Why do people sell to/buy from Gamestop instead of on craigslist?

I'm starting to feel like the ONLY reason Gamestop is still in business is because of convenience.  They have tons of games to choose from, even if their used copies are only a few bucks cheaper than a brand new game.  (In my experience the average is about a $5 difference, but of course it depends on the game.)

People say, "oh it doesn't matter to me if the game is used, so I'll just buy it now while I'm here".

It's funny because I go to used game stores with friends every now and then, and looking at my shelf here I see that ALL of my games were purchased brand new.  If you had asked me yesterday I would have said, "oh yeah, I buy used games sometimes", but apparently I don't!  I really like buying things brand new because I take good care of my things.  I see the condition of some of those game cases at used stores, and wonder how the hell they got so beat up?!  Every game I own looks like I just bought it today.  I guess to me that's worth the $5.  But sometimes I am tempted buy used games just because the selection is so good!

Do you think "impulse buying" is what keeps Gamestop in business?  Or do people really think a beat up copy is worth saving $5?

I always wonder why more people don't do game trades/selling/buying on Craigslist.  Anytime I look I only see a handful of games for sale at any one time.

People could easily make double from craigslist what they would trading in at Gamestop!  Then we wouldn't be paying the middle man.  It's a win-win.

EDIT:  I lied!  I just realized I do have a used copy of Kinect Adventures that came with my used Kinect, and one $7 workout Kinect game.  

Some people don't know any better. When I used to frequent GS, there were always moms and dads in there just buying whatever they needed to get their kids. They see "Game" in the title and they know what they have there, so its easy too. This is in addition to CL being less of a guarantee while GS is.

Well, the mom and pop shops in my area usually have cutthroat prices and the only people on Craigslist here are the scum of the Earth, so that's why I give my business to GameStop. Plus, when you actually put the work into knowing what your stuff trades in for you can do pretty damn well. I always at least break even while trading shit and usually come out pretty far ahead.

If you have a beat up game, just ask for another copy. If they don't want to give it to you, then go straight to TellGameStop.com, they take that shit pretty seriously. Edit: Or better yet, call the online complaint number. That gets shit done QUICK.

Oh yeah, you're also not taking into account how there can be some really awesome finds at GS. In the last two places I've lived I've been able to find some really incredible used stuff in immaculate condition due to college kids/broke soldiers trading them in. Pair the used prices with the Birthday coupon and the extra 10% off from PUR and you're looking at some in' beautiful deals. 

I think craiglist is considered a bit of a risk for a lot of people. Who's to say you don't get a complete dud of a game/console/controller etc. and that dude behind walmart isn't offering a return policy. I also think that selling on craigslist is more hassle than a lot of people want to deal with. To them it's worth the loss just for a quick and easy transaction. Personally I don't sell a ton of my games, but if I was to I wouldn't choose craigslist because I don't want to spend that much time (not to mention gas money) driving to and from unloading some old games. I get that some people are fine with it, but to me gamestop isn't the worst place to sell my games, and sometimes you can even come out on top with the right promotions.

Only thing good about Craigslist is whenever you randomly find those really great "fell out the back of a truck" items. The other day a friend of mine was texting me about how he got an unopened 3DSXL with Pokemon White 2 and Luigi's Mansion for $160 from a guy behind a K-Mart. Fantastic deal. 

Yeah, it seems like you're assuming everyone has sought after Triple-A titles to sell; the facts are though when you have drek, GS makes one of the better dumping grounds. Another thing is that on the buying end GS tends to have a good selection of old stock and beats most of the online and local prices, especially if they're looking to clearance out a section. Being able to pick up a Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance for $24 credit or less is definitely not a deal that would show up on my local Craigslist.

