What is stopping some new company from just making an excellent video game store?

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Samus

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I read all these horror stories online, and you'd think some young business man would see the opprotunity and make an electronic store with awesome customer service and appeal to more of the hardcore gamer.

Why is it so hard? Surely there is no doubt that many people would shop at a good store rather than GameStop.

I would have:

-A selection of retro games.
-Discounts on disc-only games (and trade in bonuses for complete games)
-Really good customer service - don't just hire any shmoe.
-No gutted games.

etc.

I don't see how GameStop manages to stay the king. Sure, they have a ton of money, but couldn't good business gradually build up a chain?
 
It's hard to break in when Gamestop has so much of the market share.

That being said, I don't mean that there's no one trying to dethrone them: I think Play and Trade is making some waves, and Gamecrazy's always had some pretty good deals and sales
 
[quote name='Samus']...and you'd think some young business man would see the opprotunity and make an electronic store with awesome customer service[/quote]
Care to elaborate on that plan?

Not to be harsh, but it's a seriously tough business, and just coming up with a list of ideals doesn't really constitute a waterproof business plan.

Why is it so hard? Surely there is no doubt that many people would shop at a good store rather than GameStop.
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Most people don't care that much, man. Half of the people playing games these days are either just buying Madden and movie-based games, or casual games for Wii. It's not that big a deal for most people.

-A selection of retro games.
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Because that's totally where the money is right now. Right.
 
The prices on classic games will be just a bit higher than most of us want to pay due to no one selling them to a store wants to get rid of them unless the right price comes along. Also, new games these day for a smaller company are a gamble due to somewhere between 25%-50% off new games lose there value within 3-6 months. If I ran a store and bought 60 copies of Assassin's Creed for $45 when they were new, Sold 15 and got stuck with 45 that are now sitting at $30, I'm losing money faster then I can count. A lot of places now only buy enough for pre-orders and a few more.
 
Nobody has the buying power with distributors to 'compete' on a level playing field with Gamestop. Small businesses are just that small businesses. Sure some might be in an area that they do okay. My old store was very successful. Then Gamestop opened mass stores and bought out Funcoland and EB Games and choked us out of business.

Having cool employees and carrying retro games doesn't mean jack. People will still shop at Gamestop out of convenience or through preorders.
 
[quote name='CoffeeEdge']Care to elaborate on that plan?

Not to be harsh, but it's a seriously tough business, and just coming up with a list of ideals doesn't really constitute a waterproof business plan.


Most people don't care that much, man. Half of the people playing games these days are either just buying Madden and movie-based games, or casual games for Wii. It's not that big a deal for most people.


Because that's totally where the money is right now. Right.[/quote]

Why are you asking me for a business plan? Do you expect me to have a whole system set up to post?

I know a lot of people don't care, but a gaming store establishing a base for truer gamers would have to help, right? I'm sure GameStop has lost a good amount of sales from poor business practice.

And retro games would just add to that. And it's not like retro games don't sell, retro is in.
 
yeah for the little guy to make a dent, there has to be just as much little guy stores than big guys.

Ive seen GSs plague every single shopping i go to. its like now there has to be one there...no matter the volume of it. EB games was the only competitor but obviously were bought out.

There is a retro gamestore here in central jersey. Infact they posted on the site before. Gamestation is the store and its pretty cool in there. They have everything you said but no discounts on disc only games. There arent that many retro gamers out anymore to make any money...on top of that..who nowadays has a nintendo in their homes. Doesnt help that nintendo themselves made retro gaming so accesscible also.
 
[quote name='Samus']Why are you asking me for a business plan? Do you expect me to have a whole system set up to post?

I know a lot of people don't care, but a gaming store establishing a base for truer gamers would have to help, right? I'm sure GameStop has lost a good amount of sales from poor business practice.

And retro games would just add to that. And it's not like retro games don't sell, retro is in.[/quote]

What is a true gamer? What makes them any more important than anyone that comes in to buy video games? I know what you are alluding to, but 'true' gamers don't support a business.
 
