Official Bull Moose Music thread! [Bull Moose last post: 09/15/08!]

[3QGojo]

I've been wanting to do this for awhile, but considering that there only seems to be locations in Maine/New Hampshire I never wanted to waste a post.

I'll list the ten locations right here (taken from the About Us page from www.bullmoose.com):

Bull Moose #1
151 Maine Street
Brunswick, Maine 04011
Ph: 207-725-1289
Hours: 9:00am – 10pm Tues-Sun
9am – midnight Mon

Bull Moose #2
Windham Shopping Center
North Windham, Maine 04062
Ph: 207-893-1303
Hours: 9:30am – 11pm Mon-Thurs
9:30am – midnight Fri-Sat
10am – 10pm Sun

Bull Moose #3
151 Middle Street
Portland, Maine 04101
Ph: 207-780-6424
Hours: 10am – 11pm every day

Bull Moose 4
Lewiston Mall
Lewiston, ME 04240
Ph: 207-784-6463
Hours: 9am – 9pm Mon-Sat
9am – 5pm Sun

Bull Moose #5
82-86 Congress Street
Portsmouth, NH 03801
Ph: 603-422-9525
9:30am – 11pm Tues-Sat
9:30am – midnight Mon

Bull Moose #6
Center For Shopping
Sanford, ME 04073
Ph: 207-324-5786
Hours: 9:30am – 10pm Mon-Sat
9:30am – 8pm Sun

Bull Moose #7
Elm Plaza
Waterville, ME 04901
Ph: 207-861-5884
Hours: 9am – 10p Mon-Sat
9am – 8pm Sun

Bull Moose Music #8
Maine Square Mall
683 Hogan Road
Bangor, ME 04401
Ph: 207-262-0410
Hours: 9am-11pm Tues-Sun
9am – midnight Mon

Bull Moose #9
356-366 So. Broadway
Salem, NH 03079
Ph: 603-898-6254
Hours: 10am – midnight every day

Bull Moose #10
456 Payne Rd.
Scarborough, ME 04074
Ph: 207-885-9553
Hours: 9am – 11pm Tues-Sun
9am – midnight Mon

If people could post deals or any specials that are going on at certain locations. Also post which location you went to so we can figure out if they're YMMV for different stores or if all the store are kind the same prices/trade-in value. Another note of interest is that Bull Moose always has new games that just came out for around $45.xx brand new and might be good for price matching at BB or CC.

When I went to the one in Scarborough, ME a couple days ago I picked up a NEW copy of DDR: Mario Mix for $45.97.

I also traded in:

Future Tactics (GC) for $6 a copy (2 copies for $12 credit)
Twisted Metal III (PS1) for $4 credit
Total credit: $16 (paid $6 for all 3 games; gained $10)

I would've gotten less if I had taken ca$h, but I grabbed Mario Mix so I used it all that day anyways.

Plus, I had an old copy of Q bert 3 for SNES lying around and they would've given me $2 for and Robotech Battlecry (PS2) that they were going to give me $6 for, so I just kept those two games.

That's about it, please post any deals promotions that you find and at which locations. I'd also like to see if we could get a small trade-in list going for these stores.

EDIT(1): Edited the title to make this the "official" Bull Moose thread. :)
EDIT(2): Edited the title to say when the last time Bull Moose made a post.
EDIT(3): Edited the title to notify everyone of Wii Preorder Bundle.
EDIT(4): Edited the title to notify everyone that Wii Preorders are SOLD OUT!
EDIT(5): Edited the title by taking out the Wii Bundle being sold out.
EDIT(6): Edited the title to notify Bull Moose was back and posting again! :)

[Jaket]

bull moose is fucking sick...

[3QGojo]

So I take it you don't like Bull Moose eh Jake?

Still if anyone goes there, post your trade-in values for any games and report any deals going on.

[3QGojo]

Come on people, I know Bull Moose is expensive for used games, but they have some good prices for new stuff. Make some posts! :)

Any NH CAGS ever go to the Bull Moose stores down there?

[ryanbph]

I lived in mid coast maine for awhile, bull moose was my only savior for civilization/electronics. But they are expensive, and aren't that great

[Jaket]

no, i actually love bull moose

they have a shit ton of classic games at the outlet in scarborough

[lurknomore]

I love Bull Moose...at least that was abot 5 years ago. I went Bowdoin College, up in Brunswick, ME....and heading to Bull Moose was a weekly thing for me. I always thought that the prices were fair and the selection was above average for a Mom and Pop type business. Its only competition at the time was Strawberries (very over-priced), Newbury Comics, or headin to the Maine Mall. Good times.

[3QGojo]

I went ahead and bought the $10 3-pack at Wal-Mart and traded it in to Bull Moose to see what I could get for it. I got $4 a game ($12 total), so I only gained $1.50 in credit since the 3-pack cost me $10.50. Oh well, I figured it was worth a try. At least I gained $$ (even though it was only a $1.50 gain). Not really worth it IMHO, but I'll keep you guys updated in my future trade-ins.

[3QGojo]

I bought some other games to test out and see how much I could get for them at my local Bull Moose and here were the results:
Resident Evil 4 GC (x1) – Traded in for $18 credit at Bull Moose
Tekken 5 PS2 (x1) – Traded in for $13 credit at Bull Moose
Super Monkey ball 1&2 GC (x1) – Traded in for $9 and $14 respectively at Bull Moose
Killer 7 PS2 (x1) – Traded in for $14 credit at Bull Moose
Spent: $41.92
Total Credit: $68.00
Gained: $26.08

[Bull Moose]

On behalf of myself and everyone at Bull Moose, thanks for your business. As you all have noticed, we started off really not knowing what the hell we were doing with games in general. We still had our general Bull Moose philosophy (lots of stuff, competitive prices, etc.) but for games our lack of knowledge/experience definitely held us back for a while (and still is, frankly).

If anyone of you has advice for us, I would love to hear it. Here are the avenues we're currently pursuing in respect to gaming, so I'd love your opinion if these are good or bad ideas...And feel free to be blunt --- I have thick skin.

1. About 6 months ago I put a real gamer in charge of game buying (sounds obvious, I know, but it took me a while to get my head out of my ass and crank up our gaming area. I was spending too long dipping my toe in the water). So she has been aggressive at trying to get our new releases in a timely fashion and start getting everything possible in. We price our new stuff cheaper than BB and WallyWorld but still find it difficult to handle the massive onslaught of pricing changes.
2. I know that some of our used prices are sometimes f-ing way off. That's due to us not being hardcore in the business when those titles came out, so we have them at the wrong listprice. And, speaking as the guy who wrote our software, we had so little data analyzing used pricing that I started with the same modeling data that I had developed for DVDs and CDs. Yes, I know they're really different than games, but, hey, ya gotta start somewhere. So here's where it's like a double edged sword for gamers here --- if we sell used items for less, we'll most likely end up paying less for some items. I think that more quickly adapting to the market will help everyone, though, meaning that having a game that outta sell for 7 bucks priced at 19 doesn't help anyone at all.
3. So, after realizing that it will take years to develop decent modeling data on games, I figured out a way to jump-start it --- we wrote some code to start analyzing our pricing against online pricing of used items (like at Amazon's zShops) and places like that... That way we'll know when a title is crashing in price way faster than we do now... so we'll be able to adjust our buy and sell price more quickly.
4. Our game merchandising sucks. It's all over the place at our various stores --- some like our warehouse have a cool selection of defunct games (some poorly priced, but I still like the garage sale like effect of all the old games), while some of our stores have half the games behind glass... so I have a new person as of a few weeks ago who is working on merchandising overall --- she isn't just working on games, but that will definitely be part of it. I can't decide if having tons of playable machines is worth anything to real gamers, though, as it seems like in most stores it is almost a time killing machine (i.e. one person is always camped out on it)... Would you want those machines in stores if you knew it took away from selection? If you all want them, we'll definitely get 'em, but that space where they go is more space that we can't sell anything.

Brett
Bull Moose Music

[3QGojo]

Well I don't think playable machines would be worth it since I only play those when I go to the mall to kill time. As you've said I like going to Bull Moose because I can get more credit for some of my older/useless games because Bull Moose will sell them for like $16 for a used DBZ PS1 game...

That's fine with me because it allows me to pick up more games that I actually want to play because Bull Moose has such a wide selection of games.

I don't know how someone from Bull Moose stumbled across this thread and if you're just an employee or the owner of one...if so I live in Portland, ME and maybe I could help you with your pricing?

Your trade-in prices seem fair but some of your used prices are way off and that means you'll have stuff sitting on your shelf for ages. I bet some of the older games that I traded in will sit on the shelves forever. Like you said why pay more for a used game when you can get the same thing at either EB or some place online like Amazon.com for even less.

[3QGojo]

Well, I once again took advantage of Bull Moose since it seems to be the only place to offer decent (if any) trade-in values for PS1 games.

Traded in:
Drake (Xbox) for $6 (bought for $2.06 after tax)
Grind Session (PS1) for $2 (bought for 74 cents)
Shrek Treasure Hunt (PS1) (x2) for $4 (bought for 66 cents ea)
Power Play Sports Trivia (PS1) (x2) for $4 (bought for 66 cents ea)
==========================================
SPENT: $5.44
TOTAL CREDIT: $16
GAINED: $10.56

Overall not bad considering FYE or any other place around here doesn't take PS1 games trade in and if they do they never give more than $1 per game.

[Bull Moose]

Thanks for your reply! I stumbled across this because I have a program that searches for anytime "Bull Moose Music" is mentioned on the web. Games are a big priority for us right now, so we're spending quite a bit of time getting our act together.

You're right about some of those games you sold us sitting around for a while --- we sold your Cube/Super Monkey Ball the day after it came in, but both of the Cube/Future Tactics:Uprising you sold us are gathering dust... Our new analysis program is saying that we should have paid you about 2-3 bucks for those and have them shelved at 5.50 - 6.00 rather than paying you 6 bucks and having them out at 10-ish.

It'll be interesting how it plays out.... if we're more on top of our pricing, the intake price (the price offered to you) might decline somewhat on some items that we're overpaying for now, but the shelf price will also decline quite a bit so at least you'll save on anything you do trade for...

Well I don't think playable machines would be worth it since I only play those when I go to the mall to kill time. As you've said I like going to Bull Moose because I can get more credit for some of my older/useless games because Bull Moose will sell them for like $16 for a used DBZ PS1 game...

That's fine with me because it allows me to pick up more games that I actually want to play because Bull Moose has such a wide selection of games.

I don't know how someone from Bull Moose stumbled across this thread and if you're just an employee or the owner of one...if so I live in Portland, ME and maybe I could help you with your pricing?

