Do you buy used games from GameStop?

I'm happy to save a few bucks on a game. I couldn't care less whether it's got a stupid GameStop sticker on the case. As long as the case isn't dirty or broken and the booklet is included, used is as good as new as far as I'm concerned.

Never. And I never sell used games back. I've sold used consoles back when they had a promo that made it worthwhile to upgrade to a new one tho, but I felt REALLY icky about it =)

If it is substantial savings, I will.  But I am like you that artwork and all is important and stickers all over the place is not cool.  However, a tip to get those off without leaving residue and such.... a hairdryer.  Apply the hot air to the sticker, wait a few minutes and while the air is blowing on the sticker, carefully lift up one end and slowly peel away (while the hot air is blowing on the sticker.. very important).  I've had it fail a couple of times but 99% of the time it will work without leaving residue.  Once the sticker is removed, using the sticker you removed, tap on the case with it to remove any last residue left behind.

 

I found that is the best technique as fluild (alcohol, acetone, etc) scars the plastic.

I buy used and new, but it depends on the game.

For new games, I typically buy a game that I JUST CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT the moment it comes out. Recent examples would be ICO/Shadow Collection (though I did get it on a Best Buy sale, using gift certs, that got refunded by accident so the game cost like $1) and Uncharted 3 (super disappointment).

For all other games, I will wait to buy used. I've gone and gotten a dozen games for $100 used by waiting for a GameStop B2G1 sale and using my membership thing for an additional 10% off. If the difference is just a couple bucks then it won't matter, but when the only copies of a game I can find are either $40 new or $15 used (and yes, this happens often) then I am absolutely going to buy used.

The stickers on the case don't bother me. I have a lot, LOT, of games and don't look at them all that often. (They are in a shelving unit of sorts that is behind my couch in my oddly-laid-out living room.) Additionally, the ability to buy more games or save money is totally worth dealing with a minor eye sore.

The way I see it, I am likely to buy games that are cheaper over games that are new. If you want to use the argument of the money going to the developers, well then buying a game that is old and at a lower price doesn't really help them all that much more than buying the game used. DLC or "first owner" benefits (online passes, passing game data like in Rock Band or Dance Central, etc.) is a good way for companies to combat this and, frankly, I'm all for it. That said, few games or franchises are so near and dear or important to me that I'm going to say, "You know what? That free suit of armor is really worth buying a brand new copy." Heck, I rarely play games online AT ALL so the online pass thing doesn't even impact me.

A service like Steam is excellent primarily because it's convenient and there are always sales going on. XBLA and PSN are very good but I feel the prices are sometimes too high for the "big" games and the quality too low for the "small" games.

I look at games a lot like how I look at movies. I rarely go to a movie theater because I'm too cheap. Instead I have Netflix (on my PS3, 360, Wii, Kindle Fire, 3DS, computer, etc.) and just wait a few months to get a movie for "free" (as in, for the cost of the monthly Netflix fee instead of the cost of a ticket, rental, or actual purchase). Now sure, I go to the movies for either the big movie events or because I'm going with someone, but honestly I have seen fewer than 5 movies in theater through the last 2 or 3 years.

All of this said, I do not pirate movies or games. I'd rather buy a game legally and used for $10 than pirate it.

It depends.  Usually their used games are only $5 cheaper than new.  For that difference I usually spring for new to get the manual, and original case and packaging.

Sometimes you have no choice. This is especially the case with DS and Wii titles. I could only find Zack and Wiki for the wii as a used copy. The same for picross for the DS. A number of titles go OOP and the used market is the only way to enjoy these games.

Gamestop, I believe is headed for the toilet anyway. Their UK counterpart, GAME is on life support. Gamestop has far more used copies of games than new. They're really not interested in being in the new game business.

Too many unsavory things about the way gamestop does business. Attempting to sell me an opened copy as new. If I return a new game I bought from them that I opened but didn't play, would they return me my full purchase price? Hell, no, but they don't seem to get its exactly the same thing when they open a game box. That game is now used. I'm not paying new prices for used, opened, whatever.

Also, when the 3ds was still relatively new, I witnessed a gamestop employee gutting brand new 3ds games and putting used stickers on them. I guess the idea was to get the ball rolling on used sales, who knows. That shows you how badly they want their used game business to thrive.

They do have one good policy (I used to work there myself and was not a fan of the way they ran their promotions) -- you can return used games within 1 week for a full refund (might be store credit; I don't recall for sure). Basically a free rental test.

That is really bizarre. Could they have been used games that were sent to the store re-shrinkwrapped from the distribution center?

I live in Canada. I'm unaware of the policy you describe for used games here.

The games that were gutted were individual copies of about 10 different games. The manuals were all in mint condition. When I visited another gamestop outlet, they had the same exact titles out as pre-owned games. Same thing, all in mint condition, absolutely no evidence whatsoever that these games had ever been previously owned.

Hey Morgan, without giving away any spoilers, what was the disappointment with Uncharted 3? 

 

I'm only asking because I am just starting to play it and have pretty much stayed spoiler free, so I don't know what to expect.  I am just starting chapter 7, and so far it seems like it has been extremely light on the combat vs. the first two.  By this point in the first two there had been several major gun battles, and so far I have only had 1. 
 

