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Xenoblade in stock at many Gamestops for $90. Was it reprinted? Who knows!

Lemstar

Member
Think about it, back when they did the mass trade in deal at $50, their price for used copies wasn't even near $90. That price change happened only very recently.
They've been increasing the price on used copies for months now. It was $75 (or maybe $80) for about a month, during one of their tradein promos for Xenoblade, before it got bumped up to $90.
 

bigace33

Member
I'm too poor to play this game I really want to

This is why I love the fact that Ninty put Earthbound out for digital release. It takes all the greedy sellers out of the way and allows all gamers to experience games at a decent price. Hopefully the same thing happens with Xenoblade.
 

borghe

Loves the Greater Toronto Area
A couple of things.

These aren't gutted. Mine even had the Nintendo flyer for Skyward Sword, Nintendo Club pamphlet, etc.

If it's a reprint, NINTENDO reprinted it, OR authorized GameStop (or whomever) to reprint it. They can't just print up more copies on their own, the same as you and I can't. This is where I did the reprint theory tough to swallow. If it were a reprint why a) promote skyward sword and put in Nintendo Club points and b) why STILL limit it then to GameStop.

My likely belief was GameStop knowing the print run would be small just set aside a few thousand copies at one point to put back out at a good price. Shady? Sure. But like I said.. No regrets. Sucky situation but given the situation as it is there isn't really a better alternative in the foreseeable future.
 

Eusis

Member
A couple of things.

These aren't gutted. Mine even had the Nintendo flyer for Skyward Sword, Nintendo Club pamphlet, etc.

If it's a reprint, NINTENDO reprinted it, OR authorized GameStop (or whomever) to reprint it. They can't just print up more copies on their own, the same as you and I can't. This is where I did the reprint theory tough to swallow. If it were a reprint why a) promote skyward sword and put in Nintendo Club points and b) why STILL limit it then to GameStop.

My likely belief was GameStop knowing the print run would be small just set aside a few thousand copies at one point to put back out at a good price. Shady? Sure. But like I said.. No regrets. Sucky situation but given the situation as it is there isn't really a better alternative in the foreseeable future.
People have found perfectly valid codes in other used games before, so it's not unreasonable that someone left everything in there then traded it in, not even redeeming the code. Plus there's still the angle of shuffling stock to stores where the game's actually likely to sell, and thus could be open copies from them gutted and put on shelves.
 

borghe

Loves the Greater Toronto Area
People have found perfectly valid codes in other used games before, so it's not unreasonable that someone left everything in there then traded it in, not even redeeming the code. Plus there's still the angle of shuffling stock to stores where the game's actually likely to sell, and thus could be open copies from them gutted and put on shelves.
All true. I mentioned earlier in the thread describing mine that it is for all intents and purpose new. There is absolutely not a single thing to indicate it was ever used. Disc is flawless and not resurfaced. Papers are unhandled. Easily the most pristine "random used copy" I've ever seen.
 

perorist

Unconfirmed Member
They've been increasing the price on used copies for months now. It was $75 (or maybe $80) for about a month, during one of their tradein promos for Xenoblade, before it got bumped up to $90.
Yes but that still falls in line with everything I said. When they have a large stock of a rare game like that they could test the waters with a price in the $70s, and if demand was there (it was - what limited stock they showed sold out immediately), they could continue the promotion and get rid of the rest of the copies at an even higher price.

I think everyone is also underestimating how uninformed the average customer is. Not everyone who bought Xenoblade is necessarily a core gamer/reads GAF or other forums where the rarity/price may have been mentioned. GS simply took the initiative at the best possible time, doing a mass buyback within 6 months of the game becoming $200 rare by sending out the promotional emails to every person who bought the game from them/on their mailing list.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Did they also do a mass buy back deal for used copies at near MSRP right before they did it? I'd like to see some actual evidence for even a single one of these "falling in line with every reprinted title they've sold in the past".

Think about it, back when they did the mass trade in deal at $50, their price for used copies wasn't even near $90. That price change happened only very recently. If they really wanted to take advantage of this pricing and were planning it, they would've have held onto all those copies bought at $50, wait until there's sufficient stock/trade-ins slow down, and then up the price to $90 before setting them all out at once for sale (which is most likely what you're seeing here). They wouldn't be buying at $50 and turning around putting them back on shelves at $60 or whatever the previous inflated price was.

Since GS is THE exclusive retailer for this game, Nintendo would be completely aware of this if it as well, wondering why newly shipped copies are still not showing up. An official reprint would most likely see stock coming back on Nintendo's store too.

