Best Buy Trade-in Thread: 50% Bonus with Pre-order of Rage or NBA 2K12, 9/25-10/1.

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!!! Promotions available in stores only, and they DO NOT stack !!!
Only the 10% Bonus from Gamers Club Unlocked will stack with these offers.

Current Promos:

- 50% Bonus with Rage or NBA 2K12 Pre-order.
Offer valid 9/25 to 10/01/2011.

- 40% Bonus with Gears of War 3 Purchase.
Get a 40% extra trade-in credit when you pre-order/purchase Gears of War 3. Offer expires 10/01/2011

- Trade 3, Get 30% More.
Trade in 3 games or more and get 30% extra trade-in credit. Offer expires 10/01/2011

- 40% Bonus with any Pre-order.
Get a 40% extra trade-in credit when you pre-order any game. Offer expires 10/01/2011


Link: http://www.bestbuytradein.com/bb/QuoteCalculatorVideoGames.cfm (click on "Show Promotions available in stores only" on top right)

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BEST BUY'S VIDEO GAMES TRADE-IN PAGE

Check most up-to-date TIV using BB's Video Games Value Estimator.

Check which BB stores do trade-ins here.
In-store trades are now done at the Trade-In Counter at the Gaming Dept.

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F.A.Q. Best Buy has a short FAQ here.

:bomb: The values in the Lists do not match the values in the Estimator. What's up with that?
I don't know. It seems the Lists are usually updated on Sundays, and the TIVs are adjusted to reflect the List in a few days. But as trades are made, the TIVs may change and the Lists are not updated frequently. Again, check the Estimator for latest TIV.

The promo says "Trade 2..." or "Trade 3..." but I only want to trade 1 game, will I still get $x amount?
You will get whatever TIV is offered according to the Estimator for each game. The promo is titled "Trade 2" etc to make the giftcards sound more lucrative.

The 2 games I want to trade are worth more than $60 combined according to the Estimator. Does that mean I will only get $60 for the 2 games?
No. You will get whatever TIV is offered according to the Estimator for each game. For example, if your total according to the Estimator is $70, you will get a $70 giftcard.

:bomb: If I locked in a trade online, and the value drops, will I still get the locked in value when I mail it in?
Yes. You will get the locked in TIV as long as you ship it before the "Ship by" date "Your item(s) must be received within 14 days to get the quoted value" (as of 5/2), and your games are received in the condition you declared.

How long do I have after I lock in a trade online before I have to ship it?
30 days. Has been recently changed to "Your item(s) must be received within 14 days to get the quoted value".

Can you lock in the price online then trade it in-store?
No.

Is there a limit to how many games I can trade in?
According to BB: "We will not accept more than 3 games of the same title and platform from a customer (or address) in a year. Please do not submit more than the limit as excess submissions WILL NOT BE RETURNED." Example, you can trade 3 copies of Portal 2 for PS3 and 3 copies of Portal 2 for x360 without problems. Some people have been banned from trade-ins at BB due to the violation of this policy. If you plan on trading more than 3 copies of a game per platform by doing it through various stores, you do so at your own risk and discretion.

:bomb: Can I trade game disc only, or do I need the case and manuals, too?
BB used to be strict about complete copies, but this has changed, and ppl are trading games in store without manuals or cover sleeve for full TIV. If you trade online it's sometimes YMMV. I would advise you to send in complete games (case, disc, manual) since some ppl are reporting only getting 50% of the locked TIV.

I see people talking about getting Amazon giftcards by trading at Best Buy. How are they doing that?
Some Best Buys sell Kindle giftcards which can be used on Amazon.com like regular Amazon giftcards. You will not get the Kindle card with your trade, but you can buy them with your BB giftcard.

When I do a in-store trade, I am asked: to be fingerprinted, to have my photo taken, how much I weigh, etc. What's the deal?
Pawn shop laws regulating trade-ins and resale of used goods varies from state to state or city to city. It is not Best Buy's rule, and varies from store to store depending on where you live.

I went to a store to do a trade-in and they asked for a Best Buy receipt. WTF?
According to BB's own FAQ:
Q: Is trade-in limited to items I bought at Best Buy?
A: No.
I don't know why this happens, but apparently some stores do not have their system setup to take non-BB purchased items at this time. Check the link above regarding stores that do video games trade-ins first.
 
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Has anyone found any PS2 titles they weren't able to trade to BB? Considering BB seems to have a dollar minimum on titles, getting 4 titles for $2 and trading them for $6 would be worth a small amount of effort to pick up a few titles and trade them in with the trade I'm already doing.
 
[quote name='BudzMcGee']Has anyone found any PS2 titles they weren't able to trade to BB? Considering BB seems to have a dollar minimum on titles, getting 4 titles for $2 and trading them for $6 would be worth a small amount of effort to pick up a few titles and trade them in with the trade I'm already doing.[/QUOTE]

What I've found is that sometimes they don't understand how to look up a game. It's not really their fault, the search system for trade-in (it's the same thing as the website) is terribly picky. For example, "Power Drome Racing" (as it looks on the disc) doesn't show up. "Powerdrome Racing" does. If you understand how it works ask if you can look at what they're searching and make a suggestion if you can.


