In case anyone is wondering: the reason the first ones came complete is they were shipped from individual stores (so they are usually as the condition traded in). The reason the second batch were disc only is because they came from the warehouse which regularly throws cases / manuals away (though not always). That’s also why the second batch were shipped in one box.
@@WinstonWolfe21Sometimes but most of the time, no. People trade in what they have… which is usually games with their cases. It’s well known that Gamestop tosses cases to save space. As much as collectors hate it, on a practical level, it makes a lot of sense.
@@leeartlee915 Feels like the only people who'd be buying 20+ year old physical games from them are the Collectors though. Are there really people buying old PS1 and Dreamcast games that don't care about the cases? When theres so many other options to play them through emulation and all now.
@@RyanSaotome Until recently, I would have argued with that conclusion… but that is becoming the case. A line in the sand has been drawn of sorts. Two groups: people who want to own games and people who want to play games. And it’s not like those two groups can’t have some overlap but it’s becoming more and more that people favor one side or the other. As someone who’s been gaming for over 35 years, I come from a time where if you wanted to play a game, you had to own said game. But like you said, with there being so many more (viable) options, I care less and less about even owning a game. That’s why there are a few of us that are fine with owning a game that simply works. Doesn’t have a manual? Don’t care. Wasn’t gonna read it anyways. Case is cracked? Meh, as long as the disc is fine. Didn’t even come with a case? That’s cool, I’ll find another home for it. It’s really an odd time. The idea of a “collector” was known 20+ years ago but they were on the fringe. Now they are legion. And I’d be lying if I said that the growth of “shelf collectors” has made me shy away from owning physical games didn’t make me walk away from it. I still buy physical Switch games though. It’s the last system where games are actually on the piece of media you buy… sometimes.
You really had me in the first half. I actually thought for a moment that maybe Gamestop was getting better, but sure enough when we get to the rest... it's rough.
Yeah despite the crazy increase in popularity and demand for physical games and it's stock prices going brrr (I even managed to make a few hundreds off of it even AFTER buying in late) they never did anything with the raised platform they ended up having, except for fucking with NFTs of course. They also let me down the few times I ordered games afterwards (Pokemon Snap, came 2 days late even though I pre ordered for on release day AND I didn't get my pre order bonus cause they ran out). A fucking shame really but at this point they can die on the hill with all their bag holders 😂
Has he ever interviewed former GS employees on this? Back in college, I use to be a Keyholder at Gamestop for years and I remember what it was like when these online orders came in. The price stickers on the box usually indicate that the order(s) was fulfilled from an actual store employee and not a warehouse. Usually, store employees at my district were nice and we tried to ship our nicest boxes as possible for online orders since we didn’t want crappy packaging and poor disc conditions to be the impression customers got from us! The “R” stickers (non priced stickers) normally indicate that it came from a warehouse instead. I hated getting those copies in during inventory shipments because discs usually get sent to GS Warehouses for being “damaged” or “defective”. There’s where they “clean” the discs and ship back out with those “R” stickers (aka Refurbished). You can tell they were “cleaned” when the inner rings are green clear colored or have a rigged inner ring like that Dreamcast game you got. TLDR; When shopping at GameStop, look for game boxes that have PRICED stickers and not the warehouse “R” stickers! “R” stickers means it’s from a refurbished warehouse due to damaged, broken or poor condition.
This is true. I also worked for GameStop back in the day as a closer at Night. I hated closing, but whatever. Anyway - as a reminder to folks anytime these types of videos are released: Its fine to disagree or dislike a company, but its NEVER okay to harass or bother regular employees. Trust me, they have no say or control and are just trying to earn a paycheck. Remember, real life isnt UA-cam videos.
How does one tell through the website if they're getting a refurbished game? I've infrequently bought via the website and only once got a game with display boxart in a basic case, so I'm curious.
@@Elvisbackpack when you're buying on the website, always select "pre-owned" not refurbished. you're more likely to get one that way, but it's usually better to go in store to check
This just awakened something in me. I totally 100% played through both white knight chronicles games back in the day and had completely wiped them from my memory.
Did my first ever online GameStop order a week back and my shipment got split in 2. I’ll update when I get the second package but the first arrived today. (Update: the second package arrived 2 days later. Details below) I got 5 games total: Uncharted Golden Abyss for Vita Mortal Kombat 9 for the Vita Override Mech City Brawl for PS4 Harry Potter Deathly Hallows 1&2 for PS3. Package 1 came with the last 3 and all were in original cases, with Manuals! I was ecstatic, but HPDH2 was actually the European version! I was beyond disappointed cause it was so close to perfect for the first package. I’m waiting for the second package now with the Vita games. 2 days later: The second package arrived. It was light weight. I immediately felt my anticipation sink when I opened the mailer and felt the shape of a GameStop plastic cartridge case. None of the Vita were boxed. Overall 3 CIB out of 5, 1 non American game out of 5 ordered, and both Vita games came cartridge only. I wouldn’t say disappointed but more unimpressed. Either way I’ll probably come back if something else catches my eye on GameStop’s site.
And that's why I love these videos. It's such a huge gamble on how the experience will be and I can actually feel Matty's joy/pain with each game he pulls out.
I never buy anything from Gamestop's online presence, not even newer stuff. When they don't have something in the warehouse, they check the inventory of the physical stores, and have a location ship the game. You could buy a brand new game off of the site, and get a store's "last copy". Going into an actual store, I can see what it is I'm buying, and walk away from a sale if need be. Can't do this with older games, but that's what the many retro game stores in my area are for. I see the online and physical stores as two very different entities when it comes to getting what you want. Online is a gamble, while you can control what you get going into one of the stores.
Oh the disc art for Legend of Dragoon is normally in color (and freaking beautiful). When it went Greatest Hits, they switch to the cheaper to make monochrome design.