You're all wearing tin foil hats I swear.

When the trade in deal was done used copies were already higher than $50. Maybe not $90-$100, but definitely above original MSRP. I think Gamestop's used price was even $60 or so at the time.

But otherwise I agree with you, the writing was on the wall that the price was going to keep going up. So Gamestop did their trade-in promotion which gave them some stock to sell later and it took copies off the market which would have helped raise the price more, even if only slightly.

They took a low risk gamble and it paid off.
 
Yeah, it's splitting hairs but it definitely sounds more like GameStop's got the worst staff of a retailer in your area rather than actually being THE worst retailer. Walmart's done so much to cheapen goods and treats their own employees like crap that they'll almost always be ahead for me there when it comes to retailers. If you hate things like holes in cases don't forget it's their push for lighter packaging that helped cause that.

Yeah, definitely Walmart has much more wide-reaching implications beyond just games, and those are more worldly as a result...though I totally forgot about Walmart's "HEY WE ONLY STOCK ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY GAMES." I remember picking up Wrath of the Lich King at a Wally World, and kind of freaking out because my copy was half the size of all my friends.

Give Gamestop another 20 years, and they'll have ruined the game industry, too! :p (I kid).

I do suppose this could be a case of withholding stock to release at the right time, but that's an AWFUL long time to hold your game in cold storage just to make a few extra bucks (I mean, yeah, it does drive traffic into the store, but would the average Xenoblade buyer be the average GameStop customer? I'm thinking no, because if those two sects crossed paths, there would have been no reason to make the game exclusive to their store)
 
A couple of things.

These aren't gutted. Mine even had the Nintendo flyer for Skyward Sword, Nintendo Club pamphlet, etc.

If it's a reprint, NINTENDO reprinted it, OR authorized GameStop (or whomever) to reprint it. They can't just print up more copies on their own, the same as you and I can't. This is where I did the reprint theory tough to swallow. If it were a reprint why a) promote skyward sword and put in Nintendo Club points and b) why STILL limit it then to GameStop.

My likely belief was GameStop knowing the print run would be small just set aside a few thousand copies at one point to put back out at a good price. Shady? Sure. But like I said.. No regrets. Sucky situation but given the situation as it is there isn't really a better alternative in the foreseeable future.

That's actually a good point. If Nintendo reprinted it, it would be on their store, or even in other retailers by now.

If Gamestop was authorized to reprint it, they wouldn't have Skyward Sword ads or Club Nintendo coins.
 
Not willing to pay 90 dollars for it. 60, sure, but I won't add to Gamestop money grabbing scheme. I'll rent it from Gamefly for 5 dollars a month or whatever.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Xenoblade is in stock -> Must be a reprint -> Fuck Gamestop


^GAF logic at its worst

There's not really any situation here where Gamestop is not the "bad guy." It's either a reprint they are selling as used for the stupid markup, or they collected a bunch of copies during that trade-in promotion and took advantage of people only to resell them for a 100% markup later. I think the latter is more likely, but it's not much less scummy and it's blatantly taking advantage of their customers.

Or the theory posted previously that they held back copies, but I doubt that even more and it's not any better.
 

borghe

Loves the Greater Toronto Area
K not a reprint. I'm reading other reports now of people finding/buying this less complete than mine. I called the two other stores that have it (only 3 of like 15ish in the city) and one already sold theirs but the other one said it was just the case, no manual.

So this does look to be from the $50 buy back. All three had their copies sent to them from the warehouse.

So yeah, not a reprint.

Edit - and on that note, kudos to the person who traded in my copy. Absolutely flawless!!! And some Nintendo points!!
 

dallow_bg

nods at old men
Welp.

I've been out and about in Dallas today and Gamestops are densely packed around here so I visited as many as I could just to look at these mysterious copies that suddenly appeared.

5 stores. 5 pristine opened copies, w/ all paperwork intact.
 
A couple of things.

These aren't gutted. Mine even had the Nintendo flyer for Skyward Sword, Nintendo Club pamphlet, etc.

If it's a reprint, NINTENDO reprinted it, OR authorized GameStop (or whomever) to reprint it. They can't just print up more copies on their own, the same as you and I can't. This is where I did the reprint theory tough to swallow. If it were a reprint why a) promote skyward sword and put in Nintendo Club points and b) why STILL limit it then to GameStop.