A few sports oddities:
--2K Sports got the ESPN license in 2003 and decided to call their games "ESPN (league) (sport)" - for example, ESPN NBA Basketball - but Best Buy has them as ESPN (league) 2K4.
--Rugby by EA Sports just says Rugby on the case and disc. BB has it as Rugby 2002.
--As far as I can tell, ESPN NFL Primetime 2002 is the only year of that series, but it's only listed as ESPN NFL Primetime, no year.

Those games were actually denied at my Best Buy yesterday but my phone was dead and I couldn't do any research. Coming back with another stack today and going to try to explain those. Got $82.50 and $64.50 on two other runs and I have about 70 games left.
 
Thanks, yeah their online is screwy. I have one store where the girls really know their stuff and are super friendly/helpful and always talk to me for a bit when I go in. They'll actually listen if I tell them that stuff if something isn't popping up. I don't plan on going crazy anyway, I'm trading in like 16 360 games today so it's just tempting to pick up a few PS2 trade fodder tittles as well.
 
[quote name='orangecrush']It was a total pain. I took a full day and a half day off of work to do it. I created spreadsheets showing which gamestops had stock in town. I keep track of how many of which title I had purchased (didn't want to risk going over 3). I spent at least an hour thumbing through massive bins of crappy titles and checked each disk I bought at each store. It was oddly thrilling. I can see how people could really get into things like extreme couponing and such. I look at what I started with (sold my PSPgo on amazon, and traded 6 games I won't miss to gamestop) and what I have now (an Infamous 2 ps3 bundle from amazon warehouse, 500 gb hard drive and external hd enclosure on the way + 150 in amazon credit + $15 Itunes card + $35 BB GC) and think that I would totally do it again. I am hooked and keeping my eye out for possible flips everywhere now.[/QUOTE]

What geographical area are you located in? Central IL is my guess judging from your username. I'm not judging you at all, but I want to know if you are in the same area as me so that we could perhaps avoid the same Best Buys/Gamestops, etc.
 
[quote name='BudzMcGee']Has anyone found any PS2 titles they weren't able to trade to BB? Considering BB seems to have a dollar minimum on titles, getting 4 titles for $2 and trading them for $6 would be worth a small amount of effort to pick up a few titles and trade them in with the trade I'm already doing.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I found that the jampacks don't show up in system. The guy just clicked the "generic sku" link and selected PS2 and it gave a $1 value for it. (what I got for the other 40-50 non-jampack games too)
 
[quote name='dabamus']Yeah, I found that the jampacks don't show up in system. The guy just clicked the "generic sku" link and selected PS2 and it gave a $1 value for it. (what I got for the other 40-50 non-jampack games too)[/QUOTE]

I'm afraid if I tried to trade in those Jampack games they'd just tell me to fuck off.
 
[quote name='chuckywang']What geographical area are you located in? Central IL is my guess judging from your username. I'm not judging you at all, but I want to know if you are in the same area as me so that we could perhaps avoid the same Best Buys/Gamestops, etc.[/QUOTE]An REM fan. I am actually in NE though.
 
[quote name='dabamus']Yeah, I found that the jampacks don't show up in system. The guy just clicked the "generic sku" link and selected PS2 and it gave a $1 value for it. (what I got for the other 40-50 non-jampack games too)[/QUOTE]

I figured they wouldn't so I avoided them. Picked up 8 random games, $4 cash, $12 credit. Worth it since I was already trading in about 18 other games. Word to the wise, some of the PS2 games don't pop up on the mobile app if you are looking.

All told I traded in 26 games, 8 of them were PS2 junk I picked up today with the B2G2 sales, and most of the 360 titles I traded in were junk titles like Guitar Hero III and Aerosmith, Madden 07 and 08, Perfect Dark Zero, etc., at $1-$3 a pop plus bonus. Still managed $110 in credit. I'm happy with that, and to just get rid of most of those games. The girl who knows her shit was working too, went really smooth and easy; spent most of the time talking about Gamestop's recent craziness with the whole Deus Ex OnLive thing and would of been out of there in about 20 minutes had me and her not been chatting for a while. :lol:
 
[quote name='BudzMcGee']I figured they wouldn't so I avoided them. Picked up 8 random games, $4 cash, $12 credit. Worth it since I was already trading in about 18 other games. Word to the wise, some of the PS2 games don't pop up on the mobile app if you are looking.

All told I traded in 26 games, 8 of them were PS2 junk I picked up today with the B2G2 sales, and most of the 360 titles I traded in were junk titles like Guitar Hero III and Aerosmith, Madden 07 and 08, Perfect Dark Zero, etc., at $1-$3 a pop plus bonus. Still managed $110 in credit. I'm happy with that, and to just get rid of most of those games. The girl who knows her shit was working too, went really smooth and easy; spent most of the time talking about Gamestop's recent craziness with the whole Deus Ex OnLive thing and would of been out of there in about 20 minutes had me and her not been chatting for a while. :lol:[/QUOTE]

I definitely need to move some GS credit out, but the more I think about this, the more I think that it's an awful lot of work to move like 1% of my credit to BB.
 
