This happens a lot around here. I hate it. A shop is free to charge whatever they feel like charging, but if you price something "incorrectly" and it makes it into the hands of a customer, you should just take the loss. The negative publicity you can get from pulling this just is not worth it. At our shop we would never pull this. Too many shops now feel the need to try to squeeze every penny they think they can get, and at some point they need to realize that it's better to have a stock that constantly rotates from sales and trade ins than it is to have a bunch of the same things sitting in your store for months at a time until somebody finally says "fine I GUESS I'll pay this". You made a profit off of a customer who probably isn't leaving happy, who most likely won't return.
You're exactly right about how this should have been handled. Honestly, with some of the deals I've seen shops make when buying, I'm surprised that I've never heard of anyplace specifically seeding stuff like this every once in a while. Please don't take this as any sort of veiled criticism toward shop pricing, as it isn't, but when I see a local shop luck into a lot of 10-15 $20-30/ea SNES games at $1-2/ea because the customer named their lot price, they can definitely afford to "mis-mark" a game or two to $5-10 and sort them randomly into existing bulk stock to generate a little buzz due to the "wow" factor of finding such a great deal at their place. Sure, it's a bit manipulative, but so are a lot of sales, advertising gimmicks, etc., so why not this one? The shop's not actually out any money, somebody's guaranteed to leave the shop happy and with the size of the "discount," the chance of positive word of mouth/social media traffic for the shop is that much more likely. Win/win in my book.
A lot of places (retailers like walmart or whatever) will price something at a loss to get people to walk in and buy more stuff. If I found something like Zelda LTTP in the five dollar bin, I'm saving money, maybe Ill pick up something else because of how good that deal was. The greed is ridiculous
A lot of places (retailers like walmart or whatever) will price something at a loss to get people to walk in and buy more stuff. If I found something like Zelda LTTP in the five dollar bin, I'm saving money, maybe Ill pick up something else because of how good that deal was. The greed is ridiculous
Exactly. In regular retail, those items are called "loss leaders," where the retailer knows that they're upside down on the value, but as you said, it gets bodies in the door. Take super cheap TVs on Black Friday. Most that I've actually seen are bare minimum models (in regard to what actually comes in the box), so you're potentially on the hook for cables to hook it up to your entertainment equipment. And hey, they've got Bluray players on sale for cheap, so why not get one of those too? And hey, here's a whole bin full of $7 Blurays (that BigBoxRetailer probably has $1-2/ea invested in due to buying in massive bulk and then spreading stock between their 1000s of locations), I remember that movie, and that one, and hey, that one was great too!
I guess I must just be lucky, I've always had situations like that result in the clerk honouring the marked price. Scored a copy of Duck Dodgers Starring Daffy Duck last year for something like $10, and the owner was eyeing up the price like he realized it was worth more than that. "I don't think this game is priced properly, it's supposed to be more expensive than this."
"Oh, well how much is it supposed to be?"
"Ahhh if you just buy it now you can have it for 10 bucks so I don't have to look it up."
I guess I must just be lucky, I've always had situations like that result in the clerk honouring the marked price. Scored a copy of Duck Dodgers Starring Daffy Duck last year for something like $10, and the owner was eyeing up the price like he realized it was worth more than that. "I don't think this game is priced properly, it's supposed to be more expensive than this."
"Oh, well how much is it supposed to be?"
"Ahhh if you just buy it now you can have it for 10 bucks so I don't have to look it up."
Sounded good to me
Sounds like the kinda store I'd wanna go back to, after a transaction like that What was Dodgers actually worth at the time?
I guess I must just be lucky, I've always had situations like that result in the clerk honouring the marked price. Scored a copy of Duck Dodgers Starring Daffy Duck last year for something like $10, and the owner was eyeing up the price like he realized it was worth more than that. "I don't think this game is priced properly, it's supposed to be more expensive than this."
"Oh, well how much is it supposed to be?"
"Ahhh if you just buy it now you can have it for 10 bucks so I don't have to look it up."