My likely belief was GameStop knowing the print run would be small just set aside a few thousand copies at one point to put back out at a good price. Shady? Sure. But like I said.. No regrets. Sucky situation but given the situation as it is there isn't really a better alternative in the foreseeable future.

That's what I'd guess. It sucks GameStop is doing it but it really wasn't hard to find this game for months.I don't know why there's such a big demand now.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Well.. I'm glad more people have a chance to play... Even if GameStop is or is not being shady.
 

Fox Mulder

Member
It's really fucking despicable that they suddenly get a ton of "used" copies to sell for $90. I don't see why anyone would even own Xenoblade in the first place to trade it in to GameStop without knowing the real value.

It's a shame Nintendo released the game like this in the first place. It should be no more expensive or harder to find than The Last Story or Pandoras Tower. Xseed just isn't a lazy cheap ass company like Nintendo.
 

rjc571

Banned
It's really fucking despicable that they suddenly get a ton of "used" copies to sell for $90. I don't see why anyone would even own Xenoblade in the first place to trade it in to GameStop without knowing the real value.

It's a shame Nintendo released the game like this in the first place. It should be no more expensive or harder to find than The Last Story or Pandoras Tower. Xseed just isn't a lazy cheap ass company like Nintendo.

Senran Kagura Burst being eShop exclusive says you're wrong.
 

baphomet

Member
It's either a reprint or a MASSIVE amount of new stock that GameStop have been sitting on for the past years. It's very likely the former.
 

cheststrongwell

my cake, fuck off
There's not really any situation here where Gamestop is not the "bad guy." It's either a reprint they are selling as used for the stupid markup, or they collected a bunch of copies during that trade-in promotion and took advantage of people only to resell them for a 100% markup later. I think the latter is more likely, but it's not much less scummy and it's blatantly taking advantage of their customers.

Or the theory posted previously that they held back copies, but I doubt that even more and it's not any better.

How does business work.
 

SMT

this show is not Breaking Bad why is it not Breaking Bad? it should be Breaking Bad dammit Breaking Bad
I got it for $40 like new from them 3 months ago.
 

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
It's either a reprint or a MASSIVE amount of new stock that GameStop have been sitting on for the past years. It's very likely the former.

The game was included in recent Gamestop trade-in promotions. It's not very unrealistic to think Gamestop got an influx of trade in copies and then distributed them.

And $90 is still cheaper than copies on Amazon go for.

There's plenty to hate about Gamestop, but I don't think this is one of them (unless someone can provide some proof that these are new copies Gamestop gutted). If anything, give the hate to Nintendo for not reprinting this themselves and letting the market get like this.
 

baphomet

Member
The game was included in recent Gamestop trade-in promotions. It's not very unrealistic to think Gamestop got an influx of trade in copies and then distributed them.

And $90 is still cheaper than copies on Amazon go for.

There's plenty to hate about Gamestop, but I don't think this is one of them (unless someone can provide some proof that these are new copies Gamestop gutted). If anything, give the hate to Nintendo for not reprinting this themselves and letting the market get like this.

My GameStop had 6 copies in pristine, untouched quality just now. They said they "came from a different store." I called two other stores in the general area each said they had numerous copies. The games had never been taken out of the case, they were literally brand new copies without the cellophane.
 
*hugs Euro copy he imported when it was released in there*

Fuck that, although I wish I bought The Last Story when it was like $8 or w/e on Amazon. I need to get TLS and Pandora in my collection lol.
 
The game was included in recent Gamestop trade-in promotions. It's not very unrealistic to think Gamestop got an influx of trade in copies and then distributed them.

This is probably what it is. I actually went out earlier today to the 2 gamestops near my house that had the game, and both had the disc only, no case or manual. The guys working there said they were recently traded in. And they still wanted $90 for just the disc.
 
You can run a business without screwing unsuspecting customers. I guess it's just a lot less profitable to do it that way.

The potential customers uninterested at $49.99 are now ultra-susceptible to dropping up to $90 on copies being offered as used? There will be plenty of other reasons for Gamestop pile on, though I cannot see how a true reprint could be facilitated without Nintendo. Warehouse holdouts being phased in with the heavily promoted buyback doesn't seem farfetched for the high amount of pristine (along with those who care for their toys) and the promo makes up the balance.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
The potential customers uninterested at $49.99 are now ultra-susceptible to dropping up to $90 on copies being offered as used? There will be plenty of other reasons for Gamestop pile on, though I cannot see how a true reprint could be facilitated without Nintendo. Warehouse holdouts being phased in with the heavily promoted buyback doesn't seem farfetched for the high amount of pristine (along with those who care for their toys) and the promo makes up the balance.

