[quote]
Belching, huffing and heaving, an 18-wheel UPS truck pulls up at the rear-end of a gray concrete, out-of-town warehouse. The driver steps into dizzying 100 degree heat as, noisily, the warehouse’s corrugated door rolls open. Forklifts glide into action, unloading pallet upon pallet, stacking them inside a massive loading area in the shade of the warehouse’s docking bay.
Stacks of identical brown cardboard boxes totter on the pallets, each crammed with used video games, used games consoles and used cell phones. Men with clipboards scurry about checking dockets and making notes.
This is GameStop’s used-game reprocessing plant, situated on the outskirts of Dallas, Texas. Up to seven of these trucks will roll in every single day, depositing the games and the gear that you take into GameStop stores in exchange for cash or credits.
[img]http://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/stg.ign.com/2012/08/IMG_0326-610x406.jpg[/img]
[B]Tough Trade[/B]
[B]Around 80 percent of games traded in stores are resold in the same store. But 20 percent are sent to this Texas facility for refurbishment[/B], usually because they are looking somewhat tattered. [B]For personal information security reasons, 100 percent of all consoles, cell-phones and other devices come to be cleaned up and sent back out[/B]. Some 17 million games and one million hardware units pass through this plant every year.
What happens to the games when they arrive here? They are divided and distributed among small teams, each with their own name and game-related mascot (based on classics like Dig-Dug and Shinobi). Each disk goes into an unsightly machine that scrapes away the top 10 microns of cover-material, enough to ‘clean’ the disk of any superficial scratches. They are then buffed for that nice, shiny, sparkly look.
The disks are inspected by hand. [B]Those that still show scratches are tossed into a terrifically noisy machine that breaks them up into tiny pieces, depositing the shards into a huge box[/B] that will later be taken away by a specialist recycling company.
[B]Factory Life[/B]
This is a factory. It smells and sounds like a factory. Mercifully, there is air-conditioning. [B]There is a sign on the wall. It says ‘Safety is no GAME. STOP and think.’[/B] Clever, no?
Some of the games are taken away at random and run through banks of test consoles stacked upon racks, to make sure the process is working, that the disks are going to load and play when they find their way to your games machine.
The rest are sorted into bundles according to the game title and platform, thousands of individual product identification ‘SKUs’ (Stock Keeping Unit) sometimes going back to the 1990s. There is a large machine, as big as a row of terraced houses, that sorts the games. It looks like one of those glass-fronted, self-service cafeteria deals that you see in old movies with Doris Day and Peter Lawford. What the hell are those things called? Ah, automats.
[img]http://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/stg.ign.com/2012/08/IMG_0352-610x406.jpg[/img]
A man or woman then inspects the box and the packaging.[B] If the artwork is looking iffy, a generic slip is selected and slotted[/B]. GameStop has run in-store tests on used games and found that [B]original packaging sells no better than generic packaging[/B] but, this plant being all about efficiency, leaving well alone is seen as the best policy. Most people who trade games have the good sense to take care of their currency.
Once ready for market the used games are sent back to retail outlets, according to algorithms based on buying patterns. [B]More shooting games are sent to stores near military bases. More hockey games are sent north.[/B]
[B]Back to Life[/B]
This is traditionally a secretive company that rarely does any kind of media, let alone guided walk-abouts of facilities. It feels slightly odd to be here, as if this were a tour of some North Korean ‘milk formula’ factory. But instead of gargoyle stiffs in olive-green tunics and peaked caps, the friendly guides are wearing short-sleeve shirts made by Polo and offering up beefy Texan hospitality by the slab.
GameStop’s bosses are obviously tired of hearing about how used games are killing gaming, about how unfair they are on the producers of the games who get nothing from their resale.
One astonishing stat is repeated by three different managers during presentations. [B]70 percent of income consumers make from trading games goes straight back into buying brand new games[/B]. GameStop argues that used games are an essential currency in supporting the games business.
The normal behavior is for guys to come into stores with their plastic bags full of old games, and trade them so that they can buy the new Call of Duty, Madden, Gears of War. GameStop says 17 percent of its sales are paid in trade credits. The implication is clear - if the games industry lost 17 percent of its sales tomorrow, that would be a bad day for the publishers and developers.