[quote name='mike.m']What is a true gamer? What makes them any more important than anyone that comes in to buy video games? I know what you are alluding to, but 'true' gamers don't support a business.[/quote]

But you're still establishing yourself as quality, and some average people do care about that.

I was just bringing up a topic of conversation, and obviously there are some problems to overcome.
 
I think the ideas in the OP are the opposite of making money, they are all additional costs. Maybe an excellent video game store for profit is not the same thing as an excellent video game store for cheapasses
 
[quote name='Samus']But you're still establishing yourself as quality, and some average people do care about that.[/QUOTE]
Okay, seriously, what problems does Gamestop have that will bother your average consumer? Seriously?

To the people who just want to come in, pay their $60 for a game, and leave (aka, the vast majority of customers), what is going to bother them so much about Gamestop that they'd want to shop at this hypothetical store you're suggesting?

Also, while I'm at it, I wanna mention something about "retro" games. Seriously, dude, many stores hardly even stock PC games anymore. "Retro" games, quite frankly, are not really worth the shelf space. They just don't earn their keep, compared to contemporary titles, so they just aren't feasible.

The thing keeping "some new company from just making an excellent video game store" is that there is simply not really a huge demand for a store similar to your description. There is some demand for such a thing, but not enough to make such an endeavor financially feasible.

[quote name='Yo Mama']I think the ideas in the OP are the opposite of making money, they are all additional costs. Maybe an excellent video game store for profit is not the same thing as an excellent video game store for cheapasses[/QUOTE]
What he said.
 
To all people saying that there's not a market for retro games among the average consumer, I strongly disagree. Whenever I go into my favorite chain pawn shop,(which is fairly often) I hardly ever see people buying newer games, they all seem to flock to the retro games. I think for a lot of people they have that "Hey, I used to play that as a kid" factor that really makes them sell. Mind you, these people are obviously not "hardcore gamers", half of them look like gansta wannabes or just parents looking for a good game for their kid. I also notice this at my favorite mom-n-pop shop that carries older and newer video games. So, before you write off retro game sales as a legitimate business remember one word: nostalgia.
Oh, and about the original question at hand: no.
Take that as you will.
 
because they dont make their money appealing to the hardcore gamer. While people here hate gutted games, the soccer mom dont care. The picky CAG is only a small % of their sales.
 
[quote name='facemeat']To all people saying that there's not a market for retro games among the average consumer, I strongly disagree. Whenever I go into my favorite chain pawn shop,(which is fairly often) I hardly ever see people buying newer games, they all seem to flock to the retro games. I think for a lot of people they have that "Hey, I used to play that as a kid" factor that really makes them sell. Mind you, these people are obviously not "hardcore gamers", half of them look like gansta wannabes or just parents looking for a good game for their kid. I also notice this at my favorite mom-n-pop shop that carries older and newer video games. So, before you write off retro game sales as a legitimate business remember one word: nostalgia.
Oh, and about the original question at hand: no.
Take that as you will.[/quote]

Sorry, but I really doubt there is any viable market for retro games. The casual gamer is dominating the gaming market right now, and the casual gamer is not looking to buy old games. Most of them are turned off by "bad" graphics. They want big-name titles (Halo, GTA, Mario, stuff like that) and casual games (a lot of Wii stuff, puzzlers, stuff like that). Many casual gamers don't even own older consoles, nor do they care much about BC of newer consoles, which is why both Sony and Microsoft have made it clear they are no longer putting much into improving the BC of their consoles.
 
[quote name='bigdaddybruce44']Sorry, but I really doubt there is any viable market for retro games. The casual gamer is dominating the gaming market right now, and the casual gamer is not looking to buy old games. Most of them are turned off by "bad" graphics. They want big-name titles (Halo, GTA, Mario, stuff like that) and casual games (a lot of Wii stuff, puzzlers, stuff like that). Many casual gamers don't even own older consoles, nor do they care much about BC of newer consoles, which is why both Sony and Microsoft have made it clear they are no longer putting much into improving the BC of their consoles.[/QUOTE]

I agree... there are a few small chains here and there that deal in used games but there's a reason why they're not as big as GS.
 
