Buying "Used Games" Disguised as "New" (1 Viewer)

[Alanna]

There's a real irritating trend that's emerged recently, and that is stores that try to sell used games as new. With the holiday season, the practice was running rampant.

A friend went to Toys R Us to buy Prince of Persia and Lord of the Rings for the Gamecube. When he got the games home he noticed they didn't look "factory sealed" with the nice folds on the tops of the plastic. POP was covered in fingerprints and minor scratches and has locked up on him a couple of times. Lord of the Rings had a minor scratch. My boyfriend tried buying a couple of games for me at EB, but when they started removing discs from the paper slips to put into the case he told them he didn't want them - and bought them at Target instead.

Once a game has been removed from the original plastic and handled by someone - whether it be a store employee or a previous owner, the game is no longer NEW. I believe it should be sold as USED and at a marked discount. At EB atleast you can SEE them "getting the game for you" but Toys R Us's practice of selling the games re-shrink wrapped is just downright awful I think. The Gamecube is especially easy to do this with because there are no stickers on the cases like the PS2 has (on the top) or Xbox (on the side). These have to be slit to get the game out and then its totally noticeable that the game has been previously tampered with. The Gamecube with no sticker is easy to reshrink and sell as NEW without the store employees batting an eye. I don't think this practice is acceptable because if I'm paying $50 for a game I want it untouched by all human hands, in pristine condition...

What does everyone else think about this?

 

[Kyle McKnight]

The stores don't hide the fact. If you don't want it, don't buy it.

*full disclosure - I work at GameStop

Having said that, I still don't buy games unless they're factory sealed.

 

[Alanna]

I've never had a problem with Gamestop, which is where I buy games almost exclusively now and my bi monthly Chobits purchase. Toys R Us does hide the fact. They pretend the games are new. They pulled them out of the case like they were new. EB you can see them doing it... even if they don't mention it.

 

[Steve Y]

You'll find this is a highly controversial topic here on the HTF. Although we do have several members who work in establishments that regularly price technically "pre-owned" or "used" games as brand-new, there are also large pockets of users who strongly support this practice because it keeps return policies somewhat liberal. (many of the members here are gamers who like to utilize the return systems to the full extent)

You will find there are "collector" camps who want their games never-before-opened ("new" is "new"), and there are those who simply want the games to work, whether they've been previously owned or not. These conversations generally degrade into philosophical "tree falling in the forest" discussions about what constitutes "new" -- if you don't know someone owned it (if you hadn't seen that pesky thumbprint) and the game works, have you in fact been the victim of bad business? And isn't it morally questionable on some level, even if it isn't illegal? (and that is a whole OTHER discussion)..

I've found most of the population here, or at least the most 'vocal' population on this topic, tends to support pre-owned games being sold for a new price.

Good luck, heh!

~s

 

[Jeff Adkins]

If the game and packaging are in mint condition then I don't really care one way or the other. What I object to is having price tags on the case or there are scratches on the disc. Once you take the shrinkwrap and those annoying stickers off the case it's the same thing to me as long as the end result is a game and packaging in mint condition. I refuse however to buy a game with price tags on the case. They never look new even after the tags come off.

Jeff

 

[Leo_P]

I see it this way: Let's say you just bought a "new" car. What you don't know is that it was driven for 1,000 miles but then the odometer was reset. The car looks great, runs great but it is NOT new. But you don't know that. Is that alright?
For me, when I open up a NEW game, the last person to have touched it BETTER be the person at the printing press or wherever they make games. If that game was opened AFTER it left the manufacturer's and BEFORE I get it, it's USED. No two ways about it, sorry.

 

[Shawn Perron]

I feel that the retailer should be held to the same standard as the customer. Most retailers consider software that has been opened by the customer differently then unopened software. If the retailer will not give you a full refund for opened software, then they should not be able to sell you opened software as new. Seems fair enough.

 

[MattBu]

Oh don't they? Unless they are telling you FLAT out "This game has been returned" they are hiding the fact. I bought a game from your establishment, and it was sold to me as new, yet it locks up all the time and when I got it, I knew it had OBVIOUSLY been reshrinkwrapped. The fact that it locks up let me know why it'd been returned there previously. I have since boiled this game twice in an attempt to stop the lockups, but I will be returning it to Gamestop tomorrow. Do you think that they should resell this game as new, knowing that it's been returned as twice?

 

[Kyle McKnight]

Matt, where is a GameStop that allows you to return opened software?