The only reason I'll go to Craigslist for games is if it's something that GameStop won't take or doesn't carry. For instance, within the last year I bought a perfectly good Guitar Hero controller for my brother-in-law from Craigslist because none of my stores carry those accessories anymore. If I ever decide to sell off my Skylanders collection, chances are I'll take it to either Craiglist or eBay since GS doesn't take those for trading in. Although I understand the whole argument of getting more cash from Craigslist/eBay than credit at GS, personally I'm the type of person that gets cash and then spends it elsewhere. At least with GS credit I know where I'm going to spend it. I don't buy as many used games as I used to but I still do actively trade to buy new games. 

I know there are many people who hate GS but personally, I like mine and have liked them for years. Yes, I still have problems from time to time but it's gotten much better. I can actually find deals on GS... a lot of rarer titles on GS are not marked to market and they frequently have decent deals/discounts.

On CL, there's always the risk of getting robbed or something... even if you do it in a public place (since average police response time is like 10-15 minutes, bystander effect). But more importantly, there is nothing but idiots on my local CL. I have never seen anything resembling a good deal on my local CL. The best I've seen was a DSL (back when it was still pretty new and used units were selling for ~$100) with 10 great games for $120. When I went to pick it up, the 10 games were actually on an R4. Needless to say, I backed out.

I do it mostly for convenience but I also think the notion of them ripping you off is a little overblown.They have good trade in deals all the time, and bottom line you know you aren't going to get stiffed and as long as the game is in good condition they will buy it from you as opposed to you putting it up on craigslist/ebay and hoping someone will buy it eventually.

Thanks everyone for the opinions!  I was just curious what everyone thought.  

One nice thing about Gamestop is if you absolutely hate a game you can return it the next day and only be out $1.

Around here Craigslist deals seem to go pretty smoothly though- with certain things I do prefer to go to someone's house as opposed to meeting in a random parking lot or something.  They know if they screw someone over- they know where they live!  Not too smart!

Most people will agree to let you see the item working before you buy it.  Of course a game could start screwing up like half way through- but I feel like these days consoles play even scratched games really well.

Wouldn't a defective game be pretty rare?  I've never heard of that happening to any of my friends.

I don't use Craigslist for selling games, but I don't use Gamestop either.

I sell games on Amazon Marketplace.  I don't really buy used games--can't recall the last time I did.

Selling XBox 360 games in particular on Craigslist is pretty dreadful. Everyone around here will always lowball you and I rarely see games worth getting for sale.

Here people tend to sell stuff on craigslist for around the same price as new, or sometimes even MORE!  A guy on there today was trying to sell a Wipeout kinect game for $10 more than I could get it on Amazon for!  This applies to more than just games, too.

If I'm gonna be taking the risk of buying from a stranger I sure as heck better be getting a fair deal at least.  In my opinion when you're selling on craigslist you need to be asking less $ than the local used shops would.  A game shop here lists their trade-in prices on their website, and in my mind a fair price is somewhere between those trade-in prices, and what they would sell the used copy for.

Otherwise I'm just gonna go buy from the used shop where it's guaranteed.

I do think trading outside of places like Gamestop can be a much better deal, but not when you're dealing with idiots.  

I really cracked up at one post tonight that started, "This is a basically new Xbox, only had it for about 3 years."  LOL

I understand why more people don't look to Craigslist for games in its current state, BUT if all those people who trade at Gamestop & similar places would go to Craigslist and start making some FAIR deals, we could all save some $$$.  

I only buy from GS when they have exclusive games that can't get it anywhere else.  Like Last of Us Post-Pandemic Edition only can be found at GS.  Otherwise I hate giving my money to GS.  I rather shop at BB and Amazon.

As for people that trade in games.  Never understood it.  Such of waste of money... Buy it for full price > play it for two weeks > trade it in for $30 = negative $30 lost.  Guess people have more money than I do to burn.  (Don't tell me that you got your money's worth after playing it and it will just sit there collecting dust. So why not get some money back.  This is like buying a house and living in it for a while and you decided to sell it for a lost.) 

I've kept every game I ever bought... I only sell it after 2 generations of consoles past by.  If I don't make a profit on the games... I'll hold on to it or donate away (so I can write it off on my taxes).