Your trade-in prices seem fair but some of your used prices are way off and that means you'll have stuff sitting on your shelf for ages. I bet some of the older games that I traded in will sit on the shelves forever. Like you said why pay more for a used game when you can get the same thing at either EB or some place online like Amazon.com for even less.

[3QGojo]

Not to be mean or anything, but when is this new pricing system going to be implemented? If it's going to be soon maybe I should trade in more games to get the maximum amount of trade-in credit I'm able to before it turns over to the new sytem.

Here's my trade-in total so far:
Money Spent: $63.86
Total Credit: $112
=================
GAINED: $48.14

As you can see by spending $63.86 in games and then trading them in I was able to GAIN $48.14 in trade-in credit for those same games. So basically I'm able to get a new $50 game completely free considering they always sell new games for $47 or $45.

Another question if the person from BMM comes back, are you one of the workers that I've been trading in games to? If so then you may even know my face pretty good by now. :)

[mattyp33]

glad to hear you are working on your gaming pricing...I always come to you guys to price match BB or Circuit City and feel bad when you have to adjust a game way down...for example, I used the Circuit City ad recently to get Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal for $15 at the Scarborough Warehouse Store when it was still marked at $37 and change...keep us updated!

-matty

[guardian_owl]

I've passed up reading this thread for awhile thinking this was some joke topic featuring the mating calls of the Bull Moose :lol:

[3QGojo]

Wait...so BMM PM's other stores? If that's true...jebus...I never knew that...if anyone can confirm that they PM that might help me in my quest for glory! :)

[mattyp33]

they've always price matched for me...hence their "guaranteed low price" statement...just be sure to bring in that week's current ad that you want to match with...

-matt

[3QGojo]

That's cool...I'll keep that into consideration the next time I'm looking for some good games.

[alonzomourning23]

Glad to hear they price match. Not that I buy much advertised stuff, but its just another way to get my member card higher. I'm waiting till it gets to around 100 or 150, right now I can only get a $50 item for half price.

Though I've never had much of a problem with the pricing, mainly cause I'm selective. I just view the expensive stuff as things I had to ignore to get to the stuff that was underpriced.

Though two questions to the bull moose guy (if he still reads this). One is why are there all those "employees only" boxes under the racks? I asked someone once and they told me they were doubles, but I could clearly see many (if not most) weren't. I've had employees tell me I can't look in them before. I know that may seem obvious given the label, but they're are on the floor and often have different stuff so its hard not to look. I only go to the 2 in NH though (been to portland, maine once), so maybe the others don't do that.

The other question is how come you don't sell any games lower than $6? That's fine with the newer stuff but some of the older stuff is marked .99 or 1.99 at eb (the ones that carry old stuff) and gamestop (though they recently stopped carrying older things)? I know it seems cheap but compared to the way everyone else (eb, gamestop, ebay) prices things it seems rather odd.

[3QGojo]

Basically they need to change their prices on a lot of older games...if they do I'll pick some up...if not it might help with trade-in prices that I get on older games...it's win-win! :)

Also, about the member card...I was wondering if this card (I have one too) is it buying a $50 at half off just ONCE or can you do that multiple times as a reward for constantly shopping there...because I've been there a lot lately and I have about 11 points...so I can buy something for $11 at half price. I plan on saving to get to $40+ so I can geet DDS2 for around $25...that'd be nice!

I can't find much information on the card about it so if you know how that half off stuff works...like one time use or constant...would be nice (or if the Bull Moose guy could tell me).

[alonzomourning23]

Basically they need to change their prices on a lot of older games...if they do I'll pick some up...if not it might help with trade-in prices that I get on older games...it's win-win! :)

Also, about the member card...I was wondering if this card (I have one too) is it buying a $50 at half off just ONCE or can you do that multiple times as a reward for constantly shopping there...because I've been there a lot lately and I have about 11 points...so I can buy something for $11 at half price. I plan on saving to get to $40+ so I can geet DDS2 for around $25...that'd be nice!

I can't find much information on the card about it so if you know how that half off stuff works...like one time use or constant...would be nice (or if the Bull Moose guy could tell me).

Not sure why you think they'd permanently sell you stuff at half off. It works only once, but you can use it multiple times to use up that amount. For example, if you can buy a $50 item for half off and only buy a $25 for half off, then you still can buy another $25 item for half off.

[3QGojo]

Alright, that makes sense but it's still pretty sweet...because what you said about using the 50 points on 2 $25 games to get each of those half off is a great deal.

[Bull Moose]

Thanks for the feedback.... Sorry to hear you were given some attitude about the employees only boxes---here's the challenge:

They should all be doubles. But, as you noticed, they aren't always doubles in our Portsmouth store --- you can see that store is crammed to the gills with stuff, and we're unable to keep one of every unique item in the bins. Now, it's wicked moronic to have something that we bought but is unavailable for sale. So, to rectify that, we're in the process of a remodel (in our Sanford store first) that should increase our capacity a lot --- and massively in games. As to what to do in the meantime, I'll talk to the Portsmouth store and see if they can eek some more space somewhere to at least let you and all of our customers look through those. The only reason they don't let everyone look through them right now is that they run into a serious upstocking problem with new CDs because for CDs they all are doubles, and folks put them back in the wrong place and when it comes time to upstock, it's impossible to find the correct item sometimes.

For Salem, the story is a bit different. They have the capacity, but pawning laws in Salem force us to hold items for 30 days after purchase. It is a pain in the butt.

So, I have good and bad news for you all. The good news is that within a few days, we will be repricing all of our used games --- first in our Portland store and then if that goes OK, the other nine will go next. Some prices will go down 90% or more (down to where they should have been all along as you all have pointed out). The current and future bought slower turning used games will immediately have a more competitive price than they used to. I'll post here if you want with the exact day it will be finished so you can get first shot at them ------ that's the good news. The bad news as you may guess is that it will be much less frequent that we'll be massively overpaying for used items.

The lowest price that this repricing will hit is 2.97 (this repricing will effect all Xbox, PS2, Cube, PS, N64, and Dreamcast used games that we stock). I'm still looking at pricing et. al. for the older systems/games, and I'll let you know when we go about changing those prices.

So I guess the concise answer to your second question is we don't sell the old games for .99 or 1.99 because we don't know what the heck we're doing yet. Getting there, but definitely not there yet!!



Glad to hear they price match. Not that I buy much advertised stuff, but its just another way to get my member card higher. I'm waiting till it gets to around 100 or 150, right now I can only get a $50 item for half price.

Though I've never had much of a problem with the pricing, mainly cause I'm selective. I just view the expensive stuff as things I had to ignore to get to the stuff that was underpriced.

Though two questions to the bull moose guy (if he still reads this). One is why are there all those "employees only" boxes under the racks? I asked someone once and they told me they were doubles, but I could clearly see many (if not most) weren't. I've had employees tell me I can't look in them before. I know that may seem obvious given the label, but they're are on the floor and often have different stuff so its hard not to look. I only go to the 2 in NH though (been to portland, maine once), so maybe the others don't do that.

The other question is how come you don't sell any games lower than $6? That's fine with the newer stuff but some of the older stuff is marked .99 or 1.99 at eb (the ones that carry old stuff) and gamestop (though they recently stopped carrying older things)? I know it seems cheap but compared to the way everyone else (eb, gamestop, ebay) prices things it seems rather odd.

[Bull Moose]

Ok, I read my own quote, and I hate when people overhype stuff. Sorry. The used stuff that's going down 90% is completely overpriced to begin with and the 90% reduction will not exactly be some wonderful bargain, but instead where it should have been all along. Also, looking at the majority of used games, they'll be going down a lot less than that. Still significantly, but more in the 20-40% range for a lot of them. I'll give more of an average breakdown or something if you all want to know, or you can just take a peek next time you're in the store after the markdown has occured.

Some prices will go down 90% or more (down to where they should have been all along as you all have pointed out).

[3QGojo]

I'd be very interested to know when this will kick in because I'd like to take advantage of this sale. I know some of the older games I would pick up at 90% off (maybe even some at 40% off). I'd also like to know dates and for what stores these pricing changes will take effect. I haven't traded in games at Bull Moose in a little while (been busy). I will miss the high amount of trade-in credit I was getting since Bull Moose was the only store left that I could gain tons of credit for older games since FYE changed their pricing system (and my BB isn't doing trade-ins).

However, this could be very good news if you sell some older stuff at lower prices (i.e. below $6 for some) because I bet some of that older stuff has been sitting there for a LONG time.

[3QGojo]

I'd very much like to know when the NEW prices go into effect so I can hit up the Portland or Scarborough Bull Moose! :)

[Bull Moose]

I will definitely keep you posted. I will post here when I give the store the go-ahead to reprice all used games. (At the same time they'll be repricing the new games, but while there are some issues there, they are nowhere near as severe as our used games... For the most part, our new games outta be a few percent cheaper than the competition, and if you use your FQB card, you'll end up getting back another 3 to 4 percent in half priced stuff... The real math being you get 1 point for every 12.97 spent, so you get $0.50 off per point... Therefore you save .50/12.97 percent or %3.855 -- not a ton, but something).

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to post the areas we need to improve. We'll get there, and I appreciate the feedback.

I'd very much like to know when the NEW prices go into effect so I can hit up the Portland or Scarborough Bull Moose! :)

[3QGojo]

Alright then, keep us updated! :)

[3QGojo]

Any updates from the Bull Moose guy?

[goatindaruffness]

Why don't you people get a job, and then use that money to buy video games, instead of penny pinching every cent you can get, especially out of smaller stores...
-Goatman

[acolyte]

Why don't you people get a job, and then use that money to buy video games, instead of penny pinching every cent you can get, especially out of smaller stores...
-Goatman

Well, with taxes being what they are, the only real industries being healthcare and tourism, and this site being cheapassgamer, it's to Bull Moose's credit that it's taking Mainers' interests to heart.

[alonzomourning23]

Why don't you people get a job, and then use that money to buy video games, instead of penny pinching every cent you can get, especially out of smaller stores...
-Goatman

Have you even looked at the average debt people have? Hell, college students average over 3k (not counting tuition). If people can buy 5 game for 70 or 5 games for 250 that, and continued savings, can play a significant role for those of us who don't make 6 figures. Everything adds up. I make less than most of my friends but I can buy more and am one of the ones who always has something to spend, it's not that odd for me to hear "oh, I can't go to X tonight cause I spent all my money".

