GAME ripping off irish consumers

Genghiz Cohen

feckhead wrote: »

For example when Gears 2 was released, all of the POS I recieved for the game had the price point at €60. I then went and checked the competitors prices on the day of launch and they ranged from €55 to €50. I called the prices into head office and they immdeiately dropped the price to €45. Obviously we were still making a good profit on the game, but thats €15 that they could knock off the price straight away. Which is shocking to me. Dont get me started on the traded games, I could tell some horror stories there too.

That's pretty bad.
Anyway to find what retailers are actually paying for games?

mowgli-mcnob

Of course its not illegal!! They can charge what they want, it's up to you not to pay for it if it's not to your liking!
Price differences just like this are on the news every day. That's why we're called Rip-Off Ireland

Gamesnash.ie: Pat

feckhead wrote: »

You would be suprised how much retailers are making on games. I used to work for a retailer in the square in Dublin (I'll let you guess which one), and there were huge amounts of money to be made on selling new games.

For example when Gears 2 was released, all of the POS I recieved for the game had the price point at €60. I then went and checked the competitors prices on the day of launch and they ranged from €55 to €50. I called the prices into head office and they immdeiately dropped the price to €45. Obviously we were still making a good profit on the game, but thats €15 that they could knock off the price straight away. Which is shocking to me.

L

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

That's pretty bad.
Anyway to find what retailers are actually paying for games?

You could ask

The RRP for Gears Of War 2 was and still is €59.99 - The wholesale price was just shy of €45.00 vat inclusive at time of ordering. Some larger game stores over ordered and cut prices very soon after launch day to clear a large backlog. Bearing in mind we would expect a large retailer of multiple outlets one of which is based in the square to have rebate deals with publishers based on their volume of sales chances are it was costing them approx €40.00 to buy in.

FutureGuy

Gamesnash.ie wrote: »

You could ask

The RRP for Gears Of War 2 was and still is €59.99 - The wholesale price was just shy of €45.00 vat inclusive at time of ordering. Some larger game stores over ordered and cut prices very soon after launch day to clear a large backlog. Bearing in mind we would expect a large retailer of multiple outlets one of which is based in the square to have rebate deals with publishers based on their volume of sales chances are it was costing them approx €40.00 to buy in.

A decrease in the price of games being sold in games stores has coincided with a sharp reduction in the price being offered for second hand games, so they are not losing out on a whole lot.

Went into GameStop and they offered me 2.40 for Unreal 3 for PS3. Price on the shelf second hand? 34.99. :rolleyes:

noodler

Theres another point to all of this that you may be missing.

They may have too many Unreal 3s or have noticed that they just do not sell. So rather than tell you they won't take it they just offer a price that no one will accept or that the game can be sold for next-to-nothing to make a profit if they do accept.

Gamesnash.ie: Pat

That's generally right Noodler but at the same time it's bad public relations.

The chances are that the game they took in and are retailing at €34.99 was probably traded in for €15.00 - €20.00. The problem they have now is that it is now an old game - there are plenty of them around.

Rather than discourage people with ridiculous price quotes which are open to the - they offered me €2.40 and are charging €34.99 the robbing bas%$£ds!!!! etc they should adjust the price point on the game. Take a small loss if they have to, offer a reasonable amount for the next copy and rely on the income made from that trade in to offset the loss on the older title. Not to mention the fact that by getting your trade in they can assume you will be purchasing something and putting cash towards it. again making profit.

It's certainly what we do anyway - there are times that we get caught with pre owned stock that is worth less than what we gave in credit for it and then have somebody looking to trade in the same title. We just drop the price, take it on the chin, give the next guy the best deal based on the resale value and move on with it.

Offering ridiclous amounts is very short sighted in my humble opinion. Retailers should not insult customers with that kind of trick.

noodler

It can be extremely hard to tell a customer you won't accept their game though-in my exp I often found it relieving that some of the prices were so low so the customer wouldn't accept the trade and so the confrontation would not arise.

For instance, if someone comes up with games that are badly scratched yet they claim they still work, that doesn't matter in my experience. When people try to buy a second hand game they ask to see the disc first and won't accept anything too badly scratched.

We had some absolute piece of scum threaten to do something nasty to a girl once when she couldn't accept a couple of games (Extreme case I recognise). It can be a very delicate issue. Even more so if your excuse is that we have to many of said game-They'll cry foul and ask where it says you only accept a certain type of game etc.

Gamesnash.ie: Pat

It's a delicate one alright but what's better - what's the better of two "insults" ? sorry we can't take your game becuase we have too many of them OR we'll give you €2.40 for a title we are selling on for €34.99. Personally would prefer to be told we have too many of that game at the moment myself.

Best thing as I said above would be to adjust the retail price of the stock already in hand and offer a reasonable amount versus that new retail price. No delicate situation there.

