Need Help Figuring Out GameStop Promo Calculation #9604 and #9726 - MATH MINDS NEEDED

QuestMeMore

QuestMeMore

CAGiversary!
Hello all.

First of all, thank you for opening this thread. A bit of background on me is simple. I trade a lot of new games I am gifted from my cousins and extended family, and get them for store credit. :shock:

At the moment, I need all the math minded people to help me out...In Gamestop, there is always a trade in promotion. Trade 2 get 10%, trade 4, 20%!, etc. :wall:

Currently their promotion is: trade 3 games for an extra 20% on ALL trade ins.

Combine this with my 10% EDGE card you get 30%.

I have created an excel sheet which I believe is a solid estimator of the Gamestop trade-in values, assuming you know the original pricing that they offer. However, I have run into so many trades - part of them confuse me.

AT THIS TIME (IM GUESSING) PROMO #9604 IS THE TRADE 3 GET 20% markup, same as PROMO # 9726
REAL Receipt #1

NBA 2K11 MVC -33.75 (total value ignore -)
-1 @ 25.00
Bonus: 6.25 Promo # 9604
Bonus:2.50 EDGE Card 10%

Saints Row 2 (1 copy @ 6.00)
Bonus: 1.50
Bonus: .60 - 10% edge card

Medal of Honor -31.05
Bonus: 5.75 Promo #9604
Bonus: 2.30 10%.
​
Now, doing the math on an excel sheet - lets start with NBA 2K11.

25.00. 10% of 25.00 is 2.5 (good work). Now...20% of 25 is $5.00, however Gamestop says 6.25. Working backwards, $6.25 dollars is 25% of 25.00, not 20 percent. Thats great! I think to myself, however, it would seem that it possibly cannot be 25% am I right? 20%. So...what this could mean is they are using the 10% added in AND taking 20% of that....and READDING it to the 10%+Original markup trade-in price--- NOPE!!!

The value of the 20 % amount is only $5.5! NOT 6.20 - great I think to myself! I figured it out. So the real value it adds is 22.75% AND NOT 20% So 10% of 25 is 27.5 and adding 22.75% (of the 10%+original amount) to make that $33.75. Great! I have the cells in my excel sheet [one with the original price, the other with the 10% amount, another with .2755 * the cell with the (10% + Original)]. (20% Amnt) then finally the total of this which is "With 10+20%" cell :Wall:

figuredoutbutnotreally.png


Doing the same for the rest of the "original trade-in values" you can see leads to a DUPLICATE copy of my receipt. I thought I had this all FIGURED OUT. Read more :shock:

TODAY OCTOBER 26TH, 2010 - I had Fable III early from Walmart 1 week and traded it in. Now the receipt on this is VERY confusing... :shock: :shock: :shock:

I traded in the following: Quantum Theory, Racquet Sports MVR, PES 2011 (Have it on PC), START THE PARTY MVR, KUNG FU RIDER MVR

ALL PROMO 9726 SHOULD be 20 % RIGHT?!?

Quantum Theory - @ 18.00 trade in TOTAL: $23.40
Bonus: 3.60 Promo # 9726
Bonus: 1.80 EDGE Card 10%

Racquet Sports MVR @ $8.00 TOTAL: $10.4
Bonus: 1.60 - PROMO # 9726
Bonus: .80 10%

PES 2011 @ 20.00 Total: $26.00
Bonus: 4.00 = Promo # 9726
Bonus: 2.00

Start The Party MVR @ 12.00 Total: $15.60
Bonus: 2.40 PROMO # 9726
Bonus:: 1.20 10%

KUNG FU RIDER MVR @ $14.00 Total : $18.20
Bonus: 2.80 - Promo # 9726
Bonus: 1.40 - 10%
​
NOW DECODING THIS USING MY "PROVEN" Method as INDICATED
BY NBA 2K11 + MEDAL OF HONOR TRADE IN:

As you can ALL see off the bat, the value is not 22.75% of the 10% of the original price value. For example: Plugging in these values into the SAME FORMULA results in the following being ALL the totals USING 22.75% AS THIS GAVE THE RIGHT TRADE INS ON THE REFERENCE NBA 2K11 RECEIPT! :

sameformulacalc.png


As you can see:


  • Quantum Theory is NOT 4.50 for PROMO # 9726 (the 22.75% formula I used - because 20% did not work for the first receipt, IS NOW giving HIGHER numbers).
  • Nothing else matches
  • My Total price should be $5.00 MORE than what I was given.
HOWEVER - DOING THIS BY TRADITIONAL MEANS TO FIGURE OUT
THE 22.75% ON THE 1ST RECIEPT LEADS TO ANOTHER FORMULA SHEET! :wall: :wall: :wall:

Doing 10% of the original value, then 20% of the original value (adding these) to the overall trade in - I GET THE RIGHT PRICES!