[3QGojo]

Why don't you people get a job, and then use that money to buy video games, instead of penny pinching every cent you can get, especially out of smaller stores...
-Goatman

Are you serious? Please don't assume some of us don't even have a job because we don't like to pay full price on videogames (regardless of whether or not we're buying from a local business or not). In fact I have a job and I'm finishing up my last semester of college. However, that doesn't mean I'm going to pay $100 for 2 brand new games when I could pay $100 for lets say 4 or 5 brand new videogames. In fact that would just be idiotic to waste money like that. We can only make suggestions to Bull Moose on here and they can choose whether or not they want to implement those changes. Considering a lot of the used items are overpriced as it stands right now it would only make sense for Bull Moose to change some of their prices. Please think before you post next time. :)

[3QGojo]

Any updates yet?

[3QGojo]

Snagged a used/like new copy of Dinotopia (XB) at the Bull Moose in Scarborough for $7.97 + tax. It'll be good trade fodder for wherehouse.com for a quick $20. :)

[3QGojo]

Where did the Bull Moose Music guy go? Come back to us! :(

Give us updates!

[n8littlefield]

Quick BullMoose story - I went to the one in Lewiston recently to browse around and noticed a few of their DS games were pretty cheap. So - I grabbed Sonic Rush for 19.99 (normally 29.99) and Battles of Prince of Persia for 18.99 (normally 39.99). I got them to the register and he's like "this ring up higher, but no problem you get them for the cheaper price". I got them home and realized the sticker on Sonic was for Mario Sunshine and the one on Prince of Persia was for Elf Bowling. Apparently whoever did the pricing on their DS had been a bit off...

[3QGojo]

I've seen this as well, at my Bull Moose they have the newest Spung Bob game for the price of the newest Tony Hawk game...in fact the sticker says Tony Hawk and then the price.

This also happened when I bought my copy of Dinotopia (see above post), as there were two copies and one was marked at $14.97 and had the name Dinotopia on it and the other was marked at $7.97 and had a generic label on it of: used dvd/dvd. So someone is mislabeling stuff all the time to make it either cheaper or more expensive.

EDIT: This was the Bull Moose in Scarborough, ME.

[n8littlefield]

Does Scarborough carry anything older than PSone anymore? I know at one point they were taking in at least back to SNES and I was thinking about checking them this weekend for older games.

[3QGojo]

Yea, they have SNES, GENESIS, DREAMCAST, N64, even some SEGA CD and Atari games.

[3QGojo]

Needed a GC controllor in a pinch tonight because my other one stopped working...Bull Moose is open till 11pm (everywhere else was closed) and I picked up a Madcatz micro controller for $12.94 and used my points (I had 15 points) and I got the controller for $6.47. :)

Not bad considering I was desperate and I got a controller for under $7 in a pinch. But now I only have 2 points left so I gotta kinda start over. :(

[brewin]

What happened to the price matching? I used to walk in with BB or CC ads from this site and get the ad price no problem. Now they wont PM at all!

[3QGojo]

Dunno, I still haven't tried PM'ing at Bull Moose because there hasn't been anything worthwhile yet for me.

[n8littlefield]

Yea, they have SNES, GENESIS, DREAMCAST, N64, even some SEGA CD and Atari games.

Well, I guess I'm hitting there next weekend. I only really actively collect Atari and NES for older stuff - I'll be in Westbrook next weekend for a nieces birthday party - guess I'll hit the flea market at Pride's Corner and maybe Bullmoose.

Anyone know if Circuit City in S. Portland has anything good from the clearance sale left?

[3QGojo]

Didn't see much last time I went to CC, and Bull Moose also has NES games as well.

[n8littlefield]

Well, I guess I'll hit BullMoose on Saturday. I have enough points to get something up to like $16 half off, so maybe I can find a neat NES game there...

[3QGojo]

You could hit up CC and Bull Moose, they're so close to each other on that strip it's easy to hit both right in a row. :)

[n8littlefield]

That's true - that way I can check out the laptops at CC as well. I wish my Bullmoose carried retro games!

[3QGojo]

I'm wondering where the Bull Moose Music guy went to? I'm still waiting for the prices on the games to be adjusted so I can go and grab some more games. :)

[3QGojo]

I remember seeing this article awhile ago:

http://entertainment.mainetoday.com/qa/040916qanda.shtml

and I was wondering if the Brett from Bull Moose Music that was posting on this site was the same Brett from the article? If so, then it's very cool to see an owner so involved with the gaming community. :)

[3QGojo]

Anyone go to Bull Moose recently?

[n8littlefield]

Anyone go to Bull Moose recently?


Just went to the Scarborough one on Saturday looking for classic games. Their Atari 2600 stuff is ridiculously expensive ($6 for common games!!) and the NES stuff was pretty limited, but priced much more fairly. I ended up leaving with a PS2 game instead. They had Devil May Cry 3 Special Edition for $15, and I had enough points on my card that I could get it for half off. So, 7.50ish and I picked it up.

[3QGojo]

Cool beans man! :)

[ajumbaje]

pretty interesting that even though they probably didnt name the store after this, the bull moose party was the party that theodore roosevelt ran for against taft back in 1912. That would be pretty interesting if we see a Populist gaming inc. or Eugene Debs gaming co. I know, I'm a history nerd, but hey, it would be interesting.

[3QGojo]

I never knew any of that, I guess we could ask the Bull Moose guy if he ever comes back!

[dark-star]

pretty interesting that even though they probably didnt name the store after this, the bull moose party was the party that theodore roosevelt ran for against taft back in 1912. That would be pretty interesting if we see a Populist gaming inc. or Eugene Debs gaming co. I know, I'm a history nerd, but hey, it would be interesting.

LOL! I had never heard of Bull Moose Music before this thread, but when I first saw the title, Teddy Roosevelt's name popped into my head and I thought "Weird, naming a store after a defunct political party that barely 1 in 10 people would remember from their history classes"....then I saw they were from Maine and it all made perfect sense! :)

[3QGojo]

Anyone else have any comments on the stores name?

Maybe this is where it came from or maybe from something else?

Thoughts?

[Bull Moose]

When my school paper did a story on the store, the reporter said "I know why you named the store Bull Moose" and I said "really?".. She said "yeah, Teddy Roosevelt formed the Bull Moose party when he got sick of the other political parties screwing around, so you named it Bull Moose to signify that you were a new kind of store - one that doesn't screw around". Since that was so much better than the actual reason I named it Bull Moose, I said "oh, sure, you got it.". That 'fake' story behind the name ran in a number of different articles on the store as the 'real' reason behind the name.

The real reason is embarrassing at this point. I ran track and cross country in college and "Bull Moose" was the name of a running club that was so deep and intellectual that you joined by pounding a Rolling Rock beer out of your non-dominant hand and giving a current member a nickel. From that point forward you had to drink all alcoholic beverages out of your non-dominant hand or if caught in the wrong hand you would have to pound it. To anyone who owns something with our original logo on it (unlikely as there are only a couple dozen out there) if you look closely at the moose on it, the moose is wearing track spikes. So, now you know the real story!


pretty interesting that even though they probably didnt name the store after this, the bull moose party was the party that theodore roosevelt ran for against taft back in 1912. That would be pretty interesting if we see a Populist gaming inc. or Eugene Debs gaming co. I know, I'm a history nerd, but hey, it would be interesting.

[Bull Moose]

Sorry the lack of updates - I was at a conference (a yawner, let me tell you) and then I caught the flu on the way back... I'll drop you an update within a couple of days when I feel better.

I'm wondering where the Bull Moose Music guy went to? I'm still waiting for the prices on the games to be adjusted so I can go and grab some more games. :)

[n8littlefield]

Bull Moose - it's really cool that you post here, but I have to say if you are in any position with the day to day runnings of the stores, you really need to have your staff be more careful pricing. I mentioned the two DS games I got really cheap because they were mispriced giving me about 20-25 bucks off... Well, the copy of Devil May Cry 3 I bought in Scarborough rang up wrong as well...I checked my receipt and it ran up as Devil May Cry 1 - only a $5 difference this time, but they will start to add up. The Lewiston store was FULL of mispriced games last time I was there. Again, not being critical, I certainly don't mind getting a DS game for less than half off, but as a company it might start to hurt a bit!

Edit: I found the Bull Moose Sticker that was on it, sure enough, the original Devil May Cry.

[3QGojo]

I believe that this Bull Moose person...is in fact Brett the guy that started Bull Moose. If that's the case than it's fantastic that he posts here, and I look forward to any updates he has. Also, very good story about how the store name was created. Also, I noticed on the Bull Moose website that there's a place to enter in a coupon codes, maybe as an added bonus to CAG's we could get a 10% off coupon like with EB online...if not that's cool, but I'd like to be able to use my Bull Moose card online at least! If that's possible then great! If not then I'll wait till it is possible! :)

[3QGojo]

I tried my hand at trading some of the CC games in:

Tekken Tag (PS2): $4
Gungrave Overdose (PS2): $4
Backyard Wrestling (XB): $5
Rogue Ops (PS2): $2
Rogue Ops (XB): $2
TOTAL: $17 CREDIT

My CC is pretty much right next to my Bull Moose (by the Maine Mall)...it wasn't worth it, but at least I didn't loose any $.

Bought all those games for $2.96/ea = $15.55

CREDIT: $17
SPENT: $15.55
DIFF: $1.45 GAINED

Definately not worth it IMHO. Although it was interesting that a game like Backyard Wrestling (XB) gets $5!

EDIT: I went back to CC to get the games I got price adjusted and another free game (since I got 5). It went smoothly and I got $3.11 back + another game!

So...

SPENT: $15.55 - $3.11 = $12.44
CREDIT: $17
SPENT: $12.44
GAINED: $4.56 (and 1 free game)

Slightly better but still not that great. I'll use the money at a place like Bull Moose, but CC doesn't deserve it. Still not worth it to do it again, but at least I got more money back! I was in the area anyways for a job interview so it wasn't out of my way either.

[3QGojo]

Anyone else do any trade-ins at Bull Moose?

Man I wish we could get a trade-in list going.

[Bull Moose]

Thanks for the constructive criticism - it is helpful and I appreciate it. You're right, that we have some serious staff training issues in regard to games... Our folks are used to spotting if a Pearl Jam CD is the limited or non limited version et. al., but with games a few of our stores are not trained well enough to spot the correct version of a game. Games that have barcodes and scan correctly don't have the issue, but when they look up games in the database, it's clear that frequently errors are being made.



Bull Moose - it's really cool that you post here, but I have to say if you are in any position with the day to day runnings of the stores, you really need to have your staff be more careful pricing. I mentioned the two DS games I got really cheap because they were mispriced giving me about 20-25 bucks off... Well, the copy of Devil May Cry 3 I bought in Scarborough rang up wrong as well...I checked my receipt and it ran up as Devil May Cry 1 - only a $5 difference this time, but they will start to add up. The Lewiston store was FULL of mispriced games last time I was there. Again, not being critical, I certainly don't mind getting a DS game for less than half off, but as a company it might start to hurt a bit!