I will buy new sealed games off Craigslist for less than retail price.  Otherwise I don't buy used games unless I know I can flip it for a profit.

I use GameStop because they offer convience. I recently purged most of my game collection and got way more than I ever would have on Craigslist, thanks to their trade in X amount of games offer.

People like to hate on Gamestop, but you can't forget what they are; a business. Do you really think GS could stay in business if you buy a $60 and sold it back to them for $45? Games drop in price quickly, and they can't take the risk of reselling for no profit.

Ill be honest.  Im handicapped and I cant defend my self worth a shit.  I dont have any family to be with me so Im very scared of getting on there.  You hear all kinds of horror stories about it.  I know who ever is reading this is laughing so be kind lol.

OP's first sentence pretty much says it all, pure convenience.  I'm sure I could get more other ways but I just can't be bothered.  Also if you wait for the right trade in deals you difference is rather small, plenty of times I've actually gotten more credit for games than the price I originally payed for them.

I just traded in 8 games and got a little over $91 so I'm not complaining about Gamestop right now.  I thought maybe this was some kind of record as Gamestop trade in values usually suck balls.  I took advantage of a trade in deal, 7 or more games was an additional $35, so without that deal 8 games = $56,   Probably would get more on Craigslist.

Mostly older titles though-so I'm not sure I could of got that on CL.  The games were Far Cry 3, SSX, Gran Turismo 5 XL, Battlefield 3, Red Dead Redemption, Killzone 3, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus (this is the only game I kinda wish I didn't trade in but I'm sure I can buy it digitally somewhere down the line), and Max Payne 3.  All good games in good shape but all standard editions, besides GT, and I played the hell out of all of them. 

I basically traded all of those games for a $50 and $20 PSN card (for The Last of Us), an upgraded membership to Gamestop (got it for $8 after $7 in additional money bc of it, and I put the remaining $6.66 on GTA5 preorder.  I was happy for the first time ever trading that many games, but it was still a tough decision for me that was made not so tough--short on cash right now and must have The Last of Us.

I rarely pay $60 for a game and if I do, it's usually COD/BF3 where I play a good bit of MP and get my money's worth. I have bought other games on the cheap like Homefront and a couple of others and played most of the SP and some MP and then sold the games on Craigslist and a couple of times to the same buyer cause I know which games he likes so I just call him up before posting it. I think the only games I have now are NBA 2k11, Madden 11 (or maybe 12), Halo 4 (want to play campaign with a couple of friends) and a couple of COD games. I enjoyed BF3 but none of my friends played it so I sold it on CS before it lost too much value. Sometimes BB has some good trade in values as well. I will def be looking at the new COD and BF4 for the 360 this Xmas and not sure of what else and maybe get the Xbox one if MS pulls their head out of you know where but its just time for me to wait and see what they will do.

qcjoe said:

Ill be honest. Im handicapped and I cant defend my self worth a shit. I dont have any family to be with me so Im very scared of getting on there. You hear all kinds of horror stories about it. I know who ever is reading this is laughing so be kind lol.

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I have sold several things on CL like a roll top desk and a kitchen hutch where the people came to my house to pick them up. I was a bit nervous but I kept a couple of friends (Beretta and Glock) close by just to be safe. I have met people in parking lots to sell my iPad and iPhones so it's always a chance. A girl from work had a husband of her friend who got shot and killed meeting someone that was looking to buy a car off CL so I completely understand when people don't want to meet strangers on CL. I think the highest price item I have sold was my first iPad for like $200 and yea, I was a bit nervous but if I sold it on eBay, eBay gets 10% off the top plus PayPal costs.

Your chances of being brutally assaulted by a black man is less than at gamestop.

lol yeah clist can be risky.  not everyone can defend themselvees or is savvy about the risks.  gameestop is convient and usually good service.  i get most of my stuff online but not clist.  ebay is muhc better

if u have a good clist community or w/e then definitely try that out.  i browse the for sale section sometimes and there's always god deals.  i bought some used furniture there. 