Wasn't really that much work and you can easily turn $2 into $6. Basically any $0.99 PS2 game that isn't a jam pack trades for $1 or $1.50 after pre-order bonus. So every 4 games equals $2 paid and $6 credit. Just make sure you don't grab more than 3 of any one title and you are set. Other than having to wait while the BB employee looks them up, which took a bit longer on some due to their system being kind of touchy, it wasn't really a lot of work. There were at least 20 $0.99 games left at the GS I visited, so that would mean spend $10 to get $30. Hell, the girl told me if I came back today she'd let me get the 50% bonus again, tempted to go back and raid that gamestop and maybe one more.

Two games that gave me issue were "powerdrome racing" (how BB/Gamestop have it in their system) but the disc says "power drome". The other one was NHL FaceOff 2001 (it was there, but it was just buried and took a while to find).

If I still had that $25 gamestop giftcard I got from E-rewards I would of spent it on this.
 
hey I have a question, I was wondering if you could return pre-orders since I want the 50% extra trade in value but I don't want Madden
 
Just a little update info here
I traded in DJ hero and Sports champ last night, both are "not for resale" copy, but no problem at all. He was cool enough to just look up the game.

Plus Sports champ is back to $9.99 from GS still make some money, but not as good as couple days ago.

Question, i lock in 3 sports champ on BB online trade in couple days ago, since now the price when up, how can i cancel those lock in trade???
 
[quote name='exaznkid']hey I have a question, I was wondering if you could return pre-orders since I want the 50% extra trade in value but I don't want Madden[/QUOTE]

This gets asked alot in this thread almost on every page, yes you can cancel, just do it on a separate visit at CS. Make sure you keep your receipt.
 
[quote name='GoVols']Do you just put $5 down on preorders or will they let you pay it off now like gamestop does???[/QUOTE]
You can pay all of it off except for tax. I paid off Zelda and they told me he could only put $50 down on the game and I would just have to pay tax.

Went to best buy. Traded in 4 games, walked out with $58 on a Skyrim preorder :cool:.
 
[quote name='Sir_Fragalot']You can pay all of it off except for tax. I paid off Zelda and they told me he could only put $50 down on the game and I would just have to pay tax.

Went to best buy. Traded in 4 games, walked out with $58 on a Skyrim preorder :cool:.[/QUOTE]

Is this a new policy because I don't recall Bestbuy taking more than $5 for a pre-order since thats all it can say you can put on a receipt
 
hey guys I have a question about the 40% trade in bonus for preorders

can I trade in additional titles later for the same preorder and get the bonus or do I have to trade them in all at once?

for example: I traded in 1 video game, got the 40% bonus and then preorderd Dark Souls

can I go in 2 weeks later, trade in another game towards Dark Souls and get the 40% bonus again? thanks
 
[quote name='urallgyots']hey guys I have a question about the 40% trade in bonus for preorders

can I trade in additional titles later for the same preorder and get the bonus or do I have to trade them in all at once?

for example: I traded in 1 video game, got the 40% bonus and then preorderd Dark Souls

can I go in 2 weeks later, trade in another game towards Dark Souls and get the 40% bonus again? thanks[/QUOTE]

Just depends. I've traded 5 different times with the same preorder ticket. Had to get a 2nd Madden pre-order for 1 guy that was working. He wouldnt accept the one I already had. If they make you get a 2nd pre-order you can just cancel it at the service desk afterwards and get your money back.

You dont actually put the trade value on the pre-order, they just give you a gift card.
 
[quote name='HakurenKyo06']This gets asked alot in this thread almost on every page, yes you can cancel, just do it on a separate visit at CS. Make sure you keep your receipt.[/QUOTE]

Yes, hold on to that receipt. I went to best buy today trying to cancel a reserve and got denied because I didnt have a receipt. I asked if they have my reserve on their system (like Gamestop) and was told "No we dont, sorry." So the only record of my reserve is my receipt? Call me paranoid but Im a little weary now about the whole 5/100 thing. If I buy 5 games and lose a piece of paper, do I miss out on the $100 bonus?
 
[quote name='urallgyots']hey guys I have a question about the 40% trade in bonus for preorders

can I trade in additional titles later for the same preorder and get the bonus or do I have to trade them in all at once?

for example: I traded in 1 video game, got the 40% bonus and then preorderd Dark Souls

can I go in 2 weeks later, trade in another game towards Dark Souls and get the 40% bonus again? thanks[/QUOTE]

If you brought in your slip or reciept that shows you already preordered, most stores will give you the bonus.

Again, like the other preorder get X% promos, you dont HAVE to preorder. The employee could be cool and just go through the transaction cause it doesnt need further proof.
 
I preordered Batman AC cause I want their exclusive Robin content. When I go to pick up my pre-order, does the code actuallly come in the game, or on the receipt, or a special piece of paper, or email, or what???? GS's stuff comes on receipt usually. Just wondering.
 
