Gamerush-Use this thread for flipping discussions, morals, etc.

[quote name='CoryCubed']Really as long as the cheap title will sell for at least $6.99 blockbuster should break at least even - assuming they pay around $40-45 for a game as long as there is no double dipping.

$30 - 3 + 14 = $41
Probably better to trade something more though - as it incrementaly gets better for blockbuster and you'll get more credit. Take a $9.99 - $3 credit

$30 - $6 + 20 = $43

$12.99

$30 - $10 + $26 = $46

So the better games you bring in the better - Blockbuster gets closer to profit and the more expensive may sell better and quicker and you get more credit off the $29.99 (I rounded for maths sake). I didn't include taxes though so that may affect things too.


It gets better for Blockbuster on the $39.99 games too as they may only pay $32-$35.[/QUOTE]

Thanks - I usually try to trade games that get at least $3 credit (and sell for $9.99) if not more - but sometimes the price drops on me :D while I wait for games to show up in the preorder system. I'm trying to trade things in that I don't see many of (regardless of price), so that's good for their resale ability. I'm kind of low on trade items now and might have to dip into the $5 CC games I got a few months ago (and have not gotten around to playing yet - a sign that they should go to make room for new games!). Most of those are GC titles that they don't have any of, so those will work well.

No sales tax here - makes figuring things out MUCH easier on these deals.
 
[quote name='CoryCubed']Most flippers are the average 15-25 male dumbass that drives a honda and thinks he's the shit.[/QUOTE]
I fall into the non-most flippers. I've done it more than a few times but it's always to end up buying PSX games that GR bought for like 50 cents anyways. Hell, I think 80% of what I've spend from my credit at GR is on PSX and DC games. I'm a good-guy flipper. ;)
 
You know there was a time not that long ago when you could do a variation on "flipping". Media Play and Circuit City were absolutely horrible at dropping their prices with everyone else. They both had return policies that would give you store credit without a receipt.

So you could find a game like Beach Spikers for $9.99 at Best Buy and take it back to either for $49.99. Given this site and another, now defunct uncledunkel.com, you could build up a collection rather quickly doing returns of cheap games for full price. Obviously it's shady, as all flipping is, and I guess it's no different than the Wal Mart returns which some have no problem with and others find shady. All in the eye of the beholder.

I basically think that if a store/chain is going to allow flipping or returns without a receipt they know what they're getting into; a certain amount of fraud or abuse.

I know that if there were a Gamerush near me I'd have my Xbox 360, 5 games, second controller, headset and memory card paid for already in store credit.
 
I know you like video games, we all do. If you don't like your job get a new one! Gamestop, Blockbuster, and EB Games can hire guys like you to work for absolutely nothing just because you like games and you are to nerdy to get a real job. You are nothing more that a 10hr drone for blockbuster. You don't call the shots corportate does, all you can do is take out your frustrations on flippers like me that pay there employees 10hr to just flip. Let me break it down for you. I pay 2.50 for each game that I buy from blockbuster, I then trade that game for about a dollar. After I buy three I have 9.50 into a 45.00 purchase that is worth 35 in trade. 35-9.50=25.50 minus the 8% taxes. I know what your thinking I must be banned, and your right. But the guys I pick up at the plasma bank have fresh accounts and will flip games for $4 per game transaction. I then make 21 dollars in credit for every $4 that I spend. 2 flips per store per person working=42 and about 20 stores in a day=840. I go to work buy ripping off blockbuster. I will own almost ever XBOX 360 you guys can offer and I will sell them for a premium on Ebay come November. YOU THINK I AM A DUMBASS I WILL MAKE YOUR YEARLY SALARY IN ABOUT 2 MONTHS. I DID IT OVER CHRISTMASS WITH THE PS2 AND I MADE OVER 12,000. If you work hard and know the system it is really easy to tear you guys to pieces. THIS IS A DUMBASS PROMOTION THAT IS PISSING OFF YOUR CUSTOMERS. GAMERUSH = RETARDED.
 