I guess I must just be lucky, I've always had situations like that result in the clerk honouring the marked price. Scored a copy of Duck Dodgers Starring Daffy Duck last year for something like $10, and the owner was eyeing up the price like he realized it was worth more than that. "I don't think this game is priced properly, it's supposed to be more expensive than this."
"Oh, well how much is it supposed to be?"
"Ahhh if you just buy it now you can have it for 10 bucks so I don't have to look it up."
Sounded good to me
Are you a regular of that shop?
I'm not! There wouldn't be as much surprise to a nice deal like that if I were a regular there and familiar with the staff, but this is a shop I only pop into maybe once every year or two, so nice to have something like that happen.
Originally posted by: BertBerryCrunch
Sounds like the kinda store I'd wanna go back to, after a transaction like that What was Dodgers actually worth at the time?
Definitely, great to have something for the "Finders Keepers" forum once in a long while!
This was a minty-fresh copy and similar copies were selling for around $60-70 at the time, so it was a nice snag
Sounds like the kinda store I'd wanna go back to, after a transaction like that What was Dodgers actually worth at the time?
Definitely, great to have something for the "Finders Keepers" forum once in a long while!
This was a minty-fresh copy and similar copies were selling for around $60-70 at the time, so it was a nice snag
very nice! I will say it's not all bad here. I only have two shops near me, one is awful, the other is great. I brought a bunch of stuff to trade in one day and grabbed some good stuff, but had 5 bucks credit left over. The guy knew I mostly collect CIB and obviously five bucks isn't enough to get anything, but he said eh just grab one of the cheap boxed NES games. Ended up getting a game marked at 25. Not as good as the duck dodgers, but I was happy with it
I used to frequent a local g2k games store. Sometimes had good deals, sometimes average ebay prices. I liked a local store though and rather my business go there and keeping them open though.
Until one day I went in and they had a ocarina of time in the display case (anything over 20bucks was in there) and I still needed a copy. It was labeled for 30, so not really a amazing deal but slightly better than ebay. It had to be new on the shelf, I went in there once a week checking stuff out. I asked for it, got a few other games and at the register the guy stopped scanning stuff and said that one was going to be more, and told me he could sell it to me for 45.
I told him no thanks, that extra 15 dollars just lost him the 50+ dollars of other stuff I was going to purchase, and left and never went there again. It was not like I was new customer from off the street, and never gave issue or problem. It just always bothered me. I spread the word of mouth locally about it and a few months later they actually closed up. Now I seriously doubt my word of mouth had anything to do with it, but I like to think it helped lol.
That law is much more expansive than your example and applies to this situation as well. Regardless, the OP can call their weights and measures department and report them if they wish.
This x 2. In Tennessee if an item is marked at a price and is behind the counter or locked up they legally have to honor the price. The Department of Agricultural can pull their business license if it is proven. On the other hand under TN law if an item is out like normal, they can just say someone switched the tags (which there are now hefty fines for doing so). Check into your states laws. It may not seem worth your time, but you could be helping the next person that comes along and falls for it.
I used to frequent a local g2k games store. Sometimes had good deals, sometimes average ebay prices. I liked a local store though and rather my business go there and keeping them open though.
Until one day I went in and they had a ocarina of time in the display case (anything over 20bucks was in there) and I still needed a copy. It was labeled for 30, so not really a amazing deal but slightly better than ebay. It had to be new on the shelf, I went in there once a week checking stuff out. I asked for it, got a few other games and at the register the guy stopped scanning stuff and said that one was going to be more, and told me he could sell it to me for 45.
I told him no thanks, that extra 15 dollars just lost him the 50+ dollars of other stuff I was going to purchase, and left and never went there again. It was not like I was new customer from off the street, and never gave issue or problem. It just always bothered me. I spread the word of mouth locally about it and a few months later they actually closed up. Now I seriously doubt my word of mouth had anything to do with it, but I like to think it helped lol.
This is exactly why I stopped giving them my business. The excuse they used was, "Oh, everything's priced electronically now, so the owners must have updated the pricing in the system." Nope, sorry, done.
