Big Mess-up at Blockbuster=win for me

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So, I go to turn in a movie I rented from blockbuster, and I stop at the used game section like I always do just to see what's around. Well, before I get there, I see a shelf with a pre-owned God of War in a clear plastic case. Then I look closer, and see a 9.99 price tag on it. I ask my friend who was working if this was real, and she said yup, it rings up in the computer that way too. Then I asked her to check the trade in price. Still 30 dollars. Now, I realized BB was stupid after I earned about 500 in profit during the trade in 3, get one free deal, but this was just beyond me. So, I picked up 4 copies of God of War, 8 copies of Midnight Club 3 Dub, and a few copies of Fight Night Round 2 plus a few other games for $120 with the buy 2, get 1 free sale they had going on for used games. 18 pretty new games for 120.

After, I went to start trading them in at other BB's, but they caught onto me. Oh well...they put my account on hold, which I'm not worried about, and then told me they were going to call the cops because I was stealing. There is nothing in the trading agreement that mentions selling back games that were originally bought from BB and, if you think about it, I was actually making them money. If I buy a game for 10 bucks, then trade it back in for 30, they're going to just put it back on the shelf for (hopefully) 39.99 or even 44.99 like they usually do with the more recent games. Then, since these are popular games, they will probably sell fairly quickly at that price, so instead of them just selling these games once for 9.99, they're actually selling them to me at 9.99, then giving me 30 for them, then selling them back at 44.99, so they're making 25, instead of just 10. Their loss. They can call the cops and suspend my account all they want, but in the end, I'm expecting just to lose my trading priveledges, if anything. Big deal. And with all my extra copies of the games? I intend to keep one copy of each for myself, then trade the rest in at Gamestop with the trade in 3, get 10 extra in gamebucks.

And that was my night.
 
no u arent making them money, odds are they arent gonna sell older new games for 39.99 since pricedrops should be coming soon


[quote name='TUBAPRO1']So, I go to turn in a movie I rented from blockbuster, and I stop at the used game section like I always do just to see what's around. Well, before I get there, I see a shelf with a pre-owned God of War in a clear plastic case. Then I look closer, and see a 9.99 price tag on it. I ask my friend who was working if this was real, and she said yup, it rings up in the computer that way too. Then I asked her to check the trade in price. Still 30 dollars. Now, I realized BB was stupid after I earned about 500 in profit during the trade in 3, get one free deal, but this was just beyond me. So, I picked up 4 copies of God of War, 8 copies of Midnight Club 3 Dub, and a few copies of Fight Night Round 2 plus a few other games for $120 with the buy 2, get 1 free sale they had going on for used games. 18 pretty new games for 120.

After, I went to start trading them in at other BB's, but they caught onto me. Oh well...they put my account on hold, which I'm not worried about, and then told me they were going to call the cops because I was stealing. There is nothing in the trading agreement that mentions selling back games that were originally bought from BB and, if you think about it, I was actually making them money. If I buy a game for 10 bucks, then trade it back in for 30, they're going to just put it back on the shelf for (hopefully) 39.99 or even 44.99 like they usually do with the more recent games. Then, since these are popular games, they will probably sell fairly quickly at that price, so instead of them just selling these games once for 9.99, they're actually selling them to me at 9.99, then giving me 30 for them, then selling them back at 44.99, so they're making 25, instead of just 10. Their loss. They can call the cops and suspend my account all they want, but in the end, I'm expecting just to lose my trading priveledges, if anything. Big deal. And with all my extra copies of the games? I intend to keep one copy of each for myself, then trade the rest in at Gamestop with the trade in 3, get 10 extra in gamebucks.

And that was my night.[/QUOTE]
 
BB is still selling games like Metroid Prime 2 and stuff that came out before Christmas last year for 39.99. They may be behind times in terms of pricing, but that doesn't stop kids from buying them. Also, as of today, God of War and Midnight Dub are still 44.99 used at Gamestop and EB too.
 
Jerk.

You could've turned around and sold them to CAG'ers and been nice about it, since my blockbuster doesn't do anything remotely close to this at all, but instead you hoard and get busted. :applause: to blockbuster for stopping you dead in your tracks.
 