I've got a story, so, I'm sorry if this turns into too long of a comment. On one hand, I feel like, getting loose disc games CAN BE fun and nostalgic, one of those "this takes me back to the late 90s / early 2000s when my whole family and friends would set aside original cases and keep all the discs in binder / zipper cases, etc.", and I do still have binders with a few of my childhood games, whether if they still work or not, etc. But, on the other hand, so just this last year in 2023, back in July to September, I finally got around to acquiring Skeleton Warriors for PS1; I went to my local retro game store and came across the loose disc, and I bought it, because $5 seemed like a decent deal to me. I then went on to eBay, to see if I even COULD find the front and back covers, because sometimes empty cases can be offloaded or listed in places (I can't tell you how many times I ran across empty game cases in thrift stores, etc.), and that's when I realized that, the long box disc AND the standard jewel case disc, each have different color labels. So, I bought a long box copy (since it WAS originally on my "want list"), and I DID manage to find just the back cover artwork for the standard jewel release of the game (that's the disc I found in my local retro game store), so... I now have two copies of the game, 1 original long box complete, and one semi-complete standard jewel release. I keep checking back periodically on eBay for JUST the booklet / cover of the standard jewel release of the game, but still nothing even now into 2024 so far. But man, I feel your pain on getting just loose discs of games where anyone would want them complete.
I used to be a key holder and I can explain the wild differences. Each store has different managers who like to take boxes and others who just want games . Like my old store leader would never keep DS, 3DS or vita boxes and they would get these horrible clear clamshells. But when our new store leader came in he wanted all original stuff because he collected . The other variance is where the boxes come from even though you order online most of the product are shipped from actual stores not the warehouse . Hope this helps with the quality being all over the place
I used to work at EB/early GameStop and now that you mention it our stores would take in (obviously stolen) new release games with no cases. We were told to. 🙃 we had the same things- One DM said no- Throw boxes away. The other said “why is anyone going to spend slightly less for something that’s missing case/box or manual. I’ll pay more for new. And if I will, so will the customers.
@@FranticPixel that’s been gamestops whole issue, it is never consistent. When they would find something that was working they would get rid of it and expect the staff to still do well
@@Artsensei86 oh I know I used to work there. The thing is when I work there we were told to take all of our retro games and put them in the compactor so they may or may not have been saved by other employees but we didn’t have any retro games when I worked there so I wasn’t sure
I don’t know if it’s just me but, GameStop has been awesome for the 20+ years I’ve been a Pro Member. I stopped trading in my games along time ago but besides that, they’ve done right by me over the years. They messed up my online orders a few times but immediately fixed it. I ordered MK for the Genesis and it came complete with the original receipt! They sent me wrong game, then sent me right game and I was able to keep both. I hope they never go away.
Fun fact: they don't train employees to look for fakes. Buddy of mine traded in a fake copy of FireRed for $20 (despite them selling it for like 100 🙃).
As someone who works at a game store, I can definitely tell you that even if you do tell people that they can get more money for their game somewhere else they still sell it anyway because a lot of the people selling these old games are actually old people cleaning out their kids stuff. They don’t care about the value of it all they care about is that it’s gone. lol
that plus they get rid of it then and there rather than making a process out of the whole ordeal to make listings, keep track of it, pack it up, ship it out, etc. all takes time and energy which people often times overlook .
@@thanksgivingh6185Yeah, people often forget the whole packaging up, and shipping process. Then there’s the wait of the item actually selling, the wait for it to be delivered, then waiting on the buyer to rate. That’s why people like to sell stuff quick and easy, even if it means less money
That’s the best thing about GameStop is they don’t sell really old video games they sell what doesn’t suck and is still worth playing you wouldn’t find Atari 2600 games or Sega Genesis Super Nintendo games
Something that would explain this caseless phenomenon (since it happens frequently when you buy directly from the owner too, and isn't 100% a Gamestop thing to throw out cases): The kind of people who sell or bulk trade in their games once they're old or they grow bored of them instead of holding onto them for collections, replay, or nostalgia purposes are the same kind of people who throw the cases away and then keep the discs in 90s style bulk CD cases. It was way more common to do back before gaming became a huge powerhouse media empire, because most people were buying them for their kids, who would destroy or lose cases all the time. You're more likely to find a case on a newer game than a platformer that was on the PS1 since those kids that played video games grew up into adults who play games and take better care of them. Handhelds are also less likely because they're meant to be used on the go, so cases would get thrown out and the games stay in the case with the console. You'd be extremely lucky to find a Gameboy cart with a case, because those were made of flimsy cardboard and were the most likely to be destroyed or tossed, to the point some guy once made a small fortune just selling intact boxes and manuals for his old Pokemon games. Even I do this. All my Switch games are in my Switch case for portability reasons, though I did hold onto the boxes for display. Almost none of my PS1 games have cases because my youngest sister destroyed them all. The only ones that survived were all the horror games plus Final Fantasy IX, because I really liked those games and still replay them all the time and I refused to let her touch them. Everything else is in a generic case my dad used to keep old PC game discs in.
I used to own Legend of Dragoon, it was my favorite PSX game of all time. Not the B&W "Greatest Hits" discs, either... I had a first-run copy with full-color disc art. A buddy of mine stole it and pawned it to buy cigarettes. He wasn't my buddy anymore after that. But as for the game itself... it's a classic. And no spoilers, but... *_They did my boy Lavitz dirty!_*
Lol Sorry about your buddy, it pretty much happen to all our friends when they betray you, but yeah Lavitz was my favorite character in the game, I almost gave up the game because of him but I remember I need to finish the game so that I can move on away from this game.
It’s honestly baffling that GameStop doesn’t have a way to tell the buyer whether or not the title has an original case. Hell, way smaller businesses manage to incorporate that detail into their sites. The only way I can see justifying their reason for not having one, is the reason of inventory. They probably realize that, if it is disc only, chances of selling that item drastically dip. Ignoring it, allows them to sell titles with equal chances and some poor sap gets stuck with a caseless disc.
Seriously, you HAVE to play Legend of Dragoon! Yes, it's THAT good. I honestly recommend the remastered version on PS5 if you can, it was super rough on release, but it was patched and it's working pretty well now.
Pretty much why I dont buy used games from Gamestop, you never know what you are going to get. If they could guarantee cases and manuals then it would be a different story.
FF9 is insanely well-balanced, you just need to pay attention to the stiltskin tutorials about ability learning early on. The reason it was delegated to a Moogle and optional was direct changes made to FF8 long tutorial complaints.
I once heard a bunch of people talking about how surprisingly difficult Final Fantasy IX is, and aside from a few enemies and boss fights, I've never really thought it was a difficult game. I've always wondered if it's a skill issue from not really understanding some of the mechanics, or if I'm just insanely overleveled because of my habit of spending sometimes weeks on end just training abilities and level grinding, because I find repetitive tasks like that oddly soothing.
