The General 360 Owners/Buyers FAQ Thread (Updated 1/15/10)

[quote name='DarkRider23']I just did the math and I can't wait until I work at BBV. Those $9.99->$10.50 games all become a $2 profit or more on each. The other games like Nights and Spyro become $4/$3 profit each. Considering how many games I trade, it'll rack up quickly.

Anyone that work at BBV know how long until the employee discount takes place? I've heard that I have to wait 30 days before I get the discount, but I'm not sure.[/quote]

depends on your store manager and when they set up your employee account. could take a day, or a week. just depends when they want to set it up in store.
 
[quote name='ChunkyLover78']depends on your store manager and when they set up your employee account. could take a day, or a week. just depends when they want to set it up in store.[/quote]

Thanks. Knowing the manager then, I'll have it in a couple of days. Cool manager and assistant manager at the store I'm working at. And most of the people that work there, I'm friends with.
 
[quote name='DarkRider23']Thanks. Knowing the manager then, I'll have it in a couple of days. Cool manager and assistant manager at the store I'm working at. And most of the people that work there, I'm friends with.[/quote]

Just make sure that you don't get banned by trading too many EOJ.. :lol:
 
[quote name='Romis']Went by my local BB to see what they had in, but it was picked clean, did get some TIV's, I found today:

:360: Alone In The Dark $28.5
:360: Assassin's Creed (reg ed) $15
:360: Project Sly.

:ps3: FF: Rise of Silver Surfer $9
:ps3: Turok $13
:ps3: Ninja Gaiden Sigma $16

:ps2: Warship Gunner II $16
:psp: 50 Cent: Bulletproof G Unit Edition $15[/quote]

Decisions, decisions. Do I try out the copy of ROTSS I picked up from Kmart for $5 or do I simply do like I did with Genji for PS3 and trade it in before the value may drop any further?:whistle2:#

I'm definitely leaning towards trading it in though, since I've heard that the environment wasn't quite as destructible as they claimed and that's really the ONLY aspect of the game I wanted to check out.
 
I found a BBV with 5 copies of Timeshift...and nothing else to pair it with >_< Well, I bought one, hopefully I can find something else in the coming days.
 
Finally got lucky at a Target and scored Bejing (PS3) for $12.48 ($30 TIV @ BB). I'm gonna do a flip run tomorrow, but unfortunately im missing out as I know i saw some $20 & $23 flips that arent in the OP, its a pain searching through with the picky filter...

Beautiful, I find what might be a new flip and my phone dies on me. Gotta charge it up, but to give a heads up, CSI: Hard Evidence (Wii) dropped from $26.99 used to $17.99, making it $12.60 after the coupon. If by chance BB sells it for $29.99 used, it probably gets $23.
 
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[quote name='Bezerker']Finally got lucky at a Target and scored Bejing (PS3) for $12.48 ($30 TIV @ BB).[/quote]


Is there a neat organized list like this thread has for cash flips? Target/BB/CC -> BBVGR. Or does everyone manually find the plausible flips from each individual thread?
 
[quote name='gi60']Just make sure that you don't get banned by trading too many EOJ.. :lol:[/quote]

I've traded 3 EoJ's total to other BBVs. I'm going to make sure that I don't buy anymore of those games. And I'm really careful with trading in to this one BBV. I only trade in 1 copy of each game to it. And I limit myself too. I don't trade in more than 5 every 2 weeks. I want to stay in good standing with this one.

I have bought a shitload of games from that BBV though. I think I might be around 100+ games bought now. The manager knows me as a hardcore gamer. Good thing he doesn't know that I don't play the games ;). I going to stop buying games from BBV for a couple of weeks until I can get my employee discount. Then I'll go around and clean out all the BBVs in my area. Not like they have much left anyway.

[quote name='xfade']Is there a neat organized list like this thread has for cash flips? Target/BB/CC -> BBVGR. Or does everyone manually find the plausible flips from each individual thread?[/quote]

Nope... We figure it out by combing through the thread and stuff.
 