[quote name='bigdaddybruce44']Sorry, but I really doubt there is any viable market for retro games. The casual gamer is dominating the gaming market right now, and the casual gamer is not looking to buy old games. Most of them are turned off by "bad" graphics. They want big-name titles (Halo, GTA, Mario, stuff like that) and casual games (a lot of Wii stuff, puzzlers, stuff like that). Many casual gamers don't even own older consoles, nor do they care much about BC of newer consoles, which is why both Sony and Microsoft have made it clear they are no longer putting much into improving the BC of their consoles.[/quote]
I believe that many casual gamers ARE into buying older games. Why spend $250 for a new console for a 4 year old when you can buy a $20 retro console and the kid's none the wiser? Why spend $50-$60 on a game when they can spend $5? I was just saying, from my experience, when a store carries older games, they tend to go a lot quicker than the "newer" ones. Maybe this is just in my area, but I highly doubt that.
By the way, I wasn't saying a store should only carry retro games, that would be business suicide, but having them as an option would be great, and I think everyone can agree on that.
 
I think it could be done. But I do not believe Joe Entrepreneur could pull it off. It would take someone with some fairly deep pockets to begin with who could afford to eat losses for the first little bit in order to establish a strong prescence in the place with a strong demand but few gamestops/EBs established yet and branch from there. The biggest hurdle would be finding a strong marketing plan to draw customers to this new place.
 
By the way, I wasn't saying a store should only carry retro games, that would be business suicide, but having them as an option would be great, and I think everyone can agree on that.
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Again, there isn't a market, and if there is one, it's a niche market, one not worth venturing into, because the money spent on it would not be recouped, let alone be turned into a profit. If you want further proof no one really wants old stuff, why do you think there are bins and bins and bins of $10 and under games at GameStop? Why are they constantly destroying games from previous generations? Or why do you think there are stacks of used Xbox and GameCube systems? Nobody really wants old stuff.

If anyone ever decided to go head on with GameStop, retro gaming would be very low on their list of business concepts. If anything, they would adopt a similar model to the one GS has successfully used, tweaking it to potentially overcome the numerous issues people have with GS.
 
[quote name='bigdaddybruce44']Again, there isn't a market, and if there is one, it's a niche market, one not worth venturing into, because the money spent on it would not be recouped, let alone be turned into a profit. If you want further proof no one really wants old stuff, why do you think there are bins and bins and bins of $10 and under games at GameStop? Why are they constantly destroying games from previous generations? Or why do you think there are stacks of used Xbox and GameCube systems? Nobody really wants old stuff.

If anyone ever decided to go head on with GameStop, retro gaming would be very low on their list of business concepts. If anything, they would adopt a similar model to the one GS has successfully used, tweaking it to potentially overcome the numerous issues people have with GS.[/quote]
Hmm...X-Box and Gamecube are now 'old'? Where was I when that happened? :roll:
Look, you clearly haven't done any research on whether or not old (and I'm not talking about last-gen, I'm talking about SNES and earlier) games have a viable market, and neither have I, so let's just agree to disagree. Oh, and why those games are being destroyed and there are tons of $10 and under bins: because those games are (for the most part) terrible, terrible last-gen games. Mainly $0.99 sports games.
 
[quote name='facemeat']By the way, I wasn't saying a store should only carry retro games, that would be business suicide, but having them as an option would be great, and I think everyone can agree on that.[/QUOTE]

The thing is, the "retro" market is already mostly taken care of, with things like eBay and local shops. It's just not really viable anymore, though, in a national chain.

[quote name='facemeat']Look, you clearly haven't done any research on whether or not old (and I'm not talking about last-gen, I'm talking about SNES and earlier) games have a viable market, and neither have I, so let's just agree to disagree.[/QUOTE]

Indeed, we haven't. But I think we can be pretty damn sure that Gamestop has researched this first-hand, and the fact that they no longer sell "retro" games should be evidence enough of what their research concluded.
 