Scratched disks a completely different story. You'd be amazed ( well you yourself wouldn't if you've been on a game counter ) at what passes for "in perfect condition" according to some of our customers. They then take great offence when we have to email them to say we can't accept their trade in. Our problem is that they already have posted the items to us at that point so it can be messy. we have had one or two "charming" threats ourselves.

noodler

I must say I am surprised to hear you say that retailers should reduce the price of their retail stock (having already paid a certain amound out for it) since you yourself were mentioning a short time ago about your own site having higher prices because then others because you have sourced the stock at higher prices than others and it would be better to sell 1 and the current price than sell 5 at a loss.

Similar situation for retailers surely?

Gamesnash.ie: Pat

Ha now I feel like Enda Kenny

You're taking a quote from a different context and slotting it into a different discussion in the hope of muddying the waters etc etc etc

In all seriousness though to explain for those who did not read the thread you are referring to ... we were criticised for having a significantly higher price on a game than some of the high street stores had if memory serves me it was condemned 2 and Zavvi in particular were selling it at €20.00 when the recommended retail price was €59.99 The cost price of that game new from the Irish distributors is still based on the recommended retail price which has not dropped which means it is costing a lot more than €20.00 to buy it in. Over double in fact. Retailers who had excess stock of it had dropped the price to below cost. They already had loads of that stock sitting there, not moving, taking up valuable space etc etc and therefore cut the retail price to sell at a loss but it made sense for them to do it.

What I had said at the time was that it made no sense for us to match that price and sell below cost. We would rather sell one at a profit than 100 at a loss. We had only one or two copies left so we were not in any need to sell below cost to clear stock. Once those were sold we would have been paying the full cost price which was well over double the €20.00 retail price that we were being criticised for not matching.

In the case that I commented on here again the retailer has stock in place that they need to sell. They have paid for it ( by the credit given ) and are having trouble selling it. It is again taking up space ( along with presumably the other 20 copies out back etc ) If they only have one or two copies its not an issue. If they have loads in the back then it is and they are in the same situation where it makes sense to drop the price and sell at a loss.

In our case in this situation we too would have the stock sitting here - it is paid for etc by the credit we have given out. So yes it would make sense at that point when we have excess stock to shift to sell at a loss, which we have done and no doubt will do again.

In this particular situation there is the added sensitivity as I have said of offering a pittance for a game and then displaying it at a much higher price. The €2.40 credit and having it on sale for €34.99 is frankly rediculous. As you say people get annoyed when their game is refused full stop so why not adjust the pricing - take it down to €19.99 which is probably even then profit making, if it's losing a few euro its still worth it though. The game has a chance of selling at this retail. The 20 in the back have a chance to sell at that retail. You offer the guy who is looking to trade in his copy a trade in value based on a €19.99 retail value. He doesnt go away thinking you are making a 1400% markup on his game. You will make a profit on his trade in. You have a customer who is going to put money on top of that trade in credit and buy something which you will also be making a profit on.

For me that's a no brainer, it's good for your customer, it's good for your business.

If you have excess stock of any item be it new or a pre owned game then your retail price is too high, drop it sell them through and don't pay the same cost price again. This is easy to do for a pre owned game as you are offering the credit value. In the case of a new game don't take in any more stock of it. They are two different situations which is why I have made 2 different observations.

FutureGuy

Gamesnash.ie wrote: »

It's a delicate one alright but what's better - what's the better of two "insults" ? sorry we can't take your game becuase we have too many of them OR we'll give you €2.40 for a title we are selling on for €34.99. Personally would prefer to be told we have too many of that game at the moment myself.

If a store tells you that they cannot take a game because they have too many of them, then that is no problem whatsoever. The fact that they are attempting to mark up the price of a game by 1450% over the price they purchased it is unbelievable.

Regardless, they are entitled to buy and sell games at the prices they see fit, and it is up to use to vote with our feet (or in the case of gamesnash.ie, our fingers )

super_furry

Indeed. I gave up trading in because the prices offered were frankly insulting - even more so when you see the mark-up on these games. GAME are bad, but Gamestop take the biscuit.

Absolam

FutureGuy wrote: »

If a store tells you that they cannot take a game because they have too many of them, then that is no problem whatsoever. The fact that they are attempting to mark up the price of a game by 1450% over the price they purchased it is unbelievable.

Regardless, they are entitled to buy and sell games at the prices they see fit, and it is up to use to vote with our feet (or in the case of gamesnash.ie, our fingers )

I think you missed the point that they probably weren't marking up by 1450%.. because the stock on the shelves probably traded in for much more, hadn't shifted, and hence the trade in price dropped.

FutureGuy

Absolam wrote: »

I think you missed the point that they probably weren't marking up by 1450%.. because the stock on the shelves probably traded in for much more, hadn't shifted, and hence the trade in price dropped.

I'm talking about what they offered me in realtion to what they were going to sell my game on for.

Absolam

FutureGuy wrote: »

I'm talking about what they offered me in realtion to what they were going to sell my game on for.

That's an assumption though. It's as likely that having traded one game at say €20, pricing it at €34.99, they now traded another at €2.40, making their average cost €11.20, and enabling them to sell both titles at €19.99.. so you would have enabled someone else to buy a cheap game Of course either argument is purely speculative.