[quote name='boogie4114']Is this a new policy because I don't recall Bestbuy taking more than $5 for a pre-order since thats all it can say you can put on a receipt[/QUOTE]

Must be REALLY NEW. I was at BB two days ago and they wouldnt let me put anything more than $5 towards a pre-order on Batman AC.
 
they email codes to ya. you can even cancel the preorder that week after you have already used the codes they sent. but that wouldnt be nice ;)

traded in like 70 games today for $450. it was ok... they didnt take a bunch of ps2 games cuz they were being lazy and not looking. i will try again tomorrow, but at least i got extra 10% today. woot
 
FYI: By trading in tons of the $.99 GS games to BB, you're also helping out your local BB to get more used games in for sale, as I've been told repeatedly that the more trades a store receives the more used titles they get in for sale.;)
 
that's what they say. but i give so many games to trade in so i asked what's the deal?
he said they can't get more til they sell more of the used, and im not buying anymore used, so idk.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']FYI: By trading in tons of the $.99 GS games to BB, you're also helping out your local BB to get more used games in for sale, as I've been told repeatedly that the more trades a store receives the more used titles they get in for sale.;)[/QUOTE]

I cant wait to see the store that gets in 300 copies of Madden 03.
 
[quote name='Velo214']that's what they say. but i give so many games to trade in so i asked what's the deal?
he said they can't get more til they sell more of the used, and im not buying anymore used, so idk.[/QUOTE]
If they'd have more B2G1 sales on the used and/or priced them competitively then they should have no problems selling the stock they have.

But when some of the used titles are $40 NEW and $39.99 used with no discounts 90-95% of the time, I can see why the stock is stagnating there.

Then again, one of my local BB stores has nothing but duplicates of duplicates(including a STACK of both :ps3:Chronicles Of Riddick and :ps3:Metal Gear Solid 4) with very litte variety.

That is the one thing that'll likely kill any used sales at BB, is the lack of different titles at each store.
[quote name='Dark Rider']I cant wait to see the store that gets in 300 copies of Madden 03.[/QUOTE]
Madden 03? I was thinking of dumping 3 copies each of every Madden and every other sports title GS has for $.99($.90 after EDGE/PUR n B2G2F right now;)) on BB just to see how many they'd take and what their response would be.:lol:
 
I traded in 40 of the .99 games today. The gaming supervisor took them all and said bring more if I want. He said he wish he could trade in himself but it would be a conflict of interest. I even left the games there(around 60 total) and he called me when he was done and I went by later to pick up the gift cards.
 
So... I dumped 64 today, and I told the gaming supervisor that others have just done them at generic SKU instead of searching for each one and that made it a bit faster to complete.

But, if that's how they're rang up then what's preventing people from trading in more than 3x of a title? Granted I didn't do that today, but my local GS has more copies of Madden and crap I could technically go back for... Generic SKUs shouldn't be tied to my account limit of 3x a title, right?

They did say the same thing though, stores rank depending on number of units traded in. So I guess they're excited even though the process is a massive bitch.
 
So I had done trade-ins on Wednesday/Thursday with no problems...I was splitting up the stack because I didn't really want to tie myself or a BB employee down for 3-4 hours. Friday I came in and had to go through customer service because the gaming guy hadn't gotten there yet. So he shows up as they're finishing up my stack (3rd of 4) and he knew me from other trade-ins I had done (not PS2 games, I had other people do those) and informed me I couldn't use my Madden pre-order to get the bonus again. Fair enough. I said I'd pre-order NBA 2K12 and asked if I could go out and get the rest of my games since I'm only getting one shot for a trade-in bonus and I already had 5-6 games pre-ordered.

At this point he starts giving me a hard time about where I've obtained all these games, and without outright accusing me of stealing a box of games from GS asks to see receipts. I produce them. He calls over a manager and informs him that I'm about to make a 40% profit because I've bought all these games for a buck and they're giving a bonus. The manager tells me there's no way, and I'm gaming the system. The kiosk guy repeats that there's no way he's doing this and giving me a bonus. I didn't really want to try returning a sack of games to GS, so I asked the manager if he could run it without the trade-in value. The manager agrees, and asks if the 25% bonus for 2+ games can be overridden. Sure can. Then the kiosk guy goes back to the receipts and points to my PUR discount, says I'm still making about .10 a game. The manager doesn't have as much of a problem with that, and approves it anyway.

So the kiosk guy goes to work, all the while berating me about how Best Buy is trying to do good things with this trade-in program by offering better deals than GS (like it's a charity and they're not trying to flex their muscles at GS) and he's giving me a break by even doing this, because it's going to take so long. We're almost finished, and another guy walks up. "You just had these laying around?" Me and the kiosk guy look at each other, and I say "not exactly." "Trying to flip these for a little profit?" "Yep." And the guy says "Well, there's a 50% trade-in bonus so that'll help." The kiosk guy cuts him off and says "we've been over that."

So basically I caught the one dick in the entire store. I got a 25% bonus for my first half of games (it had already been processed) and no bonus for the second half. But as much as this guy looked at my GS receipts, you'd think he would've noticed all the games with "0.00" next to them.

I'm wondering if I write a letter to corporate and at least get the 25% bonus added for me.
 