Not usually...this was just a weird thing with a transfer from another store. What I did wasn't illegal at all, and maybe I don't like going through all the hassle of trades on CAG, getting ripped off like I have on the site before, and doing it the much easier way of going to stores by me. If you want to talk about morals, there was that thread about flipping games at BB when the other deal was going on. I'm not the only one who would take advantage of BB's stupidity.
 
It was amazing. They even had other copies of the games on the shelves priced at 44.99, but for some reason they still sold to me at this discounted price.
 
Was it a clear plastic case, just disc only? I have Blockbusters all over me selling games like that for 9.99.

In fact, I have 2 God of Wars just sitting around, waiting to be traded in.
 
sell me one of your god of wars.lol



[quote name='MrMaddness']Was it a clear plastic case, just disc only? I have Blockbusters all over me selling games like that for 9.99.

In fact, I have 2 God of Wars just sitting around, waiting to be traded in.[/QUOTE]
 
just kidding, but i do like your mega man pics. (1-6)



[quote name='demond322']sell me one of your god of wars.lol[/QUOTE]
 
[quote name='TUBAPRO1']Yeah, clear plastic case--disc only. Blockbuster just keeps getting stupider and stupider.[/QUOTE]

Try to know what you are talking about before you post. The games without coverart and selling that low are corporate refurbs, not store transfers. These are the games that people too stupid to breed fucked up somehow and they got sent to corporate for repair.

Sometimes they do a good job, sometimes not.

And if you had any common sense about you, you would at least picked a different company to trade them in to. Moron.
 
Well, like I said in my original post, I did it for 3 weeks during the trade in 3, get one free. Most of those games had no instructions or cover art and were in the same clear plastic cases. I didn't try and trade all of them in at the same store either. To be honest, BB gives the best credit, and if I got caught, I didn't care, because there ARE other stores out there that have credit that I'm more likely to use. Either way, I'm still going to end up at least 300 bucks up for doing nothing but driving around to a few stores. I just find it amusing that blockbuster is threatening to call the cops and do whatever to me because I did something wrong. It may not be right, but it's not illegal. It's one thing the refuse services to me, which I don't really care, because I barely ever go to blockbuster and I have all my credit on gift cards which I plan to use on the 360 and a few games when it comes out. It's another thing to threaten legal action when there is no illegal activity going on.
 
This has been discussed before (well all but the flipping part anyway), by CheapyD himself no less:

http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58540

Some (very few since I've never seen them) BB's sell these special disc-only games for $9.99. They seem to be refurbished former rental games. The other ones on the shelves for $44.99 are normal trade-ins. It didn't even occur to me that someone would try to flip the $9.99 disc-only games. If you are in an area that sells these refurbs it is no surprise that they caught on to you pretty quickly though - not too many people trade in relatively newly released games with no insert or manual.

Edit: CocheseUGA - you beat me to it - I was just reading your post in the other thread to remind myself of exactly what these $9.99 games were.
 
I never realized that these were refurbished games. The workers at the store told me that they were transferred from another store. Either way, I find 9.99 for a game like God of War to be a really low price. As for discussing the morals of flipping, keep it out of this thread--there's another thread already for it. I didn't realize that blockbuster did such a thing, and I thought what I got was an error on their part. My mistake, but I still think it's a good deal.
 
[quote name='TUBAPRO1']Well, like I said in my original post, I did it for 3 weeks during the trade in 3, get one free. Most of those games had no instructions or cover art and were in the same clear plastic cases. I didn't try and trade all of them in at the same store either. To be honest, BB gives the best credit, and if I got caught, I didn't care, because there ARE other stores out there that have credit that I'm more likely to use. Either way, I'm still going to end up at least 300 bucks up for doing nothing but driving around to a few stores. I just find it amusing that blockbuster is threatening to call the cops and do whatever to me because I did something wrong. It may not be right, but it's not illegal. It's one thing the refuse services to me, which I don't really care, because I barely ever go to blockbuster and I have all my credit on gift cards which I plan to use on the 360 and a few games when it comes out. It's another thing to threaten legal action when there is no illegal activity going on.[/QUOTE]

Alot of people got banned from trading for flipping the games from the $5 deal as well - and in fact that deal ended WAY early (it was supposed to run till Sept!) because of this sort of behavior. If people had only had the sense to, at least, take those $5 games and trade them into EB or GS this might not have happened. I only got a few games for my kids (things like The Incredibles, Sly 2, etc) and they were all pretty much in excellent condition with the original art. I wouldn't have wanted a disc-only unless it was a brand new release I didn't already have.