I will no longer be shopping at this store and plan on doing all of my retro shopping at another store that I do like even though its farther away.
This store has relatively mixed reviews on google/facebook, etc. I don't want to shut down his shop because he's local. I just think if the continues bad practices everything will take care of itself.
Thanks for all of the feedback, this is an interesting thread!
Yep, best thing you can do is speak with your wallet.
Almost as bad as this are the tables at gaming conventions that don't have anything priced and look up EVERYTHING on their phone. Seriously, do that shit the night before and have prices on stuff.
Stores repricing games at checkout is always a sign of desperation. If a store is willing to incur customers' wrath to wring every last cent out of a purchase, then that store isn't long for this world.
This is the 3rd negative game store story I've seen on here in the past month, including my own bad experience. What is up with retro game stores lately?
This is the 3rd negative game store story I've seen on here in the past month, including my own bad experience. What is up with retro game stores lately?
Ive had flea market sellers do that to me. Some guy that sometimes has video games for sale had a Mario Kart 64 priced at $25 dls in pretty nice shape, no wear or bad label. I figured id buy it for the condition and sell my copy. When I was gonna purchase it, the guy immediately checked his phone and told me the price was wrong. He was now gonna sell it for $40. I was like wtf. After raising the price, he even had the balls to say that he was giving me a discount by saying that it goes for $50 on Amazon. I got upset and basically told him, if you want that much money for it, sell it on Amazon and deal with their selling fees, shipping materials and such. Ever since then, I never go near his booth. He lost me as a customer.
Hampton Roads, Virginia once had great game stores, but they were all bought out by another store called Video Game Heaven. They pay very poorly compared to what the previous stores used to pay. They also sell repros/fakes, disgusting/dirty games, shitty third party accessories from china. They refuse to sell any used cords or controllers. Most of the decent stuff ends up on there ebay accounts. Poor customer service too.
On another note, I had two other resellers try and intimidate me by talking shit and harassing me on Offer Up for picking up a lot they wanted.
I'm grateful for having been a collector in the early 2000's. Great experiences and memories!
I guess I must just be lucky, I've always had situations like that result in the clerk honouring the marked price. Scored a copy of Duck Dodgers Starring Daffy Duck last year for something like $10, and the owner was eyeing up the price like he realized it was worth more than that. "I don't think this game is priced properly, it's supposed to be more expensive than this."
"Oh, well how much is it supposed to be?"
"Ahhh if you just buy it now you can have it for 10 bucks so I don't have to look it up."
Sounded good to me
I've read so many stories of people getting the shaft at the register, and I feel like I've got to be the only person who ever recieved games at a price lower than marked. Needless to say I got the hell out of there with my purchase before minds got changed.
I'm normally a super polite person, so I have to wonder if I was in a game store where the price was changed at the register if I would be ready to drop the entire purchase. I think it would depend on if I would still have enough respect for the store to ever come back - unlikely.
Also, judging by some of the replies in this thread, the thing to do with retro game stores like this is make a thread about your bad experience on NintendoAge. Almost everyone wants to put it on a universal blacklist and see to its immediate closure, it seems.
Yep, a local store has Kuon for PS2 for $100. I said I'd buy it and they took it out of the case and rang it up and said it's gone up to $150 and that there was a recent price change that was overlooked. I was irritated, but bought it because they had buy 1 get 2 free on ps2 and Xbox games, so I got Yakuza 2 and Jurassic Park Operation Genesis for free. Otherwise, I'd have left overly upset.
I must be lucky that this has never happened to me. The most irritating thing about the retro shop I used to go to was that while the owner and his main two employees were solid gold, they would often leave the new guy (who I call Goofy) by himself. This lead to a lot of "I don't know" when it came to my questions. They weren't even hard questions, honest. The last straw was when I went in and noticed that all the wrestling DVDs were gone (while they are a retro game shop they also sell dvds, which I'm sure makes them more money than the games). I asked "Goofy" what happened to them. He laughed under his breath and said "I don't know." That bugged me enough that I never went back. Wrestling may not be what he's int, but I like it and I was spending good money in there on it.
