Look, living in the South Pacific i already pay far out the ass for videogames. This has already been established. See
Resonance's blog for details
But there are ways to save some money like buying and trading second hand games.
Yeah, not so much at Ebgames. Here are a few examples of consumer butt raping. I wandered down to my local Ebgames, noticed that some sort of sale atomic bomb exploded in the front window
Inside i discovered:
Grand Theft Auto IV; did anyone buy this game?.
New $120NZD (90USD)
Second hand: $115NZD (87USD)
Lost Odyssey; wasn't my cup of tea but Jim liked it apparently.
New $99NZD (75USD)
Second hand, no manual: $79NZD (60USD)
The Simpsons; this was actually what i went in to look for (might be a renter though, no?).
New $120NZD (90USD)
Second hand, beat up case: $105NZD (on sale from $115) (79USD)
Lost Planet; the old one not the re-release:
New $110NZD (82USD)
Second hand, i'm pretty sure it was $95NZD (72USD) though could have been cheaper (i didn't write that one down)
Keep in mind that the average amount someone gets for trading in a new release game to Eb is $33USD. This is why i don't trade games into EB, it's a complete scam. I don't know what the guy who traded in gtaiv was thinking, it would have been easy enough for him to get at least $60USD for it on our version of ebay.
Also, i feel i should note I actually don't mind buying second hand games, it's just I'm not going to pay close to retail for used goods, especially when i know first hand EB has no quality control.
But i'm not naive, and at the end of the day fair enough to Eb they can charge what they want for their stuff if they think they can get it. Apparently they CAN get it too, because people will pay any amount of money for anything. I think consumers need to wise up a lot more to this sort of thing, then maybe EB won't get away with charging so much for 2nd hand goods.
Eb is not all bad, they do offer a Seven day money back guarantee so if a game is really terrible you can return it... and i did consider picking up Eternal Sonata on sale for $45usd, but then remembered i had testicles and decided against it.
Oh and to make matters worse for us NZ gamers... our Nintendo Distributor, Softprint has just gone out of business. So currently we have NO nz distributor of Nintendo products. Yay.
In summary: Wahhh, wahhh wahhh, wahhh.
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Silly TD all you need is TF2
Wow, I had no idea it was that bad over there. And here I thought 60 bucks for a new game was a bit harsh here in Canada.
Yeah, we've got the same sales going on at the Aus EB games and I saw a used copy of GTA IV on sale for $115 AUD ($109 USD)!
I'm just lucky I barely ever buy games for PS3, at least PC games can be bought for half price on steam.
dang and i thought we were bad (gamecrazy). for gta IV we give 30 (or 33 if you have an "mvp card") usd and sell it for 55. used to be 50.
Damn... that sucks
lol ebgamestop never gives you more than an average of $16 of trade-in credit ever. most they can give you for a 2 weekold game is $25. So when you buy a game you better like it.
Ive worked in ebgames (in NZ, in Nelson, to be exact), and trade-ins are where they make their money; its pretty obvious when you think about it, they get maybe $2 or $3 for new games, but more like $50 + for pre-owned. Thats why you're told to push preowned sales and edge cards whenever possible. It works pretty well too, since a good amount of customers like saving a paltry %5.
Sucks to be you, me, and everyone who doesn't live in the land of apple pie or the land of the rising sun.
:( this just reminded me how much I hate game prices here.
And with the Nintendo distributer gone, that means no Brawl, which was fiiiiiiiiinally going to come out.
lololololol emo kiwi
wow you guys' prices are as screwed up as mexico's. *weeps along with ToiletDuck*
wow that sucks, I cant believe games are that high. :\
nice Kiwi
here in latin america is worst.
New Zealand is pretty fail.
gamestop trade in example:
HOW MUCH DO I GET FOR DOUBLE DASH!!?
hmmm like 68 cents
wut?
You poor bastard. You should move.
I also love buying used games, and never trade in anything. I make sure everything I buy is something I keep.
Well said.
Gamestop / EB are the spawn of the devil. I hate that they've pretty much absorbed every decent video game store chain that's ever existed within the past ten years. No more Babbages, no more Funcoland, no more Famcom games, all gone to this monstrosity.
I only buy used games from developers I don't want to support (activision lol); otherwise I like throwing my money at the $5 more new version and help the company to some small extent. It's my method of going green lulz