Some people are just paranoid they are going to get robbed or something off craigslist. I do my transactions in my mall food court or the bank parking lot that I know where their cameras are. Against the places rules but never been caught. I also had them meet me in front of my house but I had friends over. I've sold games on craigslist for ten under retail a couple weeks after release. 

I post in my ad firm and no negotiations. Sometimes aholes will still come and low ball you. I'm probably on the other end of the horror stories on that. Some guy offered me like 50 less for my 360 slim that I got for free buying a computer, I posted in the ad firm and no negotiations and he still tried it. It was brand new and he tried to offer me 100 for it when I was asking 175 at the time. Right after he said "I'll give you 100 for it" I then stood up and said no deal and turned around to walk away and he went to grab my arm and I pushed it away and yelled "Don't ****ing touch me". He seriously looked like he was going to crap his pants and cry at the same time. I didn't realized until he was leaving that his kid was in the car and witnessed his dad getting punked out. I felt a bit bad after that but freaking hate people that haggle with me.

sleepydumbdude said:

Some people are just paranoid they are going to get robbed or something off craigslist. I do my transactions in my mall food court or the bank parking lot that I know where their cameras are. Against the places rules but never been caught. I also had them meet me in front of my house but I had friends over

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Safety is definitely important, but I think it is only one slice of the "Craigslist is a pain-in-the-ass" pie. I also have no clue what "against the places rules but never been caught" means.

sleepydumbdude said:

I post in my ad firm and no negotiations. Sometimes aholes will still come and low ball you.

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Here's the second slice. Back in 2010, I decided to sell my 60GB PS3 to get a newer slim model. I posted a craigslist ad for my BC PS3 that was in really great condition, asking for about $200, I can't remember how much exactly but it was a pretty reasonable price at the time, about $30 less than what they were selling for on ebay. The day I posted it I think I got about 20 emails. After a few days and having to root out all of the "I'll give you $100 for it" and "Can you ship it to the other end of the country?" messages I think I had about 7 "serious" offers.

These people said they were definitely interested, but I wasn't going to say "okay, the PS3 is yours" until they were willing to establish a day and time to meet for the transaction. Surprise, surpise... 5 of these people that were "definitely interested" stopped responding to emails; two remained. One agrees to meet with me, the other follows suit, but about a day after the first guy. I tell the late responder that I am sorry, but someone agreed to meet the day before, and he quite bluntly calls me a dick.

A day later, I go down the street to meet with the first responder. He never shows, and stops responding to his emails. I'm not going to even bother with the second guy because we clearly burned bridges when I had to decline his offer and he, well, he called me a dick. A few days later, Gamestop launches a promo where they offer like a $50 bonus for trading in your PS3. I think at the end of the day I got $175 or more in credit. The process took about 15 minutes with absolutely no hassle.

This is why I sell to Gamestop. While I've had some transactions go incredibly smooth on CL (usually Nintendo-related stuff to friendly soccer moms or a rare game to a hardcore gamer), most of them would get caught up in a mess of red tape. Lowballs, no-shows, scammers, and of course the "I only brought a $20" guy. To me, Gamestop isn't so far off from other services that I am willing to save myself the frustration of said services for the convienence of taking five minutes to drop it off at Gamestop. These days, I pretty much stick with Ebay, Best Buy and Gamestop, and I will only use Ebay if there is a $10+ differences between what I can get on there, and what BB or GS offer.

I don't buy or trade with Gamestop anymore since Best Buy takes trade-ins and has a better rewards system.  When buying games, Gamestop's used games are always in the worst condition and their new games are usually already opened with stickers on the cover that you can't get off without ripping the plastic.