Trades today:

Wii:
Dragon Quest Swords - $23
Death Jr. - $23
Spy Games Elevator Mission - $16
Bust A Move Bash - $20

also, a PS2 game w/ a decent trade in if you got it during the 30% of clearance at CC:

Alone in the Dark PS2 - $19
 
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Circuit City has PS3 NCAA Football 08, NCAA March Madness 08 and NASCAR 08 for $6.96 online and instore and PS3 NBA 08 for $8.96 online and instore. Blockbuster gives $20.00 TIV for NBA 08 I do not know about the other games.

BBV TIV 10/6/08 all PS3
Hellboy Science of Evil $36.00
NBA 08 $20.00
 
[quote name='salparadise78']Trades today:

Wii:
Dragon Quest Swords - $23
Death Jr. - $23
Spy Games Elevator Mission - $16
Bust A Move Bash - $23

also, a PS2 game w/ a decent trade in if you got it during the 30% of clearance at CC:

Alone in the Dark PS2 - $19[/quote]

Bust A Move gets $23? I traded in a few of those last week for $20.
 
[quote name='rmack44077']Circuit City has PS3 NCAA Football 08, NCAA March Madness 08 and NASCAR 08 for $6.96 online and instore and PS3 NBA 08 for $8.96 online and instore.[/QUOTE]

Just called about those three games. All $9 TIV. :cry:
 
[quote name='retail sucks']How much better would it look going through a HDMI to the DVI input with an adapter in comparison to VGA?[/quote]

I actually haven't tried it. Not sure if the handshaking would work properly. Yeah DVI limits it to 60 hz, but I remember reading that the human eye can't really tell past something like 30 or whatever.

It would be good to have both VGA and DVI in case things get better in the future. From what I can see using a good video card, like the ATI Radeon HD 4870, there's not too much difference. But that's a PC and not a 360...

That ASUS looks pretty good.
 
[quote name='DarkRider23']I just did the math and I can't wait until I work at BBV. Those $9.99->$10.50 games all become a $2 profit or more on each. The other games like Nights and Spyro become $4/$3 profit each. Considering how many games I trade, it'll rack up quickly.

Anyone that work at BBV know how long until the employee discount takes place? I've heard that I have to wait 30 days before I get the discount, but I'm not sure.[/quote]

As soon as they give you numbers to use the front register, you're good to go. Unless you've got some seriously slacker managers, you should have those numbers within the first 30 minutes of showing up to work. The discount applies automatically when things are scanned on your account at that store. If you want to use your discount at other stores, make sure you bring in your paystub. But be aware, that by doing so, you've basically eliminated your ability to trade at that store (since the first question they'll ask is, "don't you work at store X?? Just go trade over there." I have to go outside my district in order to trade anything that I don't trade into my store. Oh well... that's the price you pay for getting your discount.
 
[quote name='tianxia']I use that particular one all the time. Occasionally the BBV people ask me if I want to preorder something, to which I usually respond, "Well, are you taking preorders for Valkyria Chronicles?" (The answer is always no). Then I say, well, that's too bad, I'll just hang on to the credit and maybe rent something in the future then.

Well, if I ever need any controllers, Live/PSN cards, or a new DS, I'm pretty much set. Hell, with the trade-in credit on a DS at Gamestop, I could flip a few games and a brand-new one at BBV without spending a cent.[/quote]

I actually stopped buying new games from GR for a few reasons. Even though the pre-order bonus is considered lame... I rarely even get mine anymore (2 out of 5 games). Out of those 5 games, 3 of them were loose inside of the case (SW:FU, SC4 and Brawl). I ended up just returning Force Unleashed and grabbing it used with a coupon the week it came out.
 