 

Regarding Uncharted 3, it was basically that everything was just not as good as the second one (combat controls, combat scenarios, variability in difficulty, the story, the enemies, the use of the side characters) and the only things that did improve (graphics, epicness of setpiece moments) didn't add to the experience. Honestly, there are so many "run away while the ____ crumbles behind/below you" sequences that like 2/3 through the game I just got bored of them and kind of annoyed. It's really unfortunate because Uncharted 2 is one of my favorite games of all time, but this was a letdown. Also, the cheats that could be unlocked in the first two games for single player mode are now only available in the multiplayer modes, which basically destroyed any motivation I had to replay it since I have zero interest in online multiplayer.

NOTE: The aiming controls for the single player mode were changed in a post-release patch. I beat the game before that so I haven't tried it out.

EDIT: I saw this article and the guy in it says pretty much what I feel: http://www.gamespot.com/news/blocking-used-games-unfair-saber-interactive-ceo-6350057
Edited by Morgan Jolley - 2/9/12 at 2:59pm

I'm wondering now if maybe those were the display boxes. They usually open one copy of every game to put the box on the shelf, but as far as I know they still sell that copy as new. Maybe under Canadian law they're required to mark those copies as used.

I've been reading up on news regarding the PS Vita and noticed how wildly different the prices are for games, both in store and downloadable (which is a 10% discount from the store prices). You know what, I think this is excellent. They're pricing games according to their probable value, meaning a bigger budget game like Uncharted is more than a smaller game like Escape Plan. I really hope this happens on consoles, too. It's probably the easiest way to combat used games sales: lower the initial price of the game and guarantee more money in the publisher's pocket.

Not all ps vita games are discounted on the psn store. Only Sony, Ubisoft and Askys are currently doing discounting. EA, Sega and Capcom are charging full retail price. Escape Plan is $14.99, Super Stardust Delta is $9.99 but the dlc is pricey at $7.99. The upcoming Mutant Blobs from Space will be $7.99 and will release next Tuesday, Feb. 21st. Hustle Kings will also be releasing on the 21st and is twofer deal. Buy either the vita or ps3 version and you get the other version free. If you already own Hustle Kings for the ps3, then the vita version is a free download. Hustle Kings is one of two titles allowing for online crossplay between vita and ps3 owners. The other is Wipeout 2048.

ROFL waffles;
http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/2/21/2802111/how-selling-used-games-marks-you-as-a-potential-criminal

That's actually a really good article. Thanks for sharing!

I've seen that before. I guess its the tradeoff between selling a game yourself on craigslist or ebay versus having a vendor do it for you.

I buy used and new, but it depends on the game.

I do both. But I seldom buy a game when it is brand new, i.e. just released. I wait and buy it a few months after the initial release, either new or used, when the price comes down. That works well for me since I don't live in the States. When I am in the States, I check out the prices of games that I want at different stores (and on Amazon). If the price is good, I buy. If not, I can wait for my next trip to the States. I've learned to be a very patient person

How's your net speeds in Honduras these days Frank? Can you get broadband at a fair price or still struggling for dial up speeds?

Sam, I haven't had dial up internet in years. We get broadband at a decent price through our cable company. Just checked my download speed. Right now it's early Sunday morning & I'm getting 4.87mbs. I'm suppose to get 5mbs. Sometimes our internet goes out for awhile, but when it works, which is most of the time, it's pretty quick.

I've had few problems being able to play Uncharted on-line (except being killed all the time. I'm not very good at point and shoots, but I enjoy trying )

Very interesting thanks Frank. Like most Americans I have not much clue what conditions are like outside of here, I would have guessed Honduras was a little further behind than what you report.

The reason I ask is because I wonder how well the transition to day 1 downloads will play in countries like yours. I expect simultaneous releases to ramp up on the next generation of consoles but I have been happy with how much they downloads are almost universally available on day 1 for the PC.

As a PC gamer I will never ever buy a disk based game again.

As a Vita gamer I will never buy a card based game unless it's under $5 and the download is not. I got the one game in my special edition and haven't even taken the plastic off it!

As an Apple gamer, well we never had physical media to worry about. =)

I REALLY hope that this trend moves to consoles in 2013. It's time.

That probably won't stick a fork in Gamestop right away but the writing is on the wall that it's coming. Look how short a time it took digital to kill film.

Wow. You sure are trusting that
A. You will always have internet access so you can play your game
B. Big brother doesn't suddenly decide your copy is illegal.
C. Big brother doesn't lose your licenses.
D. Big brother doesn't go out of business making all your downloaded games unplayable.

I would always choose a physical disc over download assuming that the game has disc based copy protection. If it requires internet to big brother then might as well download it.

I do have several Steam based games but I would prefer to go back to physical copies and no internet based copy protection.

I have a library of over 250 steam games, 4 Origin (EA sucks) and a handful of GOG, Impulse, GMG and whatever else games.

It's not a trust thing any more. It's just the way things are.

I don't do pc games anymore, so I've never downloaded any. But, I have bought and downloaded games from the Playstation Store. As far as I can tell, I can get anything that I want the day it is available in the States. My account is registered as a U.S. account so maybe that is why. I'm not sure what kind of account Hondurans (and central americans) who do not have U.S. credit cards accounts are registered as. I suspect they get what we get when it is available.

I buy new from Amazon only for the most part. I never sell back games because I never know when I may want to go back and play it again. I hate Gamestop although they do have some console trade-in deals at times that make it worth it. I have 250+ Xbox 360 Games, 50+ Wii Games, 50+ DS Games. I'm a video game nut even in my 40's... :)