Trading Tips – Chronicles of a Former GAME Employee
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Soapbox features allow our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random things they’re mulling over. Today, Ollie reminisces about some events from his days working in video game retail…
When news comes that GAME, the UK’s last remaining video games retailer (not counting the many wonderful independent stores that still exist), will be stop selling and selling used products since February 16, 2024, I feel a strong combination of thoughts and feelings.
On the one hand, I cannot understand why the company came to such a decision; I worked there for nearly a decade and there were three key initiatives that were consistently promoted to both employees and customers: rewards cards, pre-ordering, and redemption. Going forward, 100% of the money earned from used sales will go directly into GAME’s pockets, while new games will yield a much smaller relative profit. You can see why the company wants to promote sales.
But on the other hand, when you consider the rapidly growing popularity of digital gaming coupled with GAME’s decision to convert the majority of its independent retail space into Sports Direct franchises, then It is reasonable for the company to want to terminate. to exchange. According to GAME records for 12 months to April 29, 2023The total transaction value (GTV – full retail value excluding VAT, savings schemes and publisher deductions) for used products totaled 16,478. This number is down from 25,894 over the same period last year, so it cannot be denied that the demand for repurchasing and used products is decreasing rapidly.
With all that said, I’ll miss the trades as the activity eventually goes dodo in the coming months. As a customer, it’s a great way to make a little money off of new releases by getting rid of some of the older titles and getting secondhand bargains on older games.
However, as a former employee, dealing with ten years of bartering (give or take) has left behind countless memories both good and bad, and I want to share just a few of them. to you, dear reader. .
So get comfortable as we travel to the not-so-distant past and see what the GAME staff had to endure…
That Once We Had *All* The Skylanders
Miss Skylander? Oh boy, I sure do. I almost had nightmares about them. As someone who has never been particularly interested in the toy genre in life (I rarely even buy amiibo unless it’s for a series I really love), I was completely clueless about the character beyond that. Bug version of Spyro.
Disney Infinity It wasn’t so bad because I recognized a lot of the characters right away. But with Skylanders, I’m really sorry, but I can’t tell you the difference between Boomer, Chill, Countdown, Cynder or any of them, and frankly I wasn’t paid enough to advance. This is not a problem in most cases: people will pick what they want from the shelf, make the transaction, and be on their way. The problem arises when people want to exchange them.
It doesn’t matter what it is – whether it’s a range of consoles, accessories, games or figures – when a customer walks into the store lugging a giant cardboard box with a big grin. Full of anticipation, my heart tightened. 99% of the time, that means they have a lot to deal with and I’ll have to drop whatever I’m doing and spend the next hour organizing it all.
During the height of the toys-to-life craze, a woman walked into the store with her two sons and all three were carrying large boxes. I think they’ll have a full lineup of games, which would be fine, but when they get to the counter and open them up, Skylanders. Three boxes filled with Skylanders.
Our inventory process for this was to consult a folder containing a complete list of every Skylander, including their name, billing code, and a small, slightly blurred image of the character. I spent nearly three hours taking each image one by one, carefully looking through the folder to match the image to its blurry image, entering the code, and moving on to the next image. And the worst part? The poor woman and her sons stayed in the shop the whole time and when the total was calculated I don’t think we even broke £50. I felt terrible knowing that we were offering a fraction of what she could get on eBay, but she didn’t care. That’s fair enough.
By the end of the day, I was ready to release these characters into the ocean. There aren’t many instances where I’m happy to see a series end, but if Skylanders comes back, I’m going to Mars.
That Time I Was Attacked
In a decade, I’ve met many people, much Interesting characters work at GAME. Luckily, the vast majority of them are friendly, pleasant people whom I am honored to serve. The rest are either rude, dismissive, angry, deceitful, or violent. Well… there’s only one really violent customers.
During my time at GAME, we not only sold video games, hardware and accessories, but also used mobile devices. We were trying to get into CEX territory and to be fair, we didn’t do a bad job of it. We stock a wide range of mobile phones and we are meticulous to ensure they are of good quality and salable.