I meant the people they convinced to trade in their $70-$80 (and rising) game for $45. Selling the game for similar prices as individuals on Ebay or Amazon isn't a big deal.

Gamestop says "hey, the value on this game is going through the roof" so they run a promo and pick up a bunch of copies from unsuspecting customers, then resell them later at a 100% markup. How many of those people wouldn't have traded in their game if they had known what it was worth, and that the price was only rising?
 

SMT

this show is not Breaking Bad why is it not Breaking Bad? it should be Breaking Bad dammit Breaking Bad
With a promo code or something, it was $60 used there less than a year ago. I got metroid prime trilogy for $48 with a $25 off coupon last week.
The trilogy. We dont have them coupons up here in kanada.
 

madp

The Light of El Cantare
Gamestop are being total assholes for gouging the price like that, this isnt ebay.

They definitely have someone involved with setting used prices who also keeps an eye on the secondary market. Believe it or not, this isn't even the first time that GS has charged over retail on a rare game--back when the PS2 version of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was enormously in demand, it was $80 used.
 
This is why I love the fact that Ninty put Earthbound out for digital release. It takes all the greedy sellers out of the way and allows all gamers to experience games at a decent price. Hopefully the same thing happens with Xenoblade.

Do you understand economics? If the demand is there and supply is low, the price goes up. Always. If Nintendo printed more copies of Xenoblade (to match demand) and did not make it exclusive to Gamestop, would this thread even exist?
 

Eusis

Member
Edit - and on that note, kudos to the person who traded in my copy. Absolutely flawless!!! And some Nintendo points!!
They probably completely fucking hated the game after 5 minutes.

Or either never got around to playing and just took it back since they were offering the same price as for original sale, or it IS a new copy sitting around forever that they gutted and put on shelves, and you got your hands on it before random consumers could really muck it up. Either way you did get pretty lucky!
Do you understand economics? If the demand is there and supply is low, the price goes up. Always. If Nintendo printed more copies of Xenoblade (to match demand) and did not make it exclusive to Gamestop, would this thread even exist?
Not in the same form, either it'd be about GameStop being stupid and ignoring economic common sense, or they DO pay attention to that an instead it'd be how they got a bunch of new copies but gutted them anyway and sold them as used, just like they did with the actual reprints.
 
I meant the people they convinced to trade in their $70-$80 (and rising) game for $45. Selling the game for similar prices as individuals on Ebay or Amazon isn't a big deal.

Gamestop says "hey, the value on this game is going through the roof" so they run a promo and pick up a bunch of copies from unsuspecting customers, then resell them later at a 100% markup. How many of those people wouldn't have traded in their game if they had known what it was worth, and that the price was only rising?

I still can't even give them a hard time for the markup. Anyone jumping at that trade-in value was most likely not attached and probably thrilled to cash in. While still in print I would of course hammer them on this, but at this point had I not been sitting outside in my car at 9:50am like it was 1988 waiting to pick up my last minute pre-order, I would be all over that price in the right condition with some coupon stacking.

I just have a hard time begrudging the markup when it is still among the best offers out there for this title. Any less and the thread is about the scalpers flipping them.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Eh, there are plenty of copies on Ebay going for under $90, check out the "Sold Listings." Gamestop's price isn't really "low."
 

hlhbk

Member
I am kinda torn on this. I didn't have the $ to afford Xenoblade when it was released initially. I now have the $ to buy the $90 copy and several of the gamestops in Nashville have it. I however don't want to support Gamestop ripping off the consumer. What should I do GAF?
 

Coldsun

Banned
If they're reprints, I think Gamestop should be ashamed for selling them at $90.

If Gamestop sat on a ton early on, Gamestop should be ashamed. Its their job to be a retailer, not a prospector on 'might be rare' titles.

If it's honestly used games where people are only reporting back on receiving pristine conditioned used copies (while the lesser than pristine copies are simply not reported) then I guess its fine.

With the amount of copies on the market, I highly doubt its the 3rd option.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
I am kinda torn on this. I didn't have the $ to afford Xenoblade when it was released initially. I now have the $ to buy the $90 copy and several of the gamestops in Nashville have it. I however don't want to support Gamestop ripping off the consumer. What should I do GAF?

Ebay auctions (avoid Buy It Now). Like I said, plenty of copies are going for under $90 on there. 5 of the last 6 copies sold in the last few days have gone for less than $90, two were disc only and went for under $80.
 
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