What would be the solution to all these loose games? i mean people trade them in that way - should they do what Lukie Games does pay less for loose and more for complete?
The Tekken game reminded me of the fine charity shop find I got last year. I found Tekken 1's cassette for PS1, but the disk was missing. So I got to pick my own price as an apology, because otherwise they'd chuck it out. So I said 50 cent. Because it still had the manual in it, which I immediately discovered for $11 on eBay. I also got Crash Bandicoot's PS1 manual and cassette for the same price. Excellent thing for my retro collection.
Legend of Dragoon is one of my all-time faves. I still have my copy, but I have to see if I still my case. When I found it last, it was in a CD holder case. This definitely needs a remaster at least.
i'm always amused and baffled watching these videos because the gamestop equivalents here in the UK (CEX and GAME) won't take incomplete games for trade in (missing manuals are fine but they have to have their original cases and covers) and iirc GAME don't even accept anything older than xbox one/ps4/switch for trade in anymore. CEX does take unboxed versions of older systems like N64, Dreamcast etc. but they have unboxed vs boxed listed separately on their sites and the unboxed is cheaper. managed to snag a few PS1 games from them as well in good condition too as the Platinum versions tend to go a lot cheaper than the og black box copies.
That Legend of Dragoon you got is a Greatest Hits version. That's why it has no color. All GH PS1 discs lack color. The reg Legend of Dragoon discs look beautiful!
I worked for gamestop as an ASL. We were told to ship stuff that we couldnt move as long as it had a similar name. You'd be surprised what district managers would have you do. Dont have a box, just ship the disc so its not in the system anymore. His reasoning was that it more than likely wouldnt make its way back into our stores since we are in a smaller low income district.
Legend of dragoon is one of the best RPG games of all time. Imo it's better than any final fantasy game. It got heavily overshadowed by final fantasy though and faded into obscurity despite deserving to be a massive franchise itself
FF IX is also my favorite. Such a great game. It can be tough. It has a battle your intentionally supposed to lose and I remember using all my potions and buffs trying to beat Beatrix and come to find out, you can't beat her in the first battle
I often think back to the first time I ever beat FFIX as a kid whenever I replay it, and I was a freaking idiot. I at least knew that Beatrix wasn't beatable, but... Everyone had low level equipment because I wasn't really good at finding better stuff since I never bothered to look, steal, or synth anything. I didn't bother teaching abilities so any they had was by chance, and I'm not even sure if I really knew how they even learned abilities to begin with. I didn't do any sidequests unless I didn't have to go out of my way to find them. And then it took me probably 1400 tries to beat Necron because we were all underleveled and underprepared, and I'm like 99% sure that the time I actually did beat him was a luck-based fluke. It's a lot easier now that I actually know how to play, and also knowing the Grand Dragon method of leveling up makes getting started easier.
Some of us GameStop Employees care about what we take and send out, though we have a lot of customers bring in games with no cases or just the disks and in terrible shape. So the associates that are collectors care as well but we can’t not take something if it doesn’t have the case.
I absolutely loved white knight chronicles, I remember playing the first online with my uncle. Farmed many spiders in the tunnel mission to reincarnate lol
@@leeartlee915 I was still a kid. She noticed I didn't really play a lot of the games I had on the shelves and decided on her own to sell a lot of them. I've gotten my favorites back by now so it's all good. She shouldn't have gone to gamestop though, they barely gave her anything. Like they would give her around one or two dollars for a game and then sell it for 10. I miss GameStop though, they closed all the stores in Sweden some years ago.
pfft thats nothing, when i was moving out as a teen my mum threw away all my retro games and systems, nes, snes, saturn. panzer dragoon saga, and a sealed majoras mask was in all that :( it was all in the wardrobe. i had a complete club nintendo magazine set, spectrum 128k and all sorts...gone forever
I have Legend of the dragoon, and it's definitely worth playing and great replay value as well. That's the first time I've seen the disk art for that game in black and white. I'm on my 3rd playthrough right now
Sucks if you miss a game when ordering from gamestop online. You need to return THE ENTIRE ORDER. If you want to buy the gba, gbc or any other cartridge game and theyre fake (which the employees are not trained to spot fakes), you need to return everything in the box. If you do want to gamble on a cheap price of pokemon red, blue etc. it's not bad, but keep in mind, only order one thing if you plan on keeping anything.
Nice haul, they almost had me in the first half but then the expected GS luck turned back around. Good selection of games either way, I have most of them aside from the ps3/vita/360 titles there. That DoA volley ball game is surprisingly good, and not just because of the fan service, it actually plays well. There's another one on the Vita for anyone interested in checking it out.
So when I worked for them we shipped games out in slips from actual stores, all those games you see would have still be in some stores. The others were warehouse and they basically never have cases and stuff. And they are normally resurfaced because we shipped the worst ones back as defective
What I don't understand is how they get away with the "maybe it's complete, maybe it's not" tripe. Out here in Europe any online shops need to specifically state the condition, flaws (with pics) and whether or not the product is complete or not. This is so weird.
Honestly, I wonder how some people can even get this stuff from GameStop. Every time I see a listing on their site for an old game, they show me the price but then say, "nah, you aren't available for delivery."
Not only does Legend of Dragoon NOT have a case ( which is a travesty and disservice to the greatest game ever made ) you got the colorless discs. The original discs have full color on them. The case and manual were just as legendary as the game. You had to have gotten the greatest hits discs.
Awesome video! I have never ordered new or used games from their online site. I have wanted to so bad but then I watch these type of videos and go wow…. Dodged a bullet haha
I understand being upset not getting new age games complete in box, but did you really think they would have complete in box ps1 games??? Your lucky you got all the disc's
The first half of your comment is understandable, the second half is laughable lmfao. Don't be an idiot and enable Gamestop's shitty behavior, when you order something you shouldn't be considered "lucky" that you received what you ordered.