As the owner of a reputable retro video game store, and as a collector, I have to say this is one of the BIGGEST no nos in this business. I have had similar situations arise in my store where a random $15 removable price label had fallen on top of a Zelda Oracle of Ages complete in a mint box inside one of my glass cases. When the customer asked to buy it, I saw the $15 tag and as much as I know I paid more for it, I had to suck it up and do the right thing and honor the price on the game. The customer even whispers to his friend "They don't even know what they have!" And of course that makes it even worse, but not honoring that price would go against everything I stand for as a collector and store owner.
As being a collecting customer before I ever even thought of being a store owner, I know how crappy it can be to have a store owner or employee change a price on you when you find a good deal, which has happened to me and friends of mine in the past at not so reputable game stores.
If a store bumps the price at the checkout and is still less than I was originally willing to pay for it, then I'll still buy it. I always mention that "It's still less than I was willing to pay for it" to see if they bump it a second time, which would be enough to make me not return to the store. Thankfully that situation has never happened.
If they bump it over my price range, I just tell them "That's a bit more than I was hoping to pay" in a sort of disappointed voice, and sometimes they'll offer a slightly lower price instead. If they don't bite on that, I just don't buy it. I'll still return to the store though, because I'm able to get good deals there from time to time.
People who run a business have to be amazing actors to get their way more often, and in retro game stores it's a rare situation where the customer can do the same thing. If you have a bit of character in the way you ask questions and such, you can get away with quite a lot. My best advice I can give about retro stores is that the employees are always more willing to give you a deal on something they have multiple copies of.
If a store bumps the price at the checkout and is still less than I was originally willing to pay for it, then I'll still buy it. I always mention that "It's still less than I was willing to pay for it" to see if they bump it a second time, which would be enough to make me not return to the store. Thankfully that situation has never happened.
If they bump it over my price range, I just tell them "That's a bit more than I was hoping to pay" in a sort of disappointed voice, and sometimes they'll offer a slightly lower price instead. If they don't bite on that, I just don't buy it. I'll still return to the store though, because I'm able to get good deals there from time to time.
If a store bumps the price at the checkout and is still less than I was originally willing to pay for it, then I'll still buy it. I always mention that "It's still less than I was willing to pay for it" to see if they bump it a second time, which would be enough to make me not return to the store. Thankfully that situation has never happened.
If they bump it over my price range, I just tell them "That's a bit more than I was hoping to pay" in a sort of disappointed voice, and sometimes they'll offer a slightly lower price instead. If they don't bite on that, I just don't buy it. I'll still return to the store though, because I'm able to get good deals there from time to time.
We need to teach you how to haggle.
I've never liked haggling since I'm not super great at it. Though like I said, if you ask with a bit of personality, you can easily get away with little things. On casual games like Nintendogs that are a tough sell at a retro game store, if the game is listed at 20 dollars or something, and I say, "Hmm.... how about....FIFTEEN dollars?" in an exaggerated way that makes it sound like I'm driving a hard bargain, it often makes them laugh and go for it. I get to crack a joke AND save 5 bucks! It may not be a huge saving, but save small amounts like that frequently and you can buy an extra game you wouldn't have been able to otherwise.
I've had this issue with a chain retro game store a couple of times. Price would be marked one way and then it'd ring up higher. I was fortunate that when I called them out on it, they honored the sticker price (and probably gave someone a few hours of work to do). Though there's one employee that I do not like. He tries to spew BS every time there's a situation like this or a big sale. When the price is wrong it's "well, these prices fluctuate everyday." (to my response, well change your stickers daily) and attempted to tell me games in a specific case weren't included on the sale (even though no signs were posted stating they were omitted).
I do have to agree with the consensus, honor the price...
