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Why is there hate for a cash down preorder?

Hilti92

Member
Seriously, in almost every thread about the PS4 or XBONE, there is people questioning why people preorder from GameStop or else where that charges you a bit of money upfront or whatever? Why the hate for that? Sure, you may be giving companies like that a cash advance or whatever but that helps give people jobs with the company. Don't complain about the economy if you don't want to help it. Also, it is nice gradually paying for shit. I go in to GameStop and throw down $10 or $20 every pay cheque towards my PS4. I don't want to have to put it into my bank account and accidentally spend it else where nor do I want to risk losing the cash if I hide it some place or carry it with me. So GAF, why is there so much hate for the preorder?
 
No idea, but given the choice, I'd always go with Amazon. No cash down required and everything comes right to my house.

What's not to love?
 
You make interest on money you haven't spent yet. When you give cash advances "just because" you are also giving away the interest on the money you would have made. You are essentially paying more for the same product.
 
I don't have any problems with cash down. Just get it out the way, and when release day comes just bring in the receipt and leave with your console.
 

ultrazilla

Member
No idea, but given the choice, I'd always go with Amazon. No cash down required and everything comes right to my house.

What's not to love?

This.

Did with PS4.

I've been burned by Gamestop and Toysrus putting cash down for a pre-order system/game and not getting it.
 

Ailike

Member
Just a rule in general is I don't give my money to anybody without getting something in return. Now.

I'll give them cash when I get 18.5% APR on that cash.
 

Khrno

Member
Because here in the UK you can pre-order anything from online retailers without paying anything up-front.
 

Sheroking

Member
I generally like to put money down because if I'm doing that, I know I have the money.

May not be the case in months.
 
Yeah, i'll just start slapping down £20 on a "deposit" that i don't need to pay given every man and his dog retailer wise that isn't Game does it for free. Not to mention you're best waiting until nearer the time to decide which one you're going to buy as it's almost always cheaper with etailers than Game.

Shopto already has the PS4 @ £335 AFAIK - £15 cheaper than Game - or £35 if you add on the "deposit".
 

Stuart444

Member
Because here in the UK you can pre-order anything from online retailers without paying anything up-front.

I wish more sites were like Shopto personally. They are the only online gaming retailer I know of (in the UK) where you can pre-order something, and then pay it off at any time before release or when it's shipped out.

I sometimes impulse buy and being able to pre-pay for something means I don't have to worry about not having the money to buy it.
 

Rocky

Banned
No idea, but given the choice, I'd always go with Amazon. No cash down required and everything comes right to my house.

What's not to love?

This.

Did with PS4.

I've been burned by Gamestop and Toysrus putting cash down for a pre-order system/game and not getting it.

Me too. And with Amazon Prime, I get FREE release day delivery. So it will come right to door on launch day. No dealing with launch day crowds or anything.
 
You make interest on money you haven't spent yet. When you give cash advances "just because" you are also giving away the interest on the money you would have made. You are essentially paying more for the same product.

Let's be realistic. what kind of interest could someone possibly generate on $400 between now and november? The amount is so small and the timeframe so short that the "interest" argument is pointless. The convenience of being able to walk in the store and walk out on launch day without screwing around with money likely outweighs the pennies in interest he MIGHT get if he could find anyone offering it.
 

Slayven

Member
You make interest on money you haven't spent yet. When you give cash advances "just because" you are also giving away the interest on the money you would have made. You are essentially paying more for the same product.

What is the interest on 5 bucks times a couple of months going to buy me?
 

Hattori

Banned
It basically comes down to you giving money to gamestop interest free for weeks or months getting absolutely nothing in return, or preordering from amazon which does not require you to part with you money until they ship it. Which one of the two is more enticing should be quite obvious.
 

Grinchy

Banned
I wish my local grocery stores would do money-down preorders for food so I could help provide them with jobs.
 
Retailer "Can I have £15 for that game in August?"

Customer "No, you'll have to wait, it's not August yet"

Retailer "BUT I WANT IT NOWWWWW, NOT FAAAAAIR"

Customer "Geez okay *hands over money*"
 

NateDrake

Member
I don't have a problem with it as long as I get what I pre-ordered on the day of release. The money goes towards my purchase.

If GameStop asked for $5 just for the pre-order and I still had to pay $60 when I picked the game up, then I'd have an issue with it.
 

tokkun

Member
Let's be realistic. what kind of interest could someone possibly generate on $400 between now and november? The amount is so small and the timeframe so short that the "interest" argument is pointless. The convenience of being able to walk in the store and walk out on launch day without screwing around with money likely outweighs the pennies in interest he MIGHT get if he could find anyone offering it.

The gain on the DJIA over the last 6 months was 12%, so that's roughly $50 earned off a $400 investment.
 

casmith07

Member
I go with Amazon launch day in order to save time and avoid crowds.

Just waiting to see what games are launch day games to add to my PS4 preorder.
 

Carl

Member
In this kind of economy, you're having a laugh if you think i'm going to give a retailer £20 down towards a console. GAME especially. They've already folded once, and don't seem to be trying very hard to improve. I am not going to trust them with a deposit, especially when every online retailer will hold your preorder place with no money down whatsoever.