[quote name='CoffeeEdge']
Indeed, we haven't. But I think we can be pretty damn sure that Gamestop has researched this first-hand, and the fact that they no longer sell "retro" games should be evidence enough of what their research concluded.[/quote]
I'm thinking that they saw that all their crappy, overpriced PS1 sports games had been sitting in their bins for years, unsold, and they decided to give 'em the boot because their 'circle of life' trading system wouldn't work when people don't buy that kinda crap in the first place, and if they do, they'd probably just end up using the 'rental return-policy' anyway. :lol:
 
If this were Japan, the OP's idea would not only work, but be a necessity for a viable video game store. Anyone who has ever been to the land of the rising sun knows all the bullet points in the OP's post are characteristic of nearly every video game store there.

I'll venture a guess and say that the OP's post stems from a dissatisfaction with our VG stores in the US rather than truly wanting to come up with a plan to open up this "perfect" video game store.

I'd highly recommend visiting Japan on your next vacation or living there for a while if you want to shop in VG stores like the ones you wish existed here. There simply isn't a demand for that much care and quality when it comes to video games where we live.

Sigh... buying used games that were in better condition than Gamestop's so-called "new" unwrapped games was so great!
 
Hmm...X-Box and Gamecube are now 'old'? Where was I when that happened? :roll:
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Yeah, they are. Some of them are six years old. Nice try, though. You yourself attempted to make some argument that the casual gamer was likely to buy cheaper, older gamers. Well, why are all of those games sitting there...while Wii games fly off the shelves? Yeah, I thought so.

Look, you clearly haven't done any research on whether or not old (and I'm not talking about last-gen, I'm talking about SNES and earlier) games have a viable market, and neither have I, so let's just agree to disagree.
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Or...let's not...

Indeed, we haven't. But I think we can be pretty damn sure that Gamestop has researched this first-hand, and the fact that they no longer sell "retro" games should be evidence enough of what their research concluded.
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Thank you. It's called common sense. You don't need to research everything in the world. Sometimes, you can draw a logical conclusion from what is in front of your face. There isn't a market. If there was, someone would fill it. Only a small percentage of gamers care about older games, and that small percentage is easily satisfied by other means. Any store that even bothered to venture into the market would abandon quickly there after to focus on the needs of the general gaming public.

There simply isn't a demand for that much care and quality when it comes to video games where we live.
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And thus, why GameStop is so successful and will probably never have any real competition.
 
For those of you that think there is not a market for retro games, do some research and you will see what gamestop has taught you is WRONG. For instance i can name a 100 games on older systems that are worth much more than any game on 360, wii or ps3. to name a few, earthbound, ffvii, pikmin 2, disney dance mix, castlevania chronicles, mario rpg etc etc. If gamestop had a clue they would of never stopped taking older games, just been more picky on what they did and did not accept. I am sure the 1000 copies of 2004 madden they have are better use of shelf space then retro titles would be.

Also the average soccer mom goes to walmart or best buy not gamestop. That is why walmart and best buy top the list for new game sales not gamestop.
 
I'd think about starting a chain with the ultimate goal of getting bought out by GameStop at an above-market price.
 
I would recommend the OP put his money where his mouth is and open up a store with his beliefs on what a successful game store would be like and see how well he floats
 
Am I the only person on the internet that doesn't have a problem with EB/GS?

Bad customer service at EB/GS is YMMV...sometimes you win, sometimes you lose; just like any other industry. I personally love going to one EB but cant stand the GS across the street...YMMV.

Their practice of buying used games for cheap and selling them for more is just capitalism at its finest...practiced in plenty of other venues/industries. If you dont like their trade in prices or used prices, use ebay, CAG, TGN, etc etc.

All you internet crybabies always want to crucify a company for making money and for personal bad experiences. If another company came along and got to the size of GS/EB you would probably find something else to complain about. Grow up.
 
if youre an independent game store, distributors would charge you around $42 upto $48 for a new game that retails for $49.99. if youre a bigger chain like kmart or circuit city, probably around $35 to $40 for a new game considering they buy about 1000 to 3000 copies of it. as far as new games, there really isnt much profit. the profit is by selling used games and other game related gear.

its hard to compete when you have gamestops almost every 10 blocks here in nyc. then you have the malls that have 3 or 4 of them.
 