One afternoon, I was having lunch in the upstairs office when a colleague came to inform me that a customer wanted to bring in his cell phone and was not handling the rejection well due to the device being of inadequate quality. quantity. I’m a Senior Sales Assistant so I’m sometimes put in charge of the store. So it’s up to me whether we use this phone or not.
I followed my colleague downstairs and glanced at the customer and the phone in question. It’s a Blackberry (oh god, remember those things?) and it was in terrible condition. The SIM card tray was smashed beyond repair, the screen was scratched and there was no charger or box included. Of course, I said, ‘No.’
After a while of back and forth with the customer, I put my foot down and said, “I’m sorry, but we can’t take this phone.” Immediately, he flew into a rage, tried unsuccessfully to grab me over the counter, and continued to pick up anything he could find to throw at me, all the while screaming obscenities. Finally, he picked up a particularly heavy charity box and aimed it at my head. I raised my hand to block my face and the box caught my elbow, causing a nasty cut. The customer lumbered out of the store, moving his hands around the shelves as best he could along the way.
We called the police, showed the CCTV footage, and that was it. I didn’t need any medical attention, but I was quite shaken. That guy had the audacity to come back a few days later to look at our cell phone inventory! He was soon arrested and sent to prison.
That time Countless times I’ve turned down scratched 360 discs
Ah, the beloved Xbox 360. It’s such a great console, but my god, does it have some problems. What everyone more or less knows is the ‘Red Ring of Death’; error where three red lights surrounding the power button will light up indicating a General Hardware Error.
Less notorious, however, is the 360’s other problem, which involves the console moving when it’s turned on (and sometimes even when it’s stationary); the internal gear can cut a perfectly circular scratch into the spinning platter, often rendering it completely unrecoverable.
However, that doesn’t stop people from trying to exchange them. All the damn time. It’s always the parents who bring in Little Timmy’s collection of games and don’t seem to know that they’re mostly useless. So, of course, they will argue, even though the evidence is staring them in the face. “We were told all was well.” Yes, I’m sure an eight year old wanting to play a new game is suffering completely Honest, right?
We have a little machine that can polish scratched game discs and it usually works wonders, but when you have one of those circular scratches from the 360 there’s almost nothing to fix. can decide. Um… Maybe Microsoft should Go completely digitalWhat happens in the end?
Are not.
That was the time I got a free GBA SP
In addition to regular customers looking to trade their personal belongings, we also regularly invite owners of independent game stores to sell some of their inventory through the exchange. It’s a completely legal way for them to get rid of games or accessories that don’t work and exchange them for products they like. maybe sell. So I’m always happy to help.
One came quite often – so much so that his daughter eventually got a job at the store and proved to be one of the most productive members of the team – and we built a friendship. You’ve been pretty good over the years, all the way to my GAME branch. closed in 2017. He often brought boxes in to trade, but it never caused trouble; he always cares about their value, so I never felt like our time was wasted.
One day he came to the store around Christmas and just gave me a Game Boy Advance SP in perfect condition with charger included.
“You know we don’t take these in trade anymore, right?” I asked.
“I know. It’s yours,” he said. He knows that I quit the GBA years ago, but I always wanted another one. As a thank you for working with him for so long, he took an almost full price SP from his warehouse and gave it to me without question. I’m not sure what to say. I knew consoles weren’t worth much money – at least at the time! – but the fact that he remembered that I wanted one in the first place was enough to almost bring me to tears. I will never forget him and I hope his store will thrive.
That’s it! Hopefully you have as much fun reading these stories as I did writing them. It’s been a few years since I’ve worked at GAME and it’s safe to say the company has changed quite a bit in that time. Despite its problems, I will always remember my time there fondly – the ups and downs, the laughs, the disappointments.
Mostly, however, I will remember my colleagues; people who, despite what the Internet might have you believe, still love video games through and through. Even if they can’t name all the Skylanders.
