In today's blog, I will talk about my personal experience on purchasing new games and old games, the pro's and con's and what I highly suggest/recommend people do.
I love to play video games. I have almost every current video gaming system: PSP, PS3, XBOX 360 & Wii.
I cant say that I am a hardcore gamer who owns a gaming chair with huge sub-woofers and Video Gaming glasses to make it look like virtural reality, but I like to play every now and then. With that being said, I had an experience this past weekend that merrits talking about it.
I tend to shop at GameStop. I have been there for years, multiple locations around NY and two in the NJ area when I was working there. The people who work there for the most part know what they are doing and have yet to give me a bad recomendation on what game to get for which system. Recently, I had an issue with 2 particular locations that annoyed the hell out of me.
I had purchased in one of the locations 2 used games: Metal Gear Solid 4 for the PS3 and the New Super Mario for the Wii. I bought them and kept my receipt and went home. I didnt think anything about it cause I had purchase from that place before and never had any issues. about a month passed and i was in the mood of playing games again so I started playing the Metal Gear game and been enjoying it until i got to one part of the game that always froze. Couldnt understand why, until i looked under the game and saw a scratch on it. No matter what I did to fix it, it would still freeze at that point. So I got annoyed and decided to play the Super Mario game on the Wii and it would not load at all, so when I looked under the game, it was more scratched up than the other one. I was extremely annoyed and I couldnt do much about it cause I had tossed the receipt out weeks ago. This got me to think ... if they were able to sell me something that didnt work, that means they would buy it back. So I took a chance of not saying anything and going to the GS where I had purchased the games. The guy was surprised that i was selling such new games and I was like "I finished them already" so he nodded, took down my info and purchased my games back. The funny part of this whole situation was he DID look and saw the scratches under the games, and still took them anyway.
I am all about saving some money, so if I want to get a game without breaking the bank, I would go to a play like GameStop or Electronics Boutique, go to the pre-owned section and look through the games. You can save from 5 dollars to almost 25 dollars depending on the game and whether or not it is still in its original case with the manuals, as opposed to buying a $50 game (give or take a few). Thats the good thing, now here is the bad thing.
When purchasing a pre-owned game, you tend to run the risk the game might be damaged. The bad thing about that is, you will never know it until you get home. The reason for this is that nowadays, the stores who buy back the games dont really care. Sure they buy the games back and make you fill out something confirming you are selling them the games, but what they dont do is check the games to ensure they work. They just enter it onto the computer, print out a new price tag stating it is a used game and put it up on display. All it takes for a game is to have a scratch in just the right spot for it to freeze up when you are playing.
Then you have these "geniuses" behind the counter who are having you pay for your used games, put it in a bag for you, hand you the receipt and then you head home getting ready to play the game, you open the case only to realize they forgot to put the game into the case, and then you have to rush right back to get the game.
As far as I am concerned, it is a hit or miss situation. For the longest, I've had the best experiences in getting used games but lately most places dont care anymore so if you want to avoid the hassel and frustration, I recommend purchasing the games either in the store brand new in its shrink wrap paper, or if you can wait a little longer, look online for the best deals for new games. I normally find great deals with Amazon.com for brand new games. Walmart is also a good place to go in person to get new games. As far as eBay is concern, I use it a few times but if you arent comfortable using eBay to get things like that, you are better off not doing so.
Enjoy todays tip.
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