GameStop Discarding Used DS Games' Cases and Manuals!

[AwRy108]

Not sure if this has been discussed already, but I thought I'd share:

I was at several of my local GameStop's recently, and found out that they're no long keeping the cases or manuals for traded-in DS titles. WTF?!?

I finally found a USED copy of Chrono Trigger (DS), but there's no way I'm spending over $30 for a cart-only purchase.

Anyone else peeved at this?

[IAmTheCheapestGamer]

I'm surprised they didn't do this sooner.

They're currently clearing out the old GB/GBC games, so I guess they plan on dumping the DS carts into the cases they once used for THOSE games.

If you want complete/minty games, Gamestop is NOT the place to go looking for those. That's for DAMN sure.

But not everybody gives a shit about complete and mint like we do.

[xycury]

This is unfortunate... sure the GB/GBC and GBA doesn't have cases, manuals can be lost, but come on... why throw them away, if for only spaces to save?

seems like they don't want my business anymore.

[AwRy108]

...but my surprise is because the DS is still a current, relevant system, whereas the GB/GBC/GBA is obviously a last-gen system.

Any idea if this is happening at all GameStop's? I've had a lot of success finding good-quality used titles in my area, so the ability to save a few bucks by purchasing a used copy was always nice to have. That said, I sure won't be buying any used DS games if the cases and manuals aren't present; and I know it might seem petty, but I actually consider the complete package--especially the cover art--as an exciting part of the purchase.

[NismoZZzz]

Could just be the stores by you, all the ones by me still have cases and what not. It's probably a space issue by your area, the games tend to sell better when placed on the wall than in a cabinet.

[Ryuukishi]

I finally found a USED copy of Chrono Trigger (DS), but there's no way I'm spending over $30 for a cart-only purchase.
Why would you buy a used copy of Chrono Trigger for $34.99 + tax anyway, when Amazon sells it brand new for $36.99 w/ free shipping?

[Vinny]

Damn, I hope my GSes don't do this... I definitely don't buy any games unless it has the case/manual.

But at the same time, I don't see this happening. The DS is probably the second most popular system after the Wii. And my GSes have plenty of space for DS games- the good/new titles get displayed while the older/unpopular titles are shelved.

[shrike4242]

...but my surprise is because the DS is still a current, relevant system, whereas the GB/GBC/GBA is obviously a last-gen system.

Any idea if this is happening at all GameStop's? I've had a lot of success finding good-quality used titles in my area, so the ability to save a few bucks by purchasing a used copy was always nice to have. That said, I sure won't be buying any used DS games if the cases and manuals aren't present; and I know it might seem petty, but I actually consider the complete package--especially the cover art--as an exciting part of the purchase.No, not all GS stores are doing this. My normal store of choice doesn't, though they do accept cart-only trades on DS games, so that may be part of the issue. That's at any store, I'm sure.

[karkyco]

I've been to literally dozens of different stores in SoCal over the last 2 months, and only 1 has done this, it's a mall store inside of one of the most ghetto malls (located firmly in a pretty serious ghetto - the Crenshaw Plaza) on the planet.

They do this because people were stealing the cases, so instead these clowns put the ds carts inside a glass case and threw out all the boxes.

They had better not do this widely, at least not yet. Bad enough you can't find GBA boxes anywhere.

[AwRy108]

Why would you buy a used copy of Chrono Trigger for $34.99 + tax anyway, when Amazon sells it brand new for $36.99 w/ free shipping?

With an Edge Card, you're looking at $31.50 + tax--I know it's not a lot cheaper than Amazon's $37, but since we're debating $37 vs. $40, I'd say that $31.50 + tax vs. $37 is pretty good savings; but this only hold true if it's a complete USED copy in great condition.

[Chuplayer]

Who would even have a DS game without a case to begin with? Those things are tiny. You can lose it if you just fart on it and send it launching under the couch.

If G$ is doing this, they're just plain assholes.

[AwRy108]

Who would even have a DS game without a case to begin with? Those things are tiny. You can lose it if you just fart on it and send it launching under the couch.

If G$ is doing this, they're just plain assholes.

Pretty much my take on the situation.

[karkyco]

Why would you buy a used copy of Chrono Trigger for $34.99 + tax anyway, when Amazon sells it brand new for $36.99 w/ free shipping?

Well I'll tell you why I'd look to a used copy from Gamestop - only on the weeks where their weekly special is the B2G1 (33% off, assuming all three games are the same price) on all used games, or 20% off used DS games.