 

[Alanna]

If your game doesn't have the nice "factory sealed folds" then its most likely been reshrink wrapped.

MattBu: Did the case still have the stickers intact? (no slitting) or were you the unfortunate victim of Gamecube games which have no stickers even when brand new?

 

[JamesH]

I don't see why the lack of seal stickers on GC games even matters, any store shrinkwrap is so different from the factory shrinkwrap that you'd have to have only bought very few new games to not immediately notice. I NEVER pay full price for a not factory sealed game. The major offenders seem to be EB and Gamestop, who have rip-off prices to begin with. If I'm paying $49.99-$57.99 for a new game, it better NEW. By keeping up with the deals at websites like cheapassgamer.com new releases can usually be had for $30-$40 anyway.

 

[Alanna]

Alot of people don't notice the shrinkwrap though. They just tear open their game in blissful ignorance. heh. That's why the stickers matter. I only paid full price for a non factory sealed game once = day one release of Xenosaga. It was the last game in the store at EB and none of the other places in my area had it. So I watched them handle my "new" disc and put it in the case and paid the $49.99 for it. Never again though. Not that there was a problem with the game but the case had that "display only" sticker on it and for some reason so did the manual (!?) I didn't see this until after I had the game home and was too lazy (or maybe wanted to play it too badly) to return it.

 

[MattBu]

Englewood, Colorado. I can't guarantee that someone said "I don't like this game, can I have another?" But I CAN guarantee that this was not factory shrink wrapping.

It was the kind of shrink wrapping with puckered corners, it wasn't cellophane. There were no stickers on the box whatsoever.

 

[Kyle McKnight]

Not being factory shrink wrapped, and being a used/returned game being sold as new, are two different things. Like I said, I work for GameStop, and I side with you on the issue. I don't buy unless it's factory shrink wrapped either.

Ok, now something weird...the last batch of Halo for Xbox that we got, were not wrapped at all. 12 discs. Weird.

 

[Jeff Adkins]

 

[Jerry Almeida]

Really? I've purchase 2 new cars for myself and 2 for my wife, none of those has ever had more than 15-20 miles (Usually under 10). I wouldn't be happy with a "new" car that had over 100 miles on it. I'd probably ask for another one. This is just coming from my experience though.

Back to the topic at hand. I want my "new" purchases to really be new, that means not previously opened and repackaged in my opinion. The fact that it plays the same isn't the point. Technically I could sell you a game that's years old and would "play" the same as a brand new one, but I don't think most people would want to pay full price for the used one.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

When I worked at EB, we made a point to always inform the customer when selling the last copy of a game (removed from the display box). We'd always hold up the disc to show the customer that it was in pristine condition.

At the time, they still had the policy where you could return any game for full trade-in credit within a week or two. They don't have that any more? I don't think I ever even took advantage of that (of course, I buy pretty much all my games used anyway).

 

[Alanna]

I love taking off the shrinkwrap of just DVDs... and for a video game its extra sweet probably because of the price hike. Picking those security stickers off with my nails... no better feeling in the world. =) I rarely, VERY rarely buy used games... the last two I bought were Dragon Force for the Sega Saturn back in like 98 and more recently Silver for Dreamcast in 2002. I doubt I'd ever buy used games again (unless its for an obsolete system) because my Silver game was totally screwed up as I found out almost a year later when I tried to play it and it kept locking up about four/five hours into the game. Oh well there's nothing like the smell of a brand new game (except the XBox ones, they stink for some reason - must be that green plastic).

 

[Tony Whalen]

The last new car I bought had about 50 km on it. (About 31 miles)

The original analogy is flawed though.

It would be more appropriate to look at it like this.

You buy a "new" car, only to find out that it was a lease-return and the dealer rolled back the odometer. (You thought it had 17 miles on it. It actually had 25017.)

Now, on-topic, I've yet to have this happen with a game. But I buy 90% of my XBox games at FutureShop...unlike EB and other game shops, they don't sell used stuff, so it isn't an issue.

I *DID* have this happen to me once at BlockBuster (yet another reason to not shop there) with a DVD. Girl didn't even MENTION anything. She just went to a drawer to get out a disk and put it in the case.

"Excuse me, but I wanted a new copy" says I.

"Oh, it's the only copy we have." she responds, glassy eyed.

I just look at her. "Keep it" I say.

Had I not been looking... grrrr.

 

[Jeff Adkins]

OK, well to each his/her own. I don't see what is so fun about ripping off the shrinkwrap. And those stickers?? Ahh, I hate those!

Jeff