Console selling bulls***

I recall you asking me about that before. It's for all sellers who have been registered for under 90 days, or who have less than 20 detailed seller ratings on their feedback (so even if you have 50 feedback and have been registered for under 90 days, but haven't had any DSRs left, the hold would still apply).

But if you use an older PayPal account with this new account, it would not apply; I registered a new account but don't have any holds applied since I use an older PayPal account that I had used with another seller account for a long time. Linking a new PayPal account to an established seller account should circumvent this restriction too.

 

I have quite the terrible memory - but that rings a bell now you have mentioned it

 

No, this is not strange, it is standard practice at these type of shops (atleast in the US) to note give quotes over the phone. They will make up any excuse to get you into the store with your stuff to try to stick it to you. If you know they'll only give you some shitty amount before heading to the pawn shop (although these places probably make pawn shops look bad) then you have more time to consider it and you can make your decision to not waste your time having taking your stuff over there.

While your theory may seem reasonable they could easily give an estimate for what they'd pay for a complete good condition unit versus an incomplete or poor condition one. But again, they won't do that, it's about getting suckers into the store to give them a few bucks for their property to resell to someone else for huge profit.

While it's true they have costs to deal with, I'm still not sympathetic to screwing over customers in the name of money.

The only thing you get at quite a loss of money to yourself is the ease of selling and not having to worry beyond that. But you can get that selling it yourself too just by selling an item "as-is" honestly.

 

Was this Retrogamer or Game Doctor? (Actually, is that awful Game Doctor joint even still open?)

 

I think Gamestop actually did tell me how much they'd give me for my 360 when I asked. I don't remember what they said, but I think it was in the same ballpark.

jp: I'm not in Hunstville at the moment (though I will be in couple days). It was this little place in Northport (just outside of Tuscaloosa) called Replays.

I kinda like Retro Gamer, except that they have ridiculous prices sometimes. Anything even slightly rare is always an absurd price, but more common stuff is usually pretty fairly priced. They often have some cheap handhelds; like GBC's and Game Gears for $15. That about the same or cheaper than what they go for on eBay. I've never heard of Game Doctor.

Replays is fine if you're buying things. Pretty much everything is the price you'd expect it to be, sometimes less. For example, all of their Genesis games are $4 each. They have a rather limited selection, though.

The best game store I've been to in Alabama is Play N' Trade in Bailey Cove. They have a huge selection, and often some pretty rare stuff, for decent prices.

 

I don't think offering you $60 is ridiculous at all. Yes, they sell it for $100 more, but that's after they've cleaned it, tested it and let it sit on the self until someone buys it instead of buying a brand new one for not a whole lot more with a warranty. They will give you cash, up front, with no hassling. Yes you could sell it yourself but it would take more time and more effort from you. You want money quick and easy, you gotta sacrifice something.

166% sure seems like a huge margin to you, but think about all of the times they bought a relatively new game from someone and tried to sell it for a much smaller margin only to have the price of that game drop everywhere else. Take something like Call of Duty for example. Someone brings in Black Ops to their store 6 months after release, they give him a fairly large amount for it and price it fairly high. They don't sell it that month and suddenly the price is dropped at retail stores in anticipation for MW3.

For every 166% markup, there's a 30% loss. They would not be in buisiness long by offering $120 for an item they sell for $160

 

You have to factor in the rest of their costs.

They're paying that derp derp to work there, paying rent, insurance, etc. It's not like paying $60 and selling for $61 is a profit, their "true cost per unit" is something well north of $60.

That said, it definitely isn't $160. They probably do worse than break-even on new game sales given the slim margin and their fixed costs, so they're climbing out of the hole and getting into the black by selling used games.

 

Yeah, Retrogamer is pretty cool, but I agree, they are psychotic about some of their prices if they so much as slightly believe something is rare (the owner was bragging to me about having Clockwork Knight 2 and selling it for $75 once).

Game Doctor is some garbage Game Stop wanna-be. They opened up this past year I think, but hopefully they are out of business by now. They were brought to you by the same losers than opened that garbage wanna-be Pei Wei place (Mei Wei).