[quote name='electroslag']THIS IS A DUMBASS PROMOTION THAT IS PISSING OFF YOUR CUSTOMERS. GAMERUSH = RETARDED.[/QUOTE]

Personally I have nothing to say about the rest of your rant (except that you should by nicer to Cory who is providing us all this inside info - but it sounds like you have been doing "fine" all on your own so probably don't care). I'm sure others will have plenty to say about it and I will leave it to them :D (don your flame-retardant undies NOW). But I sure as hell don't get this last line. The only thing even mildly irritating *some* of us, is that the deal is getting changed or cancelled at many stores. But now we can see one of the big reasons why this has happened - I had NO idea flipping went on at that scale. Wow...
 
[quote name='CoryCubed']Actually I think I'm doing well at Blockbuster considering I'm making $11.50 an hour with 40 hours a week+ overtime sometimes + tuition reiumbursement $2000 a year + 3 weeks fulltime vacation a year, at my new store just to chat about videogames and price some stickers and move some games every now and then.

Plus with the mystery shopping I do I eat free half the time. Not to mention I'm still eligible for financial aid which nets me an extra $2,000 a year (grants mind you not loans).

All this while I am going to school just so I don't haft to do this forever. I think I'm just fine where I'm at.[/QUOTE]

Cory, no need at all to defend yourself wrt what this guy said... I'm SHOCKED no one else has chimed in on this thread though - maybe the holiday weekend has kept a few of you away. Wanted to bump this up so others can comment...
 
[quote name='CoryCubed']Actually I think I'm doing well at Blockbuster considering I'm making $11.50 an hour with 40 hours a week+ overtime sometimes + tuition reiumbursement $2000 a year + 3 weeks fulltime vacation a year, at my new store just to chat about videogames and price some stickers and move some games every now and then.

Plus with the mystery shopping I do I eat free half the time. Not to mention I'm still eligible for financial aid which nets me an extra $2,000 a year (grants mind you not loans).

All this while I am going to school just so I don't haft to do this forever. I think I'm just fine where I'm at.[/QUOTE]

Mystery shopping, eh? How do I get a job as a mystery shopper?
 
[quote name='electroslag']I know you like video games, we all do. If you don't like your job get a new one! Gamestop, Blockbuster, and EB Games can hire guys like you to work for absolutely nothing just because you like games and you are to nerdy to get a real job. You are nothing more that a 10hr drone for blockbuster. You don't call the shots corportate does, all you can do is take out your frustrations on flippers like me that pay there employees 10hr to just flip. Let me break it down for you. I pay 2.50 for each game that I buy from blockbuster, I then trade that game for about a dollar. After I buy three I have 9.50 into a 45.00 purchase that is worth 35 in trade. 35-9.50=25.50 minus the 8% taxes. I know what your thinking I must be banned, and your right. But the guys I pick up at the plasma bank have fresh accounts and will flip games for $4 per game transaction. I then make 21 dollars in credit for every $4 that I spend. 2 flips per store per person working=42 and about 20 stores in a day=840. I go to work buy ripping off blockbuster. I will own almost ever XBOX 360 you guys can offer and I will sell them for a premium on Ebay come November. YOU THINK I AM A DUMBASS I WILL MAKE YOUR YEARLY SALARY IN ABOUT 2 MONTHS. I DID IT OVER CHRISTMASS WITH THE PS2 AND I MADE OVER 12,000. If you work hard and know the system it is really easy to tear you guys to pieces. THIS IS A DUMBASS PROMOTION THAT IS PISSING OFF YOUR CUSTOMERS. GAMERUSH = RETARDED.[/QUOTE]

Spoken like a true 14 year old. Love the spelling, grammer, everything!
 
[quote name='CoryCubed']Actually I think I'm doing well at Blockbuster considering I'm making $11.50 an hour with 40 hours a week+ overtime sometimes + tuition reiumbursement $2000 a year + 3 weeks fulltime vacation a year, at my new store just to chat about videogames and price some stickers and move some games every now and then.