This actually happened to me at a GameStop in Omaha, NE. an Xbox360 game DragonAge was in a 50% off bin with a green sticker for 9.99. When the GameStop employee scanned the game for purchase it came up at $19.99. I told the employee first , the game says $9.99 on the price tag and second, it was in a 50% off bin. The GS employee said the $9.99 must be the 50% off price. I walked over to the bin and grabbed the sign. I gave it to the employee and said read this. "50% off price marked". The employee told me it must be a mistake and someone must have move the game from the wall to the bin. I again walked over to the box and grabbed 2 other copies of the game, held them up and stated and these??? The GS employee looked at the two copies and said mine was the deluxe addition with some other game on it or some BS!! I think he could tell I was getting upset (to say the least) and gave me the game at $5 plus tax.
I got home and really didn't feel like I won. I was upset I had to prove my point to a GS employee who shouldn't one, argue with a customer and two, give a sh*t about an xbox 360 game that was "so called" mismarked.
This actually happened to me at a GameStop in Omaha, NE. an Xbox360 game DragonAge was in a 50% off bin with a green sticker for 9.99. When the GameStop employee scanned the game for purchase it came up at $19.99. I told the employee first , the game says $9.99 on the price tag and second, it was in a 50% off bin. The GS employee said the $9.99 must be the 50% off price. I walked over to the bin and grabbed the sign. I gave it to the employee and said read this. "50% off price marked". The employee told me it must be a mistake and someone must have move the game from the wall to the bin. I again walked over to the box and grabbed 2 other copies of the game, held them up and stated and these??? The GS employee looked at the two copies and said mine was the deluxe addition with some other game on it or some BS!! I think he could tell I was getting upset (to say the least) and gave me the game at $5 plus tax.
I got home and really didn't feel like I won. I was upset I had to prove my point to a GS employee who shouldn't one, argue with a customer and two, give a sh*t about an xbox 360 game that was "so called" mismarked.
**Insult to injury...The damn game sucked!!!
That is rediculous on their part. Experiences like that make it difficult to come back. I had a couple similar experiences with Gamers on 72nd & Dodge except they didn't budge and I told the location on 130th & Center what happened and they had me sign a petition to change the management. I found the whole experience odd. I wonder if they just had so many complaints about the store that they made up the petition thing to seem like they care and convert the customers to their location?
Some months ago, maybe half a year, I was at Game X Change where I found a cart copy of Gem Smashers for GBA marked for 2.99 in their GBA dump bin. They looked it up at the register claiming the tag was outdated or from some other store, though it was really just a tag from their old pricing system. It got marked up to $20 something on the spot. I passed of course and was a bit disgruntled about it. The next few times I visited it was sitting on display in their glass showcase not getting bought. I went back two weeks ago and see it in the case again but now marked back down to 2.99 so I finally bought it. It sucked to have the price changed on me but it paid to wait it out!
Comments
This happens a lot around here. I hate it. A shop is free to charge whatever they feel like charging, but if you price something "incorrectly" and it makes it into the hands of a customer, you should just take the loss. The negative publicity you can get from pulling this just is not worth it. At our shop we would never pull this. Too many shops now feel the need to try to squeeze every penny they think they can get, and at some point they need to realize that it's better to have a stock that constantly rotates from sales and trade ins than it is to have a bunch of the same things sitting in your store for months at a time until somebody finally says "fine I GUESS I'll pay this". You made a profit off of a customer who probably isn't leaving happy, who most likely won't return.
You're exactly right about how this should have been handled. Honestly, with some of the deals I've seen shops make when buying, I'm surprised that I've never heard of anyplace specifically seeding stuff like this every once in a while. Please don't take this as any sort of veiled criticism toward shop pricing, as it isn't, but when I see a local shop luck into a lot of 10-15 $20-30/ea SNES games at $1-2/ea because the customer named their lot price, they can definitely afford to "mis-mark" a game or two to $5-10 and sort them randomly into existing bulk stock to generate a little buzz due to the "wow" factor of finding such a great deal at their place. Sure, it's a bit manipulative, but so are a lot of sales, advertising gimmicks, etc., so why not this one? The shop's not actually out any money, somebody's guaranteed to leave the shop happy and with the size of the "discount," the chance of positive word of mouth/social media traffic for the shop is that much more likely. Win/win in my book.