However, I do agree with your point about the absurdity of their "thievery" claims. It seems they have done this to many other people, including ones who were simply buying new games cheap (at places like Target or TRU) and trading them into Blockbuster. But that kind of behavior (ie, threatening to call the cops of you for trading in games you purchased legally) is of course YMMV with the manager at that particular location. There was a rash of that during the $5 PO deal though - maybe they were a bit more on edge during that time :D. But it is simply enough for them to suspend you temporarily and say you can't do that any more - no need for threats and discussion of stealing.

Edit - as for taking the flipping discussion to the to the other thread there's no point really. That thread has died down with the end of the $5 PO deal. And besides, your very first post in this thread included a description of your flipping technique - so we'll discuss it here if we want :D. Seems pretty on topic actually.
 
Yeah, it is on topic, I haven't checked the other thread, so I didn't know if it was still active or not. I just didn't want to have two threads about the same thing open at once. I understand why they banned me and all, but I'm just curious as to why they didn't stop me from trading in when I was at the store, but immediately after I left decided to call my house and alert me that what I was doing was "illegal." If they knew I was trading in their own games, why did they let me get away with that? In my opinion, Blockbuster simply doesn't think through a lot of the deals they put out there and then puts the blame on the customers when they try and take advantage of it. This was a different scenario for me. While I did a small amount of flipping during the 3for5 deal (most of my trades were my own, and most of the games I got I still have), I just wanted to get this out of the way and trade them in at the 7 or so local blockbusters so I wouldn't have to worry about getting stuck with these games. At this point, the games I have left are in decent condition. There are scratches on each disc, but no deep ones, and there are a few pockmarks on 2 or 3 of them, but nothing major at all. Even if I get stuck with ALL of them, which is unlikely, I still broke even.

I too felt that the 3for5 deal ended way too soon, and I felt bad for the people who used it and didn't abuse it. I (for the most part) was one of those people who didn't get to see all the games I would have liked to, but to me, this was just too easy. Instead of trading in at BB, I can trade somewhere else. It's fine with me, and no one else is losing out besides Blockbuster.
 
[quote name='TUBAPRO1']Yeah, it is on topic, I haven't checked the other thread, so I didn't know if it was still active or not. I just didn't want to have two threads about the same thing open at once. I understand why they banned me and all, but I'm just curious as to why they didn't stop me from trading in when I was at the store, but immediately after I left decided to call my house and alert me that what I was doing was "illegal." If they knew I was trading in their own games, why did they let me get away with that? In my opinion, Blockbuster simply doesn't think through a lot of the deals they put out there and then puts the blame on the customers when they try and take advantage of it. [/QUOTE]

Well, probably the people taking your games in didn't care one bit - they just did what they were supposed to do. Probably, later, when the manager was stocking them, he or she noticed a bunch of newly released disc-only games and then went and figured it out, then gave you a call.

Maybe, though, they really thought you stole new games, or maybe rentals from another store - who knows. Seems like all they need to do is not accept disc-only games and this problem would be solved.
 
Kudos to you on all counts, OP. I'd have done the same. In fact, I'm going to try to tomorrow... but, trading in somewhere else.


Thanks

-M
 
They called literally 2 minutes, if not sooner, after I walked out the door and it was the manager I dealt with, so I really don't know how I traded them in if this is this big of a problem at the stores. If they had told me they were refurbs when I bought them, I wouldn't have bothered trying to trade them in at BB's, but I was under the impression that it was a big mistake.
 
Not bad, but you probably coudl've made more cash and been a "better" person if you just printed out cover art and sold em on CAG.
 
[quote name='SuprTnr2']Not bad, but you probably coudl've made more cash and been a "better" person if you just printed out cover art and sold em on CAG.[/QUOTE]

I really doubt he would have made more cash, unless CAG's wanted to give him 25 - 30 bucks for refurbished cd only copies.

Is this just random blockbuster's that do this, or is there any way to tell besides driving to 20 different locations?
 
Tuba, no offense man, this isn't a flame...but sometimes with things like this, you have to back away, and say you got lucky and be happy. I got banned from FYE for "flipping" when i traded in two on one game "Go Go Hypergrind" at two different stores in two different towns. They accused me of stealing and told me never come back to their stores, any of them.
 
