, it's in the hands of a very limited market.  Once you expand that out to Gamestop, you're going to have a lot more people who purchase and play these older titles.  Do you think they will be willing to sell them back to Gamestop in most cases?  I'd wager they'll try to sell them on their own first, so Craigslist, Yard Sales and flea markets should at least see a jump in some people selling.  I can't even count how many times I've seen people post stuff for sale because they have buyers remorse after playing it for a few weeks, well past the 7day return at Gamestop and they aren't willing to take 1/10th of what they just paid gamestop for them to take their merchandise back.

Nobody's gonna trade their old games in at GameStop.  This idea is DOA.

You'd be shocked how many people still try to..  I was in one the other day and someone walked in with a Sega Genesis and a Super Nintendo and they turned them away. Happens even MORE often with Gamecube and XBOX stuff.

I don't know if this will be good or bad overall, but it should at least shake stuff up a little, which won't be a bad thing, all my local shops have some CRAZY high pricing so they will feel this the most, I have a feeling that most decent retroshops won't have any issues, but the price gougers will suffer.

[larryinc64]

Nobody's gonna trade their old games in at GameStop.  This idea is DOA.

I've run into people attempting to sell their retro games to Gamestop. I got a sweet $40 bag of stuff from someone who was trying to sell NES, N64, NGC and PS2 games, I scored a Mario Party 3, Kirby 64, and all of this stuff ---> http://s419.photobucket.com/user/larryinc64/media/1-28-15_zps91a73336.jpg.html?sort=3&o=35

Though I've seen FYEs trying to sell retro games, and they never have a good assortment.

Might actually find more games at more yardsales!

On the flilpside though, I'm afraid that many people who don't know any better will assume that any old video game will be worth a boat load.  You'll see people asking $30 for Mario/Duck Hunt because it's "old."

I brought my GBA SP into High School one, and some other kids thought it was worth a ton of money, they were disappointed when I said it was worth around $30~. The pennys some people will get for stuff I feel will piss some people off.

[tiktektak]

This will never work.

I can see GS offering you 5 bucks for your N64 or 2 bucks for a NES or 10 for a GC and reselling it for 50, 80 and so on.

They are just douchebags and will always be some.

[wiggy]

This will never work.

I can see GS offering you 5 bucks for your N64 or 2 bucks for a NES or 10 for a GC and reselling it for 50, 80 and so on.

They are just douchebags and will always be some.

This.

There are two types of people who have old games sitting around; people who "know what they're worth", and people who think nothing of them. The former will sell em on CL or eBay 99% of the time, while the rest will only part with them when they decide tha they're taking up too much space in the closet. Those might end up at GS, or they may end up on CL or eBay as well.

Seriously. This won't take off. Not at all. I'd bet the farm on it.

[Arseen]

What I really also fear is that they will fuck up the packaging either by misshandling/storing badly or outright throw them away.