A few years ago I had a pile of games to trade in at Gamestop and many of them were sports titles, which I knew I wouldn't get hardly anything for, but one of them was Marvel Ultimate Alliance for PS3.  It rang up as 50 cents.  Yet, even today they charge $25 for this game used.  To make it even worse, as the guy was scanning these games, no matter how low the value was, the guy never stopped and said, "Wow, this seems low, would you rather keep this one?"  So, I kept Marvel Ultimate Alliance.  Two years later, I take it to Best Buy on 100% bonus trade-in day and to my surprise, the pre-bonus value was $3.  Since I also had the Gamer Unlocked membership, I got the 100% bonus plus whatever percentage Unlocked gave me, plus reward zone points, totaling over $6.  Since then, I've never seen a game trade in for more at Gamestop than Best Buy.

Best Buy isn't perfect either because employees screw things up all the time.  You gotta watch them, but it's usually worth the little bit of extra hassle.  Also, since Best Buy pricematches almost everyone, you'll never get a better deal at Gamestop than Best Buy because you could just pricematch Gamestop.

AndrewCounty said:

A few years ago I had a pile of games to trade in at Gamestop and many of them were sports titles, which I knew I wouldn't get hardly anything for, but one of them was Marvel Ultimate Alliance for PS3. It rang up as 50 cents. Yet, even today they charge $25 for this game used.

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Holy crap, I had to look it up because I didn't believe you because I knew the game was way cheaper on 360. I wonder why it's so expensive on PS3 still when it's $8 on the 360. The game is pretty old and I bought it probably like 2-3 years ago for around $10.

50 cents is definitely not the norm for a $25 game though either. I just traded in a game they sell for $20 yesterday and got $8. I wonder if maybe the price of the game on both systems into account when determining their buy price. That's the only reason I'd be able to think of for such a small offer or he just accidentally read off one of the sports games prices to you.

This thread points out many good reasons to avoid CL.  Want another?  CL has funk on its junk and you will get that shit if you go near CL.

Craigslist is more and more of a pain these days...people are just really really flaky, even when they supposedly love the deal. Yes I avoid the fees of dealing with ebay but shoot...the hassle with dealing with people on there is becoming a major pain at times. Rather just either sell on ebay or trade them into Gamestop or Best Buy and not end up frustrated.

thenutman69321 said:

AndrewCounty said:

A few years ago I had a pile of games to trade in at Gamestop and many of them were sports titles, which I knew I wouldn't get hardly anything for, but one of them was Marvel Ultimate Alliance for PS3. It rang up as 50 cents. Yet, even today they charge $25 for this game used.

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Holy crap, I had to look it up because I didn't believe you because I knew the game was way cheaper on 360. I wonder why it's so expensive on PS3 still when it's $8 on the 360. The game is pretty old and I bought it probably like 2-3 years ago for around $10.

50 cents is definitely not the norm for a $25 game though either. I just traded in a game they sell for $20 yesterday and got $8. I wonder if maybe the price of the game on both systems into account when determining their buy price. That's the only reason I'd be able to think of for such a small offer or he just accidentally read off one of the sports games prices to you.

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That's a good point... maybe he did read off one of the sports games. Because they were all worth about 50 cents. Also, maybe Gamestop has bumped their trade offers up a little since Best Buy can have some crazy good trade in values. I traded Asura's Wrath in to them for $20 about 2 months ago and Capcom Digital Collections for $16. I had only payed $15 for Asura's Wrath used on Gamefly and $10 for Capcom Digital Collections on Newegg new. I would have kept both of those games if they weren't worth more than I paid for them at the time.

As far as what people are saying about CL... I have had pretty good luck with it for certain things. I actually got a 36" Sony Trinitron flat screen CRT tv (250 freaking pounds) for free from some guy that works awesome for my old games... god that tv is heavy and that guy was pretty flaky, but was true to his word. I also bought a good condition SNES from some guy for a good price. I don't think I'd sell games on CL, but bigger things sell pretty damn good. I've sold 2 cars on CL now and it worked out really well considering it didn't cost me anything to sell them.

I use craigslist due to the fact that I'm a 6'2 black guy and have no fear of getting robbed. My best friend is a 5'9 Asian guy who never uses craigslist due to him feeling like he'll get robbed.