[quote name='thingsfallnapart']Tuba, no offense man, this isn't a flame...but sometimes with things like this, you have to back away, and say you got lucky and be happy. I got banned from FYE for "flipping" when i traded in two on one game "Go Go Hypergrind" at two different stores in two different towns. They accused me of stealing and told me never come back to their stores, any of them.[/QUOTE]
really? I have traded in 5 drake of the 99 dragons to one store, heck it has been the same employee 3 of the times. My store sells games too. I went in there last week and saw all 5 of mine on the shelf. One still had the tru 3.48 sticker on it.
 
actually...the games sell for 9.99 because they are being sold without a case or the manual, just the disk itself in a generic clear plastic case. If you sell it back to them, chances are they will sell it for 9.99 again, losing HUGE profits. They might be able to find an empty gamecube case and take the manuals from the copies that they are renting out, but that doesnt happen too often. They also specifically state that no flipping is allowed, and your account will be put on hold or whatever if you are found to be doing this.
 
i traded in 4 madden 06s to the same gamerush once (2 ps2 and 2 xbox since its 2 max per game)...got no problem about it, the guy called the manager and he said just limit me to 2 per game per system
 
[quote name='mcgavin27']really? I have traded in 5 drake of the 99 dragons to one store, heck it has been the same employee 3 of the times. My store sells games too. I went in there last week and saw all 5 of mine on the shelf. One still had the tru 3.48 sticker on it.[/QUOTE]

ya i don't quite get why i was banned, i made sure not to turn in more then one game to a single store.
 
[quote name='thingsfallnapart']ya i don't quite get why i was banned, i made sure not to turn in more then one game to a single store.[/QUOTE]

I dunno...im almost positive (correct me if im wrong) that the gamerush computers are not connected to one another. I don't think they can tell if you returned 2 god of wars to one store, then another 2 to another store. Did you return the games you bought to the same store you bought it from, cuz that may be where they caught you. When you returned them, did you use the same clear plastic case? cuz that could also be the reason.
 
Blockbuster is still in the wrong, they knew what they were doing by selling copies for $9 and then let you get alot of store credit.. You shouldn't of been punished for that at all.

If.. you feel like it, you should get a lawyer for this. Harrassment and threats from a corportation for their mistake puts them in the wrong.
 
[quote name='The Dord']Blockbuster is still in the wrong, they knew what they were doing by selling copies for $9 and then let you get alot of store credit.. You shouldn't of been punished for that at all.

If.. you feel like it, you should get a lawyer for this. Harrassment and threats from a corportation for their mistake puts them in the wrong.[/QUOTE]

LOL...are you serious?!! What would be his basis for the lawsuit, that they shut down his blockbuster account because he was flipping games even though they say specifically that doing so will result in the account being banned?
 
HUGE UPDATE:

Today, the manager I dealt with yesterday called me and apologized a half dozen times, called me "the smartest kid she's ever met" and told me that she was jealous that she couldn't do the same thing I'm doing because she's an employee. To keep it short, not only was my account unsuspended, but they allowed me to come back in and trade in all my games for the $30 price. So, to prove the point that what I'm doing isn't the least bit wrong, there you have it.
 
[quote name='TUBAPRO1']HUGE UPDATE:

Today, the manager I dealt with yesterday called me and apologized a half dozen times, called me "the smartest kid she's ever met" and told me that she was jealous that she couldn't do the same thing I'm doing because she's an employee. To keep it short, not only was my account unsuspended, but they allowed me to come back in and trade in all my games for the $30 price. So, to prove the point that what I'm doing isn't the least bit wrong, there you have it.[/QUOTE]


WHAT?! You're kidding, right? If you aren't then they must have really thought you were stealing (as in physically stealing, not scamming the store) and then when they learned of the disc only games from the other BB they realized they were mistaken and apologized to you. VERY strange even so. They do have every right to ban you from trading for doing what you did (though Americanpierg, I saw nothing in my trade agreement that is SPECIFIC to flipping - just general wording about their ability to do what they want when they want :D).