[quote name='Sepatown Tippie Tais']So I had done trade-ins on Wednesday/Thursday with no problems...I was splitting up the stack because I didn't really want to tie myself or a BB employee down for 3-4 hours. Friday I came in and had to go through customer service because the gaming guy hadn't gotten there yet. So he shows up as they're finishing up my stack (3rd of 4) and he knew me from other trade-ins I had done (not PS2 games, I had other people do those) and informed me I couldn't use my Madden pre-order to get the bonus again. Fair enough. I said I'd pre-order NBA 2K12 and asked if I could go out and get the rest of my games since I'm only getting one shot for a trade-in bonus and I already had 5-6 games pre-ordered.

At this point he starts giving me a hard time about where I've obtained all these games, and without outright accusing me of stealing a box of games from GS asks to see receipts. I produce them. He calls over a manager and informs him that I'm about to make a 40% profit because I've bought all these games for a buck and they're giving a bonus. The manager tells me there's no way, and I'm gaming the system. The kiosk guy repeats that there's no way he's doing this and giving me a bonus. I didn't really want to try returning a sack of games to GS, so I asked the manager if he could run it without the trade-in value. The manager agrees, and asks if the 25% bonus for 2+ games can be overridden. Sure can. Then the kiosk guy goes back to the receipts and points to my PUR discount, says I'm still making about .10 a game. The manager doesn't have as much of a problem with that, and approves it anyway.

So the kiosk guy goes to work, all the while berating me about how Best Buy is trying to do good things with this trade-in program by offering better deals than GS (like it's a charity and they're not trying to flex their muscles at GS) and he's giving me a break by even doing this, because it's going to take so long. We're almost finished, and another guy walks up. "You just had these laying around?" Me and the kiosk guy look at each other, and I say "not exactly." "Trying to flip these for a little profit?" "Yep." And the guy says "Well, there's a 50% trade-in bonus so that'll help." The kiosk guy cuts him off and says "we've been over that."

So basically I caught the one dick in the entire store. I got a 25% bonus for my first half of games (it had already been processed) and no bonus for the second half. But as much as this guy looked at my GS receipts, you'd think he would've noticed all the games with "0.00" next to them.

I'm wondering if I write a letter to corporate and at least get the 25% bonus added for me.[/QUOTE]

Leave it alone.
 
[quote name='Sepatown Tippie Tais']So I had done trade-ins on Wednesday/Thursday with no problems...I was splitting up the stack because I didn't really want to tie myself or a BB employee down for 3-4 hours. Friday I came in and had to go through customer service because the gaming guy hadn't gotten there yet. So he shows up as they're finishing up my stack (3rd of 4) and he knew me from other trade-ins I had done (not PS2 games, I had other people do those) and informed me I couldn't use my Madden pre-order to get the bonus again. Fair enough. I said I'd pre-order NBA 2K12 and asked if I could go out and get the rest of my games since I'm only getting one shot for a trade-in bonus and I already had 5-6 games pre-ordered.

At this point he starts giving me a hard time about where I've obtained all these games, and without outright accusing me of stealing a box of games from GS asks to see receipts. I produce them. He calls over a manager and informs him that I'm about to make a 40% profit because I've bought all these games for a buck and they're giving a bonus. The manager tells me there's no way, and I'm gaming the system. The kiosk guy repeats that there's no way he's doing this and giving me a bonus. I didn't really want to try returning a sack of games to GS, so I asked the manager if he could run it without the trade-in value. The manager agrees, and asks if the 25% bonus for 2+ games can be overridden. Sure can. Then the kiosk guy goes back to the receipts and points to my PUR discount, says I'm still making about .10 a game. The manager doesn't have as much of a problem with that, and approves it anyway.

So the kiosk guy goes to work, all the while berating me about how Best Buy is trying to do good things with this trade-in program by offering better deals than GS (like it's a charity and they're not trying to flex their muscles at GS) and he's giving me a break by even doing this, because it's going to take so long. We're almost finished, and another guy walks up. "You just had these laying around?" Me and the kiosk guy look at each other, and I say "not exactly." "Trying to flip these for a little profit?" "Yep." And the guy says "Well, there's a 50% trade-in bonus so that'll help." The kiosk guy cuts him off and says "we've been over that."

So basically I caught the one dick in the entire store. I got a 25% bonus for my first half of games (it had already been processed) and no bonus for the second half. But as much as this guy looked at my GS receipts, you'd think he would've noticed all the games with "0.00" next to them.

I'm wondering if I write a letter to corporate and at least get the 25% bonus added for me.[/QUOTE]

I would've told him to screw off. It doesn't matter how you obtain the games as long as they are legally yours. You could've bought them at a yard sale, or bought out a closing store's clearance stock. He can't deny you a promo just because you're making money on the deal. Well... technically he can, but if you went over his head, you'd have gotten what you wanted. Or you could've just told him you want all your games back and took them to a different store.
 
[quote name='The Punisher']Leave it alone.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, man. Don't get corporate involved. They have even tighter sphincters than those dudes at the store. Just take it as a loss and move on. I have had to with Gamestop and with BB plenty before. No biggie. Fortunately, now, both my BB and main Gamestop know me by name from being in there so much and buying trading so much. I'm very upfront about the fact that I'm flipping and really grateful to them that they let me. They get a lot of people that come in there who do it and aren't upfront about it. It's like tellng the employees that they are idiots. I think that just pisses them off so when I don't try to hide the fact that I'm just looking to stretch my money as far as it can go they really cut me slack and hook me up. If they ever tell me no, I don't push it; I say thanks and move on. Best Buy is definately eaiser than Gamestop though. That's also because I probably trade-in about half their trades though too.
 
