Over the vacation season, we’re republishing among the greatest articles from Nintendo Life writers and contributors as a part of our Better of 2024 collection. Get pleasure from!

Soapbox options allow our particular person writers and contributors to voice their opinions on sizzling matters and random stuff they have been chewing over. In the present day, Ollie displays on simply among the eventful episodes from his days working in online game retail…

When information hit that GAME, the UK’s final remaining online game retailer (not counting the various great unbiased shops left standing), could be bringing an finish to trade-ins and pre-owned merchandise from sixteenth February 2024, I felt a potent mixture of ideas and feelings.

On one hand, I couldn’t fairly comprehend why the agency would come to such a call; I labored there for the very best a part of a decade, and three key initiatives have been persistently promoted to each employees and prospects: reward playing cards, pre-orders, and trade-ins. For the latter, 100% of the cash made out of pre-owned gross sales went straight into GAME’s pockets, whereas new video games would yield a relatively a lot smaller revenue. You would see why the agency wished to push trade-ins.

However on the flip facet, when you think about the quickly rising reputation of digital video games along side GAME’s determination to show the overwhelming majority of its standalone retail areas into Sports activities Direct concession shops, it does make sense that the corporate would wish to carry an finish to trade-ins. In response to GAME’s filings for the 12 months as much as April twenty ninth, 2023, the gross transactional worth (GTV – full retail worth excluding VAT, financial savings schemes, and writer deductions) for pre-owned merchandise totalled 16,478. That is down from 25,894 over the identical interval the earlier yr, so there’s no denying that the demand for trade-ins and pre-owned merchandise is lowering quickly.

With all that stated, I’ll miss trade-ins when the observe ultimately goes the best way of the dodo within the coming months. As a buyer, it’s a good way to knock a bit of cash off new releases by getting rid of some older titles, and to select up secondhand bargains for older video games.

As an ex-employee, nevertheless, coping with trade-ins for ten years (give or take) has resulted in a bevy of recollections each good and dangerous, and I’d prefer to share only a few of them with you, expensive reader.

So make yourselves comfy as we make a journey into the not-too-distant previous and see simply what GAME workers have needed to put up with…

That One Time We Had *All* The Skylanders

Keep in mind Skylanders? Oh boy, I certain do. I’ve virtually had nightmares about them. As somebody who was by no means significantly into the entire toys-to-life style (I hardly ever even purchase amiibo except it is for a collection that I’m actually eager on), I wasn’t actually clued up on the characters past that completely botched model of Spyro.

Disney Infinity wasn’t so dangerous as a result of I immediately recognised a variety of characters. However with Skylanders, I’m really sorry, however I couldn’t inform you the distinction between Boomer, Chill, Countdown, Cynder, or any of them, and I frankly wasn’t paid sufficient to swot up. This wasn’t a difficulty for probably the most half: folks would decide what they wished from the cabinets, make the transaction, and be on their approach. The issues arose when of us wished to commerce them in.

It doesn’t matter what it was — whether or not a bunch of handheld consoles, equipment, video games, or figures — when a buyer got here strolling into the shop hauling a big cardboard field with an expectant grin on their face, my coronary heart sank. 99% of the time, it meant that they had a heap of fine details to commerce and I must drop no matter I used to be doing and spend the subsequent hour sorting all of it out.

Throughout the peak of the toys-to-life craze, a lady got here into the shop together with her two sons, and all three have been carrying large packing containers. I believed they’d be stuffed with video games, which might have been high quality, however once they acquired to the counter and opened them, Skylanders. Three packing containers full to the brim with Skylanders.

Our stock course of for this was to seek the advice of a binder that contained a full record of each Skylander, together with their names, their until code, and a small, barely blurry picture of the determine. I spent the higher a part of three hours grabbing one determine at a time, fastidiously consulting the binder to match the determine with its blurry picture, inputting the code, and shifting on to the subsequent one. And the worst half? The poor lady and her sons stayed within the retailer all the time and when it got here to tallying up, I don’t suppose we even broke £50. I felt horrible understanding that we have been providing a fraction of what she’d get on eBay, however she didn’t care. Truthful sufficient, then.

By the tip of the day, I used to be able to launch the figures into the ocean. There aren’t many cases the place I’m glad to see a recreation collection finish, but when Skylanders ever comes again, I’m off to Mars.

That One Time I Acquired Attacked

For a decade, I met many, many attention-grabbing characters working at GAME. Fortunately, the overwhelming majority of them have been pleasant, nice individuals who I used to be honoured to serve. The remaining have been both impolite, dismissive, indignant, deceitful, or violent. Properly… There’s solely been one really violent buyer.