If you order one game, you are more likely to get a complete or original copy. If you place a big order, you are likely gonna get generic cases or no case so they can fit it all in a single box. Something to consider when placing.
as a gamestop employee when we fulfill these online orders we intentionally give out our no case art copies lol. We try to keep our good stuff for the people who come in. That being said employees will also yoink case art or boxes as long as we replace it with generic case art. That being said, when you’re seeing these old games with no case art either it was yoinked by an employee or it was DISGUSTING! Like i’ve had people trade in the grimiest grossest cases ever!
if your wanting some color on your legend of dragoon discs then you should look into getting a black label copy, thats the set that had stunning colored discs
There's no way all these people come into GameStop just holding discs in their hands to sell them. My guess is GS takes them out of the case and puts them in sleeves and throws away the boxes to save space. They should not be selling games that are missing the cases for the same price as complete copies.
I like how everybody forgets that a lot of people kept their games in CD cases and would just toss the case aside and lose it. The amount of friends I had that did that was outrageous, but it was a popular thing to do.
Theres no other turned based rpg like legends of dragoon, the battle system is basially turned based but everytime you attack its a quick time event and different moves have different times you gotta hit with different speeds and some are very hard to pull off. The english translation is pretty bad but not too bad. Its available on the playstation store for 10 bucks so its super accessible
Those expiration dates may not be real. I put in a ps3 Dragon Age Inquisition code and it was recognized. I dont know if its because i had the PS4 version already though
Hey Matty, fan from the UK here who’s relatively new for about a year. Not sure if this avenue has been explored before on any of your channels but I’d love to see some chill let’s plays in all honesty. Doesn’t even have to be any recent games to chance trends just anything fun! Currently playing P5 and woulda loved listening to one of your simultaneous side by side of you get me. Just a thought 😁🇬🇧
Would it upset people if they knew that I throw out/recycle all my boxes for handheld games? Why would I want my portable games stuck in their packaging? You want those things in a carry case.
How is that GameStops forte by having the disc flop around in the case? The part it snaps in to was intact. That’s clearly a shipping issue, not a packing issue.
If I had a way to show what I just got from GameStop I would and even retro rebound would be happy with it… I managed to score a copy of ff7: dirge of cerberus with the box even though it’s a greatest hits copy it came with a fully colored instruction manual
I love collecting for handheld consoles, it’s become my favourite form of gaming. But yeah collecting for some of them can be a mixed bag in terms of if they’re complete in box or not, like for older systems like the GBA and below I can understand being mostly loose carts because they came in cardboard boxes and those degrade over time, but systems like the ds and the psp it’s frustrating because those come in regular cases but people usually throw them out to have all the games in a pouch so it’s a coin toss if the games come loose or not
Borderlands 2 was a complete miss (to me). The freaking barcode was gashed. So this was a copy given out to someone, either to reviewers or retailers. It's sad to see that, but I also have many games like that since I use to work retail and media lol
before I sold my nintendo collection on ebay, I'm very curious now what they would've offered for... Pokemon Soul Silver Great Condition (with the pokewalker/box complete except, the initial box a little damage bent + the pokewalker missing the clip) aaaand Pokemon White 2, were my most selling of the bunch.. Would I even get $3? $20 if i'm lucky lmao. There's something worse coming than the plague of Gamestop, and that's DRM digital distribution, where you can't even trade/lend/borrow/or sell these games you bought in steam or many places at the capacity you could a physical game. that FF9 looks ridiculous in 4 slips though lol.
i turned in for man juice reaction got non is that a good thing YES!!! FFXI the last big epic psx game diffrent from FFVII but just as good better imo btw the first soul calibur "0" game was called "project soul" as code name in japan soul edge/soul blalde (US/EUROPE) amzing psx game
Isn’t there/shouldn’t there be a price difference with game only vs complete? Like are people seriously paying slightly less than “market prices” to take a gamble if it’s complete?
I think it’s just to test if gamestop improved their quality. Also if he finds a case, booklet or better condition disk, he keeps it and sells the remaining stuff 😆
In case anyone is wondering: the reason the first ones came complete is they were shipped from individual stores (so they are usually as the condition traded in). The reason the second batch were disc only is because they came from the warehouse which regularly throws cases / manuals away (though not always). That’s also why the second batch were shipped in one box.
Don’t games get traded in disc only at stores tho?
@@WinstonWolfe21weird! It would make sense to keep the case if it’s in good condition and store them like that 😅
@@WinstonWolfe21Sometimes but most of the time, no. People trade in what they have… which is usually games with their cases. It’s well known that Gamestop tosses cases to save space. As much as collectors hate it, on a practical level, it makes a lot of sense.
@@leeartlee915 Feels like the only people who'd be buying 20+ year old physical games from them are the Collectors though. Are there really people buying old PS1 and Dreamcast games that don't care about the cases? When theres so many other options to play them through emulation and all now.
@@RyanSaotome Until recently, I would have argued with that conclusion… but that is becoming the case. A line in the sand has been drawn of sorts. Two groups: people who want to own games and people who want to play games. And it’s not like those two groups can’t have some overlap but it’s becoming more and more that people favor one side or the other. As someone who’s been gaming for over 35 years, I come from a time where if you wanted to play a game, you had to own said game. But like you said, with there being so many more (viable) options, I care less and less about even owning a game. That’s why there are a few of us that are fine with owning a game that simply works. Doesn’t have a manual? Don’t care. Wasn’t gonna read it anyways. Case is cracked? Meh, as long as the disc is fine. Didn’t even come with a case? That’s cool, I’ll find another home for it.
It’s really an odd time. The idea of a “collector” was known 20+ years ago but they were on the fringe. Now they are legion. And I’d be lying if I said that the growth of “shelf collectors” has made me shy away from owning physical games didn’t make me walk away from it. I still buy physical Switch games though. It’s the last system where games are actually on the piece of media you buy… sometimes.
You really had me in the first half. I actually thought for a moment that maybe Gamestop was getting better, but sure enough when we get to the rest... it's rough.
Yeah despite the crazy increase in popularity and demand for physical games and it's stock prices going brrr (I even managed to make a few hundreds off of it even AFTER buying in late) they never did anything with the raised platform they ended up having, except for fucking with NFTs of course.
They also let me down the few times I ordered games afterwards (Pokemon Snap, came 2 days late even though I pre ordered for on release day AND I didn't get my pre order bonus cause they ran out). A fucking shame really but at this point they can die on the hill with all their bag holders 😂
@@jackatlus666wish you people would stop putting the word crazy in every god damn sentence that doesn't need it
Bleep GameStop Mom and Pop Shop's ftw
@@perrycoffey5410that’s crazy
@@perrycoffey5410 womp womp that's crazy my man just absolutely crazy
Dude, these kind of videos just remind me of why I love collecting video games. Please keep em coming and a prosperous 2024 to you!
