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Originally Posted by karekano126 I talked some BB gaming section employees today about the trade in bans and they said something that I couldn't believe at first and still have trouble believing. They said that the trade-ins are monitored/supervised by a 3rd party and that if you are banned from trading in at BB, then you should also be banned from trading in at Gamestop and other stores that take video game trade ins. What do you guys think?

Sounds like a bit of erroneous extrapolation on the part of that employee. But you never know, they could go down that route with all the info they collect. I'd just be surprised if GS and Best Buy cooperated in any way like that - even if via an independent 3rd party. GS, for one thing, can handle lots of flips coming in. They have a better way of distributing and getting rid of stuff and used games are their core business. I'd think they would welcome people banned from Best Buy!

Yeah there's no way BB and GS would share information like that, even if they were using the same 3rd party for a certain service. Think about it...why would BB want to 'alert' GS to these devil customers (old BB term for people like us that only buy on sale, loss leader-type items, never get warranties or costly marked up accessories, and take advantage of deals/glitches that work in their favor) that will be surely flooding into their stores? If anything, BB would want that to happen, and bring the uniformed, unsuspecting soccer moms (read: people who will pay $100 for a Monster cable..their favorite type of customers) with fat purses into their stores.

Originally Posted by io Sounds like a bit of erroneous extrapolation on the part of that employee. But you never know, they could go down that route with all the info they collect. I'd just be surprised if GS and Best Buy cooperated in any way like that - even if via an independent 3rd party. GS, for one thing, can handle lots of flips coming in. They have a better way of distributing and getting rid of stuff and used games are their core business. I'd think they would welcome people banned from Best Buy!

I can't imagine this is true. It seems your trade in ban is based on your DL number. There's gotta be some privacy laws against BB's trade in partner sharing with Gamestop's people. Not to mention that GS doesn't ask for ID when trading in in most states.

BB used to use gamersfactory (also used by gazelle) but since BB went their own way, I don't know who else uses them.

You guys should try a test trade-in through the bestbuy website. Is that still around?

I haven't done a store trade in several weeks. The only time i went over 3 was way back when the limit was up to 10. It will be interesting to see if im banned. I bet it isn't just the more than 3 title limit that is getting people banned. It could just be whatever they deem as dealer-like activity.


Has anyone called in to corporate and received a real explanation?

Best buy should ban it's own employees for being stupid before they ban customers from
trading in.

Lol, shots fired!!

Start a thread on bestbuy forums. Maybe that will help.....lol?

Since thanksgiving I have traded in near 1000 PS2 games with no problems. I kinda went on a spree for the last couple of weeks but I also have spent all the gift cards there on BB products plus about 1500 in cash as well. Total is probably $4000 since thankgiving between trade in credit and cash. I have a couple of more days of trading in to do, lets see if I get banned.

Yeah, banning these people is probably not going to be good for BB's program long term. Plus it doesn't make any sense that they can't just standardize their program across stores, and not let you trade in more than 3/year (like amazon!). Just shows that BB can't get their act together and do stuff the right way.

I wonder if this stuff is semi-regional as they move along? Like mattcube and velo are both in missouri and appear to not be banned (but could probably be banned based on these bannings we've seen).

Originally Posted by bgame2 Best buy should ban it's own employees for being stupid before they ban customers from trading in.

Yeah, I mean none of these people with bans would have been banned if BB had thought to just limit the games on the front end. Now BB is probably killing their source of a lot of games, which while they were overpriced to CAGs were still probably "cheap" to the normal BB shopper.

Originally Posted by bgame2 Best buy should ban it's own employees for being stupid before they ban customers from trading in.

at my bestbuy, one of the gaming guys trade in gamestop PS2 games after work lol. He didn't bother taking off the sleeve of stickers. The gaming supervisor was processing it for him like it was nothing. He even showed me how to do it. Fun times.

Originally Posted by DerClaw Yeah, banning these people is probably not going to be good for BB's program long term. Plus it doesn't make any sense that they can't just standardize their program across stores, and not let you trade in more than 3/year (like amazon!). Just shows that BB can't get their act together and do stuff the right way. I wonder if this stuff is semi-regional as they move along? Like mattcube and velo are both in missouri and appear to not be banned (but could probably be banned based on these bannings we've seen).

Banning people who trade more than 3 titles isn't going to hurt their bottom line. Let's face it. Best Buy doesn't benefit from 1500 ps2 games traded in at over $2000 in credit or from the majority of titles being traded in by the majority of people who get banned. Their bigest problem is that most people still don't even know they take trade ins. I was trading in some games at TRU today and their was a mom there who didn't know that TRU takes trades (no surprise). I told her about how to check values on TRU and about Best Buy and Amazon. She only knew that gamestop takes trades. I suspect that most casual game buyers are like her and don't even know that best buy takes trades.