[quote name='xskaxninjax']I would've told him to screw off. It doesn't matter how you obtain the games as long as they are legally yours. You could've bought them at a yard sale, or bought out a closing store's clearance stock. He can't deny you a promo just because you're making money on the deal. Well... technically he can, but if you went over his head, you'd have gotten what you wanted. Or you could've just told him you want all your games back and took them to a different store.[/QUOTE]

He was the one who went over his head to ultimately get permission to deny me outright. And the nearest BB is 40 miles away which is 60 miles from my house. I would've come back today but I didn't want to drive out for just that reason (I drive by it for class on weekdays) and have the chance of him working today anyway.

[quote name='dealsthatkills']I'm very upfront about the fact that I'm flipping and really grateful to them that they let me. They get a lot of people that come in there who do it and aren't upfront about it. It's like tellng the employees that they are idiots. I think that just pisses them off so when I don't try to hide the fact that I'm just looking to stretch my money as far as it can go they really cut me slack and hook me up. If they ever tell me no, I don't push it; I say thanks and move on.[/QUOTE]

That's how I try to approach it (I told GS exactly where their PS2 games were going, and BB where I got them and how much I got them for; I followed the 3 games per title rule to the point of triple checking the trade-in sheets), I'm just kind of salty that this guy thinks he's going to step up and get promoted or something by being a dick to me and it cut my profit. But yeah, I'll probably let it go.
 
Honestly, I'm not sure I agree with the "leave it alone" attitude here. Best Buy sets their trade in prices based on what they deem potentially profitable. The bonus that they add to it fall under the same category. As long as the games you are trading to them were obtained legally (which you provided proof for), that store doesn't have a right to refuse you based on the fact that you stand to make a personal profit (especially since it is in their gift card money). I would probably say something to corporate (maybe leaving out some of the details, simply stating that you wanted to trade in a large number of games, you were questioned about how you came to own them all, produced a proof of purchase and were still denied the trade-in bonus and treated very rudely by the employees who acted like they were doing you a favor by screwing you over). Basically they accused you of being a criminal and even after you proved them wrong they denied you on the basis that the trade would be in your favor (implying that they only accept trades that are unfavorable to the person trading it in). Hell, I made a profit on a couple of games I traded in that I bought from BB a couple of weeks ago. If nothing else, corporate will almost certainly contact the store and make it clear that they fucked up.

The only reason I wouldn't do it is that it will be fairly obvious to the staff who complained to corporate and they may treat you even worse next time (but probably not since if you had to contact corporate again about the issue someone would likely get fired, corporations don't play around with that type of shit because at that point they are one issue away from a potential lawsuit from a customer claiming harassment).
 
[quote name='BudzMcGee']that store doesn't have a right to refuse you based on the fact that you stand to make a personal profit (especially since it is in their gift card money).[/QUOTE]

Sounds like Vegas, feel free to lose all the money you want but we'll show you the door if you start winning...

I got my 50% bonus for pre-ordering Madden last night. My first trades to BB but they beat GS by mile (at least on these particular games). The guy was very nice and it was a very easy transaction.
 
while we probably all have had a lot of bad and good experiences at BB, the employees are protecting the best interest of their employeer...and their employment. if their manager checks the transactions of one cashier and doesn't like the results you don't get introuble, that person does and it could cost them their job. If that person loses their job, you don't care you just care about getting your bonus TIV or discount.

if you're unsatified with the way you were treated by that place, dont give your business to them anymore. if you decide to go corporate and don't have a strong case just remember they have your personal info and could flag you as a problem consumer. As you said that guy remembered you, i'm sure he'll never forgot you now.

I'd just go to another store and if that doesn't work just be content with what you were able to achieve with your persistence.
 
[quote name='Sepatown Tippie Tais']So I had done trade-ins on Wednesday/Thursday with no problems...I was splitting up the stack because I didn't really want to tie myself or a BB employee down for 3-4 hours. Friday I came in and had to go through customer service because the gaming guy hadn't gotten there yet. So he shows up as they're finishing up my stack (3rd of 4) and he knew me from other trade-ins I had done (not PS2 games, I had other people do those) and informed me I couldn't use my Madden pre-order to get the bonus again. Fair enough. I said I'd pre-order NBA 2K12 and asked if I could go out and get the rest of my games since I'm only getting one shot for a trade-in bonus and I already had 5-6 games pre-ordered.

At this point he starts giving me a hard time about where I've obtained all these games, and without outright accusing me of stealing a box of games from GS asks to see receipts. I produce them. He calls over a manager and informs him that I'm about to make a 40% profit because I've bought all these games for a buck and they're giving a bonus. The manager tells me there's no way, and I'm gaming the system. The kiosk guy repeats that there's no way he's doing this and giving me a bonus. I didn't really want to try returning a sack of games to GS, so I asked the manager if he could run it without the trade-in value. The manager agrees, and asks if the 25% bonus for 2+ games can be overridden. Sure can. Then the kiosk guy goes back to the receipts and points to my PUR discount, says I'm still making about .10 a game. The manager doesn't have as much of a problem with that, and approves it anyway.