Was just at my BB and I saw both time shift and fear files for 14.99. Both with hand-written stickers on the cases. If they scan them will the real price show up or will they manually key in the price to match the sticker? I think that it's been mentioned that when they scan the real price shows up but this might be an a-hole manager trying to do his own pricing so I just wanted to make sure.
 
[quote name='io']Pck21 - I wish Blockbuster was better about new releases and whatnot then they are because I really like the people at my local store plus it is 1/2 mile from my house whereas the nearest GS is 10 miles. And yet, they are horrible about most new release games. Anything besides those mentioned in the OP as "featured" preorders they aren't going to get until Friday of release week or not at all. There were several games I tried to preorder there over the last few months including Wario Land Shake It and Kirby Super Star Ultra but were never in their system. I saw that they actually had these for sale over the weekend but even up to a few days before release they were not in the system and thus not available for preorder. Then, on games like Infinite Undiscovery and Tales of Vesperia, they never got them at all. So, yeah, overall, GS credit is way more worth having.

Plus, as mkernan points out, you can get some great deals at GS that are simply not possible at BB (as they rarely have sales or deals). For example, I didn't really want to pay $60 for Star Wars Force Unleashed or Infinite Undiscovery, anyway, even in cheap BB credit. I managed to get both + Tales of Vesperia for a total of $99 (used, via B2G1 a few weeks back) in Gamestop credit and all three are near mint since they were such new releases. So even if BB DID get all three games (the only one they got was SW:FU) I'd have paid $180 for essentially the same thing.

And yeah, there's the whole ability to move GS credit back to BB at a significant profit just about any time while the opportunity to do the reverse is limited (though we've had a nice run here of about 4-5 months where it has been pretty easy). Once GS does away with the bonus trade-in promos we'll be back to the regular one-sided trade-ins.

As for the hoarding issue: yeah, I know what you are saying. What is nice about the GSBB flipping is that it almost never involves using hot deals/titles that other CAGs would otherwise want for themselves. So while taking the best CC or Target clearance games and flipping them can raise the ire of some CAGs, no one will complain if you flip SST and Bust-A-Move Bash from GS or FEAR Files and Timeshift from BBV. However - in general you will need some cash purchases to get started and the Kmart/TRU/CC/Target clearances are a good place to start. But you will soon be able to wean yourself off of those ;).[/quote]

Thanks for your insight on BBV! :) Unfortunately, way back when, I was one of those people who completed hated "flippers" because I always got the short end of the stick on some deals that I missed out on. All I wanted was to play the game and leave the rest for other people. What I am finding out is that hoarders are either few and far between in this community or they are buying for other people who aren't able to get those deals. I have a small confession to make in terms of flipping. Back when TRU had ROTSS for Wii for $5, I heard that it was trading in at BBV for $30. Well I found one TRU around me that had them. Well not just one or two copies, but 10. I went in and bought 8 copies for a total of $34 after tax because the games turned out to be on sale for $4 a piece instead of $5. I traded all 8 copies to BBV for a total of $240 in trade credit and now I have Fallout 3, COD5, Gears of War 2, and Resistance 2 all paid off in full with credit. I think that's why I love BBV so much! :)

Also, the people who work at my local BBV down the road are extremely helpful and go out of their way to help every customer. I also like the fact that they are open late so I can pick up my games after class. The first time I traded games at a BBV was the day GTA IV came out. I remember that I wasn't able to get it that day because of school and work. I went home, checked out the TIV's of some games on here, went in at like 9pm to BBV, traded my games for GTA IV straight up, and walked out the door in about 5 minutes. I was floored with how fast and easy it was to trade in a BBV since I had no idea. I know I sound like a BBV promo but I decided that night that all of my trades would go through BBV from then on. My store seems to get all the really hyped up games so that's fine.

I definitely understand where you're coming from and why you, and the rest of everyone, flips from BBV to GS now. I should have gotten into this sooner lol!
 