Edit: I found the Bull Moose Sticker that was on it, sure enough, the original Devil May Cry.

[Bull Moose]

Right now our website is outsourced, so it sucks pretty bad. We're in the process of inhousing it, and when we do that, I'll have much more freedom over pricing/attaching FQB cards/etc.. It's a few months before it will all be ready --- I'm not making any promises, but I'll definitely keep CAGs in mind.


I believe that this Bull Moose person...is in fact Brett the guy that started Bull Moose. If that's the case than it's fantastic that he posts here, and I look forward to any updates he has. Also, very good story about how the store name was created. Also, I noticed on the Bull Moose website that there's a place to enter in a coupon codes, maybe as an added bonus to CAG's we could get a 10% off coupon like with EB online...if not that's cool, but I'd like to be able to use my Bull Moose card online at least! If that's possible then great! If not then I'll wait till it is possible! :)

[daschrier]

As a NH native I love Bull Moose. I currently live in Boston but ALWAYS drive up to salem to go to Bull Moose. I only buy my CD's there now as I'd rather support a small store who likes music and games rather than Best Buy or Circuit City, plus the bull moose card is a nice incentive. I will admit I do go to Newbury Comics if I can't find something I want...:p
I have gotten lucky on games there, and have found quite a few harder to find games, as many people don't know about Bull Moose and that they carry games.

Any plans for a Boston store so I don't have to drive?? :D

[n8littlefield]

Yeah - I have to say I love Bullmoose. During Christmas, I had them special order some stuff and the speed that it arrived was absolutely insane. Just to give you an idea, my wife wanted Punky Brewster Season 2 (I know, I know...) and not only was Bullmoose $4 cheaper than any online store, but I ordered it Sat and it arrived by Tuesday. Absolutely blew me away.

In fact, the wife just bought my copy of Guitar Hero from them!

As a sidenote, I don't know if this was a company change or just change in personel at the local store - but I had actually stopped shopping at Bullmoose for awhile because it was so frickin' loud in the Lewiston store. For some reason they were always blaring German heavy metal (which I don't mind on occassion, but not while I'm out shopping). It was to the point that my wife wouldn't go in the store! I went back for the first time in months over the holidays and found it was much quieter in there and have been back alot more than I ever had. So kudos if that change was made on purpose!

[daschrier]

Sometimes the music can be objectionable for small kids, but since I don't have any kids it doesn't bother me, but for some parents it might.

[n8littlefield]

No - not objectionable in content, just objectionable in the volume and obnoxiousness level. I like Ramstein - but it certainly isn't the music I'd use to get people to stay awhile and browse and shop! It's been a ton better lately, more towards alternative or jazz even on occasion.

[3QGojo]

Yea, I went to the Portland store and the music was pretty bad, however, the Scarborough one seemed to play good stuff.

[3QGojo]

Any updates on anything from anybody?

I still have $17 credit at Bull Moose I have to use some time. I'll get around to it some day I'm sure.

[beregarii]

Hey there,
I'm from Augusta and I love Bull Moose. Is there any chance of an Augusta location now that Sam Goody is moving out of the Turnpike Mall?

[n8littlefield]

I hit the Bullmoose in Lewiston this weekend. I had picked up some games at the Circuit City clearance, played a bit of them but decided to trade them. I had about $25 in store credit (as opposed to the $13 that Gamestop offered me) and got Tony Hawk DS for $27ish. I hit Sam Goody in Augusta the weekend before last to see if they had any good clearance sales - even going out of business they're expensive!

[3QGojo]

If they did put a Bull Moose in Augusta I doubt they'd put it where Sam Goody is located (middle of nowhere). The place they'd put it is prolly the BIG shopping area where WAL-MART and everything else that has anything good can be found.

Hey there,
I'm from Augusta and I love Bull Moose. Is there any chance of an Augusta location now that Sam Goody is moving out of the Turnpike Mall?

[3QGojo]

Went to Bull Moose by the mall tonight and picked up a used/like new copy of Super Bust a Moove 2 for PS2 (complete) for $11.97! Best price I've seen for this game in a long time! :)

[n8littlefield]

If they did put a Bull Moose in Augusta I doubt they'd put it where Sam Goody is located (middle of nowhere). The place they'd put it is prolly the BIG shopping area where WAL-MART and everything else that has anything good can be found.

I really don't know where they could put one in Augusta. Over by Walmart makes sense, but there's already a Strawberries and an EB in that area, so music and games are already pretty well covered (plus I think Barnes & Nobles carries limited music/DVDs). I would say it would have to be on the side of town w/ Sears and Kmart, but not way out at the Turnpike Mall where Sam Goody was.

Maybe in the strip mall with Kmart would be best.

[beregarii]

I really don't know where they could put one in Augusta. Over by Walmart makes sense, but there's already a Strawberries and an EB in that area, so music and games are already pretty well covered (plus I think Barnes & Nobles carries limited music/DVDs). I would say it would have to be on the side of town w/ Sears and Kmart, but not way out at the Turnpike Mall where Sam Goody was.

Maybe in the strip mall with Kmart would be best.
Actually, word on the street is that Christmas Tree Shops and Bed Bath and Beyond are moving into where Ames used to be at the Turnpike Mall so that should help that spot out. And, as far as music being covered in the area, we have Strawberries but they are way overpriced, Barnes & Noble that are the same and Wal*Mart who I loathe plus their selection is limited.

[3QGojo]

I do agree that a Bull Moose in Augusta would be great. I go to Video Game Exchange in downtown Augusta for any videgame purchases when I'm up there now.

[3QGojo]

Any questions/updates/comments?

[n8littlefield]

No - I'm on a buying hold for the time being. I have a huge backlog that I have to kill a few games from before buying anything else. My copy of Ouendan for the DS just arrived and that's my last purchase until at least half my backlog is played.

[3QGojo]

I'll keep you guys updated on any shopping or trading I do at Bull Moose and how I make out. I've gotten so many good deals there in the past few months that Bull Moose is becoming one of my favorite stores along with TRU since these 2 places are where I get my best gaming deals.

[daschrier]

I still say Bull Moose in Boston!!!

[3QGojo]

Went to the So. Portland Bull Moose and picked up a copy of Street Fighter Alpha 3 (used/like new/complete) for $11.97. :)

EDIT: It was for the GBA :)

[3QGojo]

I keep checking in on the So. Portland one recently because I don't go there as much, so I feel like I'm missing out if I never go there. The Scarborough warehouse does have certain games that I've seen that are half off. Most of these are PS1 games and are priced at $25+ so half off of that has still made me want to pass.

Anyone else get any good deals lately?

Also, where did Brett go? I know he's prolly busy and all, but I miss his inside info, and I'm still waiting to hear about when they're going to change over to some new prices for the older games (so I can pcik some up)! :)

[3QGojo]

I keep checking in on Bull Moose every other day or so it seems. I've really become addicted. I've gotten some cheap games that I traded in at wherehouse.com for some good credit. I was gonna go back and pick up the copy of Futurama my GF found, but when I went back to get it it was gone. :(

[n8littlefield]

I traded in a few games and a DVD today at Bullmoose in Lewiston, got $40 in store credit. Picked up a CD and a copy of Age of Empires DS ($28).

[alonzomourning23]

Hey, if the bullmoose guy reads this, I know some bullmoose stores have records, are they inventoried or anything? I'm trying to finish off my phil ochs collection and I'm having difficulty with a few, was wondering if I went to a store if they could check and see if any others had the records in stock. I'd rather find them then buy them off ebay.

[3QGojo]

Yes, I was wondering where Brett went. Come back to us Brett! Gives us updates about your stores!

[Beanage]

Looks like Scarborough Bull Moose has started price drops. Some rough prices on the classic stuff:

N64 $8
SNES $5
Genesis $4
NES $4

Don't remember the prices for the SegaCD/Saturn/SMS/Atari stuff, but I think they're a couple bucks cheaper than before.

Too bad the selection on all those is mainly common crap/old sports games that are worth about $1.00.

I picked up DC Metropolis Street Racer for $9, when it was marked $12.

[3QGojo]

Too bad the selection on all those is mainly common crap/old sports games that are worth about $1.00.

Then there probably hasn't really been any price drops because Brett said he was going to be pricing everything normally to what they are actually worth. If those games are worth about $1 then it was my understanding that they are going to price them as such.

[3QGojo]

Went to Bull Moose by the mall today and scored a copy of Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast for the Gamecube. It is complete/mint condition and I bought it for $28.97! I also picked up a Star Wars Bounty Hunter: Limited Edition cover used/complete (PS2) for $11.97. Overall not a bad day at my local Bull Moose!

[n8littlefield]

Then there probably hasn't really been any price drops because Brett said he was going to be pricing everything normally to what they are actually worth. If those games are worth about $1 then it was my understanding that they are going to price them as such.

No - he's right, alot of their classic games are priced much more than they are worth. I went in looking at NES and Atari games and they had Pacman for the Atari priced at either 4 or 5 bucks, when really the thing goes for between .50 to $1. The NES stuff was also overpriced, I think I saw like 15 copies of Double Dribble for about 3-4 bucks each, I had picked mine up for .95 - like pretty much all NES sports games in my collection.

They really could stand to hire someone that knows classic gaming to come in like once a week and price according to what they are worth - wanna hire me? I'll come down every weekend and re-price stuff that's come in...heck, I'll even work for store credit and first dibbs at the Atari and NES games that come in! :)

[3QGojo]

No - he's right, alot of their classic games are priced much more than they are worth. I went in looking at NES and Atari games and they had Pacman for the Atari priced at either 4 or 5 bucks, when really the thing goes for between .50 to $1. The NES stuff was also overpriced, I think I saw like 15 copies of Double Dribble for about 3-4 bucks each, I had picked mine up for .95 - like pretty much all NES sports games in my collection.

They really could stand to hire someone that knows classic gaming to come in like once a week and price according to what they are worth - wanna hire me? I'll come down every weekend and re-price stuff that's come in...heck, I'll even work for store credit and first dibbs at the Atari and NES games that come in! :)

NOOOO! Hire me, I live right in Portland and could go to either the Scarborough or the So. Portland store! I'll work for $$ or that store credit incentive sounds good too! Anyways, to be honest I saw a "NOW HIRING" sign in the Bull Moose in Scarborough by the Mall.

[n8littlefield]

Hey, 3qgojo - I have to ask - where do you/did you go to high school - the picture in your profile looks insanely familiar to me.

