[quote name='XorpheusX']Can somebody confirm if this really is policy? Because I have a sealed copy of Mario Galaxy that I was going to bring in tomorrow. I guess it doesn't make much of a difference, really, but it's kind of silly (I assume this is in place to keep thieves from trading in stolen games, but I'm sure the common criminal knows how to remove plastic just as well as I do).[/quote]
This has been reported by many people, so it would appear to be the company policy. I guess if you are a regular customer at a particular store, and they know you well enough to assume you didn't steal something, they would probably just let you open it and trade it in. I had a few sealed games lying around that didn't sell on eBay, so I opened them up at home, to avoid any potential headaches
Now, I'm just guessing here, but I think there could possibly be a decent line of reasoning behind the policy. They are probaly trying to protect themselves against large scale shoplifters that try to trade in a lot of games, who the company thinks a) could be too lazy to remove the wrapping and stickers from ten or more games and/or b) might not be familiar with GS policy (or even potentially think they could get more for new games or even return them without a receipt). Again, this is just me trying to apply logic to it.