Look:

anothercorrectformula.png


As you can understand - NOW WE HAVE ANOTHER "correct formula"

- Anyone that works at GameStop as a manager, employee SOMETHING.

WHAT THE HECK IS THE REAL TRADE IN VALUE FOR 20%?!! :shock:

Why does this FLUCTUATE TO 22.75% LIKE THE FIRST RECEIPT?!! :shock:

What is GOING ON! :wall:

I am OCD, please help me because I'm insane making all these spreadsheets with DIFFERENT % figures for what GameStop considers

"20% - DIFFERENT THAN THE REALM OF MATHEMATICS PER GAME!"

HELP!!
 
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It is too Late/Early for this, but my main concern is...

why would you accept only 50% (or less) of the game's value in GameStop credit instead of just asking the relatives for a gift receipt??? A lot of stores will also let you get away with a certain dollar amount of "no receipt" returns.
 
Sorry. I just need the answer to the topic. I can't afford getting derailed - wasted too much time thinking over the % count. Would love if someone at GS helped
 
i cant believe you typed all this out... have you calculated amazon trade in values... i dont see those... maybe that is you answer
 
fuck, ow my head.

Seriously, this thread has given me a headache.

On your first receipt, did you do a reservation? Some times there's power trades towards that, those are 25%.

Receipt 2 looks fine.

Bonuses are all calculated on the base value. If you get more, fuck yeah happy day.
 
You're really over-thinking this... receipt 2 with promo 9726 matches the 20% off calcuations. reciept 1 with promo 9604 doesn't.

Conclusion: 9726= 20%, 9604=something else. Whether or not the GS employee knew another promo you qualified for that was better, or just made a mistake. I don't know. Hell, maybe that store was running a test promo with a higher trade-in value that day.

Maybe a GS employee will show up and tell you what promo 9604 is, but I doubt it. In any case, you can't expect it to be the same becuase it's clearly 2 different promos. And you shouldn't bloody complain if you got more money than you expected!
 
[quote name='Logain8955']fuck, ow my head.

Seriously, this thread has given me a headache.

On your first receipt, did you do a reservation? Some times there's power trades towards that, those are 25%.

Receipt 2 looks fine.

Bonuses are all calculated on the base value.[/QUOTE]
Pretty much all of this. You seriously overthought this. Promos are based off base value. I would bet they gave you the powertrade promo because that is the only current one that currently provides a 25% bonus, unless there is some regional promo around you going on.
 
It looks like the 9604 code is for an additional 25% off the original trade-in value. Right now Gamestop is offering this additional credit for games traded in towards the purchase of select new games, Fable 3, Force Unleashed 2, New Vegas, Black Ops, maybe some more. Perhaps you traded in for one of those games, or the person at gamestop might have clicked on the wrong promo code. I am not sure how that whole system works. The other code that you have is for the additional 20% credit. The reason that your calculations for the first receipt gave you the correct answer is because of the following, assume initial trade-in value is A:
A(1+.1) = 10% plus initial trade-in value = B (Arbitrary selection of variable name); B(1+.2275) = Assumed total value of trade-in. If you replace B with what it is in terms of A, A(1+.1)(1+.2275)=A(1.1)(1.2275)=A(1.35025). What this final answer says is that the calculations you made will give you slightly over 35% of the original trade-in value. As you pointed out in your post, if the additional bonus was 20% then you would get 30% additional total with the edge card. The additional bonus for 9604 is actually 25% and therefore you will end up with 35% additional credit from the initial trade-in value. You can verify this be adding 35% of each trade-in to its initial value. You should find that all of the numbers match up. Because the actual additional credit is 35% and what you calculated was close to 35%, your numbers almost identical to what the receipt reports. I think you basically had the right idea, but an odd way too approach it. Bottom line: Two different trade-in bonuses.
 
Basically it looks like Gamestop's promos are additive, not multiplicative. I'll explain:

Let's say that the bonus is 20% plus your 10% edge. Then, a $10 game would be worth
$10 + ($10 x 20%) + ($10 x 10%) = $13.00

But with your first spreadsheet, you multiplied the bonuses together to get
($10 x 110%) x 120% = $11 x 120% = $13.20

Just make sure you use the first method. The second method is wrong.

As for your first receipt, it looks like the non-Edge bonus is 25%, not 20%. It's probably a special or something for those games, or because you traded them towards the purchase of a specific new release. If there's more than one trade-in bonus, you get the higher one.