I'm not giving anyone any money until i get something in return for it. Besides, if i preorder online I can change my preorder at any time if a cheaper alternative comes up. Deposits are just a way to try and tie you to your preorder at a particular place.
 
Because you're crediting them for free. If Gamestop gets, for example, 200.000 next gen preorders they get a cool $20m free credit line they can use to fund their short term operation. If there are other options to preorder without putting a deposit, I don't see why someone should trap their money like that.
 

Omega

Banned
i dont mind putting money on a pre-order, but it's the requirements they have. Make it a $1 preorder. They make you put I think it's $10 or $25 on collector editions or systems and $5 standard. Even if that person doesn't buy it, that's still another system/game they can sell to someone else.

It would make sense if that determined who got their stuff first (in case it was a small shipment) but they just do first come first serve, so someone who paid off their system might not even get it on launch but the guy who paid $25 does.
 

dog$

Hates quality gaming
The convenience of being able to walk in the store and walk out on launch day without screwing around with money
is not worth spending the money now and having nothing to show for it until that day.

Moreover, as already stated - a few pennies of interest is negligible to me, sure.

A few pennies of interest from all of us isn't collectively negligible in the hands of Gamestop.

Through preorders, Gamestop and its ilk are literally earning money for nothing. Is there any wonder that they all are so desperate to have yours?
 
You? Not much. GameStop? Plenty. Considering it's actually millions of dollars worth of pre-order deposits.

Exactly. They earn heaps from interest off the money they hold from people without parting with any stock. Given the number of release consoles you can make a case for it, but putting money on a game that you could just pick up anywhere on release makes no sense.
 

Hilti92

Member
You? Not much. GameStop? Plenty. Considering it's actually millions of dollars worth of pre-order deposits.

Exactly. They get more money back for holding onto it then I would. What will I get if I hold onto it for a few months? Maybe $5-$10. They can get more I am guessing which will help give hours to sales associates.
 

Quasar

Member
You make interest on money you haven't spent yet. When you give cash advances "just because" you are also giving away the interest on the money you would have made. You are essentially paying more for the same product.

Though really when I'm putting 10$ down on a PS4 pre-order I can't say I'm that concerned about the amount of interest generated.
 

patchday

Member
I like putting cash down so I do not risk my wife spending it. I already have an investment account where interest accrues. Only bad part is that I did give $$ to gamestop. Wasnt aware I could've went to BestBuy. Not sure what its like preordering a console from them though
 

Jockel

Member
Well it makes it more of a pain in the ass to cancel your preorder. Imagine paying full 60$ for Aliens CM and later finding out that the game is going to be horrible. In Germany for example there's no law preventing sellers from not issuing a refund. So you couldn't back out of the deal.
 
The gain on the DJIA over the last 6 months was 12%, so that's roughly $50 earned off a $400 investment.

This ignores the fact that it costs money to trade stock, even on places like Etrade- as well as the assumption that he has it all at once (he doesn't, he has 20 bucks a week or so).

He would lose more than he would gain in that scenario.
 
I think preordering in general isn't wise.
Who buys something before they know what they'll get.

Look at the many, many (they certainly are in the majority) games that get hyped 6 months before release here and then turn out to be big steaming turds.
It's a big set up for buyer's remorse and takes the onus away from developers to polish their game and make it good.
Their sales are frontloaded they don't rely as much on initial impressions and word of mouth to snowball sales like they used to.

That in turn spawns bigger and bigger marketing budgets and games are more designed around hyping people from footage rather than gameplay.
...Which then spirals overall budgets and risks out of control.

You are feeding and perpetuating this broken ass AAA model by pre ordering.

Think twice before you preorder a game, the days of games being sold out are long gone.
 
I can't remember the last time I preordered a non LE game. I can't remember the last time I wasn't able to buy the game I wanted on release day. We don't have the heavy supply limits we used to, and in the super rare chances that it does happen, most games are day 1 digital.
 

Hilti92

Member
I think preordering in general isn't wise.
Who buys something before they know what they'll get.

Look at the many, many (they certainly are in the majority) games that get hyped 6 months before release here and then turn out to be big steaming turds.
It's a big set up for buyer's remorse and takes the onus away from developers to polish their game and make it good.
Their sales are frontloaded they don't rely as much on initial impressions and word of mouth to snowball sales like they used to.

That in turn spawns bigger and bigger marketing budgets and games are more designed around hyping people from footage rather than gameplay.
...Which then spirals overall budgets and risks out of control.

You are feeding and perpetuating this broken ass AAA model by pre ordering.

Think twice before you preorder a game, the days of games being sold out are long gone.

Fire Emblem says hello.
 
Let's be realistic. what kind of interest could someone possibly generate on $400 between now and november? The amount is so small and the timeframe so short that the "interest" argument is pointless. The convenience of being able to walk in the store and walk out on launch day without screwing around with money likely outweighs the pennies in interest he MIGHT get if he could find anyone offering it.

Different ways of seeing things I guess? You probably never pick up coins on the street because who cares right? Fumbling for money is really not an issue for me since I pay everything with a credit card when allowed and I haven't paid 1cent of interest in 15 years. I also don't have to worry about not having enough money because I don't spend it all on little things that add up.
 
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