Why is GameStop charging $US90 for Xenoblade? Because that’s in line with the marketplace, it says.
Yesterday, we reported that GameStop had restocked copies of the critically-acclaimed Wii RPG and was selling them pre-owned for $US90 a pop. We reached out to GameStop for comment, and it got back to us today with the following statement:
GameStop regularly receives feedback from our PowerUp members regarding old titles they would us like to bring back, such as vintage games like Xenoblade Chronicles. We were recently able to source a limited number of copies of this title to carry in our stores and online.
In fact, we have sourced several more vintage titles that we will be hitting stores in the coming months, including Metroid Prime Trilogy.
As always, our pricing for these games is competitive and is based on current market value driven by supply and demand. PowerUp Pro members always receive a 10% discount and earn PUR points on pre-owned purchases.
They’re right: $US90 is around the market value for Xenoblade, which can be found on eBay for much higher. But GameStop is the only retailer that can sell Xenoblade — their publishing deal with Nintendo ensured that. So the supply is driven by them. Make of that what you will.
Nintendo has declined to comment on this story.
Picture: WallsOnline.org
Comments
13 responses to “GameStop: $US90 Xenoblade Is ‘Based On Current Market Value’”
Ah – so that’s why they’re marked as pre-owned, to be able to charge in line with eBay prices since there’s nasty big prices there. If they were marked as new copies (which they allegedly are), there’s a chance they’d be breaking some laws around charging above RRP and being the entire market.
But then again, this is America, I have no idea how their laws are different from ours.
Sometimes I think their legal system have no idea either…
I don’t think it’s to do with their legal system as much as it is to do with the contracts they’ve entered into. PA Report did a piece on it the other day.
http://penny-arcade.com/report/article/why-would-gamestop-sell-new-games-as-used-profit-rarity-and-of-course-profi
EB does a similar thing here. I forget what the game was, but it was a just-released game yet EB only had pre-owned copies. The person at the store said something about them being imported from Europe and then they sell them as pre-owned to get around something or other.
It was a while ago and my memory is very shitty, but that was the gist of it.
Used to work there and you are correct, exactly what they do.
If these are preowned then how can they sell these for less than what they would have had to pay for them? Where are the source of these?
If they were listed at a low price, you can be sure that someone would go buy 50 copies and sell them on Ebay for a profit. Gamestop probably figured the profits would better go to them instead.
Yeah seems fair enough heh
“Vintage”?
Since when is a game released only 2 years ago (in Europe) or 1 year ago (in the US) considered “Vintage”?
That’s about right.
I sold an extra copy of Xenoblade that I had for $89 a few months back on EBay. Bought it initially for $25 a few months prior.
Profit Deal Baby.
$90 is the market value.. that’s not really under dispute.. that’s what people are paying for them in other places.. sometimes more.. the problem is that GameStop has either fabricated new copies and is selling them as pre-owned so that they are considered to be the same value as the ones selling for $90, or they have held stock back on purpose to inflate the prices and still selling them as pre-owned for the same reason.
The market value is not in question.
The real victims here are the speculators. The influx of new stock is going to devalue their investments.
I typically wouldn’t advocate for modding ones Wii just to play a pirate copy of a game, but when getting reamed is one of the only legal options…
and that’s from somebody who paid $100 for Zone of The Enders 2.
Kind of shocking, I own and love this game.
I got it cheap from Ozgameshop a while back FTR
This is called “Making a smart move in business” , if anyone bought a pallet of these and thought ahead they could be making a killing themselves on ebay.