GameStop Buys Stolen Games

I worked as an assistant manager at a gamestop many years ago... and was told by my regional manager that if i couldn't "prove" that the games were stolen... as in if I "didn't see it" then i was to buy back the game/item...

many occasions we would see the same person enter the store several times a day to sell stuff... often similar items... like who has 7 nintendo64 controllers.....

yeah... my roomie had his ps2 stolen and he checked all the stores and found it at Gamestop. Once he showed proof of ownership (and they looked at the security camera footage to see who sold it) he got it back no problem. For what it's worth.

I have tried to buy brand new games at Gamestop before and they open up these CD sleeves with a game in them that is obviously not brand new and put them into a used case... and try to charge me full retail price for it.

This aren't isolated events either... this has happened at least five times to me at multiple locations in Texas.

I refuse to shop at Gamestop anymore. If I want a used game I'll find it on craigslist or eBay.

Lets all boycott walmart. They take anything back for credit, and much of it is probably stolen. I guess the same could be said for pawn shops. Wait, here's a better idea. Lets start a coup d'etat because we KNOW most of the politicians steal.
/lame article conclusion

The company makes employees gut games to put up on the wall. The only reason you would get an unsealed "new" copy would be if the game was the last copy. This prevents theft of the game on the sales floor.

Well obviously trying to sell used games as new is wrong, but buying back "stolen" games, I don't know how they could prove that they did that knowingly or how the employees are even supposed to recognize stolen games. Sure there might be a suspicious person, but they're probably just minimum wage high schoolers or college kids. I'm guessing the employees were in on it, but then why would they waste their time with that unless they're the store owner.

Gamestop does open new games for display purposes so technically it's just taken out of the newly shrink-wrapped case and put straight into a sleeve to protect it. Granted it's not new after it's been opened like that but; if all the new shrink wrapped unopened cases for a new game are sold; they then take the opened new game for display purposes and re-shrink wrap it for someone who wants the new game.

Just want to let you know that it's not 'used' as in someone traded it in, they just take it out for the displays around the store. Which actually; is quite stupid considering they could use box art or something. Gamestop is pretty fail at a lot of things; as a former employee I'd never work there again. Hopefully Game Craze keeps growing and growing and overtakes them down the road.

And I think it's retarded that the company would not be behind their employees in this whole ordeal. It really shows what Gamestop thinks about their employees. If any of the employees are not Caucasian I'd be signing up a lawyer for racial discrimination; etc, anything I could win on in court just to get back at them. Ah well.

stolen video games crimes are on the rise, surpassing the combined illegal drug sales in the united states, alongside widespread e-thug violences and geek-squad home invasion.

I used to be a manager for gamestop and although I never liked the practice of gutting games it does make sense. As a manager I would occasionaly give a customer a small discount on a gutted game, if they had a problem with it being opened. As far as games being stolen, there is no way to prove someone stole a game so you can't just go around accusing people. After reading this and with my experience I feel like there was something else going on here. For there to be an undercover sting operation something was happening that this story does not mention.

I'm sorry, but new and used is all up to the definition of the buyer, right? I mean, to me a new item has not been used, as in put into a game system and played. While used WAS put into a game system and played. I don't see what the big deal is about shrink-wrapped discs if you inspect the merchandise before you buy it. It would be different if it had dirt on it or was not in pristine condition and they say it is "new".

I understand people's position here and it is just one on one opinion. But in reality the majority of gamers don't care because thousands of these stores use the real case as a display every day. These stores sell these same displays as new to millions of customers every year. It is not like they're trying to hide that the case is not shrink-wrapped. And if they are trying to be like that, then they are not following that company's policy.

Correction to the person above. Gamestop does not use the art boxes of new products for display. All new released products have previously sent in artwork for empty display cases. Only used products have the original cases put up.

Correction to Joeblob: Gamestop actually does BOTH.

1.) Gamestop uses the ACTUAL CASES for display for new games. This is called "gutting". They gut 1 or 2 of the new games (usually more than one when the game is very popular such as God of War 2 so a customer sees another display case on the wall and knows the game is in stock) to display.

Many times customers would think they were getting a used game as we were putting the gutted game in the case. This is why we then began to note to the customer everytime "they are getting the display game, it's still new, but was taken out of the case for display purposes, is this ok?" Then the customer decides whether they want to purchase it.

2.) Gamestop also utilizes artwork advertising in generic DVD cases on their isle display shelves for specific marketing advertising on theme sales and such. These display cases provide multiple artwork/cases for a game that may or may not be in stock. Many a time a customer would bring the case up and we would have to explain to the customer the game is not in stock. This could also potentially cause issues with the customer as they expect a game to be in stock when it's being advertised (even though there's fine print indicated the contrary that product may not be available.)

As for the buying back stolen games, the first post was correct, as confirmed by our own District Manager and Manager, that if there's no way to prove that the games are stolen, then you shouldn't refuse to buy the games back.

However, if a customer would return again more than once in a week or something, and was bringing in wrapped brand new games, the manager would then recommend to refuse to buy the games. This however, was a severe grey area, because Gamestop promotes based on not only reservation/subscription performance, but also used trade in performance. Therefore it's in the best interest of the manager and his/her store to get as many used trade in's a possible because this is how Gamestop makes their real money. There's too much overhead on new games to really make a profit unless they're selling MASSIVE AMOUNTS of them (hence the reason why the force reservations on customers). With used games, they pay very little for the trade in and are able to sell the used game back and a marked up price with no money to little going back to the manufacturer of the game (not sure if there's royalty fees worked out within deals with the manufacturers of the games). This is the true profit.

There might have been something else going on here, but it's not surprising to me, and sad at the same time, that Gamestop is not standing behind their employees. For one, they practice and promote a cult-like environment for those that perform the best in pushing reserves and subs on customers, and get the most trades. This leads to many with no ethical or less scrupulous demeanors to make their way to the top of the food chain. Blind eyes are turned to inventory losses and such so long as the store is performing, unless of course they get caught in some big screwup where then management will come down hard and cut the cancer out completely that they helped to grow in the first place.