[3QGojo]

Hey, 3qgojo - I have to ask - where do you/did you go to high school - the picture in your profile looks insanely familiar to me.

I went to Cony High School in Augusta, ME but that picture was taken my Soph. year in college at USM.

[n8littlefield]

That's funny. I taught at Cony High School, math and computers to be exact. I don't teach anymore though.

Do you by any chance remember wasting alot of study hall time with a four way chess board?

[beregarii]

This gets weirder and weirder. I, too, graduated from Cony. In '91, to be exact...

[n8littlefield]

That's really bizarre. I taught at Cony for 2 years, from 2000 - 2002. The really weird part is that if 3Q is who I think he is (and unless he has a brother who looks EXACTLY like him, I think I'm right) - I actually had him in a few of my classes...

Of course - that was before I quit teaching for the high life and wealth of customer service :) . I quit teaching when I left Cony - I was just too young and fresh from college at the time to be overly "teacher-y".

[jlarlee]

That's really bizarre. I taught at Cony for 2 years, from 2000 - 2002. The really weird part is that if 3Q is who I think he is (and unless he has a brother who looks EXACTLY like him, I think I'm right) - I actually had him in a few of my classes...

Of course - that was before I quit teaching for the high life and wealth of customer service :) . I quit teaching when I left Cony - I was just too young and fresh from college at the time to be overly "teacher-y".
hey where did you go to high school? I knew a nate littlefield but that last name is kind of common up there. I graduated out of carrabec in 96 but went to skowhegan my first two years

[n8littlefield]

I actually graduated from Vinalhaven High School in 1995, then went onto Farmington for college until 1999, taught at Cony from 00 - 02, now I'm in Lewiston. I'm actually likely to go back to teaching in the fall, hoping to move back up towards Farmington.

[3QGojo]

MR. LITTLEFIELD! OMG YOU WERE THE BEST TEACH EVER! I UNDERSTAND YOUR NAME NOW (N8 FOR NATE)! OMG!

Okay...I'm calm now...wholly f'ing cow though! How's it going? I haven't seen you in awhile! Where are you living, somewhere in Portland? Man Computer Basic + Study Hall were good times. I remember my friend Josh Mitchell had you for math and he thought you were awesome as well. I don't know if Cony was sad when you left, but I would've been sad (if I was graduating when you left anyways). But as you said teaching didn't pay jack and no I haven't forgotten you AT ALL! This is cool, I never thought I meet someone on CAG that I knew in REAL LIFE. :)

EDIT:

BTW this is odd:
YOU JOINED 12/29/04
I JOINED 12/15/04

[3QGojo]

I actually graduated from Vinalhaven High School in 1995, then went onto Farmington for college until 1999, taught at Cony from 00 - 02, now I'm in Lewiston. I'm actually likely to go back to teaching in the fall, hoping to move back up towards Farmington.


Nevermind about the where you live part of my insane speal...I see you live in Lewiston. :)

[n8littlefield]

I thought it was you!

I would have to say this is the weirdest thing I've had happen online for awhile. Last night, when I noticed the picture, it totally screwed with my head. I mean what in the hell are the chances that someone on here would be someone I actually knew?

I work for Unumprovident in Portland (insurance) but I actually work from home in Lewiston for right now. Are you still at USM? What major?

I'd ask if you're still playing games, but I guess that goes without saying. I'm actually gaming more than when I taught - since I don't have to correct papers and crap in the evenings...I do miss the vacations though!

[alonzomourning23]

Since everyone seems to know everyone else I may as well ask about someone that just popped into my head. I used to know a kid names russel littlefield who lived in new hampshire. Does n8littlefield know him?

[3QGojo]

I thought it was you!

I would have to say this is the weirdest thing I've had happen online for awhile. Last night, when I noticed the picture, it totally screwed with my head. I mean what in the hell are the chances that someone on here would be someone I actually knew?

I work for Unumprovident in Portland (insurance) but I actually work from home in Lewiston for right now. Are you still at USM? What major?

I'd ask if you're still playing games, but I guess that goes without saying. I'm actually gaming more than when I taught - since I don't have to correct papers and crap in the evenings...I do miss the vacations though!

Yeah, I'm still at USM and I'm graduating in May! Only a month or so away now! I'm a Business major (Marketing Concentration) and I hope to be gainfully employed soon. :)

I don't play online games as much, but I still play PS2 mostly (Final Fantasy/Metal Gear type games).

This is weird, but it's also great! Now I have an extra incentive to check CAG all the time.

[jlarlee]

I thought it was you!

I would have to say this is the weirdest thing I've had happen online for awhile. Last night, when I noticed the picture, it totally screwed with my head. I mean what in the hell are the chances that someone on here would be someone I actually knew?

I work for Unumprovident in Portland (insurance) but I actually work from home in Lewiston for right now. Are you still at USM? What major?

I'd ask if you're still playing games, but I guess that goes without saying. I'm actually gaming more than when I taught - since I don't have to correct papers and crap in the evenings...I do miss the vacations though!
go on myspace and this kind of thing happens weekly. Did you have any relatives in Norridgewock

[3QGojo]

Everyone's on myspace nowadays, except for me...I'm protesting!

[n8littlefield]

I don't know of any relatives in Norridgewock - but truthfully, my father's family is a bit big and I can't keep track of them, so it is very possible.

I'm not on myspace either. I think I'm too old for that, and I'm not nearly trendy enough. Isn't it required that you either be a goth or all emo for those things? My hair doesn't fall down in front of my face, and I'm not good at taking pictures of myself at odd angles and writing poetry. Basically, I don't have enough drama in my life to justify a page of my own.

I'm an old fart now, with a kid and a job and all that crap. I basically just hang out on a few message boards while I work and write game reviews for a small DS website or playing Guitar Hero.

[3QGojo]

You write game reviews? I want to do that! Are you getting paid for it? Also, how come I have this sudden urge to call you Mr. Littlefield? (LOL!)

I remember that you had a wife in school while you were teaching correct? But I think the kid is new, how is he/she?

[n8littlefield]

Just as a hobby. I haven't reviewed much lately because our entire website crashed, so right now I'm helping re-write the website itself. It involves learning a new programming language at the same time so it's going to take a little while. It's a site that's just for DS/PSP reviews. I don't get paid, we're too small for that - but I do get free review copies of games, so that's nice :)

I only do the DS reviews, I don't have a PSP - just a bit too rich for my blood right now.

I was married when I taught, but didn't have a kid. He's 1.5 years old now, named Lucas (after George Lucas naturally.)

I have a feeling I'll be Mr. Littlefield again in the fall. Probably try to end up in a smaller school than Cony if I do. Cony was just too f'n big for me. I've been doing insurance for 3.5 years now, and it's pretty mind numbing - I've got to do something that requires actual thought - so maybe teaching. Plus, it would be nice to (finally) get out of Lewiston.

Where are you planning to look for work - within the state or elsewhere?

[3QGojo]

Just as a hobby. I haven't reviewed much lately because our entire website crashed, so right now I'm helping re-write the website itself. It involves learning a new programming language at the same time so it's going to take a little while. It's a site that's just for DS/PSP reviews. I don't get paid, we're too small for that - but I do get free review copies of games, so that's nice :)

I only do the DS reviews, I don't have a PSP - just a bit too rich for my blood right now.

I was married when I taught, but didn't have a kid. He's 1.5 years old now, named Lucas (after George Lucas naturally.)

I have a feeling I'll be Mr. Littlefield again in the fall. Probably try to end up in a smaller school than Cony if I do. Cony was just too f'n big for me. I've been doing insurance for 3.5 years now, and it's pretty mind numbing - I've got to do something that requires actual thought - so maybe teaching. Plus, it would be nice to (finally) get out of Lewiston.

Where are you planning to look for work - within the state or elsewhere?

Within the state for right now, I figure I'll spend at least 1-2 years in Maine before I go anywhere else. This is where my mom (Augusta), dad (Portland), and brother (Portland) all live so I figured why not stick around for a few years...cept I am having trouble finding a job and it's getting closer to May so I'm getting kinda nervous. My dad has actually suggested that I work as a sales rep at Unum...but I really don't want to work in sales (even though I'd prolly get a ton of money). I'd rather do something that I enjoy a lot more. As far as teaching goes I say hey do what makes you happy! Also, you were a VERY good teacher and you were still young enough to relate to your students (which I thought was fantastic). If more teachers were like you this world would be a better place.

Another side note: Could I do some reviews for this site as well? I would do it if I got to keep the games that I got to write reviews about (that's payment in iteself).

Anyways, that's pretty much what's been going on in my life. I'm excited about graduating, but at the same time I'm a little nervous to be venturing on to the working world Full-Time every single week. I just hope I can get an okay job and not become a homeless bum on the street. :)

[n8littlefield]

Once we get the site back up and running I'll put your name in for reviews. We actually think once we start back up we will be shorthanded so I'm sure you'll be able to get in. For right now, we're not even getting copies of games in until we relaunch the site. It's all handheld gaming - do you have a GBA, DS, or PSP?

We're at the point where we can afford to have me be a teacher again, and we have friends up towards Farmington, plus April (my wife) is going back to school to get her teaching certificate, so it looks like we're going to head north in the fall. Plus - I have to admit, I REALLY miss having summers off!!

UNUM is a pretty decent place to work, they pay well and they have really good benefits. I'm work for the call center, making more money than I was teaching, working from home, and taking calls on disability claims and policy questions for life insurance. It's not a bad job, just gets mind numbing really quickly. I took it purely for $$ reasons, but I think everyone has to do that at some point. I'm sure you'll be able to fall into a job pretty easily - especially since it sounds like you could look both in Portland and Augusta.

[3QGojo]

Once we get the site back up and running I'll put your name in for reviews. We actually think once we start back up we will be shorthanded so I'm sure you'll be able to get in. For right now, we're not even getting copies of games in until we relaunch the site. It's all handheld gaming - do you have a GBA, DS, or PSP?

We're at the point where we can afford to have me be a teacher again, and we have friends up towards Farmington, plus April (my wife) is going back to school to get her teaching certificate, so it looks like we're going to head north in the fall. Plus - I have to admit, I REALLY miss having summers off!!

UNUM is a pretty decent place to work, they pay well and they have really good benefits. I'm work for the call center, making more money than I was teaching, working from home, and taking calls on disability claims and policy questions for life insurance. It's not a bad job, just gets mind numbing really quickly. I took it purely for $$ reasons, but I think everyone has to do that at some point. I'm sure you'll be able to fall into a job pretty easily - especially since it sounds like you could look both in Portland and Augusta.