[B]Money, Money, Money[/B]
GameStop’s reprocessing facility isn’t just a factory, it’s a mint. Everything that comes through those doors is currency, loot, scratch, gravy; lovely, lovely moolah.
[img]http://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/stg.ign.com/2012/08/IMG_0323-610x406.jpg[/img]
High-ticket items are treated with special care. [B]The boxes of iPods and iPhones and Xbox 360s and PS2s and Nintendo 64s go into work areas that are caged. Cameras look down over workers as they begin a process that will wipe hard drives at least three times.[/B]
Security is key here. Not just the suspicious-boss kind that prevents anyone from pocketing a couple of iPhones. But the kind that makes sure your gamer-tag records or your credit card details or your girlfriend’s phone number are wiped clean, before the machine is polished and dabbed with Q-tips and sent back out into the world.
GameStop believes there are billions of dollars worth of consoles, iPods and games just sitting in people’s homes, unused and unloved, that could be traded. The company is aching for people to bring their old crap in and turn it into money to spend on new games. They see that this stuff is just as good as greenbacks.
It’s interesting, isn’t it, that in this age of alternative currencies like Diablo III’s Auction House and Xbox Live points that old games, old consoles, old cell-phones are also cash, but somehow less sexily so, less brave new world of commerce and more Sandford and Son.
[B]Fair Deal?[/B]
This opens up the bigger question about this currency, which is, who controls the value of the trade-ins? Many consumers feel a stab of outrage at the value of their trade-ins when compared with the cost of the games when they are resold.
Paul Raines,[B] GameStop CEO says that the margins it makes on used games are necessary to pay for the stores, the staff, the refurbishment[/B]. He doesn’t spell it out, but GameStop’s financial info shows that[B] used games make wider margins than new games and without that business, the retail outlets might struggle to survive.[/B]
He says, “We know that people don't like selling their games if they think they're getting ripped off. So we spend a lot of time talking to consumers about that. We also spend a lot of time looking at the competition. There's lots of people in buy-sell-trade now, and we think we're pretty competitive with those guys. We have to figure out a way that we can continue to grow the business, keep this operation running, improve the quality.”
GameStop does have a lot of power over the value of your game. Probably, because of its prominence in thousands of malls and retail-strips around the country. But we live in a free market and there are alternatives out there, including online. Shopping around is always a smart way to get the most value out of your money and out of your old games.
[img]http://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/stg.ign.com/2012/08/IMG_0094-610x406.jpg[/img]
Meanwhile, the trucks keep rolling up to the warehouse gates, disgorging yet more of those games, making them ready for people like you and me. We will happily thumb through the used games racks, will find that game some other person grew tired of playing, and we will add it to our own collection. At least until we decide to trade it in.
[/quote]
I am not sure if this goes into SH, but I don't know of anywhere else to put it.
Sauce: [url]http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/08/02/what-happens-to-your-used-games[/url]
Like 3 months after LA Noire came out I bought it and when I was finished, traded it in.
They offered me 2 bucks.
They have an entire factory dedicated to this stuff?
Wow. My mind is blown.
[QUOTE=AJisAwesome15;37054413]Like 3 months after LA Noire came out I bought it and when I was finished, traded it in.
They offered me 2 bucks.[/QUOTE]
I traded in spyro: year of the dragon for 10 €. Tough luck, buddy.
Very cool, thanks for posting this.
I traded them a broken Borderlands game for like $25. Was like 6 months after it came out too.
never mind
I traded a fucked up spiderman game that didn't even read and was like 3 years old, I was so happy they took that shit
GameStop: hey lets use the money that we make from selling games to this refurbished plant and the some of it so people can get at lest 20 back for a used game and then the rest can go back to getting new games.... Wait! a NEW AIRPLANE THAT CAN FIT A POOL AND A HOT TUBE WITH A THEATER CAME OUT...give the people 1 dollar and buy less new games also only pay people in the refurbished plant 1 dollar.
[QUOTE=Ermac20;37054680]another reason for me to keep using steam even though i like buying games retail[/QUOTE]
How is this another reason? I don't understand.
I traded in half-life 2 for 2$.
Looking back on that, I wish I never sold them all my gamecube games either. It's a scam.
