I Shop at GameStop. Is That Bad?

I shop at GameStop. I shop at GameStop and I like it. Now GameStop isn't the only place I buy games. Meijer, Wal-Mart, Best Buy; I've bought games from just about every place that sells them, but GameStop being everywhere (especially here in Virginia Beach), it does make getting games even easier.

The way I see it, good deals on games are good deals, regardless of the store you shop at. Before 2010 was over, I picked up NiGHTS: Journey to Dreams for $9.99, House of the Dead: Overkill for $14.99, and MadWorld for $12.99 all at GameStop. They were all complete and work great.

Of course I'm not blind to the store's imperfections. GameStop, has also been subject to a lot of criticism. I've no doubt you've heard the stories. Rip offs on trade-ins. Games being labeled "new" even though it's really the store's last copy and it's been opened for God-only-knows-how-long. I'm sure there are other issues, but these are the two I hear frequently so I'll address them both right now.

Trade ins. When you take in a game for trade, don't expect to walk out with a fortune in store credit. Unless you have a ton of games, don't even bother doing the trade route. It isn't just like this at GameStop. This is the case with any store that deals in games. It sucks, but hey, that's life.

"New" games that are the last store copy and have been opened for a while. Sure, they tell you it hasn't been played but that doesn't change then fact that the sucker has already been opened. New games should be opened by the buyer, and no one else. This one really irks me as it can and should be stopped. If GameStop has display cases for upcoming games, there's no excuse for having the last copy be an opened game.

Still, despite those hangups, GameStop is still one of my favorite places to go for games. It isn't perfect, but really, what is?