Plus with the mystery shopping I do I eat free half the time. Not to mention I'm still eligible for financial aid which nets me an extra $2,000 a year (grants mind you not loans).

All this while I am going to school just so I don't haft to do this forever. I think I'm just fine where I'm at.[/QUOTE]

When I was managing a GR I was making $14.00 an hour. I can BB really cut down its price...yikes. I know in certain states they have to pay you a minimum amount...but I guess your eally an 'ASM' and now a 'Manager'....sucks
 
[quote name='CoryCubed']
Yes I still haft to ask everyone but I'd much rather spend time talking to them about games, what they play, that kind of thing.
[/QUOTE]

I love your posts, but "haft" is just making me cry!
 
What games can I get cheaply at EB or Gamestop and then trade in for equal or greater value at GameRush? I'm not going to flip games and try to screw GR, but I do want some newer games, and trading in 3 games worth a couple bucks each to get a more recent used game is a better deal than trading in 2 used games and paying $30 for a new release, especially since I have very little money.
 
I'd like to hear some insite on how they stop flippers or catch them? It doesn't seem as though they have any contact with other stores what so ever. So you could even buy the 10 for 25 deal they have now and drive down the street and trade them in 5 minutes after buying them and the second store doesn't even know. Why don't they have any sort of link to the other stores?
 
[quote name='electroslag']I know you like video games, we all do. If you don't like your job get a new one! Gamestop, Blockbuster, and EB Games can hire guys like you to work for absolutely nothing just because you like games and you are to nerdy to get a real job. You are nothing more that a 10hr drone for blockbuster. You don't call the shots corportate does, all you can do is take out your frustrations on flippers like me that pay there employees 10hr to just flip. Let me break it down for you. I pay 2.50 for each game that I buy from blockbuster, I then trade that game for about a dollar. After I buy three I have 9.50 into a 45.00 purchase that is worth 35 in trade. 35-9.50=25.50 minus the 8% taxes. I know what your thinking I must be banned, and your right. But the guys I pick up at the plasma bank have fresh accounts and will flip games for $4 per game transaction. I then make 21 dollars in credit for every $4 that I spend. 2 flips per store per person working=42 and about 20 stores in a day=840. I go to work buy ripping off blockbuster. I will own almost ever XBOX 360 you guys can offer and I will sell them for a premium on Ebay come November. YOU THINK I AM A DUMBASS I WILL MAKE YOUR YEARLY SALARY IN ABOUT 2 MONTHS. I DID IT OVER CHRISTMASS WITH THE PS2 AND I MADE OVER 12,000. If you work hard and know the system it is really easy to tear you guys to pieces. THIS IS A DUMBASS PROMOTION THAT IS PISSING OFF YOUR CUSTOMERS. GAMERUSH = RETARDED.[/QUOTE]

Wow you sure seem proud of yourself, don't you? I mean I get the feeling that you are trying to brag about your "business sense" or whatever, but you just come off like a stupid ass. Here's hoping that we don't hear about your murder at the hands of one of your "employees". Actually...that would just be karma if it happens. Go Plasma bankers!
 
So here's a warning to you all, my account has been put on hold. For the apparent reason that I was profiting from my trading. It seemed to happen after I accidently flipped a game after having only owned it for 3 days (I forgot which store I bought it from). The district manager apparently reviewed my trades and decided I was not playing fair. Considering I did not obviously break the trade agreement, this does seem a little harsh, and you would have thought a warning would have been in order first. I've yet to actually speak to the DM, but it does look like a no go. Does anyone have experience with opening second accounts and wether they can connect you back to the original ?
 