That's quite amazing. Wish I had one of those fancy industrial CD cleaning machines, I do not take care of my discs at all :v:
It's a shame that the second hand games market is getting eradicated by Steam (and Origin :v:). Well actually, it's not so bad seeing as the prices on Steam are probably cheaper than buying a second hand game from Gamestop anyway.
I sold EB games all my old original xbox games and got like 12 bucks. I really hope one of those wasn't halo 2, because I can't seem to find it anywhere in my house.
[QUOTE=gman_freeman;37054746]It's a shame that the second hand games market is getting eradicated by Steam (and Origin :v:). Well actually, it's not so bad seeing as the prices on Steam are probably cheaper than buying a second hand game from Gamestop anyway.[/QUOTE]
gamestop doesn't even sell used pc games. how does it eradicate something that wasn't there to begin with?
Wait they actually clean up and polish the discs? Then why do I have quite a few that my systems have a hard time reading?
[QUOTE=Killerelf12;37055329]Wait they actually clean up and polish the discs? Then why do I have quite a few that my systems have a hard time reading?[/QUOTE]
Because you didn't read the article I guess. They said that 80% of the used games that the stores receive are resold at that store and actually don't go to get refurbished.
This is really cool.
I'm also preparing myself to not come back to this thread because it will erupt with people who don't understand why a used game doesn't warrant more than 20 bucks at most.
This kind of makes sense why they don't give people much store credit for a game. They to make enough money to be able to pay for the whole process.
I found A perfect unopened copy of Halo 2 special edition at half price books for 7$ best day ever.
[QUOTE=legolover122;37054339]
Paul Raines, GameStop CEO says that the margins it makes on used games are necessary to pay for the stores, the staff, the refurbishment. He doesn’t spell it out, but GameStop’s financial info shows that used games make wider margins than new games and without that business, [b]the retail outlets might struggle to survive[/b].[/QUOTE]
I'm playing the smallest violin possible... :rolleyes:
[QUOTE=TM Gmod;37055892]I'm playing the smallest violin possible... :rolleyes:[/QUOTE]
Its a valid point though. If the new consoles do indeed make used games unplayable then you can say goodbye to most physical game stores.
I tried to trade in my limited Halo Reach with the box, stickers and patches but they would only accept the disk and gave me $14 dollars for it.
[QUOTE=AJisAwesome15;37054413]Like 3 months after LA Noire came out I bought it and when I was finished, traded it in.
They offered me 2 bucks.[/QUOTE]
because it was a pretty new game and they don't want you to get a "rebate" discount on it and want people to buy the brand new game, maybe?
GameStop is the only place I can trade games, and probably more useful than throwing them away.
We have a BuyBacks here (Which sells second-hand games, consoles, music CDs, and DVDs). One time I tried to trade in 6 games there, they only took two out of the 6 (The other four were apparently "Too Scratched") and offered me $10.
I took all the games over to GameStop and they took them all and offered me about $80. So it's not bad if you want to trade a bunch of used games for one new game that's coming out soon.
As much as I don't like Gamestop, this is really, really cool.
It's rare I actually read an entire article in Sensationalist Headlines.
[QUOTE=YouWithTheFace.;37055318]gamestop doesn't even sell used pc games. how does it eradicate something that wasn't there to begin with?[/QUOTE]
Well I don't know about Gamestop, but Game (when they were around) and Gamestation sold second hand games that were refurbished to a degree. It was the equivalent of the Steam sale for me as a kid, because there were lots of great bargains for good games.
I tried to trade in Double Dribble for NES. They wouldn't take it. Apparently it's not good enough even to be broken up and recycled.
[QUOTE=AJisAwesome15;37054413]Like 3 months after LA Noire came out I bought it and when I was finished, traded it in.
They offered me 2 bucks.[/QUOTE]
Yeah why do I get the feeling you're making shit up.
I traded my copy in about 4 months after getting it and letting it collect dust and got 16 for it. I've literally never seen the turnaround shoot that low that quickly.
Never EVER give your games to gamestop. Ebay gets you the real monies.
[editline]2nd August 2012[/editline]
luckily most people just trade in their used ps2 games to gamestop and that is where I can get some of the more sought after ps2 games at my nearest gamestop.
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