Having been a victim (though that may not be the most appropriate term by some) of having my console banned during the "Region Fiasco" (as I like to call it) a couple months back, the thing has been sitting there as a brick since I don't like earning achievements offline (thus lacking the timestamp). I heard about this deal via a friend and I figured "why not give it a shot"?.
So I brought it in a few days ago and was able to sell it just fine (dumbing down the story I had started typing here). All they did was hook it up to their TV, turn it on then off after like 10 seconds. Didn't even use my controller for anything...then they went through the checkout process. There was a minor screwup with the register at customer service, but they were able to bring it to another general register to complete the transaction.
Without the promotion, would have earned $41 but they bumped it up 59 bucks to get me to 100. It was one of those 4GB Slims you get with a Kinect, had the thing since 2010..=/ miss it but nothing can be done about that now. Couldn't sell it to Gamestop, probably wouldn't get anything worthwhile from someone online so...either let it collect dust or get rid of it (now I'm a game collector, so I'm all about holding onto my stuff...but this...different situation).
Anyways...no finger-printing, they did require ID/phone number/address...but that's about it.
Now...the "Region Fiasco" is what I call the situation where various games were showing up free on the Xbox Live Marketplace from countries that don't support a marketplace (Bosnia, Morocco, etc.). It was widespread...as far as I can tell, "condemned" over here by CAGs. Lots of controversy on whether or not people would actually get banned since the proposed incidents were by people who did other illegal crap...but then Microsoft swung that banhammer and I was one of many to lose their console. A friend of mine lost his gamertag as well...250K gamerscore and hundreds if not thousands of dollars in content lost in an instant (stuff attached to that account through the download history). I was lucky that it was only my console that suffered...needless to say, I don't bother with ANYTHING that's free in other countries now .__. screw that man. I still buy things though using my credit card in Japan, getting the Dead Rising Case Zero and Case West that way (japanese releases, stacked gamerscore yeah!) then the Metal Gear Rising VR missions DLC from the UK.
So me selling this "banned Xbox" to Best Buy might seem like a "terrible thing" to some but I had to get rid of it. I'm not buying up Xboxes for cheap and bringing them to BB. Just that one. If I could, I'd try my old Elite but it suffers the E74 error and never hits the dashboard when it is turned on. So I highly doubt they'd take it. Anyways, after I successfully sold my Xbox I told some folks who also suffered from the Region Fiasco that they can at least do something with their banned boxes now if they wished. This promotion is a great thing for me and some others...glad it came about.
Now I can use this gift card towards a PS3 bundle this Friday and catch up with all the sony games I've missed out on. Not my first time owning a PS3 but it's my first time playing one in about 4 years. I loved my PS1 and PS2...also I still have another 360 (old white model I'm currently playing on). Ahem...my rather lengthy post aside, thank you Best Buy!
