GAME exits Administration

[ToxieDogg]

I can't understand how buying up loads of low value games and then trying to sell them for double their value is gonna work....

I know. I mean, there's a reason why these games are low value in the first place.

You all do realise that by trading this crap in that it's all you'll be seeing in the pre-owned sections for heaven knows how long? You're just dooming yourselves

Dooming Game, you mean. I'll just carry on buying any preowned stuff I'm after off Amazon, Play or Ebay. Or from the Grainger Games and CEX nearby.

This strategy makes no sense whatsoever to me, can't see at all how it's going to keep Game afloat in the long term.

[Freestyler]

Ok, finally gave in and took a bunch of Xbox 360 games to my local GAME store. I got credited £131 and change.

Some games (like Tomb Raider: Underworld) had no instructions, but they lapped them up. Other madness abounded. Prey earned me an eye-opening £7.40 even though CeX struggles to sell this wonderful title for two quid. It's a great game, but GAME's prices are frankly mental. Honestly, there's building up stock and there's buying anything in hopes of selling it back at a profit.

And there's the rub; most of their Pre-Owned games have now literally doubled in price, with many games (for the first time in memory) having a whopping £24.99 sticker on. Not just a few either, we're talking fully 30% of their stock! The rest fall into the £9.99-£14.99 Pre Owned banding. Mental. Although I will state that there was a very healthy queue behind me at 9:30am when I was trading stuff in, so it must be working whatever it is they're doing.

I was the only one in that queue trading in as well. Once the other customers heard how much readies I'd made they got very interested too. So much so that the shop staff were actively promoting the trade-in to all who'd listen.

[Freestyler]

Also; there were absolutely ZERO consoles for sale. They'd simply cleared out of everything. My guess is loads of people used massive trade-in credit to buy them all up.

So a win-win for GAME then, from a profitability standpoint. (Meaning they don't pay full price for consoles etc in the first place. You know what I mean.)

[Liamh1982]

Still, you can always keep the credit on your trade-in card and play the waiting game.
Any idea what the least I could spend in CeX would be to get enough trade-in value to effectively get a 360 or PS3?

[ToxieDogg]

Ok, finally gave in and took a bunch of Xbox 360 games to my local GAME store. I got credited £131 and change.

Some games (like Tomb Raider: Underworld) had no instructions, but they lapped them up. Other madness abounded. Prey earned me an eye-opening £7.40 even though CeX struggles to sell this wonderful title for two quid. It's a great game, but GAME's prices are frankly mental.

I'll say. Weren't they selling Prey themselves for 98p(!) only a few weeks back?

[Morkin]

Has anyone seen Disgaea (Vita) and/or Rhythm Thief, MGS 3DS on the shelves?

[James A]

Has anyone seen Disgaea (Vita) and/or Rhythm Thief, MGS 3DS on the shelves?

MGS 3D in Coventry new and second hand in Gamestation. Its varying on the shop. There still not 100% sure when there getting stock back in.

Sods law today in Coventry they had nothing i wanted in Game but all the stuff i wanted in Gamestation. Did notice that i could still pick up a load of cheap stuff in CEX and Crack Convertors so might do that next week with some trade ins on stuff there.

[Morkin]

Cheers. That's good to see MGS on the shelves, so hopefully Mario Tennis will make an appearance as well in May.

[Megamixer]

I can't understand how buying up loads of low value games and then trying to sell them for double their value is gonna work....

I know. I mean, there's a reason why these games are low value in the first place.

You all do realise that by trading this crap in that it's all you'll be seeing in the pre-owned sections for heaven knows how long? You're just dooming yourselves

Dooming Game, you mean. I'll just carry on buying any preowned stuff I'm after off Amazon, Play or Ebay. Or from the Grainger Games and CEX nearby.

Well yeah. Personally I'd rather not see the chain go under properly because unlike many others on this forum, there's no CEX, Grainger or anything else in my town. Even though the Gamestation has been really sh1t lately, I'd still like the option of popping in rather than not. Online shopping is great but a bit soulless in my opinion - can't replicate the thrill of finding something rare/decent at a randomly low price on a shop shelf

[Freestyler]

A thought occurs. I'm wondering if GAME are secretly doing what we here have previously discussed, but are keeping it "behind the scenes" so as not to show their hand? GAME are certainly taking Pre-Orders again, and operating like Business As Usual.

What I mean is - because of the massive hike in Pre-Owned prices I'm wondering if they're intending to slip the various Publishers a few quid off each sale. I have no idea how they'd work it all out? Perhaps a flat fee based on sales across the board with the main 3 or 4? Why else would games they were struggling to clear even in their fire sale for £4.99 suddenly jump to £14.99?

Maybe some of that "profit" is being kick-backed to Publishers? Isn't that what they wanted all along? Not the death of Pre-Owned, but a piece of the pie, however big a slice?

[Matt_B]

The way I see it, they're just trying to milk that final segment of the market that pops into their stores and buys stuff on spec. The chances are that anyone who shops around or buys their games on-line isn't going to be spending much there anyway, so hiking up prices a little won't be losing them that many customers.

[retrosofer]

Ok, finally gave in and took a bunch of Xbox 360 games to my local GAME store. I got credited £131 and change.

Some games (like Tomb Raider: Underworld) had no instructions, but they lapped them up. Other madness abounded. Prey earned me an eye-opening £7.40 even though CeX struggles to sell this wonderful title for two quid. It's a great game, but GAME's prices are frankly mental. Honestly, there's building up stock and there's buying anything in hopes of selling it back at a profit.

And there's the rub; most of their Pre-Owned games have now literally doubled in price, with many games (for the first time in memory) having a whopping £24.99 sticker on. Not just a few either, we're talking fully 30% of their stock! The rest fall into the £9.99-£14.99 Pre Owned banding. Mental. Although I will state that there was a very healthy queue behind me at 9:30am when I was trading stuff in, so it must be working whatever it is they're doing.

I was the only one in that queue trading in as well. Once the other customers heard how much readies I'd made they got very interested too. So much so that the shop staff were actively promoting the trade-in to all who'd listen.

I honestly cant see Game/Gamestation surviving, there crazyness is still going on its seems from what you have said. The company(s) need a complete and total overhaul imho, and i mean complete branch and root. The first part of the company that needs to be completely changed are the nutters at the top who are dragging Game/Gamestation down into a deathspiral of oblivion, they may have won the first round battle and kept things going, but they won't win the war the way they are carying on, its like watching a slow car crash! Can the CEO's say face palm

[sscott]

The way I see it, they're just trying to milk that final segment of the market that pops into their stores and buys stuff on spec. The chances are that anyone who shops around or buys their games on-line isn't going to be spending much there anyway, so hiking up prices a little won't be losing them that many customers.

Agree with this. 'We' are not wholly representative of their target audience. There is no Game or Gamestation now in Sheffield so my fave store Playtime is getting some extra business which I'm happy with as there are decent guys working there.

[James A]

Well got Pandoras Tower LTD Edition, Transformers War For Cybertron and Ninty Nine Nights 2 today and still have money left on the gift card and a ruck load of points on the reward card so it'll be back in tomorrow with some more stuff to trade in and another list of stuff im after. Im kind of hoping they will extend this deal for another week or two

[Freestyler]

I think I'm just going to plonk all my store credit on a console instead, since the games are stupid price now. Might get a PS3 Slim maybe. CeX are selling PS3 games cheaper than Xbox 360 titles now. Dunno yet.