I have all my old Ps2 & PS3 stuff but this is making me want to collect stuff I don’t already have.
Has he ever interviewed former GS employees on this?
Back in college, I use to be a Keyholder at Gamestop for years and I remember what it was like when these online orders came in. The price stickers on the box usually indicate that the order(s) was fulfilled from an actual store employee and not a warehouse.
Usually, store employees at my district were nice and we tried to ship our nicest boxes as possible for online orders since we didn’t want crappy packaging and poor disc conditions to be the impression customers got from us!
The “R” stickers (non priced stickers) normally indicate that it came from a warehouse instead. I hated getting those copies in during inventory shipments because discs usually get sent to GS Warehouses for being “damaged” or “defective”. There’s where they “clean” the discs and ship back out with those “R” stickers (aka Refurbished). You can tell they were “cleaned” when the inner rings are green clear colored or have a rigged inner ring like that Dreamcast game you got.
TLDR; When shopping at GameStop, look for game boxes that have PRICED stickers and not the warehouse “R” stickers! “R” stickers means it’s from a refurbished warehouse due to damaged, broken or poor condition.
This is true. I also worked for GameStop back in the day as a closer at Night. I hated closing, but whatever. Anyway - as a reminder to folks anytime these types of videos are released: Its fine to disagree or dislike a company, but its NEVER okay to harass or bother regular employees. Trust me, they have no say or control and are just trying to earn a paycheck. Remember, real life isnt UA-cam videos.
How does one tell through the website if they're getting a refurbished game? I've infrequently bought via the website and only once got a game with display boxart in a basic case, so I'm curious.
@@Elvisbackpack when you're buying on the website, always select "pre-owned" not refurbished. you're more likely to get one that way, but it's usually better to go in store to check
This just awakened something in me. I totally 100% played through both white knight chronicles games back in the day and had completely wiped them from my memory.
Did my first ever online GameStop order a week back and my shipment got split in 2. I’ll update when I get the second package but the first arrived today. (Update: the second package arrived 2 days later. Details below)
I got 5 games total:
Uncharted Golden Abyss for Vita
Mortal Kombat 9 for the Vita
Override Mech City Brawl for PS4
Harry Potter Deathly Hallows 1&2 for PS3.
Package 1 came with the last 3 and all were in original cases, with Manuals! I was ecstatic, but HPDH2 was actually the European version! I was beyond disappointed cause it was so close to perfect for the first package. I’m waiting for the second package now with the Vita games.
2 days later: The second package arrived. It was light weight. I immediately felt my anticipation sink when I opened the mailer and felt the shape of a GameStop plastic cartridge case. None of the Vita were boxed.
Overall 3 CIB out of 5, 1 non American game out of 5 ordered, and both Vita games came cartridge only. I wouldn’t say disappointed but more unimpressed. Either way I’ll probably come back if something else catches my eye on GameStop’s site.
And that's why I love these videos. It's such a huge gamble on how the experience will be and I can actually feel Matty's joy/pain with each game he pulls out.
I never buy anything from Gamestop's online presence, not even newer stuff. When they don't have something in the warehouse, they check the inventory of the physical stores, and have a location ship the game. You could buy a brand new game off of the site, and get a store's "last copy".
Going into an actual store, I can see what it is I'm buying, and walk away from a sale if need be. Can't do this with older games, but that's what the many retro game stores in my area are for.
I see the online and physical stores as two very different entities when it comes to getting what you want. Online is a gamble, while you can control what you get going into one of the stores.
Oh the disc art for Legend of Dragoon is normally in color (and freaking beautiful). When it went Greatest Hits, they switch to the cheaper to make monochrome design.
I've got a story, so, I'm sorry if this turns into too long of a comment. On one hand, I feel like, getting loose disc games CAN BE fun and nostalgic, one of those "this takes me back to the late 90s / early 2000s when my whole family and friends would set aside original cases and keep all the discs in binder / zipper cases, etc.", and I do still have binders with a few of my childhood games, whether if they still work or not, etc. But, on the other hand, so just this last year in 2023, back in July to September, I finally got around to acquiring Skeleton Warriors for PS1; I went to my local retro game store and came across the loose disc, and I bought it, because $5 seemed like a decent deal to me. I then went on to eBay, to see if I even COULD find the front and back covers, because sometimes empty cases can be offloaded or listed in places (I can't tell you how many times I ran across empty game cases in thrift stores, etc.), and that's when I realized that, the long box disc AND the standard jewel case disc, each have different color labels. So, I bought a long box copy (since it WAS originally on my "want list"), and I DID manage to find just the back cover artwork for the standard jewel release of the game (that's the disc I found in my local retro game store), so... I now have two copies of the game, 1 original long box complete, and one semi-complete standard jewel release. I keep checking back periodically on eBay for JUST the booklet / cover of the standard jewel release of the game, but still nothing even now into 2024 so far. But man, I feel your pain on getting just loose discs of games where anyone would want them complete.
I used to be a key holder and I can explain the wild differences. Each store has different managers who like to take boxes and others who just want games . Like my old store leader would never keep DS, 3DS or vita boxes and they would get these horrible clear clamshells. But when our new store leader came in he wanted all original stuff because he collected . The other variance is where the boxes come from even though you order online most of the product are shipped from actual stores not the warehouse . Hope this helps with the quality being all over the place
I used to work at EB/early GameStop and now that you mention it our stores would take in (obviously stolen) new release games with no cases. We were told to. 🙃 we had the same things-
One DM said no- Throw boxes away.
The other said “why is anyone going to spend slightly less for something that’s missing case/box or manual. I’ll pay more for new. And if I will, so will the customers.
@@FranticPixel that’s been gamestops whole issue, it is never consistent. When they would find something that was working they would get rid of it and expect the staff to still do well
@@Artsensei86 oh I know I used to work there. The thing is when I work there we were told to take all of our retro games and put them in the compactor so they may or may not have been saved by other employees but we didn’t have any retro games when I worked there so I wasn’t sure
I don’t know if it’s just me but, GameStop has been awesome for the 20+ years I’ve been a Pro Member. I stopped trading in my games along time ago but besides that, they’ve done right by me over the years. They messed up my online orders a few times but immediately fixed it. I ordered MK for the Genesis and it came complete with the original receipt! They sent me wrong game, then sent me right game and I was able to keep both. I hope they never go away.