[quote name='depascal22']If retro games made money, EB would still be selling them.[/quote]
i think it was gamestop's side that made EB stop carrying them then later both stores stopped altogether. its where the money is but when youre talkin gamestop i dont think the employees there are knowledgeable enough for them. its hard to sell a product when you rely on seasonal employees working only from 4 upto 12 hours a week.
 
Retro games are still huge here, when GS/EB stopped selling them tons of small shops started up abotu 30 minutes away from me, and one started in my town last year, with the way the economy is now 60% of people would rather buy used older games, Classic consoles keep the local store afloat while newer titles sit on the shelf. I am constanly amazed how copys of games like God of war II, Dawn of Mana, Silent hill origins, ect... sit on the shelf at the store marked at 24.00, but the owner cant keep SNES games like Mario Kart and Donkey kong country 2 in stock at 25.00 apiece, retro just depends on the territory i think.
 
There's a couple local mom and pop shops around here with more than one store each, though the one has next to nothing I'd want most times and the other is iffy at times with their policies.

The one store takes in stuff, but rarely do I see them actually take down information on WHO is trading in the stuff. Though, I will say that they've been doing it alot more frequently since their newest store six blocks from my house has been hit several times by break-ins already.

They also are iffy on charging tax, since on smaller purchases like last gen games they may not charge tax, but recently I expressed interest in a PS3 they had for sale and they said they'd HAVE to charge me tax on it.

It just makes NO SENSE.

As for someone to compete with Gamestop, there is always Transworld, though they charge insane prices for some stuff while not charging nearly enough for others.
 
[quote name='blackjaw']Am I the only person on the internet that doesn't have a problem with EB/GS?

Bad customer service at EB/GS is YMMV...sometimes you win, sometimes you lose; just like any other industry. I personally love going to one EB but cant stand the GS across the street...YMMV.

Their practice of buying used games for cheap and selling them for more is just capitalism at its finest...practiced in plenty of other venues/industries. If you dont like their trade in prices or used prices, use ebay, CAG, TGN, etc etc.

All you internet crybabies always want to crucify a company for making money and for personal bad experiences. If another company came along and got to the size of GS/EB you would probably find something else to complain about. Grow up.[/quote]

Nope, in fact the managers in my area were nice enough that I decided to apply and work for GS as a 2nd job.
 
[quote name='Sinnbox']Retro games are still huge here, when GS/EB stopped selling them tons of small shops started up abotu 30 minutes away from me, and one started in my town last year, with the way the economy is now 60% of people would rather buy used older games[/quote]
i guess in a way its good for smaller stores that eb/gs stopped carrying old gen games.
 
[quote name='phear3d']if youre an independent game store, distributors would charge you around $42 upto $48 for a new game that retails for $49.99. if youre a bigger chain like kmart or circuit city, probably around $35 to $40 for a new game considering they buy about 1000 to 3000 copies of it. as far as new games, there really isnt much profit. the profit is by selling used games and other game related gear.

its hard to compete when you have gamestops almost every 10 blocks here in nyc. then you have the malls that have 3 or 4 of them.[/quote]

I can tell you working for the independent I managed, we were charged typically 42 to 45 for new $50 games. A $200 system, we paid 199.99 which we usually sold for 199.95 and we could never get those direct because we our numbers weren't high enough. Typically we had to go through other distributors which charge even more for games than going direct, or going through Ingram Micro.

We also got stuck ordering bundles on new systems when they came out. We got hosed bigtime on Gamecubes.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']

They also are iffy on charging tax, since on smaller purchases like last gen games they may not charge tax, but recently I expressed interest in a PS3 they had for sale and they said they'd HAVE to charge me tax on it.
[/quote]

THey're stupid then. If they ever got audited they'd be screwed.
 
Wanna know the biggest reason Retro games arent sold by places like EB/GS?do you remember how crowded EB/GS stores got before they stopped carrying them? they have to keep most retro games in a case to protect from shoplifters, but that makes them harder to see so less people buy them. they create alot of hassle for a large corporation where a mom and pop store can watch them closer.
 