 

They're just as guilty!

 

Cry me a fucking river. They can't expect to stay in business by swindling people out of $40 or $50. You have to be really stupid to sell your 360 for $60. Posting something on eBay only takes 30 minutes to an hour, if you're really meticulous about what you put on there. For that 30 minutes or so you're likely to get $40 or $50 more than what you'd get at this place.

I don't care what their reasons are. If they expect my business, then they have to have things that appeal to me. Only so many people are dumb enough to fall for that. They would appeal to a larger number of people if they didn't expect that their customers were dumb. I personally don't like being treated like I'm an idiot, or a sucker.

 

They must be appealing to plenty of people, else they would be out of business.

People who are capable of listing on ebay will, those that arent will sell there. Its clearly working for them, as they are still in business.

 

You are clearly easily offended. You are not an idiot or a sucker for taking the $60. You would get the same offer at a pawn shop, perhaps even less. That's what these businesses are based around, people that need quick cash and no hassle.

I work in the disability sector, we do buy wheelchairs and such from some clients. We don't give people very much for their items, usually less than some other dealers. You know what happens though? People will go to us, get a quote, go somewhere else that offers more and sell it there. 2 months later, the people that bought the chair will come to us because there were all kinds of things wrong with the chair and the dealer refused to fix it. Or they call us because the chair that they bought needs work down the road and they dealer doesn't have a service department. It happens here constantly and you know what else? 3 separate dealers like this have closed down in the last 4 years while we've been around for over 20.

I promise you, if they gave you $120 so you weren't getting "ripped off" they would be gone within a year.

Yes, it only takes 30mins to an hour to post on ebay, what is your time worth to you? What about an employer? If they are paying the clerk minimum wage (don't know what it is there, but where I am it $10/h) selling that 360 for $100 profit barely paid for the guy to be in the store that day. They would have to sell 5 of them at your prices just to cover one guy's wages! And what about the hassle of ebay, maybe the buyer disputes with paypal and they take your money back. Or it gets wrecked in shipping!

This is basic economics (and really common sense) there are always trade offs, in this case, lack of hassle on your part and the ability to instantly get your money means you pay a premium.

 

I just discovered a way around the eBay new seller holds. Once you receive payment, just refund it and ask them to send it back (just say that it was due to a " system error"). The payment hold should be gone. I have tried this twice and it worked both times.

 

Exactly. When I used to work at Computer Exchange we'd get so many people checking the online prices, but conveniently only noting down the highest price available and then kicking off when they visited the store and were informed they wouldn't be getting a good price on a scratched up phone locked to Orange.

Ultimately though, I'd have thought it was common knowledge that store trade in rates are pretty poor, especially for an original Xbox 360, as they are less desirable given that a newer model is available and will likely sit on the shelf devaluing for longer and probably break within whatever warranty period the store offers, without taking into account having to make money to cover rent, wages, bills and commission fees if the store is a franchise.

At the end of the day, you're under no obligation to sell and (another thing that a lot of customers don't seem to be able to grasp) they're under no obligation to buy.

 

Ah yes, the mom&pop game stores, what lovely memories of being ripoff by some smuck who used to have a video rental where he could scam people by charging for not rewinding the fucking tape

 

I don't see how that's a scam. It costs money to rewind tapes. They have to a) pay someone to do it b) use a tape rewinder which eventually will break down and need to be replaced c) leave it off the shelf until it is rewound which removes its potential to be rented out. This is standard business practice, if it costs money, you have to charge for it.

 

So you're the prick who wasted hours of my life because you didn't let the VCR rewind the tape at the end!

BRB, getting shovel, garbage bag and duct tape.

 

Actually, that's exactly how they'll stay in business. xD

 

Actually I always rewinded the fucking tape because the store charged me more for that than they did for renting the damn movie.

 

Uh, are you taking the piss? It takes 5 minutes max to rewind a tape, and that's on a particuarly shitty VHS player, No doubt the better stuff will be faster and why do you have to pay somebody to rewind the tape? Plug in a VHS at the till, and the person working the till can do it. You don't need a TV to rewind a tape.