I have a GBA, but I've contemplating getting a DS/PSP...it's just that I'm happy enough with the GBA for now. That sounds pretty awesome about going back to teaching because you were the shiznit! Anyways, now that you mentioned that 4-way chess board I might have to go find one myself (since that one was Nate's). Although those times in study hall with you, nate, myself, and blackie were awesome! I don't even remember that blackie kid's name, but we just named him that because he always choose black, haha. Good times good times...

On a another note: Anyone go to Bull Moose lately? I haven't been because I've gotten so many good deals on games lately, there's been no reason. I have been thinking about going to check out CC to see what they have left though. :)

[n8littlefield]

I'm going to hit Bull Moose this weekend, I think. I get a bonus at work this week, and I think we'll end up hitting the "big city" then. I'll post if/when I hit them (I'm especially curious about the price drop on NES games!)

[3QGojo]

Cheers to CAG for reuniting a teacher and his student! Seriously though I love the Bull Moose by the mall it has the best selection of games/cd's/dvd's. It says they're hiring and a part of me wants to work there just so I can get a discount on stuff.

[3QGojo]

I found a copy of Resident Evil 3 (PS1) NEW/SEALED for $14.72 in the clearance rack. The funny thing is that there were NEW/SLEAD copies in the regular racks for $25-$30...and somehow this one got into the clearance racks for half off and I snatched it up. Also got a copy of Simpsons Skateboarding (PS2) for $11.97 mint/complete.

I swear everytime I go to Bull Moose I find something good. Next I'm going to check out TRU on thursday and see if there's anything good left on green tagged. At 90% off there's gotta be something.

EDIT: It was $14.72 after the 50% was taken off...so it was an okay price. :)

[n8littlefield]

That's cool, usually if you see a PS1 game still sealed it's because it's a game no-one would want!

I really have to stop buying game for awhile (I've got too many to play right now), but I know I won't be able to resist hitting at least the Lewiston store this weekend. I just ordered Metroid and Castlevania 3 for my NES from another message board, so I think that will be it for classic games until yard sale season starts!

[3QGojo]

Starting to drink and it's St. Patty's day! Alright, cya later everyone...

[n8littlefield]

I hit the Bullmoose in Scarborough today. Traded in a few older games, picked up Capcom Classics for the PS2 used for $11, Mega Man Classics used for $18 and Vice: Project Doom and Xenophobe for the NES for $4 each.

Got home and my copies of Castlevania 3 and Metroid had arrived, so it'll be a busy night tonight!

[3QGojo]

Alright, come on now Brett! Did you forget about us? :(

I'm sure you're very busy, but we haven't heard from you in awhile and I got distracted from meeting my former teacher.

I haven't been to Bullmoose in a few days, but I'm sure the next time I go I will report any happenings on here.

[3QGojo]

Hey, if the bullmoose guy reads this, I know some bullmoose stores have records, are they inventoried or anything? I'm trying to finish off my phil ochs collection and I'm having difficulty with a few, was wondering if I went to a store if they could check and see if any others had the records in stock. I'd rather find them then buy them off ebay.

BTW, interesting note since I was in the Scarborough Warehouse store last. Someone asked if their vynl records were inventoried and the person working the counter said that they weren't...don't know if that helps any. I would say from overhearing that conversation that they aren't inventoried.

[3QGojo]

Any updates from anyone? :)

[Bull Moose]

Any updates from anyone? :)
Sorry I disappeared for a while. If anyone lives in the Sanford area, yesterday we completely refixtured our Sanford store to fit about twice as much stuff as it used to.

As for the questions --- we do inventory some vinyl but not all vinyl. The reason (and this holds for videogames also) that we don't inventory every item is that we get our vendors to give us computerized lists of their inventory so we don't have to hand type every single item into our database. However, since we now have four other companies using our software, the date is rapidly approaching where it will make sense to hand type in more and more of that stuff. Honestly, vinyl is not up there on the list, but some older video games are likely to get hand keyed at some time in the near-ish future.

For the specific question, if we had them in stock, we would inventory vinyl of Phil Ochs' Broadside Tapes or Toast to Those Who Are Gone, but unfortunately we have not carried either of those on vinyl ever. The rest of his catalog would not be inventoried on vinyl if we had it (which is unlikely).

On new features news, we're also going to allow you the ability at some point to query our stores directly to see if we have an item and if it's new and/or used before you go there. Or allow you to "special order" an out of print item, and get alerted if we ever buy it back used from somone. These will not be for public consumption for the near future, but we'll have beta code going within a few months. If any of you guys would like to test querying for titles to see our price and if we have them used at all before going to the store, I'll invite you to be part of our beta test if we go that route --- it will be beta, so the UI (user interface) will suck, but it will close to feature complete.

As for pricing games, your instincts have been right --- we've been moving forward on a lot of stuff, but haven't gotten anywhere near to all the systems/areas yet. We are also moving out limited amounts of overstock stuff through amazon --- if you search the zShops there, you can see a full listing of the videogames we have up there and their pricing. But the shipping cost would make it not a good deal in some cases, so you'd want to watch out for that... we don't control the shipping they charge, and it seems kind of unfair that the shipping doesn't go down if you buy multiple items from one vendor (since we could, of course, ship them in one box). It's too bad that they can't let us sell them without shipping and make them available for pickup...

[3QGojo]

Brett's back!

I like that "available for pickup" idea because I could do that no problem. However, selling stuff on Amazon gives people outside of ME/NH a chance to try the fine products that Bull Moose provides so I can't say it's a bad idea. I think it's just better to have your own website setup that you can do different things with. Of course I know that would take time, but I'd be willing to participate in any beta testing you'd want to do. :)

[3QGojo]

Oh, and one more thing...you could sell stuff on here to CAG's if it's overstock that you really need to get rid of. There's a trading forum and you can post stuff for sale or trade there. Everyone on here (including myself) has done some trading/selling/buying.

[n8littlefield]

I was just in Bullmoose in Lewiston and was told they were cutting back on what they were paying out for used DVDs and games because they were getting so much in right now. Kind of a shame, I was using them for all my tradeins, but may have to stop (one game I brought in was worth $24 at Gamestop but only $8 at Bullmoose now...)

[3QGojo]

I was just in Bullmoose in Lewiston and was told they were cutting back on what they were paying out for used DVDs and games because they were getting so much in right now. Kind of a shame, I was using them for all my tradeins, but may have to stop (one game I brought in was worth $24 at Gamestop but only $8 at Bullmoose now...)

That's sad really...I used to use Bull Moose for a lot of my trade-ins, but I don't think I'll get much for them anymore. I think the key for trading stuff in for me is...to look and see what the game for sells new/used and then take a % of that and kinda guess what they might give you for it...I'm not exactly sure how it works...maybe if the Bull Moose guy could enlighten us on how their system works we could help make changes or give input...because it seems as though some games aren't worth the trade-in value that they get, while others are worth more than what their trade-in values are.

[n8littlefield]

That's sad really...I used to use Bull Moose for a lot of my trade-ins, but I don't think I'll get much for them anymore. I think the key for trading stuff in for me is...to look and see what the game for sells new/used and then take a % of that and kinda guess what they might give you for it...I'm not exactly sure how it works...maybe if the Bull Moose guy could enlighten us on how their system works we could help make changes or give input...because it seems as though some games aren't worth the trade-in value that they get, while others are worth more than what their trade-in values are.

I do know they rank things by what type of condition they are in, the guy told me that too. The manager at the Lewiston store warned me before scanning my stuff in that I might be disappointed because chain wide they just reduced the percentages of what they are paying. Oh well, they were overpaying on some stuff - but $8 for a game that still retails for $50 really surprised me (especially if Gamestop offered $24, and they are usually really cheap!)

[Bull Moose]

Thanks for posting that and bringing it to my attention. What Peter told you is, well, to put it bluntly, completely full of poo poo. Our maximum credit on top tier games is now higher than it has ever been. It -is- true, however, that outdated/antiquated games are now offered at closer to their real market prices --- so we do offer less for them but are also selling them for way less too.

What was the game that you were only offered 8$ for? And, if you can be honest about it, was it in horrible condition or anything? Because we do grade items... Here is our grading system:
A: Very Good to Like New/New
B: Good - very, very likely to play and unlikely to cause a customer not to buy it
C: Average - probably will play, but also likely to cause a customer to think twice about buying it
D: Unlikely to play

And here are the percentages of maximum credit that you get:
A: 100%
B: 80%
C: 40%
D: almost nothing... we end destroying these.

So, I think that the person doing the buyback downgraded your item to a C grade... If you would be so kind as to give me a list of what you wanted to sell, I can get to the bottom of this so another customer isn't inconvenienced the way you were. Again, I'm sorry that we didn't offer you fair prices and thank you for bringing it up so that we can fix the issue.

Seriously, I think you may have just answered why our Lewiston store has had the worst performance on videogames out of all of our stores.


I do know they rank things by what type of condition they are in, the guy told me that too. The manager at the Lewiston store warned me before scanning my stuff in that I might be disappointed because chain wide they just reduced the percentages of what they are paying. Oh well, they were overpaying on some stuff - but $8 for a game that still retails for $50 really surprised me (especially if Gamestop offered $24, and they are usually really cheap!)

[3QGojo]

Thanks for posting that and bringing it to my attention. What Peter told you is, well, to put it bluntly, completely full of poo poo. Our maximum credit on top tier games is now higher than it has ever been. It -is- true, however, that outdated/antiquated games are now offered at closer to their real market prices --- so we do offer less for them but are also selling them for way less too.

What was the game that you were only offered 8$ for? And, if you can be honest about it, was it in horrible condition or anything? Because we do grade items... Here is our grading system:
A: Very Good to Like New/New
B: Good - very, very likely to play and unlikely to cause a customer not to buy it
C: Average - probably will play, but also likely to cause a customer to think twice about buying it
D: Unlikely to play

And here are the percentages of maximum credit that you get:
A: 100%
B: 80%
C: 40%
D: almost nothing... we end destroying these.

So, I think that the person doing the buyback downgraded your item to a C grade... If you would be so kind as to give me a list of what you wanted to sell, I can get to the bottom of this so another customer isn't inconvenienced the way you were. Again, I'm sorry that we didn't offer you fair prices and thank you for bringing it up so that we can fix the issue.

Seriously, I think you may have just answered why our Lewiston store has had the worst performance on videogames out of all of our stores.

Everything I've traded in has either been New/Like New. I haven't tried to trade-in anything recently so I don't know what I'd get now.

[n8littlefield]

Well, the movies I brought in I understood why they didn't bring much credit - they were the Lord of the Rings extended editions and I knew they were fairly heavily returned by alot of people. I figured I'd never have time to sit down for 12+ hrs again (having a 1.5 yr old son!) so I'd trade them in now and buy a nice boxed set later. Apparently a lot of people felt that way so I was offered like $5, $6, and $8 for them if I remember right - kind of low for the extended versions, but understandable. And truthfully, Gamestop offered almost the exact same for them.