[quote name='bluekeith75']For those of you that think there is not a market for retro games, do some research and you will see what gamestop has taught you is WRONG. For instance i can name a 100 games on older systems that are worth much more than any game on 360, wii or ps3. to name a few, earthbound, ffvii, pikmin 2, disney dance mix, castlevania chronicles, mario rpg etc etc. If gamestop had a clue they would of never stopped taking older games, just been more picky on what they did and did not accept. I am sure the 1000 copies of 2004 madden they have are better use of shelf space then retro titles would be.

Also the average soccer mom goes to walmart or best buy not gamestop. That is why walmart and best buy top the list for new game sales not gamestop.[/quote]

For starters a store is going to charge whatever they can get for these older games. They arent going to sell super mario rpg for $10 and its not like they can guarantee a supply of old, complete, quality games. I mean even if your store did exist its selection of older games would not be robust. They'd have to buy their inventory off ebay, amazon, etc and then mark them up even more to make a profit. Gamestop is able to do so well because they offer a low price for games and have a big markup on their used games. I can guarantee that if anyone does a study on the gaming market the breakdown will show something like 90% of gamers play more modern systems. The 10% that DO buy retro games really only buy the select few that are decent. You basically have the problem of not having enough retro games that are in demand to be able to sell.

That plus what other people are saying is true. There isn't much demand for older systems. Just because a few games for older systems are wanted by collectors doesn't mean they can generate enough profit to make carrying these games profitable. You can tell from a glance that sales of new games far outweigh the sales of old games. I'm not saying their is no market for it but if you think a store can pay for inventory, rent, salary, insurance, etc and still make a profit by selling 2 copies of Super Mario RPG they found on ebay for $80 your kidding yourself.

Then you also have to worry about issues such as the batteries in the carts going bad and people wanting refunds.

I've lost count of the number of times i've seen parents take their kids into gamestop to buy games. Way more often then I see them buying them at Walmart. That's in part due to gamestops marketing. Parents think buying a used game at gamestop will always save them money so they take their kids their to get a used game not realizing you can get it for same price or cheaper elsewhere.
 
[quote name='Brian9824']For starters a store is going to charge whatever they can get for these older games. They arent going to sell super mario rpg for $10 and its not like they can guarantee a supply of old, complete, quality games. I mean even if your store did exist its selection of older games would not be robust. They'd have to buy their inventory off ebay, amazon, etc and then mark them up even more to make a profit. Gamestop is able to do so well because they offer a low price for games and have a big markup on their used games. I can guarantee that if anyone does a study on the gaming market the breakdown will show something like 90% of gamers play more modern systems. The 10% that DO buy retro games really only buy the select few that are decent. You basically have the problem of not having enough retro games that are in demand to be able to sell.

That plus what other people are saying is true. There isn't much demand for older systems. Just because a few games for older systems are wanted by collectors doesn't mean they can generate enough profit to make carrying these games profitable. You can tell from a glance that sales of new games far outweigh the sales of old games. I'm not saying their is no market for it but if you think a store can pay for inventory, rent, salary, insurance, etc and still make a profit by selling 2 copies of Super Mario RPG they found on ebay for $80 your kidding yourself.

Then you also have to worry about issues such as the batteries in the carts going bad and people wanting refunds.

I've lost count of the number of times i've seen parents take their kids into gamestop to buy games. Way more often then I see them buying them at Walmart. That's in part due to gamestops marketing. Parents think buying a used game at gamestop will always save them money so they take their kids their to get a used game not realizing you can get it for same price or cheaper elsewhere.[/quote]

Retail is about shelf space and nobody wants to dedicate shelf space to crappy old gen games. Why would GS destroy whatever leftover PS1 stock they had if it was worth selling? Probably weren't many Atlus games in that pile I would bet.
 
[quote name='mike.m']Retail is about shelf space and nobody wants to dedicate shelf space to crappy old gen games. Why would GS destroy whatever leftover PS1 stock they had if it was worth selling? Probably weren't many Atlus games in that pile I would bet.[/quote]


Actually i got 3 copies of Persona 2, 2 copies of Persona, mutliple breath of fire games, a few Rhaspodies... Think most i paid was $4 per game

It's basically an issue of no one in the area wanted em because there isn't much of a market for em. It was great for me though.
 