With Edge that becomes an additional 10% off the used price of the 2 games you do pay for, so pretty much 40% off total in the case of the former deal, or 30% in the case of the latter deal.

So it goes from $35 to around $21.50 with the B2G1 deal (of course, you end up having to spend about $65 total for this deal). Or $24.50 for the 30% deal. Not bad at all.

EDIT: plus, for cart games like DS or GBA games, how bad can they be condition wise? Rarely are they scratched to hell like some of the Gamestop CD/DVD/BluRay games I've inspected (and refused). Sure, sometimes there's sticker damage or permanent marker but that's been extremely rare for me, and easy enough to refuse. So getting a minty, complete, and practically unused Dragon Quest 4 a couple of weeks after release for $24 is not bad at all.

[AwRy108]

Well I'll tell you why I'd look to a used copy from Gamestop - only on the weeks where their weekly special is the B2G1 (33% off, assuming all three games are the same price) on all used games, or 20% off used DS games.

With Edge that becomes an additional 10% off the used price of the 2 games you do pay for, so pretty much 40% off total in the case of the former deal, or 30% in the case of the latter deal.

So it goes from $35 to around $21.50 with the B2G1 deal (of course, you end up having to spend about $65 total for this deal). Or $24.50 for the 30% deal. Not bad at all.

My response, or this.

[AwRy108]

I've been to literally dozens of different stores in SoCal over the last 2 months, and only 1 has done this, it's a mall store inside of one of the most ghetto malls (located firmly in a pretty serious ghetto - the Crenshaw Plaza) on the planet.

They do this because people were stealing the cases, so instead these clowns put the ds carts inside a glass case and threw out all the boxes.

They had better not do this widely, at least not yet. Bad enough you can't find GBA boxes anywhere.

Of the two stores I found to be throwing the cases away, one was a mall store located in a pretty nice mall (with, unfortunately, pretty lousy consumers), and the other was a mall in a rather new strip plaza.

[Puffa469]

Tiny Mall Gamestops may do this, but it's by no means a chain-wide policy. But like Shrike said, they do accept cart only trade-ins, so most Stops have a mix of complete and incomplete DS games.

I think throwing away the cases is retarded. A GBA game box is just packaging, but a DS case like a DVD case, it's meant to store the game.

[darkslime]

Mine started doing this a year ago. I've gotten about 500 cases out of their dumpster, and can just go to one of the other billion GS in my city if I want to buy a DS game from them, so it's all good. ^_^

[YoshiFan1]

My local Gamestop also does this, not that I have ever bought a used DS game from them. I can get better deals elsewhere without it being cart only.

[AwRy108]

I've gotten about 500 cases out of their dumpster...

Wow, now I know who to ask if I'm looking for a [smelly] DS game case...

[DuelLadyS]

Who would even have a DS game without a case to begin with? Those things are tiny. You can lose it if you just fart on it and send it launching under the couch.

Excactly.

I won't buy a DS game without a case. End of story.

[georox]

Wonder if mine do... could prolly bum cases off the employees if so.

[rmb]

This is most likely just a handful of stores. I try my best to get complete ds games from them when I can but when I have to I will take cart only. Only reason is they are for the kids. Which means when they get a game they get anded the cart to put in a case that holds multiple ds games and I put the case and manual away to have in case they want to trade it or if I were to want to trade it here for them. I can understand many are collector's but gba games were really only ever gonna be sold uses as just a cart. Most people toss the box after opening it. Ds games have a nice case that holds the cart and manual and I don't see GS selling them cart only as the normal practice at all their stores. DS games are damn near indestructible too, except when the dog gets ahold of one. My kids have had carts go through the washing machine multiples of times and they still work great.

[SaraAB]

Yeah this is not nationwide, the stores here are not doing it. I haven't seen it at any store yet. There are lots of games traded in without cases but they have generic cases for them on the wall. It really depends on how the game is traded in. I don't even look at those games, I only look at the ones with cases and manuals. I would never pay gamestop prices for a cart only game. If I want to buy a cart only game I will go to ebay for a much lower price. Gamestop has pretty much already lost my business for games unless its a brand new game that has dropped in price and I cannot find that game for the already price dropped price elsewhere.