Fun fact: they don't train employees to look for fakes. Buddy of mine traded in a fake copy of FireRed for $20 (despite them selling it for like 100 🙃).
As someone who works at a game store, I can definitely tell you that even if you do tell people that they can get more money for their game somewhere else they still sell it anyway because a lot of the people selling these old games are actually old people cleaning out their kids stuff. They don’t care about the value of it all they care about is that it’s gone. lol
that plus they get rid of it then and there rather than making a process out of the whole ordeal to make listings, keep track of it, pack it up, ship it out, etc. all takes time and energy which people often times overlook .
@@thanksgivingh6185Yeah, people often forget the whole packaging up, and shipping process. Then there’s the wait of the item actually selling, the wait for it to be delivered, then waiting on the buyer to rate. That’s why people like to sell stuff quick and easy, even if it means less money
That’s the best thing about GameStop is they don’t sell really old video games they sell what doesn’t suck and is still worth playing you wouldn’t find Atari 2600 games or Sega Genesis Super Nintendo games
Something that would explain this caseless phenomenon (since it happens frequently when you buy directly from the owner too, and isn't 100% a Gamestop thing to throw out cases): The kind of people who sell or bulk trade in their games once they're old or they grow bored of them instead of holding onto them for collections, replay, or nostalgia purposes are the same kind of people who throw the cases away and then keep the discs in 90s style bulk CD cases. It was way more common to do back before gaming became a huge powerhouse media empire, because most people were buying them for their kids, who would destroy or lose cases all the time. You're more likely to find a case on a newer game than a platformer that was on the PS1 since those kids that played video games grew up into adults who play games and take better care of them.
Handhelds are also less likely because they're meant to be used on the go, so cases would get thrown out and the games stay in the case with the console. You'd be extremely lucky to find a Gameboy cart with a case, because those were made of flimsy cardboard and were the most likely to be destroyed or tossed, to the point some guy once made a small fortune just selling intact boxes and manuals for his old Pokemon games. Even I do this. All my Switch games are in my Switch case for portability reasons, though I did hold onto the boxes for display.
Almost none of my PS1 games have cases because my youngest sister destroyed them all. The only ones that survived were all the horror games plus Final Fantasy IX, because I really liked those games and still replay them all the time and I refused to let her touch them. Everything else is in a generic case my dad used to keep old PC game discs in.
I used to own Legend of Dragoon, it was my favorite PSX game of all time. Not the B&W "Greatest Hits" discs, either... I had a first-run copy with full-color disc art.
A buddy of mine stole it and pawned it to buy cigarettes.
He wasn't my buddy anymore after that.
But as for the game itself... it's a classic. And no spoilers, but... *_They did my boy Lavitz dirty!_*
Lol Sorry about your buddy, it pretty much happen to all our friends when they betray you, but yeah Lavitz was my favorite character in the game, I almost gave up the game because of him but I remember I need to finish the game so that I can move on away from this game.
F in chat for lavitz, he was a real one
Lod is an all time great, have the cib in English and Japanese and have dart tattooed on me
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
Amen
It’s honestly baffling that GameStop doesn’t have a way to tell the buyer whether or not the title has an original case. Hell, way smaller businesses manage to incorporate that detail into their sites. The only way I can see justifying their reason for not having one, is the reason of inventory. They probably realize that, if it is disc only, chances of selling that item drastically dip. Ignoring it, allows them to sell titles with equal chances and some poor sap gets stuck with a caseless disc.
Seriously, you HAVE to play Legend of Dragoon! Yes, it's THAT good. I honestly recommend the remastered version on PS5 if you can, it was super rough on release, but it was patched and it's working pretty well now.
Pretty much why I dont buy used games from Gamestop, you never know what you are going to get. If they could guarantee cases and manuals then it would be a different story.
FF9 is insanely well-balanced, you just need to pay attention to the stiltskin tutorials about ability learning early on. The reason it was delegated to a Moogle and optional was direct changes made to FF8 long tutorial complaints.
I once heard a bunch of people talking about how surprisingly difficult Final Fantasy IX is, and aside from a few enemies and boss fights, I've never really thought it was a difficult game. I've always wondered if it's a skill issue from not really understanding some of the mechanics, or if I'm just insanely overleveled because of my habit of spending sometimes weeks on end just training abilities and level grinding, because I find repetitive tasks like that oddly soothing.
I love these videos! Idk why but seeing the GameStop roulette always makes me laugh, please put more in, also sorry about Sonic
What would be the solution to all these loose games? i mean people trade them in that way - should they do what Lukie Games does pay less for loose and more for complete?
This is what they should do
For me it makes sense, the original condition is not kept so it’s worth less😅
The Tekken game reminded me of the fine charity shop find I got last year. I found Tekken 1's cassette for PS1, but the disk was missing. So I got to pick my own price as an apology, because otherwise they'd chuck it out. So I said 50 cent. Because it still had the manual in it, which I immediately discovered for $11 on eBay. I also got Crash Bandicoot's PS1 manual and cassette for the same price. Excellent thing for my retro collection.
Legend of Dragoon is one of my all-time faves. I still have my copy, but I have to see if I still my case. When I found it last, it was in a CD holder case. This definitely needs a remaster at least.
Legend of Dragoon remaster would be the reason I get a PS5
Not a "Remaster", but it did get a full release on PS4/5
@@kainhighwind2 I have a PS5 so I'll have to check it out there.
I'm so glad my days as a GS employee were pre-online sales. Sounds like a nightmare.
i'm always amused and baffled watching these videos because the gamestop equivalents here in the UK (CEX and GAME) won't take incomplete games for trade in (missing manuals are fine but they have to have their original cases and covers) and iirc GAME don't even accept anything older than xbox one/ps4/switch for trade in anymore. CEX does take unboxed versions of older systems like N64, Dreamcast etc. but they have unboxed vs boxed listed separately on their sites and the unboxed is cheaper. managed to snag a few PS1 games from them as well in good condition too as the Platinum versions tend to go a lot cheaper than the og black box copies.
That Legend of Dragoon you got is a Greatest Hits version. That's why it has no color. All GH PS1 discs lack color. The reg Legend of Dragoon discs look beautiful!
Yes, I have the original. It looks great!