[quote name='stoned99']So here's a warning to you all, my account has been put on hold. For the apparent reason that I was profiting from my trading. It seemed to happen after I accidently flipped a game after having only owned it for 3 days (I forgot which store I bought it from). The district manager apparently reviewed my trades and decided I was not playing fair. Considering I did not obviously break the trade agreement, this does seem a little harsh, and you would have thought a warning would have been in order first. I've yet to actually speak to the DM, but it does look like a no go. Does anyone have experience with opening second accounts and wether they can connect you back to the original ?[/QUOTE]

With the new "reverse lookup program" that is in place, it is easy to track multiple accounts, and in most cases, (98%) it will merge the accounts, even at store level. Also, If you look at the trade agreements, there is a part that refers to "deceptive trading." Keep in mind, they are a "second hand dealer/pawn shop" now that they trade. They are required/obligated to report ANY deceptive trades to the local or County/Federal law enforecment. It has been done with part-time flippers, as well as full bore flippers/traders.
You have to know they track these trades outside the store.
 
Just to let people know.... the manager Virgil at the BLOCKBUSTER/GAMERUSH in Riverside, Ca .... off of La Sierra is banning people from stores. He's watching people for flipping, and then getting their accounts banned. If you've been banned for flipping, and you've been to that store, then you know who to thank. Anyone know his last name? He's the manager, and he's a total hypacrite, making up rules that are not in the policy. Someone needs to report him.
 
What's up? Nice to see another Riverside area CAG.

I was actually planning on checking out that store, but I haven't been yet. I go to the Moreno Valley store on Alessandro, and the employees there suck. They'll tell me one day that I can stack deals, then the next, I can't... Then the next day after that, I can.

They also don't seem to know that half the deals even exist in the first place. The worst person there by far is this skinny, mannish looking black chick with cornrows who claims to be a manager. She's rude to everyone and tries to screw people over.
 
[quote name='The watcher']With the new "reverse lookup program" that is in place, it is easy to track multiple accounts, and in most cases, (98%) it will merge the accounts, even at store level. Also, If you look at the trade agreements, there is a part that refers to "deceptive trading." Keep in mind, they are a "second hand dealer/pawn shop" now that they trade. They are required/obligated to report ANY deceptive trades to the local or County/Federal law enforecment. It has been done with part-time flippers, as well as full bore flippers/traders.
You have to know they track these trades outside the store.[/QUOTE]

I'm not sure I follow the deceptive trading part as being anything illegal. After all nothing is being stolen. I'm sure that rule is in place to force pawn shops to report obviously illegal behaviour (junkie trading in stolen property).
 
CoryCubed - I can tell you why people take some of the good games to EB and Gamestop - they also sell computer games :) I've considered doing this as well since there are computer games I would love to pick up, but instead all of them have gone to Gamestop. I've traded in 90% of the games I've ever owned to Gamerush.. and many of my preorders that I got for 30 after the trade 2 deal went back to Gamerush within a week as well... Doom3, Jade Empire, SW III, etc all were taken back within a week for your pricing enjoyment :)

I still haven't seen any response to the tracking of traders in the system. Why don't they have any internal tracking across stores? Is the only thing preventing me from buying 20 preowned games @ $5 b2g1 and taking them down the street to the next store just that I might piss a GR employee (you) off and you'll call around the stores? If you do call around and find someone bought them 20 mins ago at the closest store, can you just ban them right then despite not breaking the agreement?
 
[quote name='DevlynSyde']CoryCubed - I can tell you why people take some of the good games to EB and Gamestop - they also sell computer games :) I've considered doing this as well since there are computer games I would love to pick up, but instead all of them have gone to Gamestop. I've traded in 90% of the games I've ever owned to Gamerush.. and many of my preorders that I got for 30 after the trade 2 deal went back to Gamerush within a week as well... Doom3, Jade Empire, SW III, etc all were taken back within a week for your pricing enjoyment :)

I still haven't seen any response to the tracking of traders in the system. Why don't they have any internal tracking across stores? Is the only thing preventing me from buying 20 preowned games @ $5 b2g1 and taking them down the street to the next store just that I might piss a GR employee (you) off and you'll call around the stores? If you do call around and find someone bought them 20 mins ago at the closest store, can you just ban them right then despite not breaking the agreement?[/QUOTE]

They are watching trading at the corporate level, I know. I was banned this week because I was flagged by corporate as "trading for profit". Using only cheap games when trading in on the deals is seen as abuse. We're not even talking about flipping, it's actually a dirrect complaint about the traded in game quality.