[emg28]

I have yet to see a GS around me do this. I usually buy most of my DS games at GS but I will only buy the games if they are complete/mint. I would rather pay cash for a new game somewhere else than buy a cart-only DS game at GS using store credit. If GS would adopt this policy for all it's stores, then I would take my DS business elsewhere. Credit be damned!

[Josef]

It's funny, I was told by a GS employee that I would need to trade a DS game in complete to get full trade in value. If it isn't complete, they would charge a small fee (I think he said a refurbishing fee). When I asked if that's the case why do they sell the incomplete DS games at the same price as the complete ones he said because you are paying for the generic game case that holds the DS game. Pretty sure that's bull.

[Sir_Fragalot]

Thank god my GS doesn't do that. I would never buy a DS game without a case. Hell I only bought one DS game that had their DS boxes (Pokemon Pearl which I didn't give a shit because it was Pokemon). About 95% of the time I want the original case and manuel.

[DuelLadyS]

It's funny, I was told by a GS employee that I would need to trade a DS game in complete to get full trade in value. If it isn't complete, they would charge a small fee (I think he said a refurbishing fee). When I asked if that's the case why do they sell the incomplete DS games at the same price as the complete ones he said because you are paying for the generic game case that holds the DS game. Pretty sure that's bull.

If I were you, I'd test that the next time you trade in a DS game- take out the manual and insert, and bring in just the cart and case. If that's what you're paying for, then you shouldn't get a fee if it comes in a generic case. ;)

[zman73]

Definantly a YMMV type thing... people are going to want to see what used games a store has WITHOUT having to pull out a magnifying glass because those games are too damn small otherwise... it makes much more sense from a business standpoint to actually have display space for games that sell well for a hot system, than saving a limited amount of shelf space for something else... I could only imagine a GS doing this if they were extremely limited in store space

[Rave Child]

Luckily, I haven't seen this happen anywhere, either. I've seen some stores that have many GS games in the little stand where the GB/GBC/GBA games are, but they also have space on the wall for their DS games with cases. I would hate if they all started to do this, but I don't foresee it for a long time. The DS sections are already very small at my stores, but they're bigger than the PS3 sections at most because they are far far more popular. It wouldn't be a very smarrt move on their part to do this for such a popular platform

[david12795]

Hmm all of the USED DS games are generic cases =/. Some are complete though

[Guerrilla]

If this went company-wide, I wouldn't buy used DS games from GS.

[superdry]

Maybe it's after the holidays, but I have noticed that a few gamestops I go to have a nice used DS section, but the majority of the games are cart only now (ugh). At least it makes it easier to sift through the used DS section seeing only the copies that are complete.

Josef - I find it funny that one would be charged a "refurbishing fee" for a cartridge game. That store might just want people to actually trade in complete games instead of cart only and I wouldn't be surprised if most people who just trade in a cart don't care too much about the extra fee.

[Chuplayer]

Josef - I find it funny that one would be charged a "refurbishing fee" for a cartridge game. That store might just want people to actually trade in complete games instead of cart only and I wouldn't be surprised if most people who just trade in a cart don't care too much about the extra fee.

The "refurb fee" is bullshit because they don't do jack shit to refurb the games. I tried selling a scratched up game to G$ once that was going to get hit with a refurbishing fee. I bought the game in the condition it was in, played it twice, hated it, didn't damage it any further especially since I barely ever handled it, and tried selling it off half a year later. The guy said that I would get hit with the fee. I told him that I bought it that way. He said that I should have taken it back to the store during the 30 day period. I told him that I didn't care to do that because it worked fine and the fact that I want to get rid of the game is because I didn't like it and not because of the scratches and it was sold to me that way so why should it matter that it goes back to them like that? Total ass.

[Squarehard]

Most stores are only doing away with the GS made cases, so they won't be taking up space on the wall, but keeping the original ones.

Some stores have taken it upon themselves to just do away with all of them, but after talking to multiple managers at my Gamestops, they are told by corporate to only throw away the generic GS made cases, and not supposed to do away with the original boxes.

But that never stops GS stores to take it up on their own and get rid of all the boxes, since there is no way for corporate to keep tabs on this since they can't prove games were taken in with boxes, etc.

Luckily my stores don't do this practice, but I feel sorry for people who have these kind of stores in their area.

[HaLLuZiNaTiOnZ]

My GS store started doing this recently. It sucks because about 2 to 3 weeks ago they still had all the old cases. Then I walk in and see nothing but carts behind a glass case. Might actually have to ask the guys at the store if they can just give me all the DS cases they plan to throw away.