I worked for gamestop as an ASL. We were told to ship stuff that we couldnt move as long as it had a similar name. You'd be surprised what district managers would have you do. Dont have a box, just ship the disc so its not in the system anymore. His reasoning was that it more than likely wouldnt make its way back into our stores since we are in a smaller low income district.
Legend of dragoon is one of the best RPG games of all time. Imo it's better than any final fantasy game. It got heavily overshadowed by final fantasy though and faded into obscurity despite deserving to be a massive franchise itself
FF IX is also my favorite. Such a great game. It can be tough. It has a battle your intentionally supposed to lose and I remember using all my potions and buffs trying to beat Beatrix and come to find out, you can't beat her in the first battle
I often think back to the first time I ever beat FFIX as a kid whenever I replay it, and I was a freaking idiot. I at least knew that Beatrix wasn't beatable, but...
Everyone had low level equipment because I wasn't really good at finding better stuff since I never bothered to look, steal, or synth anything. I didn't bother teaching abilities so any they had was by chance, and I'm not even sure if I really knew how they even learned abilities to begin with. I didn't do any sidequests unless I didn't have to go out of my way to find them. And then it took me probably 1400 tries to beat Necron because we were all underleveled and underprepared, and I'm like 99% sure that the time I actually did beat him was a luck-based fluke.
It's a lot easier now that I actually know how to play, and also knowing the Grand Dragon method of leveling up makes getting started easier.
@7:35 when the sticker peels off without leaving behind residue… satisfying
Pure ecstasy
A true man of gaming culture 🤝
if it doesnt use a very small amount of goo gone.
Some of us GameStop Employees care about what we take and send out, though we have a lot of customers bring in games with no cases or just the disks and in terrible shape. So the associates that are collectors care as well but we can’t not take something if it doesn’t have the case.
I absolutely loved white knight chronicles, I remember playing the first online with my uncle. Farmed many spiders in the tunnel mission to reincarnate lol
One of the worst things to ever happen to me is my mom selling alot of my original xbox games and 360 games to gamestop in 2012 lol
Why did she do that? Weren’t they your games?
Yes that one would hurt 🤕
@@leeartlee915 I was still a kid. She noticed I didn't really play a lot of the games I had on the shelves and decided on her own to sell a lot of them. I've gotten my favorites back by now so it's all good. She shouldn't have gone to gamestop though, they barely gave her anything. Like they would give her around one or two dollars for a game and then sell it for 10.
I miss GameStop though, they closed all the stores in Sweden some years ago.
pfft thats nothing, when i was moving out as a teen my mum threw away all my retro games and systems, nes, snes, saturn. panzer dragoon saga, and a sealed majoras mask was in all that :( it was all in the wardrobe. i had a complete club nintendo magazine set, spectrum 128k and all sorts...gone forever
@@Busterwoolf Threw them out? As in into the bin? Did she not know what was inside? Did she not care?
I have Legend of the dragoon, and it's definitely worth playing and great replay value as well. That's the first time I've seen the disk art for that game in black and white. I'm on my 3rd playthrough right now
Sucks if you miss a game when ordering from gamestop online. You need to return THE ENTIRE ORDER. If you want to buy the gba, gbc or any other cartridge game and theyre fake (which the employees are not trained to spot fakes), you need to return everything in the box.
If you do want to gamble on a cheap price of pokemon red, blue etc. it's not bad, but keep in mind, only order one thing if you plan on keeping anything.
Nice haul, they almost had me in the first half but then the expected GS luck turned back around. Good selection of games either way, I have most of them aside from the ps3/vita/360 titles there. That DoA volley ball game is surprisingly good, and not just because of the fan service, it actually plays well. There's another one on the Vita for anyone interested in checking it out.
White knight chronicles is so good. Me and my bro would farm the boss called Big Red
Have you ever wanted to collect sega Saturn games?
I love collecting them (especially the Japanese versions!)
The secret about Legend of Dragoons is the perfect mix between a JRPG and power-ups à la Dragon Ball Z
So when I worked for them we shipped games out in slips from actual stores, all those games you see would have still be in some stores. The others were warehouse and they basically never have cases and stuff. And they are normally resurfaced because we shipped the worst ones back as defective
Cant wait for more Retrospectives this year. Prob the most underrated one I'm waiting for is Parasite Eve
Here in Norway there is no gamestop anymore, they shut all the stores in Northern Europe down some years ago😢. Have a happy 2024, dude!
What I don't understand is how they get away with the "maybe it's complete, maybe it's not" tripe. Out here in Europe any online shops need to specifically state the condition, flaws (with pics) and whether or not the product is complete or not. This is so weird.
Honestly, I wonder how some people can even get this stuff from GameStop. Every time I see a listing on their site for an old game, they show me the price but then say, "nah, you aren't available for delivery."
I sometimes wonder why its on the store page in the first place. its so misleading
@@krushingproductions4725 Agreed. I've never been so teased with Bushido Blade (PS1) in my life
Not only does Legend of Dragoon NOT have a case ( which is a travesty and disservice to the greatest game ever made ) you got the colorless discs. The original discs have full color on them. The case and manual were just as legendary as the game. You had to have gotten the greatest hits discs.
Awesome video! I have never ordered new or used games from their online site. I have wanted to so bad but then I watch these type of videos and go wow…. Dodged a bullet haha
Black ops declassified is cool but i remember being so disapointed as a kid thinking it was just mobile black ops 1
I understand being upset not getting new age games complete in box, but did you really think they would have complete in box ps1 games??? Your lucky you got all the disc's
The first half of your comment is understandable, the second half is laughable lmfao. Don't be an idiot and enable Gamestop's shitty behavior, when you order something you shouldn't be considered "lucky" that you received what you ordered.
love the dark knight Joker theme when GameStop shaft you haha -
Love your content man, ive been watching since the fallout skits🔥
hm, this is going a little too well for Matty. *hears him go "oh no" at **2:38* Ah, there it is.
I was randomly watching the older videos today and we have a new one lets goooo!
Another absolute banger! Love to see it, Matty!
I LOVE THIS SERIES thank you Matty boy
His name is retro rebound!
My favourite part is when they forgot to ship the most expensive game your ordered.