A lot of places (retailers like walmart or whatever) will price something at a loss to get people to walk in and buy more stuff. If I found something like Zelda LTTP in the five dollar bin, I'm saving money, maybe Ill pick up something else because of how good that deal was. The greed is ridiculous
A lot of places (retailers like walmart or whatever) will price something at a loss to get people to walk in and buy more stuff. If I found something like Zelda LTTP in the five dollar bin, I'm saving money, maybe Ill pick up something else because of how good that deal was. The greed is ridiculous
Exactly. In regular retail, those items are called "loss leaders," where the retailer knows that they're upside down on the value, but as you said, it gets bodies in the door. Take super cheap TVs on Black Friday. Most that I've actually seen are bare minimum models (in regard to what actually comes in the box), so you're potentially on the hook for cables to hook it up to your entertainment equipment. And hey, they've got Bluray players on sale for cheap, so why not get one of those too? And hey, here's a whole bin full of $7 Blurays (that BigBoxRetailer probably has $1-2/ea invested in due to buying in massive bulk and then spreading stock between their 1000s of locations), I remember that movie, and that one, and hey, that one was great too!
"Oh, well how much is it supposed to be?"
"Ahhh if you just buy it now you can have it for 10 bucks so I don't have to look it up."
Sounded good to me
I guess I must just be lucky, I've always had situations like that result in the clerk honouring the marked price. Scored a copy of Duck Dodgers Starring Daffy Duck last year for something like $10, and the owner was eyeing up the price like he realized it was worth more than that. "I don't think this game is priced properly, it's supposed to be more expensive than this."
"Oh, well how much is it supposed to be?"
"Ahhh if you just buy it now you can have it for 10 bucks so I don't have to look it up."
Sounded good to me
Sounds like the kinda store I'd wanna go back to, after a transaction like that What was Dodgers actually worth at the time?
I guess I must just be lucky, I've always had situations like that result in the clerk honouring the marked price. Scored a copy of Duck Dodgers Starring Daffy Duck last year for something like $10, and the owner was eyeing up the price like he realized it was worth more than that. "I don't think this game is priced properly, it's supposed to be more expensive than this."
"Oh, well how much is it supposed to be?"
"Ahhh if you just buy it now you can have it for 10 bucks so I don't have to look it up."
Sounded good to me
Are you a regular of that shop?
I guess I must just be lucky, I've always had situations like that result in the clerk honouring the marked price. Scored a copy of Duck Dodgers Starring Daffy Duck last year for something like $10, and the owner was eyeing up the price like he realized it was worth more than that. "I don't think this game is priced properly, it's supposed to be more expensive than this."
"Oh, well how much is it supposed to be?"
"Ahhh if you just buy it now you can have it for 10 bucks so I don't have to look it up."
Sounded good to me
Are you a regular of that shop?
I'm not! There wouldn't be as much surprise to a nice deal like that if I were a regular there and familiar with the staff, but this is a shop I only pop into maybe once every year or two, so nice to have something like that happen.
Sounds like the kinda store I'd wanna go back to, after a transaction like that What was Dodgers actually worth at the time?
Definitely, great to have something for the "Finders Keepers" forum once in a long while!
This was a minty-fresh copy and similar copies were selling for around $60-70 at the time, so it was a nice snag
Sounds like the kinda store I'd wanna go back to, after a transaction like that What was Dodgers actually worth at the time?
Definitely, great to have something for the "Finders Keepers" forum once in a long while!
This was a minty-fresh copy and similar copies were selling for around $60-70 at the time, so it was a nice snag
very nice! I will say it's not all bad here. I only have two shops near me, one is awful, the other is great. I brought a bunch of stuff to trade in one day and grabbed some good stuff, but had 5 bucks credit left over. The guy knew I mostly collect CIB and obviously five bucks isn't enough to get anything, but he said eh just grab one of the cheap boxed NES games. Ended up getting a game marked at 25. Not as good as the duck dodgers, but I was happy with it
Until one day I went in and they had a ocarina of time in the display case (anything over 20bucks was in there) and I still needed a copy. It was labeled for 30, so not really a amazing deal but slightly better than ebay. It had to be new on the shelf, I went in there once a week checking stuff out. I asked for it, got a few other games and at the register the guy stopped scanning stuff and said that one was going to be more, and told me he could sell it to me for 45.