[quote name='Warner1281']As soon as they give you numbers to use the front register, you're good to go. Unless you've got some seriously slacker managers, you should have those numbers within the first 30 minutes of showing up to work. The discount applies automatically when things are scanned on your account at that store. If you want to use your discount at other stores, make sure you bring in your paystub. But be aware, that by doing so, you've basically eliminated your ability to trade at that store (since the first question they'll ask is, "don't you work at store X?? Just go trade over there." I have to go outside my district in order to trade anything that I don't trade into my store. Oh well... that's the price you pay for getting your discount.[/quote]

But what if I just go into the store and buy the games and not trade anything? Next time I go in they won't know I'm an employee unless they remember me, right? Don't they just use a managers account for the discount when you casually walk into buy things? I know that at the store I'll be working at my account will be set up with the discount automatically. Why do they care where I trade my games in though? I guess I can just lie and say I was passing through on my way home from school or something.

The good thing is I'm just looking to use my discount at stores that I rarely visit. Just this weekend I passed by 2 stores that had a good amount of games that I could transfer over to GS. Hopefully, when I have my discount I can pick them up :). All of the stores that I regularly trade at are picked clean either way>_
 
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Today's TIV @ BBV

360

Bladestorm - $35

PS3

History Channel : Battle for the Pacific - $23

Wii

Disney's High School Musical - $26
History Channel : Battle for the Pacific - $20 (Worthless flip)
 
Sorry to semi-threadjack Monkey, I'm just curious as to if you guys would recommend this:

I currently play my 360 on a Panasonic 14" LCD (Model TC-14LA2) @ 480p. I've been looking on craigslist for cheap monitors to play my 360 on via VGA cables.

I've found a listing for a Sceptre X22. It says it's a widescreen 22" with 1080p support. Doing some reading, it seems to be a decent monitor (I'd probably play at 720p), and the seller has it listed at $150. Should I take it? Offer him less?

What do you guys think?
 
[quote name='gi60']Just make sure that you don't get banned by trading too many EOJ.. :lol:[/quote]
Tell me about it -- I don't know if I am or not but I'm sure I am
 
I hand the jr dick head hellboy ps3
dickhead: why is this game in a bb case?
me: b/c i bought it from this store and thats the case you gave me
dickhead: we dont sell this game
me: then why are you worried about me having possibly stolen it?
he looked confused and did the trade anyways.
 
[quote name='monkeydeew']I hand the jr dick head hellboy ps3
dickhead: why is this game in a bb case?
me: b/c i bought it from this store and thats the case you gave me
dickhead: we dont sell this game
me: then why are you worried about me having possibly stolen it?
he looked confused and did the trade anyways.[/quote]

Hmm. I swap cases all the time when I flip. Figure it's better for everyone if BBV cases go back to BBV and GS gets original cases. Plus I don't like being too obvious when I trade 6 games into GS and most of them are in BBV rental cases. I've had decent luck getting original cases when I buy games at BBV, but some stores say they don't have any because they don't have the room.
 
no, it doesn't read srt or sub files. It can switch subtitles on a video dvd(udf) or whatever u wanna call it.

if you wanna hardcode the subs into a mpeg 4 file it will read that. I normally burn it off to a disk when I have an avi w/ an srt or sub file.
 
Lately, I've been given the black BBV case that the game is held in, in their cabinets, along with the original case thats displayed. Im not sure if its a fluke, or if its because these employees seem somewhat new, but now I have a few BBV cases lying around
 
I've had my 360 just short of a year (got it 10/17/07 according to my receipt). I bought it new at Gamestop back when they had the 07 holiday models with MUA/Forza2, and I haven't had any issues out of it.

Until Naruto.....