Also, as a side note... trading games in at GameStop that are brand new (i.e., unopened) is a bad idea if you want to get the most money for them. Get a gift receipt and return it. Or, if you can't do that or don't want to let on that you're returning them, sell them on eBay. How much did you get for Fable III, $30? You could have easily got $50 on eBay. Even somebody here on CAG would have given you more than GameStop offered. I realize going to GameStop is easy, but with just a little more effort you could get a lot more bang for your buck.
 
Yeah, I think on the first receipt they actually gypped you out of 20% credit because, as far as I know, the 25% power trade is supposed to stack with the 20% for 3 or more titles. You got to be careful on this because some new employees either don't know or mess up the promo codes.
 
OP, you're confusing and really overthinking this. Not even sure what you're asking. Anyway, there is a get an extra 25% if you trade 3 promotion floating around (does not need to apply toward a pre-order). Gamestop recently sent it to me after I placed an online order. With that promotion (25%) + Edge (10%), you get 35% total trade in. That's probably why trade in values are different. Different promotions.
 
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[quote name='Indigo_Streetlight']Yeah, I think on the first receipt they actually gypped you out of 20% credit because, as far as I know, the 25% power trade is supposed to stack with the 20% for 3 or more titles. You got to be careful on this because some new employees either don't know or mess up the promo codes.[/QUOTE]
Promos do not stack, EDGE/Power-Up are the only things that stack with promos.
 
[quote name='lolwut?']The real question is why does the OP trade new games into Gamestop instead of selling them for ~$45 on craigslist[/QUOTE]

If you trade Reach in towards Fallout, SWTFU2, Fable 3, or Black Ops right now you get $40.50.
 
[quote name='Ki77a KiD TRe'] A lot of stores will also let you get away with a certain dollar amount of "no receipt" returns.[/QUOTE]
Except that is called RETURN FRAUD and it's discussion is NOT allowed here on CAG.

Taking a game you get from store A back to store B and saying you 'don't have a receipt' is a no-no.:shame:
 
This week's edition of the "Gamestop sucks!" thread is rather unique.

OP, I'm about to blow your OCD mind: the correct abbreviation for amount is "amt".
 
[quote name='forteblast']Basically it looks like Gamestop's promos are additive, not multiplicative. I'll explain:

Let's say that the bonus is 20% plus your 10% edge. Then, a $10 game would be worth
$10 + ($10 x 20%) + ($10 x 10%) = $13.00

But with your first spreadsheet, you multiplied the bonuses together to get
($10 x 110%) x 120% = $11 x 120% = $13.20

Just make sure you use the first method. The second method is wrong.

As for your first receipt, it looks like the non-Edge bonus is 25%, not 20%. It's probably a special or something for those games, or because you traded them towards the purchase of a specific new release. If there's more than one trade-in bonus, you get the higher one.

Also, as a side note... trading games in at GameStop that are brand new (i.e., unopened) is a bad idea if you want to get the most money for them. Get a gift receipt and return it. Or, if you can't do that or don't want to let on that you're returning them, sell them on eBay. How much did you get for Fable III, $30? You could have easily got $50 on eBay. Even somebody here on CAG would have given you more than GameStop offered. I realize going to GameStop is easy, but with just a little more effort you could get a lot more bang for your buck.[/QUOTE]

Exactly I did do multiplicative , so thank you for that. Gift receipt seems like a decent idea. Will do that, but its also games I dont want...now I have DJ HERO 2 for the wii (party bundle) and I don't want it...

$50 on ebay is okay, yes I got $34 for fable 3. As for ebay, I really hate dealing with ebay and paypal - especially since they banned me for selling a virtual item which I was allowed to sell to begin with, and apparently even if they find it a transaction between PC's like high quality image-art, they consider it wrongful. In any case, I can easily get another ebay and paypal, but I rather not deal with them.

CAG - I didn't think of...time was kind of an essence thing...so I didn't think about selling on CAG
 
[quote name='MSUHitman']If you trade Reach in towards Fallout, SWTFU2, Fable 3, or Black Ops right now you get $40.50.[/QUOTE]

Because $40 in credit is better than $45 cash money amirite?

I don't even know why you mentioned Halo Reach
 
[quote name='JP']Promos do not stack, EDGE/Power-Up are the only things that stack with promos.[/QUOTE]

Hmm, that's weird. Maybe I got lucky one time (because they didn't apply the 25% power-up boost and I had to take the receipt back--this was after explicitly creating a new pre-order to get the 25% boost). They had a newbie on board at the time so who knows what screwed up things happened that day :roll:
 
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