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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!

bull moose is ing sick...

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.

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?

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

no, i actually love bull moose

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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...

Originally Posted by 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.

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.

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

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

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!

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

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

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.