The game was Starwars Battlefront 2 (PS2). As far as I know it hasn't dropped to $20 or anything like that, I know I paid $50 for it when I got it, and like I said I hit Gamestop about 20 minutes later and was offered $24. I haven't traded it in yet, because either way I couldn't come up with enough credit for Metroid DS or Tetris DS :)

The condition of my stuff (and I'm probably going to sound somewhat arrogant here) is pristine. I'm older (29) and take really good care of my electronics. When I bring my stuff into places like EB/Gamestop/Bullmoose, I actually get compliments on how nice my stuff is as they never have a scratch, always have all the booklets/inserts/etc.

And yes, it was Peter that told me that chainwide your tradein values have dropped over the past few days. Truthfully, I had never seen Peter before, so I noticed his name just because I'd never seen anyone at your Lewiston store my age or older so it surprised me!! If you don't mind checking those DVD's and game for me - if he wasn't offering me full value I'd be really tempted to hit Scarborough this weekend to try it there.

Thanks for posting that and bringing it to my attention. What Peter told you is, well, to put it bluntly, completely full of poo poo. Our maximum credit on top tier games is now higher than it has ever been. It -is- true, however, that outdated/antiquated games are now offered at closer to their real market prices --- so we do offer less for them but are also selling them for way less too.

What was the game that you were only offered 8$ for? And, if you can be honest about it, was it in horrible condition or anything? Because we do grade items... Here is our grading system:
A: Very Good to Like New/New
B: Good - very, very likely to play and unlikely to cause a customer not to buy it
C: Average - probably will play, but also likely to cause a customer to think twice about buying it
D: Unlikely to play

And here are the percentages of maximum credit that you get:
A: 100%
B: 80%
C: 40%
D: almost nothing... we end destroying these.

So, I think that the person doing the buyback downgraded your item to a C grade... If you would be so kind as to give me a list of what you wanted to sell, I can get to the bottom of this so another customer isn't inconvenienced the way you were. Again, I'm sorry that we didn't offer you fair prices and thank you for bringing it up so that we can fix the issue.

Seriously, I think you may have just answered why our Lewiston store has had the worst performance on videogames out of all of our stores.

[Bull Moose]

Thanks for taking the time to post back!

There is no way that you should have to drive to Scarborough to sell anything back (unless you wanted to go to Scarborough) --- I will be sure our staff follows buying back things appropriately - I'm sorry again that that wasn't the way you were handled initially.

For the Star Wars Battlefront 2 we should have offered you $21 --- I know that's less than the $24 at EB, so it looks like I've got some tweaking to do on that to get so we beat them! --- we would sell it for 28.97 (where they sell those for what, almost 40 bucks used?), so we should probably be offering a bit more and selling it a bit higher --- my goal is to make it so we are always offering at least a tiny bit more than them while at the same time selling them cheaper... We can get away with that successfully and still make a decent profit because by being locally owned, we have wicked low overhead.

The DVDs appear to be closer to the correct range (it would depend on the exact UPC of the one you have), like some of them are being brought in at 13 to 15 bucks, but it depends on the specific version (by the way, I'm with you on the kid thing, I have two young kids and I can't remember the last time I could get away with watching a whole fantasy or sci-fi film)

As for selling them and getting the wrong price, at Bull Moose, our computer should be pricing them consistently across our locations, so the fact that the manager decided to override things to give you unfair prices is a problem that will be rectified today.

And, the BS line you were given about being offered less chain wide is patently false because I am the one who personally writes the code that sets the buy and sell prices for used items! And that code is the same across all our stores.

Again, thanks for posting your problem in the store.

For anyone else who has had any issue, I have very thick skin and genuinely appreciate constructive criticism.



Well, the movies I brought in I understood why they didn't bring much credit - they were the Lord of the Rings extended editions and I knew they were fairly heavily returned by alot of people. I figured I'd never have time to sit down for 12+ hrs again (having a 1.5 yr old son!) so I'd trade them in now and buy a nice boxed set later. Apparently a lot of people felt that way so I was offered like $5, $6, and $8 for them if I remember right - kind of low for the extended versions, but understandable. And truthfully, Gamestop offered almost the exact same for them.

The game was Starwars Battlefront 2 (PS2). As far as I know it hasn't dropped to $20 or anything like that, I know I paid $50 for it when I got it, and like I said I hit Gamestop about 20 minutes later and was offered $24. I haven't traded it in yet, because either way I couldn't come up with enough credit for Metroid DS or Tetris DS :)

The condition of my stuff (and I'm probably going to sound somewhat arrogant here) is pristine. I'm older (29) and take really good care of my electronics. When I bring my stuff into places like EB/Gamestop/Bullmoose, I actually get compliments on how nice my stuff is as they never have a scratch, always have all the booklets/inserts/etc.

And yes, it was Peter that told me that chainwide your tradein values have dropped over the past few days. Truthfully, I had never seen Peter before, so I noticed his name just because I'd never seen anyone at your Lewiston store my age or older so it surprised me!! If you don't mind checking those DVD's and game for me - if he wasn't offering me full value I'd be really tempted to hit Scarborough this weekend to try it there.

[n8littlefield]

Wow - thanks for the response. I certainly don't mean to stir up a bees nest. I'll feel kind of foolish bringing in the same tradeins, but maybe I'll give it a go over the weekend and see what happens. And truthfully $21 vs $24 is no big deal to me at all, since what I can get with credit at Bullmoose goes much farther since you do price the used stuff MUCH more fairly. I would say that if that game is $50 new, EB/Gamestop probably have it at $40 used!

It sounds like maybe by accident he priced them at lower quality than they are...$8 is almost 40% of $21 - so if he said $8.50 and I missed the .50 that would be about right. I'm sure it was an honest mistake on his part if that's what happened. I'll just tell them a mysterous post on the internet made me think I was given the wrong price on the game!

BTW, do you folks have the ability to special order games? They didn't have Metroid or Tetris for the Nintendo DS in yet, and I thought if I had enough credit to pick one of them up, I might have it ordered...

Edit: FYI, on the chainwide pricing being consistent - last weekend I had some stuff worth $34, but couldn't find anything in the Lewiston store I wanted, so I waited to trade them in. We went down to Scarborough and I was given the exact same amount of store credit - so I would say it works quite well - must have been a one time mistake by the Lewiston store. Just don't let them know I was a pain in the a$$ - I don't need my Bullmoose card revoked :) !

[Bull Moose]

Don't worry, you're not stirring up a bees nest --- we just like hearing areas that we can improve or areas where errors are made... I've done a bit of research and it seems that the store may have been confused by a change that we made a few months ago --- what we did was increase the amount of money someone would get in credit, but didn't want to increase the cash amount --- so since we boosted the credit, we increased the cash 'discount' price from 20% less to 25% less. But since the credit price was higher, then the cash price would be the same as before while the credit price is higher than before. As I type this I can see why someone could get confused over it! And that combined with the fact that the antiquated games that we were way overpaying for in the past are now bought and sold at more reasonable prices (we still have a lot of work to do in that area too, though!) --- I can see how someone could put 2 and 2 together and come out with the wrong conclusion about our pricing... And I agree with you that the misgrading could just be an error (although the "A" key on the keyboard is not exactly close to the "C" key), but it's clear that our training needs to be a bit better ... The whole clan in Lewiston are good people and I'm sure Peter (who has been our manager there for years) didn't mean any harm, but helping make sure errors are minimized is something that everyone (including me!) needs to keep working on.

As for the two DS games, I asked our buyer and those came from a more distant warehouse than normal (this issue I guess that won't be rectified on DS games until the beginning of April), so they got delayed at least a day --- they will be in store today. The quantities coming in are small, so if you want one help, PM me and I'll have them hold either of them (PS there is no obligation if we hold it, I'd just ask if we do hold it and you don't want it to please let us know so we can put them out for sale.)... When they're in I'll post back the price so you can make whatever call you want on 'em...

Thanks again for the feedback! It helps us improve our training and service and minimize our errors --- don't worry, feedback doesn't get someone in trouble per se, instead it helps us get better at selling games! And since we've got a ways to go before we're crushing the competition at all facets of selling games (we don't just want to beat them on price like we do now --- we want to crush them on selection, service and price), all the feedback is helpful!




Wow - thanks for the response. I certainly don't mean to stir up a bees nest. I'll feel kind of foolish bringing in the same tradeins, but maybe I'll give it a go over the weekend and see what happens. And truthfully $21 vs $24 is no big deal to me at all, since what I can get with credit at Bullmoose goes much farther since you do price the used stuff MUCH more fairly. I would say that if that game is $50 new, EB/Gamestop probably have it at $40 used!

It sounds like maybe by accident he priced them at lower quality than they are...$8 is almost 40% of $21 - so if he said $8.50 and I missed the .50 that would be about right. I'm sure it was an honest mistake on his part if that's what happened. I'll just tell them a mysterous post on the internet made me think I was given the wrong price on the game!

BTW, do you folks have the ability to special order games? They didn't have Metroid or Tetris for the Nintendo DS in yet, and I thought if I had enough credit to pick one of them up, I might have it ordered...

[n8littlefield]

Thanks for the response again. I send off a quick PM on reserving one of the games. I really appreciate it. There really is a huge advantage of doing business with a smaller chain.

One last question - is the Scarborough store the only one that carries classic games?

[Bull Moose]

No prob!

Yeah, for now the Scarb store probably has 99.9% of all of our classic games...


Thanks for the response again. I send off a quick PM on reserving one of the games. I really appreciate it. There really is a huge advantage of doing business with a smaller chain.

One last question - is the Scarborough store the only one that carries classic games?

[3QGojo]

Thanks for taking the time to post back!

There is no way that you should have to drive to Scarborough to sell anything back (unless you wanted to go to Scarborough) --- I will be sure our staff follows buying back things appropriately - I'm sorry again that that wasn't the way you were handled initially.

For the Star Wars Battlefront 2 we should have offered you $21 --- I know that's less than the $24 at EB, so it looks like I've got some tweaking to do on that to get so we beat them! --- we would sell it for 28.97 (where they sell those for what, almost 40 bucks used?), so we should probably be offering a bit more and selling it a bit higher --- my goal is to make it so we are always offering at least a tiny bit more than them while at the same time selling them cheaper... We can get away with that successfully and still make a decent profit because by being locally owned, we have wicked low overhead.

