Gamestop Bans for too many trade-ins?

theinspire

theinspire

CAG Veteran
Hi, I'm new to this forum and wanted to start a discussion about trade-in limits at Gamestop.

I was buying a lot of one item at a discounted price and trading it in at Gamestop for a better price. I always asked the guys if there was a limit on how many I could trade in and sometimes they would let me trade in a lot at one time. After a couple months I went into a Gamestop store where I have never traded at and the guy tells me he can't take them. I asked if he was sure, then he said okay and asked to see my ID. When I showed it to him he said they won't accept my trade-ins anymore because I have traded-in at a bunch of their stores.

I'm assuming they knew who I am, since they refused me after seeing my id. What I don't like about this is that I wasn't breaking their rules because I always asked them if it was alright to trade in said amount. Some of the employees even said it would be fine for me to come back later with more and they were really nice to me.

Has anyone had something similar happen to them?
 
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Have you tried to call the district manager of the area? Even if the Game Advisor is cool with it, sometimes the computer can flag certain transactions if they appear sketchy. It might appear as if you were trading in stolen merchandise since it was so many of the same game. I'm sure just a conversation with the District Manager would solve your problem. If not, try tellgamestop.com to go straight to corporate.
 
The guy never checked the computer, he just looked at my id. I've never even seen the guy before when I'd purchased games at that location.

I guess I'll see if I can contact the District Manager and straighten things out.

If any rules were broken, shouldn't the employees have informed me when we were doing the trades?
 
Do they regularly check ID? What if you don't have ID? Under 16? What do they do then? Try another store - and don't bring your ID.
 
Are they factory sealed games? I try that all the time and they wont take them. I buy games where a work for really cheap and they wont take them at gamestop.
 
I never traded in at that GS, so I don't know if they regularly check id. I'm not doing anything shady, so why should I hide my identity?

It's not games, it's accessories.

If I were breaking any rules then their employees should have told me.
 
The official policy is no multiples of any item unless there's a valid reason (ie. trade a system in with three extra controllers). If you've done that even at multiple stores, you canbe banned. The DM is most likely the one who banned you, so that won't get you anywhere. You really don't have much recourse. Take 'em somewhere else.
 
[quote name='chrisnsally']Do they regularly check ID? What if you don't have ID? Under 16? What do they do then? Try another store - and don't bring your ID.[/QUOTE]

No ID, no trades. You have to be 18 to trade, anyway.
 
Try going into one of the GameStops that you are familiar with and that know you well and see they deny your trade-ins. If they do take your trades, chances are that other guy was being a douche.
 
[quote name='Scorch']No ID, no trades. You have to be 18 to trade, anyway.[/QUOTE]
you do? i'm 16 i sold my ps2 their and ALOT of games.
 
[quote name='As I Bleed']you do? i'm 16 i sold my ps2 their and ALOT of games.[/QUOTE]

you are supposed to have id, but like all places, you dont always get carded (just like you need id to buy alcohol and tobacco;)) as for age i dont know, i just know you "need" id
 
[quote name='Scorch']No ID, no trades. You have to be 18 to trade, anyway.[/QUOTE]


That is very YMMV. I have never been IDed for trading in. Only if I was buying an M game.
 
ID required is based on state law. Gamestop can refuse any trade for any reason. Play nice, once they don't want your stuff anymore, you're pretty much done in that state until they forget about you.

Chances are, they knew you by ID because the District Manager sent out a notification flyer to every GS in the area saying "don't accept any trades from ____". It happened to me before, they even showed it to me. We're not talking a master bad trader list, either. It's one full page with just one name on it.
 
[quote name='Scorch']No ID, no trades. You have to be 18 to trade, anyway.[/QUOTE]


I'm 17 and have traded TONS of stuff into GS. I also traded lots of stuff in from age 14 until now. They only ask for my ID (which in my case I show them a school ID right now) if I'm buying an M rated game.
 
ID's are only necessary if you are trading stuff in for cash. If you want trade-in credit, it doesn't matter. (since technically, store credit is not currency, that is also why there is no tax on it)
 
Depends on the state and city. All the gamestops here photo copy your license as proof and one city (Malden) treats Gamestop as a pawn shop. The store has to fax copies of everything traded in to the local police, wait two weeks before even trying to sell it and I beleive you have to be over 21.
 
Yeah I think over here its 18 or over unless you have a parent with you to approve the trade. They even have signs in the stores stating this. I am not sure if you have to have ID or not, they won't take trades from anyone under 18 though unless they have a parent with them to approve the trade. This is to prevent kids from trading in games without parental knowledge then the parents come back and demand the trade in's back when they find out how little credit they received for the games.
 
This same bullshit happened to me at Blockbuster. Never at gamestop though. I traded a tons of games at many different gamestops. They do ask for ID when I trade in game though they said it's required by state law. Blockbuster said I have too many games and it's suspicious lol.
 
Well, that guy was very rude about it and I didn't do anything to provoke his inner a-hole. Would anyone happen to know which stores are listed under which district?
 
They probably thought that you're a a dealer or thief.

It's not a good idea to trade duplicates in one transaction, even if an employee will allow it. Doing this probably automatically red flags the transaction for the manager or district manager to look at.
 
[quote name='SolidNightmare']Are they factory sealed games? I try that all the time and they wont take them. I buy games where a work for really cheap and they wont take them at gamestop.[/QUOTE]

Trying to trade in sealed games is a pretty suspicious practice and one I've only done a handful of times, mainly when trading games to Blockbuster without first asking what the trade-in value was on said game(s).

However, doing it too often makes you look like you're a thief and you just stole the games from somewhere else and the LP department for the stores you're trying to trade them into may be the ones blocking your trades.

[quote name='Hybrid5006']ID's are only necessary if you are trading stuff in for cash. If you want trade-in credit, it doesn't matter. (since technically, store credit is not currency, that is also why there is no tax on it)[/QUOTE]

They charge tax here(PA) when using credit to buy games anymore. I was kind of annoyed when they started that practice, since it was nice to be able to forgo paying the extra bs 6% on everything.
 
[quote name='theinspire']I'll just purchase games from Best Buy, Target or Walmart. I've had my fill with GS after my bad encounters.[/QUOTE]

If you actually take advantage of them during sales and promos you can do pretty well, like I did during the $4 last gen game sale last fall with Hollywood Video, which just happened to happen during a extra 30% or so trade value deal at Gamestop.

It also didn't hurt that there was a huge Gamestop promo thread up at the time, complete with a BIG LIST of games which got really good values at GS at that time, so it was easy to just jot down the names of some titles and go to HWV and cherry pick the sale clean of ONLY the good stuff.

I mean, I turned like $150 into $700 in GS credit in a little over a month, so it can be done if you know how to exploit the system.
 
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