[quote name='Brian9824']Actually i got 3 copies of Persona 2, 2 copies of Persona, mutliple breath of fire games, a few Rhaspodies... Think most i paid was $4 per game

It's basically an issue of no one in the area wanted em because there isn't much of a market for em. It was great for me though.[/quote]

At a Gamestop?
 
[quote name='Brian9824']Yeah i got like 20-30 RPG's and ps1 games when they were 90% off. Alot of great stuff[/quote]

Yeah 90% off...they were getting rid of that stuff. My point is, when they destroyed all of the junk games, I'm going to guess it was mostly crap. Sure there might have been a few decent games or gems, but the point is, they don't want to dedicate shelf space to it. I helped set up a new GS this week. They want as much of the new gen stuff on the shelf as they can get. Thats why all Xbox and PS2 games under $14.99 are relegated to bins.
 
[quote name='Brian9824']Yeah i got like 20-30 RPG's and ps1 games when they were 90% off. Alot of great stuff[/quote]

That's crazy, around northern Indiana(where i live) there are way to many classic gamers, all the good games were gone instantly.
 
Oh definitely. I had to wade thru hundreds of crap games that are made for older systems. Only a small handful would be worth buying by anyone which is kinda my point.


I was kinda lucky as the staff there kept most of the good ps1 games behind the counter so people don't destroy the cases and mess up the discs. Not many people know about it which helped.
I know i got some of the following

Persona
Persona 2
Breath of fire 3
Fear Effect
Breath of fire 4
Brave Fencer Musashi
Parasite Eve
Rhaspody
Diablo
Saiyuki

Few others i'm probably missing but then again that was the ps1 inventory from 4-5 other stores that got shipped to mine. There were also hundreds upon hundreds of games like rugrats, and olympic sports.
 
[quote name='Samus']I read all these horror stories online, and you'd think some young business man would see the opprotunity and make an electronic store with awesome customer service and appeal to more of the hardcore gamer.

Why is it so hard? Surely there is no doubt that many people would shop at a good store rather than GameStop.

I would have:

-A selection of retro games.
-Discounts on disc-only games (and trade in bonuses for complete games)
-Really good customer service - don't just hire any shmoe.
-No gutted games.

etc.

I don't see how GameStop manages to stay the king. Sure, they have a ton of money, but couldn't good business gradually build up a chain?[/QUOTE]


Not that easy to do, especially in my area. We just had a games shop move out of a mall a week ago, they had no business. Judging by the traffic that store got they were probably getting 1-2 transactions a day, if that. I think here its a general dis-interest in older games, and most of these independent shops lack a decent supply of newer games which is what people want. People just aren't buying older video games here, it may be popular in other areas, but not here. I understand that there is a market for retro games, and that people will pay big $ for retro games if they are famous, but there is no one in my area that will pay the money for them. Its just a really niche market and I can tell you by the amount of stuff that I see here for sale and after enough years of shopping in game stores and seeing what people buy, what they talk about and what they are interested in that retro games here do not sell. Its going to be different for every area though.

There are also a lot of stores that sell video games, and 90% of the public will go to a big box retailer to get that new game instead of going to the independent. The huge selection of online game shops does not help either, perhaps an independent store would survive here if there was no ebay, amazon or any other online game shop. I know that when I need a game, I simply go online to buy it, and I expect lots of others do the same.

It just seems impossible to do it right and make money while doing it, people want to trade in older games to get new ones, not to get more older games, but then there are no buyers for the older games, since no one cares here (except me). Sure you could set up a game store that had trade in values that were 80% of what you sell a game for, sell brand new games for less than retail and constantly take older games in trade for new ones but this business model would not last very long as you would lose a lot of money.

You also have the fact that newer games are generally harder to acquire if you want to have it in on release date and sell it at a price that is competitive to the rest of retail while still making money on it. The margin of profit you would make is just so slim that its not even worth starting up as a business. There is a reason why gamestop has to thrive off used games, and retail stores that sell games, often sell other products and just have a video game section to lure you in in the hopes that you will buy other stuff while picking up that new game. So they are still turning a profit even though they aren't a dedicated video game store.
 
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