So the kiosk guy goes to work, all the while berating me about how Best Buy is trying to do good things with this trade-in program by offering better deals than GS (like it's a charity and they're not trying to flex their muscles at GS) and he's giving me a break by even doing this, because it's going to take so long. We're almost finished, and another guy walks up. "You just had these laying around?" Me and the kiosk guy look at each other, and I say "not exactly." "Trying to flip these for a little profit?" "Yep." And the guy says "Well, there's a 50% trade-in bonus so that'll help." The kiosk guy cuts him off and says "we've been over that."

So basically I caught the one dick in the entire store. I got a 25% bonus for my first half of games (it had already been processed) and no bonus for the second half. But as much as this guy looked at my GS receipts, you'd think he would've noticed all the games with "0.00" next to them.

I'm wondering if I write a letter to corporate and at least get the 25% bonus added for me.[/QUOTE]

I don't mean to open a whole can of worms but I can understand what the BB employees were coming from. What is flipping to us is gaming the system to them. This applies to most any place. Gamestop for example will ban you for trying to trade back stuff to them when they know you're gaming the system as well. Your purchases were all legit but you were a red flag from the get go trading in stacks of games. If I was an employee I would look at that many games and know something was up. It's just common sense when you see the same person trade in 20+ games within a week. People will game a lot but nobody has that much time to game THAT much.

If possible, I'd recommend trying to practice more discretion by spreading out some trades over a day (during shift changes) or even between multiple stores. But thanks for sharing your story, I like reading about the atypical experience from fellow CAGs.
 
[quote name='PrinnyOtaku']So... I dumped 64 today, and I told the gaming supervisor that others have just done them at generic SKU instead of searching for each one and that made it a bit faster to complete.

But, if that's how they're rang up then what's preventing people from trading in more than 3x of a title? Granted I didn't do that today, but my local GS has more copies of Madden and crap I could technically go back for... Generic SKUs shouldn't be tied to my account limit of 3x a title, right?

They did say the same thing though, stores rank depending on number of units traded in. So I guess they're excited even though the process is a massive bitch.[/QUOTE]

I doubt they're looking to ban someone trading in games for $1. They probably think they're getting the better end of the deal. The one thing I can see happening is that they drop the $1 minimum when they figure out it's not worth it to them, unless they think most customers use some money along with the trade-in credit they receive.
 
[quote name='dealsthatkills']Yeah, man. Don't get corporate involved. They have even tighter sphincters than those dudes at the store. Just take it as a loss and move on. I have had to with Gamestop and with BB plenty before. No biggie. Fortunately, now, both my BB and main Gamestop know me by name from being in there so much and buying trading so much. I'm very upfront about the fact that I'm flipping and really grateful to them that they let me. They get a lot of people that come in there who do it and aren't upfront about it. It's like tellng the employees that they are idiots. I think that just pisses them off so when I don't try to hide the fact that I'm just looking to stretch my money as far as it can go they really cut me slack and hook me up. If they ever tell me no, I don't push it; I say thanks and move on. Best Buy is definately eaiser than Gamestop though. That's also because I probably trade-in about half their trades though too.[/QUOTE]
That was the problem with me, was that the employees at my closest GS knew me by name from all of the times I was in there trading in bunches of stuff. I came in the one time to trade in like 40-45 games(my whole PS3 collection at that point) and my phat PS3 towards a slim when they first released it. I had everything figured out down to the nickel and I told them immediately that they had shortchanged me about $40-45 from having not scanned in 2-4 of my games.

As for not getting corporate involved, I call bullshit on that. They practically accused him of being a thief, then denied him the pre-order bonus credit but STILL took his trades. That...right there...is utter horseshit. I woulda just nicely(as nicely as I could whilst gritting my teeth from being annoyed/pissed bout the hassle) said to give me my games back and went to another BB store and been done with it.
[quote name='Midnight Express']Sounds like Vegas, feel free to lose all the money you want but we'll show you the door if you start winning...[/QUOTE]
Exactly. That's what happened to me at Gamestop. Someone somewhere along the way took a good look at my trading history and realized I was making bank on what I was trading, then told corporate about it and WHAMO...BANNED.:roll:
[quote name='Donut2922']I don't mean to open a whole can of worms but I can understand what the BB employees were coming from. What is flipping to us is gaming the system to them. This applies to most any place. Gamestop for example will ban you for trying to trade back stuff to them when they know you're gaming the system as well. Your purchases were all legit but you were a red flag from the get go trading in stacks of games. If I was an employee I would look at that many games and know something was up. It's just common sense when you see the same person trade in 20+ games within a week. People will game a lot but nobody has that much time to game THAT much.