I was playing Naruto: Rise of Ninja back in July or so and was on my way to the Forrest of Death area (past the 1/2 way point in the story mode of the game) when I fought a random spawn and win the fight. It loads back up the "stage" portion and I have everything there....except my screen is gray. I have my map, I have menu access, I can move and the arrow indicator for me moved on the compass, but MY screen is gray (the screen showing the stage/character/etc). I fiddle around with it for a few more minutes and eventually say screw it and cut it off. I haven't played it since.

Tonight, I put in Naruto and I can't get anything to load correctly. I can't load the old auto save with the gray screen, or the previous auto save with what looks like a black screen (the game has a thumbnail on the same selection screen). So I reboot the system twice, sign into xbox live, and load an older save file (which is right before the other 2 I tried to load). It loads the game and I can see and move and all that jazz. The weird thing is that I have no music or anything until I reach other stage and the music changes. I get past where I was having the issue before, get through the whole "This is the Forrest of Death, boogity boogity boo!!!" part, and proceed with my game. I go through 2 or 3 more random spawn fights, and the game locks. Like a HARD LOCK. Nothing works and I'm frozen on screen in mid-jump. I reboot, reload the last auto save, and everything is ok. I go for about another 4 or 5 minutes, and I get another hard lock. I reboot again, and it locks on loading the game. I'm like "WTF?", say screw it, and put in Burnout Revenge. Everything is ok at the load screens, so I do the xbox live update for the game, and I load up my game. I select a stage I need to finish up, it "loads" and I have a black screen.

What...the...frak.....

I know that Burnout works, because I played it 2-3 weeks ago with no issues. I reboot, reload, same thing. Reboot, and the 360 LOCKS on the frakking 360 LOGO (the spiny sphere thing). Twice! I take out Burnout, reboot, and it boots up ok. I put in Tomb Raider Legend (another game I need to finish), and load my last save file. It loads up, I see Lara standing there for about 30 seconds, and everything blacks out. I have no video, no sound, no nothing. It's not my cables, since I can pull up the pause menu. It's like the video and sound just didn't want to play anymore.

1/2 my games are new (though I got them at clearance prices) and the other 1/2 are used, but all gently used. I don't put dirty discs in my system, and none of my games are in "bad" condition at all (most are near mint to very good due to playing them). The system is well ventilated and it stays in the same spot and doesn't move. The discs are NOT scratched or "ringed", so it's not a disc problem. Any idea what the problem could be, and should I just call M$ about a RROD issue and get a "new" system?
 
i'd say call them as soon as possible and get the repair process started. you only have 1 year from MS unless it is the red rings and my first console had sort of similar problems (luckily i was still under warranty by like a month). i played one game that ended up freezing and then all of a sudden all of my games starting freezing within minutes of loading it into the disc tray.
 
Cool. Definitely calling in the morning then. I just hope they don't pull the "well, it got here and it was out of warranty, so we can't help you" crap.

I'm wondering if I should tell the truth or just say it's red-ringing.
 
to be honest i had thought my warranty was out when i first called, but they said it wasn't themselves. if you call tomorrow to start the repair process, they shouldn't give you any trouble about it, though i would make sure to get them saying that somehow to make sure. i am sure they don't even really check for the system red-ringing at this point and from what i heard this is an early sign of the system red-ringing, but i wouldn't say it did myself unless it was already out of warranty and something like that happened.
 
Yea, I'll just tell them the issue and hopefully I'll just get another system, since it hasn't even been a year yet (save 10 days).

I honestly forgot about the warranty aspect of it. lol
 
10 days or 10 months, it is still under warranty at this point and you are actually having problems, so i don't see them turning you away really. the only reason i would tell them it red-ringed when it didn't is if it was out of warranty and actually about to red-ring (there are signs of it, just read around).

other than that, i don't condone lying to MS, but red-ringing can take anywhere from a day to a couple months even with those signs and if it makes the system unplayable, i don't see why you should have to wait months for it to die.
 