Cory expressed his frustration above about the cheap games being traded in. But I like you have traded in just as many good games as bad. And I too have accepted 1.50 for crappy games.

Cory, just to be clear, you still make a profit on those games, what GR does not do very well is advertise it's existence and the deals that is running. A lot of people would buy those games, they are not necassarily bad games, just old games.

But if those games are a problem, lets see an exclusion list like GS and EB.

But beware, once the deals are equal (GS will price match trade values), you will find yourself at a disadvantage as your soon to be single competitor has more stores, more turnover, ability to order games, ability to actually sell games on day of release, and YES, they also sell pc games. I was forced to trade in a couple of games just recently to buy Guild Wars.

I said this in my earlier rant, GR needs to build customers and customer loyalty. These are early days in a growth market. Now is not the time to close out the real gamers.
 
[quote name='KowHunta']Uhm, what the hell is a reverse-lookup at BBV? Seems like it would be damn unreliable, unless the same name is on 2 accounts.[/QUOTE]

I'm thinking if my wife opens up an account, and adds me as a secondary trader, where will that show up ?
 
I just think it’s interesting that there’s all this debate if it’s ethical to exploit the loop holes in Gamerush policies…. Whether it’s right or wrong etc…. but what about if the manager is guilty of flipping? I know my friend works at the La Sierra Gamerush, and was checking on Virgil’s account. He let some Brian guy do a trade AFTER his account was flagged. Virgil also flips, he just does with the different people’s accounts so nothing shows up on his name. i.e. a family friend or a customer. No wonder all the employees don’t like him…..
 
[quote name='stoned99']I'm thinking if my wife opens up an account, and adds me as a secondary trader, where will that show up ?[/QUOTE]


Yes, it will. Especially if you stay around your area there in the O.C.

It will populate from the Corp. servers, company wide.
 
[quote name='The watcher']Yes, it will. Especially if you stay around your area there in the O.C.

It will populate from the Corp. servers, company wide.[/QUOTE]

Hey, call me a cynic or a little paranoid, but I noticed you are a new user, who has a very good knowledge of BB. You tag name is also "Special". One final note, why do you assume I live in the O.C ?

If you are who I think you are (Mark), let me be the first to welcome you. Hopefully my comments have been somewhat constructive, I would hope you didn't share my comments about J?n., as I really wouldn't want to hurt thier feelings. My comments on this board are more about venting and not about being vindictive and mean.

I would actually prefer it if BB / GR was aware of any holes in it's deals, so that the rules could be tailored to be more clear and less subjective. Like I said in my earlier posts, it's a little unfair to treat people differently based upon a single set of rules. I know my freinds at BB are now looking at some very poor numbers going forward in the preorder department.

I wonder if being candid like this is a good idea, but I don't have anything to hide.
 
[quote name='CoryCubed']Here's the problem with taking advantage of the deals.

Corporate is retarded plain and simple.

Reason why? Well here's what will happen.

They will see they lost tons and tons on this deal. They won't see it because of all the loopholes and what not. They'll think it was a bad promo and never do it again.

They won't realized that if they would have put the necessary controls in place, it would have truly been a great deal (which it is) and done great for game rush.

What they need to do is simple

Code the computer to not allow the sports titles and any titles that sell for less than $6.99.

Code the computer to only allow the same title to be traded twice within a two week period on the same accoutn at ALL STORES. (i mean really come on, I understand if maybe two brothers have the same gba game or something like that but do you really trade in two of the same titles on a regular bases every two weeks unless your flipping?)

Maybe a message that flashes if someone has already traded today at that store or ANY OTHER STORE, so that the employee can call.

I know they'll always be ways around that but that would be an excellent start.[/QUOTE]

Cory, I agree mostly with what you have to say, limiting the quantity of a game based upon store stock, or items traded by an individual at a specific store, seems to make sense, but GS and EB dont do that, they move excess quantities to the wherehouse and sell then online. After all they still make a nice profit on games they sell for 5$ (but paid only 1-2$ for). So GR is behind the curve on that one.