Originally Posted by orangecrush Banning people who trade more than 3 titles isn't going to hurt their bottom line. Let's face it. Best Buy doesn't benefit from 1500 ps2 games traded in at over $2000 in credit or from the majority of titles being traded in by the majority of people who get banned. Their bigest problem is that most people still don't even know they take trade ins. I was trading in some games at TRU today and their was a mom there who didn't know that TRU takes trades (no surprise). I told her about how to check values on TRU and about Best Buy and Amazon. She only knew that gamestop takes trades. I suspect that most casual game buyers are like her and don't even know that best buy takes trades.

+1.

2000 trade ins of money losing items is not a way to build a business. I love how people are like "well, they still sell it for more than they bought it for." O really? Have you seen the stacks and stacks of TW2/STFU/FNV at best buy? They're never gonna sell those at what they paid.

Originally Posted by orangecrush She only knew that gamestop takes trades. I suspect that most casual game buyers are like her and don't even know that best buy takes trades.

This is true, without a doubt, but banning people who are using the program won't increase that. I've had easily a few dozen people ask what I was doing while doing a trade at Best Buy and me and the clerk explained to them that BBY now takes trade ins. And those were just the ones who asked, I'm sure a few more saw what I was doing and just put two and two together.

You are also right about the mass of PS2 games, but when a large section of your potential customer base is unaware of a program that literally requires a large amount of customers trading in games to function, there is a genuine issue of potential loss by banning all of your high traffic trade-in customers. People who trade in 20 copies of a single game with little resale value are bad for the company, but customers who trade in a wide selection of games, even if they go over the limit one or two times, are exactly what you need when trying to start up and compete with a business that has been doing this for years.

Not even counting this thread, I have sent plenty of trade-in business to Best Buy just among my friends and co-workers.

A fun tidbit I remembered this morning. The other day when I did my last, big trade-in the gaming supervisor was telling me how after me she is probably the 2nd highest in terms of trade-in volume that gets brought in. Wonder if she's on the ban hammer list...

Originally Posted by confoosious Have you seen the stacks and stacks of TW2/STFU/FNV at best buy? They're never gonna sell those at what they paid.

You are right, but that's really the fault of the system not the TIV. If it didn't take them a month to get them on the shelves they wouldn't be stuck with quite so many of them.

Originally Posted by BudzMcGee People who trade in 20 copies of a single game with little resale value are bad for the company, but customers who trade in a wide selection of games, even if they go over the limit one or two times, are exactly what you need when trying to start up and compete with a business that has been doing this for years.

While this might be true, you know most of the people banned are those that just can't practice any self control. You think Blockbuster is making any money off the 37 copies of Kinect Adventures that one guy traded in?

Yes, they might be banning some folks that are relatively harmless (who went over once or twice) but for the most part, they see the abusers as people who are detrimental to the bottom line.

Originally Posted by mrclutch So how many total games have some of yo guys that got ba/nned think you have traded in? Are we talking hundreds of games or much fewer

I've only been keeping track since April of this year and may have lost a few trade-in "contracts", but here's a rough total of what I can account for:

In-store 463 games, $7064. Online 28 games, $504. Total 491 games, $7568.

Originally Posted by orangecrush Banning people who trade more than 3 titles isn't going to hurt their bottom line. Let's face it. Best Buy doesn't benefit from 1500 ps2 games traded in at over $2000 in credit or from the majority of titles being traded in by the majority of people who get banned. Their bigest problem is that most people still don't even know they take trade ins. I was trading in some games at TRU today and their was a mom there who didn't know that TRU takes trades (no surprise). I told her about how to check values on TRU and about Best Buy and Amazon. She only knew that gamestop takes trades. I suspect that most casual game buyers are like her and don't even know that best buy takes trades.

Forgive my ignorance. Could you please inform how to check TRU trade value? I know TRU has trade-in program but never did a trade-in before. Thanks ahead.

Originally Posted by foreinter Forgive my ignorance. Could you please inform how to check TRU trade value? I know TRU has trade-in program but never did a trade-in before. Thanks ahead.

http://www.toysrustradeincenter.com/

From their FAQs:

18. Would the trade-in values quotes be the same online and in the store?

We cannot guarantee that the store pricing will be the same as the online pricing. This is mainly due to the time difference from when you price an item online and bring it to the store (or visa versa).

Originally Posted by klimb22 I've only been keeping track since April of this year and may have lost a few trade-in "contracts", but here's a rough total of what I can account for: In-store 463 games, $7064. Online 28 games, $504. Total 491 games, $7568.

Well , no wonder you're banned, lol.