[quote name='salty tbone']Hmm. I swap cases all the time when I flip. Figure it's better for everyone if BBV cases go back to BBV and GS gets original cases. Plus I don't like being too obvious when I trade 6 games into GS and most of them are in BBV rental cases. I've had decent luck getting original cases when I buy games at BBV, but some stores say they don't have any because they don't have the room.[/quote]

You know, I never thought about that. GS usually doesnt complain when they all come in BB cases, but I always get paranoid that they'll think I stole them all or something.
 
Hey guys, I need some help. I'm looking to by a 16:10 ratio HDTV today but I don't know how my 360 would look on it. Is there a setting that would fill the whole screen without any black bars on the top/bottom or the sides? The TV I'm looking into supports 720P and I know the 360 can handle that, I'm just not sure how it would look on a 16:10 TV.
 
[quote name='Bezerker']You know, I never thought about that. GS usually doesnt complain when they all come in BB cases, but I always get paranoid that they'll think I stole them all or something.[/quote]

I got accused of stealing and banned from trading at the two mall cases for trading games in BBV cases (same pair to two different stores). Now I avoid those for any purchases; figure I'll help the numbers at the stores where people are actually friendly and helpful.

On an unrelated note, I picked up Ratatouille (360) and Def Jam Icon (PS3) at TRU for $5 each -- they also have Viva Pinata Party Animals and Geometry Wars (Wii) for $9.98 each. I'm not interested in a $10-to-$16 flip laying out cash, but does anyone know a current value for either Ratatouille or DJI? I'd call but I'm at school right now.
 
Er, also, IO, do you think there's any way we can please get the BBV->FYE flips into the op? One shopping center has them literally next door to one another. =D
 
40 minutes. I've been talking to customer "support" for that long as he's been trying to find ways to tell me that it's either my tv or my game discs that are the issue. *ugh* And I'm still on hold.....

And my warranty is still valid for another 12 days....though at first he told me my system wasn't registered.....

Ugh....

edit: total time on the phone before they agreed to process my repair order and send me my coffin: 53 minutes. The CS guy spent almost 10 minutes trying to find out why my system didn't have a "PAL settings" tab in the display settings, even though I told him 3 or 4 times that I am in an NTSC area, and my address reflects that (US). And because the turn around time is 2-3 weeks, they are sending me a 1month live gold card.....yippee.....*note the sarcasm*

At least my coffin is on the way....
 
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[quote name='monkeydeew']I hand the jr dick head hellboy ps3
dickhead: why is this game in a bb case?
me: b/c i bought it from this store and thats the case you gave me
dickhead: we dont sell this game
me: then why are you worried about me having possibly stolen it?
he looked confused and did the trade anyways.[/quote]

haha thats pretty good.

does anyone know of any drops this week - used games or TIVs? also what days do the price changes usually happen again? thanks
 
I don't know if I have ever seen a 16:10 ratio TV there are 16:9 but I don't think there is a 16:10

ANd the 360 can handle 480i, 480p, 720p 1080i, and 1080p you will be fine.
 
[quote name='Slim Gatsby']I got accused of stealing and banned from trading at the two mall cases for trading games in BBV cases (same pair to two different stores). Now I avoid those for any purchases; figure I'll help the numbers at the stores where people are actually friendly and helpful.

[/quote]

Show them the receipts from BBV. I just got asked yesterday where I get my cases and I said BBV. My excuse was I buy DVDs from Blockbuster and I switch up the cases with my 360 games that I'm trading in. They don't seem to care at all. And this is a store that has about 30 360 games on shelves with black BBV cases. I even saw one game that had the BBV stickers on them. It wasn't mine, but damn did I laugh when I saw that.
 
[quote name='Goodeye']I don't know if I have ever seen a 16:10 ratio TV there are 16:9 but I don't think there is a 16:10

ANd the 360 can handle 480i, 480p, 720p 1080i, and 1080p you will be fine.[/QUOTE]

16:10 is for monitors. I think they're adding true support for 16:10 during the fall update.
 
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