I told him no thanks, that extra 15 dollars just lost him the 50+ dollars of other stuff I was going to purchase, and left and never went there again. It was not like I was new customer from off the street, and never gave issue or problem. It just always bothered me. I spread the word of mouth locally about it and a few months later they actually closed up. Now I seriously doubt my word of mouth had anything to do with it, but I like to think it helped lol.
That law is much more expansive than your example and applies to this situation as well. Regardless, the OP can call their weights and measures department and report them if they wish.
This x 2. In Tennessee if an item is marked at a price and is behind the counter or locked up they legally have to honor the price. The Department of Agricultural can pull their business license if it is proven. On the other hand under TN law if an item is out like normal, they can just say someone switched the tags (which there are now hefty fines for doing so). Check into your states laws. It may not seem worth your time, but you could be helping the next person that comes along and falls for it.
I used to frequent a local g2k games store. Sometimes had good deals, sometimes average ebay prices. I liked a local store though and rather my business go there and keeping them open though.
Until one day I went in and they had a ocarina of time in the display case (anything over 20bucks was in there) and I still needed a copy. It was labeled for 30, so not really a amazing deal but slightly better than ebay. It had to be new on the shelf, I went in there once a week checking stuff out. I asked for it, got a few other games and at the register the guy stopped scanning stuff and said that one was going to be more, and told me he could sell it to me for 45.
I told him no thanks, that extra 15 dollars just lost him the 50+ dollars of other stuff I was going to purchase, and left and never went there again. It was not like I was new customer from off the street, and never gave issue or problem. It just always bothered me. I spread the word of mouth locally about it and a few months later they actually closed up. Now I seriously doubt my word of mouth had anything to do with it, but I like to think it helped lol.
This is exactly why I stopped giving them my business. The excuse they used was, "Oh, everything's priced electronically now, so the owners must have updated the pricing in the system." Nope, sorry, done.
Just wanted to reply to you all.
I will no longer be shopping at this store and plan on doing all of my retro shopping at another store that I do like even though its farther away.
This store has relatively mixed reviews on google/facebook, etc. I don't want to shut down his shop because he's local. I just think if the continues bad practices everything will take care of itself.
Thanks for all of the feedback, this is an interesting thread!
-ferris182 (OP)
Almost as bad as this are the tables at gaming conventions that don't have anything priced and look up EVERYTHING on their phone. Seriously, do that shit the night before and have prices on stuff.
This is the 3rd negative game store story I've seen on here in the past month, including my own bad experience. What is up with retro game stores lately?
B-B-BU-BUBBLE BURSTING!!!
On another note, I had two other resellers try and intimidate me by talking shit and harassing me on Offer Up for picking up a lot they wanted.
I'm grateful for having been a collector in the early 2000's. Great experiences and memories!
I guess I must just be lucky, I've always had situations like that result in the clerk honouring the marked price. Scored a copy of Duck Dodgers Starring Daffy Duck last year for something like $10, and the owner was eyeing up the price like he realized it was worth more than that. "I don't think this game is priced properly, it's supposed to be more expensive than this."
"Oh, well how much is it supposed to be?"
"Ahhh if you just buy it now you can have it for 10 bucks so I don't have to look it up."
Sounded good to me
I've read so many stories of people getting the shaft at the register, and I feel like I've got to be the only person who ever recieved games at a price lower than marked. Needless to say I got the hell out of there with my purchase before minds got changed.
I'm normally a super polite person, so I have to wonder if I was in a game store where the price was changed at the register if I would be ready to drop the entire purchase. I think it would depend on if I would still have enough respect for the store to ever come back - unlikely.
Also, judging by some of the replies in this thread, the thing to do with retro game stores like this is make a thread about your bad experience on NintendoAge. Almost everyone wants to put it on a universal blacklist and see to its immediate closure, it seems.
