[quote name='SaraAB']Unfortunatly shopping at EBgames/gamestop is unavoidable especially since toys r us and media play have closed in our area, however there are ways you can minimize them making money off you if you are careful. Trading 2 games that have an ebay value of less than 60$ in this deal is one way, as mentioned many times on these boards there are loopholes in their system, and you can make out with trade in deals if you are careful about what you trade in. For example i traded in 4 crappy gba games when they had the trade 4 games for nintendogs deal, some of which i had purchased at yard sales for 1-2$, the total credit of those games was less than 7.50, but using the deal i got a copy of nintendogs (30$ value) for nothing (didnt even have to pay tax).
Another way is to always insist on buying new instead of used, since we all know they make no more profit on the sale of new games than at any other retail store, this is barring that the used price is not significantly different from the new, and also taking into consideration the condition of the games in question. If there is a 3-5$ difference in the price of a new game vs a used game and they try to push the used copy on you, get the new.
Most of the retail stores have questionable practices anyways so its hard to put your money where it matters, Walmart (treatment of employees), Best buy (demon customer and other things), Kmart (overprices most merchandise) etc... Buying off ebay is even worse since you dont know condition of the game and there is a risk of recieving bootlegs, not to mention other risks.
As for where i shop for a brand new release game, its usually random, ie the first store i am in that has it for msrp price or the first store that has it for a sale price.[/quote]
The reality is that you're right. The best places to buy from are online stores, especially independent places, such as egameaddiction (not to advertise for them but they are very independent). They have slightly cheaper prices, but with shipping you don't really save much. Despite this, your money is lining the pockets of some small business owners rather than Gamestop execs. I personally buy wherever I am. For new releases, it tends to be Gamestop/EB since they always have games on the release date (with the exception of Exit for the PSP which several Gamestops didnt have and the EB had maybe 2 copies). No, I don't agree with their practices, but in comparison to the actions of the competition, EB/Gamstop aren't that bad. Besides, for used games ebay is almost always cheaper. But the nice thing about buying from the store is that you can return it.