[ROB64]

I noticed this today when looking through the GBA games, which were all tossed in a shoebox on the counter to give space for the DS cards in the display case. Last time I went in there the display case still had gameboy color games in it! I asked the guy at the counter and he said they "got rid of them".

[utopianmachine]

I only buy cartridge-only games if they are a good value or if I'm having trouble getting the game super cheap preowned through other means. GameStop would severely limit the business I give them if they adopted this strategy nationwide.

[FatBoyInside]

Yeah, most of the GS in my area already adopting this policy. Even on trades, the employee would dissect the ds games on arrival :-( .

[Squarehard]

Yeah, most of the GS in my area already adopting this policy. Even on trades, the employee would dissect the ds games on arrival :-( .

The company memorandum is actually suppose to only apply to generic DS cases, but individual stores and managers have take it upon themselves to do away with all of the parts, which is actually not what the corporate emails sent out to the stores actually stipulates, so if your store is doing that, they're probably just assholes :*(

[fwbweux]

The company memorandum is actually suppose to only apply to generic DS cases, but individual stores and managers have take it upon themselves to do away with all of the parts, which is actually not what the corporate emails sent out to the stores actually stipulates, so if your store is doing that, they're probably just assholes :*(

I've only ever seen one GS that started putting DS carts in the glass cases where GB/GBA stuff was previously, and that was a mall GS so space is at a high premium in those. Though what I witnessed was sort of in between gutting generic cases and gutting all DS games, because all used games were gutted while there was still an area on the shelves where new games were, and they all still had their cases/manuals.

What has become common around me, though, is to throw away the outer box + OSTs to any special edition DS games (like Ys I&II, Knights in the Nightmare, etc) that have them when they're traded in. Just stupid.

[anotherpoorgamer]

Yup, mine have been doing this for a about six or seven months now. I haven't bought any used DS games except for Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow since then. I haven't seen any Gamboy Advance games anymore either. I guess they got rid of the GBA games at my local store.

I really hope Nintendo starts re-releasing DS/Wii games as Player's Choice/Million Seller/budget priced games again soon.

[xycury]

I only buy cartridge-only games if they are a good value or if I'm having trouble getting the game super cheap preowned through other means. GameStop would severely limit the business I give them if they adopted this strategy nationwide.

I'm not renewing my PowerUP card... I always am a DS player.... doing this to used games well kinda negates the purpose of the card.

Fuck GS....

I wouldn't have minded if they kept the artwork/manual and I'll provide a case, but to outright toss the case with all that too...

GS lost a customer.

[adriley313]

oh i so dont buy used ds games there anymore
but they do have some good sales that i like
but screw them for this when i buy tons of ds games

[Rozz]

I guess they got rid of the GBA games at my local store.


Most of the local stores here keep the GBA games behind the counter or in the back now (or they will only display a few games in the case, such as the Mario or Castlevania games, which typically sell for a decent amount of money.)

[M-PG71C]

All the ones around here toss the cases to the used games. They just started to do this within the last few months. Its getting difficult to find certain DS titles via conventional stores. Oh well, back to eBay. I want my case damnit!

[unc13 buck]

My local gamestops are keeping ds cases, I don't see them getting rid of them anytime soon.

[schultzed]

If G$ is doing this, they're just plain assholes.

This is what they are . . . my dislike of GS goes back to the old funcoland. I fucking hated the way they handled SNES and Genny games. They didn't even try to buy back and keep boxes and/or instructions.

[phear3d]

they've started to do this sometime last year. i noticed the ps2 games are the first ones. its weird because some stores actually saves the cases, which is good because they SHOULD recycle them. but some stores have no regards for them and just simply throws them away.

[Gameboy415]

Yeah, this has been pissing me off for months in my area.

I frequently use Gamestop.com's "check store availability" to track down games I want and there have been dozens of times I'd drive out somewhere to pick up a hard-to-find DS game just to find out they threw away the box/manual. Such bullshit!

I've been scouring resale shops and Amazon to track down the last few DS games I want before the 3DS comes out. Some stuff has been as cheap if not cheaper than Gamestop's used prices, but other stuff is insanely expensive.

Here's hoping I can find everything I want for decent prices. :(

[aeroforce325]

Seems like I'll be checking out a mall near me about this. I can always find something to do with the cases, and manuals even if I got no actual use for them.