Anyway, kudos to you - but don't think you won't get in trouble (of the banned from trading kind, not the call the police kind) for doing this sort of thing in the future. Just take them to GS next time :D. And also note that this kind of behavior, when done in excess, leads to stores with liberal trade policies like Blockbuster (high credit, allows disc-only, has great trade promos, etc) tightenening them up and turning into the next Gamestop... So just take it easy and spread things around...
 
[quote name='TUBAPRO1']HUGE UPDATE:

Today, the manager I dealt with yesterday called me and apologized a half dozen times, called me "the smartest kid she's ever met" and told me that she was jealous that she couldn't do the same thing I'm doing because she's an employee. To keep it short, not only was my account unsuspended, but they allowed me to come back in and trade in all my games for the $30 price. So, to prove the point that what I'm doing isn't the least bit wrong, there you have it.[/QUOTE]


hmm...ur story sounds fishy. Either ur lieing or ur dealing with the dumbest manager/ dumbest gamerush store in America. Doesnt sound like something a manager would say.
 
[quote name='Americanpierg']hmm...ur story sounds fishy. Either ur lieing or ur dealing with the dumbest manager/ dumbest gamerush store in America. Doesnt sound like something a manager would say.[/QUOTE]

I thought the same thing but I'm giving the kid the benefit of the doubt - the only way this could be true is if, like I said, they really did think he stole those games from somewhere. I think they'd be pretty apologetic if they thought that, accused him of it, then found out the games really were these refurb games from another Blockbuster (that he purchased of course). Yeah, sure, they could still ban him, but they should feel bad about accusing him of stealing :D.
 
I give my props to the OP for buying the games, but no props for trading them in at BB. Geez you should have brought them to EB or Gamestop or something. Also for all the people who said he is a hoarder and should have traded them on GAG in a way he is a hoarder but come on the OP is doing this in the best intrest of himself just like me and a lot of other people would do.
 
It always amazes me how people bash the OP and others who get lucky and do this kinda thing....you all would have done the same thing if you were in his shoes. Then you look at people taking advantage of the Harvest Moon fiasco and when the GGC worked for any price games and instead of just $19.99 and up like it should've. It just seems to me if its a general glitch of fuck up that everyone can use its ok but if its a select one or few getting a deal then the are always hoarders or jerks......Where is the Logic?
 
I'm not lying. I'm surprised they didn't ban me from trading, but they didn't and that's that. I'm sure they could have and still might, but for now, I'm sticking to the trading policies and trading only 2 of the same item per day, and I'm not just going to go do it 4 days in a row. I took some of the games to GS yesterday and got credit there for them, so I'm not sticking just to BB. And, in 4 days, I go off to college in MI, so I can start a new BB account there and who knows what deals I may find :p
 
I'm going to guess that they have certain red flags where they think people are stealing. I'm sure one of them is trading in multiple copies (probably more than 2) of the same game. Because really, how many people have more than one copy of a game? They probably didn't think you were just flipping for a profit, they probably thought you had actually stolen copies of the game from somewhere and that's why you had so many copies.
 
[quote name='lowgear26']It always amazes me how people bash the OP and others who get lucky and do this kinda thing....you all would have done the same thing if you were in his shoes. [/QUOTE]

Just for reference... no, no I wouldn't. I have a real job for money. I would not want to bother with the hassle of spending my hard-earned money on extra games I don't need, so I can drive all over sneaking them back into store for what would be, with gas and time thrown in, a couple extra dollars. Not to mention I couldn't stomach the gulit/shame should I get caught. If I decide I need a few more bucks, I'll just drag my feet at the end of my shift and get a couple more minutes pay. (Which adds up if you do it every day, but that's beside the point.)
 
Ok, I work a full-time job during the summer at a big four accounting firm and during the year I go to school full-time and work a part time job, so I'm not doing this just to make ends meat. And gas is nothing to me--I have 7 blockbusters within 10 miles of my house. And what guilt/shame if I get caught? I already got "caught" and they were the ones at fault. They apologized to me for accusing me of stealing and carrying out illegal activity. I'm not doing anything wrong and anyone that posts in this thread saying I did so isn't really understanding what I'm doing. You may think flipping isn't right to do to stores, but I'm doing it, and it's not illegal, and until they suspend my trading account for good, then I'm going to keep doing it. There is no credit on my account--it's all in gift cards, so even if they do suspend me, I still can use everything I've made.
 
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