If possible, I'd recommend trying to practice more discretion by spreading out some trades over a day (during shift changes) or even between multiple stores. But thanks for sharing your story, I like reading about the atypical experience from fellow CAGs.[/QUOTE]
Apparently you're not allowed to have a gaming collection or maybe friends who had copies of the same games when you guys used to play together. That would've been my excuse in the situation that popped up for the one poster. Not everybody trades in their games as soon as they beat them. I myself waited till almost the end of the PS2/Xbox gen to try trading in my collection of nearly 100 titles. Of course by then they were worth jack and shit.
[quote name='scblueeyedguy']I doubt they're looking to ban someone trading in games for $1. They probably think they're getting the better end of the deal. The one thing I can see happening is that they drop the $1 minimum when they figure out it's not worth it to them, unless they think most customers use some money along with the trade-in credit they receive.[/QUOTE]
I've been threatened with being banned from one of my local BB stores for trying to buy their pennied out guides/items from the shelves before. You give someone a position with a lil too much power and they think they can rule over you. But a quick note to corporate to mention how rude they were(while leaving out that you were trying to buy items they are supposed to toss in the dumpster) can net you a 'sincere' apology from corporate AND a gift card.;) But yeah, I imagine the $1 minimum will go away very soon for PS2 games if quite a few people are exploiting the B2G2 from GS and the trade values at BB in this manner.:cry:
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']That was the problem with me, was that the employees at my closest GS knew me by name from all of the times I was in there trading in bunches of stuff. I came in the one time to trade in like 40-45 games(my whole PS3 collection at that point) and my phat PS3 towards a slim when they first released it. I had everything figured out down to the nickel and I told them immediately that they had shortchanged me about $40-45 from having not scanned in 2-4 of my games.

As for not getting corporate involved, I call bullshit on that. They practically accused him of being a thief, then denied him the pre-order bonus credit but STILL took his trades. That...right there...is utter horseshit. I woulda just nicely(as nicely as I could whilst gritting my teeth from being annoyed/pissed bout the hassle) said to give me my games back and went to another BB store and been done with it.

Exactly. That's what happened to me at Gamestop. Someone somewhere along the way took a good look at my trading history and realized I was making bank on what I was trading, then told corporate about it and WHAMO...BANNED.:roll:

Apparently you're not allowed to have a gaming collection or maybe friends who had copies of the same games when you guys used to play together. That would've been my excuse in the situation that popped up for the one poster. Not everybody trades in their games as soon as they beat them. I myself waited till almost the end of the PS2/Xbox gen to try trading in my collection of nearly 100 titles. Of course by then they were worth jack and shit.

I've been threatened with being banned from one of my local BB stores for trying to buy their pennied out guides/items from the shelves before. You give someone a position with a lil too much power and they think they can rule over you. But a quick note to corporate to mention how rude they were(while leaving out that you were trying to buy items they are supposed to toss in the dumpster) can net you a 'sincere' apology from corporate AND a gift card.;) But yeah, I imagine the $1 minimum will go away very soon for PS2 games if quite a few people are exploiting the B2G2 from GS and the trade values at BB in this manner.:cry:[/QUOTE]

You never get corporate directly involved. Post on the BB forums. That's actually really effective at getting issues resolved because that means that a lot of customers see your experience so that the Community Connectors have to "play nice". They give better GC's too usually. Going corporate draws attention to you directly from people with clout in the company. Postng on the forum, in a very direct manner, gets attention from people who are tryng to get as good of PR for BB as they can without alertng people who might be able to actually ban you.
Also, if they had accused me of theft as obviously as they did there with him, I would have taken them down a major peg and left with my games and went somewhere else. I didn't say to let it go(or maybe I did, I'll check my post), I just said not to go directly to corporate with it. If he didn't do the trade-ins it would be a completely different matter. By accepting their treatment and agreed promotion in-store, BB corporate will probably just back them up saying that because he went along with it, he was okay with it. As far as GS goes with banning you and what not, Gamestop just sucks. Period... and another Period for emphasis.
 
[quote name='100xp']while we probably all have had a lot of bad and good experiences at BB, the employees are protecting the best interest of their employeer...and their employment. if their manager checks the transactions of one cashier and doesn't like the results you don't get introuble, that person does and it could cost them their job. If that person loses their job, you don't care you just care about getting your bonus TIV or discount.
[/QUOTE]

Like I said, I made damn sure I followed their trade-in policy. No one's getting fired playing by the rules. The girl on Wednesday had one extra game on my trade in and I tried to help her figure out which game it was, suggesting the one she had set aside as too scratched to accept. She just sent it through and said if BB was going to give her trouble over a dollar she didn't want to work there.
If anyone's going to get fired over something I've done at BB, it's these (very friendly) idiots that PM anything and everything without following policy or even asking a manager sometimes. I got PMs for the TRU 2 for $50 and $10 bundles, with the latter just showing the ad on my cell phone. I waited maybe 30 seconds for the manager to walk over and approve each of them, only because the computer required approval. I also got NBA 2K11 and RDR with the @Gamer 50% off used coupon printed out. (the only real dishonest thing I've done, since I didn't buy two more copies of the magazine) Honestly, short of a badly Photoshopped ad saying that TRU will give you $100 to take a PS3 off their hands I think my BB would PM anything.

As far as getting flagged...if they're really going to pull that I don't want to shop there anyway. As it is I'm likely cancelling my preorders after Madden and buying Amazon GCs.
 
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