A lot of people also beleived that to open GR's widely, BB would need to build stock up in used titles to sell at those stores. In fact if I recall the stores in my area received their opening stock from the stores on the East Coast. So if GR expects to expand, maybe your excess inventory will eventually end up else where, so trade 3 get 1, satisfy's that requirement nicely, assuming they dont end up with only NBA Live 2002 to sell (fixed in latest round of deals by limiting sports titles to only 2004+ only).

You comment about flipping I think is a little broad. Buying a game from EB and selling it to GR is not flipping. It's the basic truth behind a free market economy, ie Buy Low, Sell High. Buying a game from GR1 and selling it to GR2 in a very short time frame is. I mention the timeframe peice because many of us have bought a game, hated it a traded it right back in. Now applying a wait period on trading in this way may have unpredictable consequences, such as forcing people to trade these games into to EB and GS to maximize their trade in value, so perhaps the rule should be something like only used games are subject to a trade in delay.

This would be hard to enforce, but could be used as yardstick to establish who is or isnt flipping, and again I'm not aware of any such rules at EB or GS.

So maybe the bottom line is the exclusion list concept, exclude titles older than 1yr from 3 for 1 trade.

Anyway, Cory what do you think about "The Watcher" if he is from corporate you may want to temper your input as well. I think a lot of people have benefited from the information you have posted.
 
[quote name='CoryCubed']I know profit may still be made but once people start buying new items with their credit that rapidly goes down into the negatives, plus games pile up at stores and don't sell.[/QUOTE]

The other dynamic in this is that GR is receiving a large number of preorders due to the deal, which allows GR to negotiate better per unit cost. If you think about it Fry's / Outpost sell almost all new games for 34.50 for the first week, they can do this because they still make a few bucks on a large volume of sales. The large volume of sales, allows them to buy the next block even cheaper. The only difference between Fry's and the 29.99 preorder deal is the fact that GR receives two games as well, which at a bare minimum are sold for 10 profit, thus GR's net cost is actually only 40$. So Fry's is actually making less per copy than GR.

The games piling up in store needs to be addressed, but like I said in an earlier post, web sales or stock for future GR's will probablly accomodate the excess stock. But hey limiting the number of copies each store can accept would probablly work even better. I had once hear that this could be done by the Manager. In fact it happened to me once, the manager would not accept a title, because she had to many copies.
 
To those who have been banned:

I'm curious as to how it happened, as in how you were informed of your banning. Did you walk in one day to do a trade only to have a note show up on your account? Did you get a phone call? Did they tell you why they banned you or how they caught you?

I think it would be entertaining to hear some of these stories. If you've been banned for flipping, please post how it went down.
 
[quote name='skygunnerblue']To those who have been banned:

I'm curious as to how it happened, as in how you were informed of your banning. Did you walk in one day to do a trade only to have a note show up on your account? Did you get a phone call? Did they tell you why they banned you or how they caught you?

I think it would be entertaining to hear some of these stories. If you've been banned for flipping, please post how it went down.[/QUOTE]

My story is available in all it's glory in the main GR thread. And I dont consider myself a flipper, so by all accounts flipping is not the only way to be banned.
 
Wait a second, I'm confused... there are no Game Rush stores in the Sacramento, CA area at the moment, so this all sounds rather interesting.

If I understand this correctly:

* GameRush has good trade in promotions.

* GameRush doesn't want you to trade in games obtained from fancy trade in promotions.

* GameRush actively promotes having you trade in all the games you buy from them.

Isn't there a discrepancy here? How can GameRush legitimately ban someone from trading at their store if the person is following all their rules and policies? Yes, I know, you can refuse business to anyone, but it seems like these people are doing precisely what GR wants -- trading in games, buying games, and then quickly trading in their newly purchased games. There is a loophole present which allows one to make out quite well with trading, but how can that be construed as any sort of wrong-doing? They seem to be telling folks to trade in games, then banning them for trading in games.
 
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