GameStop doesn't disappoint in this series
If you order one game, you are more likely to get a complete or original copy. If you place a big order, you are likely gonna get generic cases or no case so they can fit it all in a single box. Something to consider when placing.
as a gamestop employee when we fulfill these online orders we intentionally give out our no case art copies lol. We try to keep our good stuff for the people who come in. That being said employees will also yoink case art or boxes as long as we replace it with generic case art. That being said, when you’re seeing these old games with no case art either it was yoinked by an employee or it was DISGUSTING! Like i’ve had people trade in the grimiest grossest cases ever!
if your wanting some color on your legend of dragoon discs then you should look into getting a black label copy, thats the set that had stunning colored discs
i remember the day i saw the dead or alive ad on a magazine and i was so intrigued as a kid lmaooo
I overheard GameStop employees in December 2023 & they said all trade in prices will be even lower than before. Rip
There's no way all these people come into GameStop just holding discs in their hands to sell them. My guess is GS takes them out of the case and puts them in sleeves and throws away the boxes to save space. They should not be selling games that are missing the cases for the same price as complete copies.
I like how everybody forgets that a lot of people kept their games in CD cases and would just toss the case aside and lose it. The amount of friends I had that did that was outrageous, but it was a popular thing to do.
yea I never understood why that was so popular back then. I liked having the jewel case art to look at.
Theres no other turned based rpg like legends of dragoon, the battle system is basially turned based but everytime you attack its a quick time event and different moves have different times you gotta hit with different speeds and some are very hard to pull off. The english translation is pretty bad but not too bad. Its available on the playstation store for 10 bucks so its super accessible
White knight chronicles didn’t disappoint it just didn’t sell as much as Sony wanted them to and the third game got cancelled
Mattys gonna have to start ordering with an alias, they’ve caught on to you 🤣
I buy a lot of pre-owned games from gamestop but only in-store so I know what I'm getting 😅
When you got Tekken on Ps3 it reminded me of how stoked I am for Tekken 8 this month
I just have one question for you...where did you get your Majin necklace? That is freaking awesome!
I feel anyone selling to Gamestop absolutely does not know better lol.
The sonic advance games are a must on Dreamcast, also try evolution. It’s a good rpg.
Those expiration dates may not be real. I put in a ps3 Dragon Age Inquisition code and it was recognized. I dont know if its because i had the PS4 version already though
What do you do about the missing game? Did it ever come in?😊
Yeah…unfortunately sometimes when people trade in games. They had them in a cd holder or just plastic bags to “save space” and they toss the cases 😓.
Hey Matty, fan from the UK here who’s relatively new for about a year. Not sure if this avenue has been explored before on any of your channels but I’d love to see some chill let’s plays in all honesty. Doesn’t even have to be any recent games to chance trends just anything fun! Currently playing P5 and woulda loved listening to one of your simultaneous side by side of you get me. Just a thought 😁🇬🇧
His name is Retro Rebound*
Would it upset people if they knew that I throw out/recycle all my boxes for handheld games? Why would I want my portable games stuck in their packaging? You want those things in a carry case.
How is that GameStops forte by having the disc flop around in the case? The part it snaps in to was intact. That’s clearly a shipping issue, not a packing issue.
Just realized that the video where he shows off his game collection is now obsolete 😂 also great video
You made a lot of money with ducktales remastered! Sells for around 75/100€ in Europe 🙏🏼
If I had a way to show what I just got from GameStop I would and even retro rebound would be happy with it…
I managed to score a copy of ff7: dirge of cerberus with the box even though it’s a greatest hits copy it came with a fully colored instruction manual
I love collecting for handheld consoles, it’s become my favourite form of gaming. But yeah collecting for some of them can be a mixed bag in terms of if they’re complete in box or not, like for older systems like the GBA and below I can understand being mostly loose carts because they came in cardboard boxes and those degrade over time, but systems like the ds and the psp it’s frustrating because those come in regular cases but people usually throw them out to have all the games in a pouch so it’s a coin toss if the games come loose or not
Borderlands 2 was a complete miss (to me). The freaking barcode was gashed. So this was a copy given out to someone, either to reviewers or retailers. It's sad to see that, but I also have many games like that since I use to work retail and media lol
Borderland 2 on Vita runs OK if you mod your Vita and overclock it. Still, not the best way to play though but it's waaaay more bearable
before I sold my nintendo collection on ebay, I'm very curious now what they would've offered for... Pokemon Soul Silver Great Condition (with the pokewalker/box complete except, the initial box a little damage bent + the pokewalker missing the clip) aaaand Pokemon White 2, were my most selling of the bunch.. Would I even get $3? $20 if i'm lucky lmao.
There's something worse coming than the plague of Gamestop, and that's DRM digital distribution, where you can't even trade/lend/borrow/or sell these games you bought in steam or many places at the capacity you could a physical game.
that FF9 looks ridiculous in 4 slips though lol.
@3:00 this is the part where I could just tell that Matt really likes Tekken.
The weeb in me was jumping at screaming when I recognized that Marty used music from jujutsu Kaisen at around 3:05
The way gamestop packs their games in the black cases and brown sleeves should be considered criminal
12:16 I knew people who would put their games in those car CD holders and throw out the case immediately
Did you check the sleeve for soul caliber to see maybe if sonic adventure may have been packaged in the same sleeve as soul caliber?
Whenever I order games from our gameshop, it show's the actual picture of the box and game disc.
Box came from the disc only warehouse, I guess...
i turned in for man juice reaction got non is that a good thing YES!!! FFXI the last big epic psx game diffrent from FFVII but just as good better imo btw the first soul calibur "0" game was called "project soul" as code name in japan soul edge/soul blalde (US/EUROPE) amzing psx game
Isn’t there/shouldn’t there be a price difference with game only vs complete? Like are people seriously paying slightly less than “market prices” to take a gamble if it’s complete?
Dude, Matty, just invest in a cd carrying case. You’ll be fine.
Why would you buy Final Fantasy IX again if you already own it?
Why are you worried about how another man spends his money?... if he buys 500 copies it none of your business
I think it’s just to test if gamestop improved their quality. Also if he finds a case, booklet or better condition disk, he keeps it and sells the remaining stuff 😆
GameStop. The Store that never stops giving crap!
PSA there is no multiplayer community for Killzone Mercenary on Vita. Servers have shut down last summer.
How do you order retro games from GameStop? I mean I know you can walk in and see the inventory but I’ve never saw any old games online.