The DVDs appear to be closer to the correct range (it would depend on the exact UPC of the one you have), like some of them are being brought in at 13 to 15 bucks, but it depends on the specific version (by the way, I'm with you on the kid thing, I have two young kids and I can't remember the last time I could get away with watching a whole fantasy or sci-fi film)

As for selling them and getting the wrong price, at Bull Moose, our computer should be pricing them consistently across our locations, so the fact that the manager decided to override things to give you unfair prices is a problem that will be rectified today.

And, the BS line you were given about being offered less chain wide is patently false because I am the one who personally writes the code that sets the buy and sell prices for used items! And that code is the same across all our stores.

Again, thanks for posting your problem in the store.

For anyone else who has had any issue, I have very thick skin and genuinely appreciate constructive criticism.


It's nice to know that all the prices are the same in all of the stores. I'm not sure if I've had much trouble with trade-ins because I've always gotten more than what I initially paid for the game (which is better than renting IMHO). I mean if I can buy a game and try it out to see if I like it and then just return it to Bull Moose for a higher amount of trade-in credit than why not? It's like renting for free and Bull Moose ends up with basically a New/Like New game.

You are also right about Gamestop selling it for more money (usually $40 or $44) and they only give you $3 more too...I've always like the fact that if someone trades-in a new title at Bull Moose then I can get it for basically half off $50 (for around $28 or so). So I'd do the same thing and trade it in to Bull Moose for $21 because the money would go father there than at GS.

Another note I must mention. I noticed that a lot of the classic stuff was marked down which shows that you're going in the right direction for older stuff, but what about newer stuff? I remember the last time I was there I saw a copy of Geist (GC) for around $40+? Best Buy has it for $9.99 and so didn't Toys R Us. Also, Gun (PS2) was $28 for a new copy? It's been $19.99 everywhere for awhile now...probably since Christmass...

I like the fact that you come out with new games at other stores that are $50 at a price of like $46 or $45, but when they stay there forever and don't drop in price with other stores that's when I get kind of annoyed. However, I figured I could use it as a good thing like I posted earlier by trying out these games and then trading them in for more credit then I originally paid for them.

I could come up with a whole list of titles that are overpriced compared to other stores, then again I seem to find a lot of rare and hard to find stuff at Bull Moose so it evens out. For example I got my first copy of DDR: Mario Mix at Bull Moose for $45.xx when everywhere else it was sold out! So, I guess just like any store I've seen Bull Moose as one that does some good things and some bad things, but overall I seem to find more "good games" or "rare stuff" at Bull Moose rather than at Wal-Mart or Bestbuy. The only other place I seem to find good stuff all the time is Toys R Us.

So overall, I'd say keep going with these changes and help improve your stores. I'd really like to see you get to the best pricing/trade-in system possible. I'd also like to see a new/improved revamped Bull Moose website with the option to use the Bull Moose card (I know I said that before, but I'm still hopefull). I appreciate everything that you're doing and the interest that you're taking in your customer, thanks Brett! :)

EDIT: BTW, I've bought two copies of Resident Evil 3 (PS1) at Bull Moose (one for me and another for a friend). I initally just bought one because it was about $30 for a new copy. When I went up to the register however it rang up for $25...and then later that week I went back and got another new copy and it rang up for $30...again it was the same game New/Sealed. I didn't care much since the game was worth it...but I was browsing Bull Moose recently and found ANOTHER one for $29 in the CLEARANCE section for hald off so I paid $14-$15 for the New/Sealed copy this time around, which I thought that was a great price. So I ended up buying 3 copies one for $30, $25, and then $15...which doesn't make sense to me...I can see pricing used games differently depending upon condition, but having New/Sealed copies for various different price points when they were all pretty much the same condition (all of them had shelf wear) was insane to me.

One more note: Another time I saw a used copy of eJay Clubworld (PS2) for $22 used (way overpriced BTW) and then sitting right next to it was a used copy for $5.xx (which is because it was more beat up probably) but that was still a HUGE price difference.

BTW, all of these price mismatches were found at the Scarborough Warehouse store.

[Bull Moose]

About our mispricing of games that get reduced in price...
That has been a big problem for us --- with music and movies, the list prices change much more slowly, and we generally don't have to hit the floor to reprice inventory... but for games, as you rightfully point out, there are HUGE changes in list prices sometimes within a month or two of release.

So at first we had trouble getting the price changes from the publishers in a timely fashion --- then we fixed that issue...

After we got that info then we really really sucked at changing the prices as they happened because we never had a system to do it --- meaning that it's one thing to tell people to reprice stuff, but it's another thing entirely to have the management in place to make sure it's done and to have it scheduled so it's not overlooked.

So, we now just really suck at it instead of really really sucking. It will take us another month or two to get it together completely.

Sorry to hear about your three different prices, we're getting better at it but haven't gotten through fixing it yet... I can give you a hint on how to try to get the correct lower price if something wasn't repriced correctly. Now don't get me wrong, a customer shouldn't be expected to have to do this by any means and it is TOTALLY our fault for not getting it done right, but in the meantime if you want the correct price on a "should be marked down" title, you can ask our staff to scan the BACK barcode (the UPC) instead of our barcode. I'm almost sure they'll do it --- you can say that you heard it went down in price and can they scan the back to check ---- if it did go down in price, they will definitely give you that lower price --- if it didn't scan at a lower price, let me know 'cause then we have a data problem... I'd appreciate if you didn't let on how you know about the back scanning of the barcode --- because it would be better to not have a million people trying to scan the back barcode and then the staff thinking, hey maybe I should check every single one on the way out rather than correcting the ones out on the floor!! The point, of course, being that the price that you see should be correct and you shouldn't have to ask someone to check it each time! But I pass on this "psuedo" secret to you guys in hopes you'll keep it relatively under wraps. But anytime you see anything mispriced (I know there are tons) feel free to let me know --- we're working on it --- gotta ways to go, that's for sure, but we are improving...






It's nice to know that all the prices are the same in all of the stores. I'm not sure if I've had much trouble with trade-ins because I've always gotten more than what I initially paid for the game (which is better than renting IMHO). I mean if I can buy a game and try it out to see if I like it and then just return it to Bull Moose for a higher amount of trade-in credit than why not? It's like renting for free and Bull Moose ends up with basically a New/Like New game.

You are also right about Gamestop selling it for more money (usually $40 or $44) and they only give you $3 more too...I've always like the fact that if someone trades-in a new title at Bull Moose then I can get it for basically half off $50 (for around $28 or so). So I'd do the same thing and trade it in to Bull Moose for $21 because the money would go father there than at GS.

Another note I must mention. I noticed that a lot of the classic stuff was marked down which shows that you're going in the right direction for older stuff, but what about newer stuff? I remember the last time I was there I saw a copy of Geist (GC) for around $40+? Best Buy has it for $9.99 and so didn't Toys R Us. Also, Gun (PS2) was $28 for a new copy? It's been $19.99 everywhere for awhile now...probably since Christmass...

I like the fact that you come out with new games at other stores that are $50 at a price of like $46 or $45, but when they stay there forever and don't drop in price with other stores that's when I get kind of annoyed. However, I figured I could use it as a good thing like I posted earlier by trying out these games and then trading them in for more credit then I originally paid for them.

I could come up with a whole list of titles that are overpriced compared to other stores, then again I seem to find a lot of rare and hard to find stuff at Bull Moose so it evens out. For example I got my first copy of DDR: Mario Mix at Bull Moose for $45.xx when everywhere else it was sold out! So, I guess just like any store I've seen Bull Moose as one that does some good things and some bad things, but overall I seem to find more "good games" or "rare stuff" at Bull Moose rather than at Wal-Mart or Bestbuy. The only other place I seem to find good stuff all the time is Toys R Us.

So overall, I'd say keep going with these changes and help improve your stores. I'd really like to see you get to the best pricing/trade-in system possible. I'd also like to see a new/improved revamped Bull Moose website with the option to use the Bull Moose card (I know I said that before, but I'm still hopefull). I appreciate everything that you're doing and the interest that you're taking in your customer, thanks Brett! :)

EDIT: BTW, I've bought two copies of Resident Evil 3 (PS1) at Bull Moose (one for me and another for a friend). I initally just bought one because it was about $30 for a new copy. When I went up to the register however it rang up for $25...and then later that week I went back and got another new copy and it rang up for $30...again it was the same game New/Sealed. I didn't care much since the game was worth it...but I was browsing Bull Moose recently and found ANOTHER one for $29 in the CLEARANCE section for hald off so I paid $14-$15 for the New/Sealed copy this time around, which I thought that was a great price. So I ended up buying 3 copies one for $30, $25, and then $15...which doesn't make sense to me...I can see pricing used games differently depending upon condition, but having New/Sealed copies for various different price points when they were all pretty much the same condition (all of them had shelf wear) was insane to me.

One more note: Another time I saw a used copy of eJay Clubworld (PS2) for $22 used (way overpriced BTW) and then sitting right next to it was a used copy for $5.xx (which is because it was more beat up probably) but that was still a HUGE price difference.

BTW, all of these price mismatches were found at the Scarborough Warehouse store.

[3QGojo]

It's good to hear about the barcode on the back being the "real" (i.e. retail price) for the game. However, what would I tell the guy at the desk, that I heard it from Brett online? He would think I'm crazy, right? Or least he prolly won't believe me...but I can give it a shot. Worse comes to worse I could always price match other places as well, correct? I mean does Bull Moose price match anything? And if so, do they do so by flyers only or could I make the associate call the other store (more time consuming).

Another thing I wanted to ask was about the "Now Hiring" sign in the Scarborough Warehouse. I was wondering how much the employee discount is? Maybe I could even help out with games? Anyways, maybe that's not the best idea since I'll be graduating in May and I'll need a Full-Time job pretty soon that'll pay the soon to be bills.

About our mispricing of games that get reduced in price...
That has been a big problem for us --- with music and movies, the list prices change much more slowly, and we generally don't have to hit the floor to reprice inventory... but for games, as you rightfully point out, there are HUGE changes in list prices sometimes within a month or two of release.

So at first we had trouble getting the price changes from the publishers in a timely fashion --- then we fixed that issue...

After we got that info then we really really sucked at changing the prices as they happened because we never had a system to do it --- meaning that it's one thing to tell people to reprice stuff, but it's another thing entirely to have the management in place to make sure it's done and to have it scheduled so it's not overlooked.

So, we now just really suck at it instead of really really sucking. It will take us another month or two to get it together completely.

Sorry to hear about your three different prices, we're getting better at it but haven't gotten through fixing it yet... I can give you a hint on how to try to get the correct lower price if something wasn't repriced correctly. Now don't get me wrong, a customer shouldn't be expected to have to do this by any means and it is TOTALLY our fault for not getting it done right, but in the meantime if you want