As being a collecting customer before I ever even thought of being a store owner, I know how crappy it can be to have a store owner or employee change a price on you when you find a good deal, which has happened to me and friends of mine in the past at not so reputable game stores.
If they bump it over my price range, I just tell them "That's a bit more than I was hoping to pay" in a sort of disappointed voice, and sometimes they'll offer a slightly lower price instead. If they don't bite on that, I just don't buy it. I'll still return to the store though, because I'm able to get good deals there from time to time.
People who run a business have to be amazing actors to get their way more often, and in retro game stores it's a rare situation where the customer can do the same thing. If you have a bit of character in the way you ask questions and such, you can get away with quite a lot. My best advice I can give about retro stores is that the employees are always more willing to give you a deal on something they have multiple copies of.
If a store bumps the price at the checkout and is still less than I was originally willing to pay for it, then I'll still buy it. I always mention that "It's still less than I was willing to pay for it" to see if they bump it a second time, which would be enough to make me not return to the store. Thankfully that situation has never happened.
If they bump it over my price range, I just tell them "That's a bit more than I was hoping to pay" in a sort of disappointed voice, and sometimes they'll offer a slightly lower price instead. If they don't bite on that, I just don't buy it. I'll still return to the store though, because I'm able to get good deals there from time to time.
We need to teach you how to haggle.
If a store bumps the price at the checkout and is still less than I was originally willing to pay for it, then I'll still buy it. I always mention that "It's still less than I was willing to pay for it" to see if they bump it a second time, which would be enough to make me not return to the store. Thankfully that situation has never happened.
If they bump it over my price range, I just tell them "That's a bit more than I was hoping to pay" in a sort of disappointed voice, and sometimes they'll offer a slightly lower price instead. If they don't bite on that, I just don't buy it. I'll still return to the store though, because I'm able to get good deals there from time to time.
We need to teach you how to haggle.
I've never liked haggling since I'm not super great at it. Though like I said, if you ask with a bit of personality, you can easily get away with little things. On casual games like Nintendogs that are a tough sell at a retro game store, if the game is listed at 20 dollars or something, and I say, "Hmm.... how about....FIFTEEN dollars?" in an exaggerated way that makes it sound like I'm driving a hard bargain, it often makes them laugh and go for it. I get to crack a joke AND save 5 bucks! It may not be a huge saving, but save small amounts like that frequently and you can buy an extra game you wouldn't have been able to otherwise.
I'm okay with smaller victories.
I do have to agree with the consensus, honor the price...
I got home and really didn't feel like I won. I was upset I had to prove my point to a GS employee who shouldn't one, argue with a customer and two, give a sh*t about an xbox 360 game that was "so called" mismarked.
**Insult to injury...The damn game sucked!!!
This actually happened to me at a GameStop in Omaha, NE. an Xbox360 game DragonAge was in a 50% off bin with a green sticker for 9.99. When the GameStop employee scanned the game for purchase it came up at $19.99. I told the employee first , the game says $9.99 on the price tag and second, it was in a 50% off bin. The GS employee said the $9.99 must be the 50% off price. I walked over to the bin and grabbed the sign. I gave it to the employee and said read this. "50% off price marked". The employee told me it must be a mistake and someone must have move the game from the wall to the bin. I again walked over to the box and grabbed 2 other copies of the game, held them up and stated and these??? The GS employee looked at the two copies and said mine was the deluxe addition with some other game on it or some BS!! I think he could tell I was getting upset (to say the least) and gave me the game at $5 plus tax.
I got home and really didn't feel like I won. I was upset I had to prove my point to a GS employee who shouldn't one, argue with a customer and two, give a sh*t about an xbox 360 game that was "so called" mismarked.
**Insult to injury...The damn game sucked!!!
That is rediculous on their part. Experiences like that make it difficult to come back. I had a couple similar experiences with Gamers on 72nd & Dodge except they didn't budge and I told the location on 130th & Center what happened and they had me sign a petition to change the management. I found the whole experience odd. I wonder if they just had so many complaints about the store that they made up the petition thing to seem like they care and convert the customers to their location?