Throughout my time at GAME, we not solely handled video video games, {hardware}, and equipment but additionally secondhand cell gadgets. We have been making an attempt to muscle in on CEX’s territory and, to be honest, we didn’t do a foul job at it. We stocked vary of mobiles, and we have been meticulous when it got here to making sure they have been of fine, saleable high quality.

One afternoon, I used to be taking my lunch within the upstairs workplace when a colleague got here as much as inform me {that a} buyer had wished to carry his cell in and wasn’t dealing with the rejection very effectively because of the gadget’s lack of high quality. I used to be a Senior Gross sales Assistant so I used to be often left answerable for the shop. As such, whether or not we took this cellphone in was finally all the way down to me.

I adopted my colleague downstairs and glanced on the buyer and the cellphone in query. It was a Blackberry (gosh, keep in mind these?) and it was in horrible situation. The SIM card tray was battered past restore, the display was scratched to hell, and there was no charger or accompanying field. Naturally, I stated, ‘No.’

After a little bit of forwards and backwards with the shopper, I put my foot down and stated, “I’m sorry, however there’s no approach we’re taking this cellphone.” Instantly, he launched right into a rage, making an attempt to seize me over-the-counter, lacking, and continuing to select up no matter he may discover to hurl at me, all of the whereas shouting expletives. Ultimately, he picked up a very heavy charity field and aimed for my head. I raised my arm to dam my face and the field caught my elbow, leading to a nasty reduce. The client lumbered out of the shop, working his fingers throughout the cabinets to knock off as a lot as he may on his approach.

We known as the police, showcased the CCTV footage, and that was that. I didn’t want any medical consideration, however I used to be fairly shaken up. The man had the gall to come back again days later to take a look at our cell phone inventory! He was quickly arrested and went to jail.

That One Time These Numerous Occasions I Refused Scratched 360 Discs

Ah, the beloved Xbox 360. It was such an excellent console, however my goodness, did it have some issues. The one that everybody is kind of conscious of is the ‘Pink Ring of Demise’; a fault wherein three of the crimson lights encircling the ability button would gentle up signifying Basic {Hardware} Failure.

Much less notorious, nevertheless, was the 360’s different problem, which needed to do with the console being moved whereas it was turned on (and typically even when it was stationary); the equipment inside may reduce an ideal round scratch into the spinning disc, typically rendering it utterly unsalvageable.

That didn’t cease folks making an attempt to commerce them in, although. All of the bloody time. It was at all times dad and mom, too, who would herald Little Timmy’s recreation assortment and apparently weren’t made conscious that they have been largely ineffective. So, in fact, they’d argue, despite the fact that the proof was staring them proper within the face. “We have been advised all of them work high quality.” Properly sure, I’m certain an eight-year-old seeking to get a brand new recreation is being utterly trustworthy, proper?

We did have a little bit machine that may buff up scratched recreation discs, and it typically labored wonders, however whenever you’ve acquired a type of round scratches from the 360, just about nothing’s going to resolve it. Hmm… Possibly Microsoft ought to go all-digital, in any case?

Nah.

That One Time I Acquired A GBA SP For Free

Along with common prospects seeking to commerce of their private belongings, we might typically get homeowners of unbiased recreation shops coming in to shore off a few of their inventory through trade-in. It was a superbly reliable approach for them to eliminate video games or equipment that weren’t shifting and swap them for merchandise that they may promote. So I used to be at all times pleased to assist out.

One chap got here in fairly regularly — a lot in order that his daughter wound up getting a job on the retailer and proved to be some of the environment friendly group members — and we constructed up fairly a friendship through the years, proper up till my GAME department closed in 2017. He’d typically are available in with packing containers to commerce, but it surely was by no means a problem; he was at all times on prime of what they need to be price, so I by no means felt our time was being wasted.

Sooner or later, he got here into the shop within the run-up to Christmas and easily handed me a Recreation Boy Advance SP in excellent situation with an accompanying charger.

“You recognize we do not take these for trade-in anymore, proper?” I requested.

“I do know. It is yours,” he stated. He knew that having removed my GBA a few years prior, I had at all times wished to get one other one. As a thanks for coping with him for therefore lengthy, he took a near-mint SP from his personal inventory and gifted it to me, no questions requested. I wasn’t fairly certain what to say. I do know the consoles weren’t price a substantial amount of cash — no less than they weren’t on the time! — however for him to keep in mind that I wished one within the first place was sufficient to almost carry a tear to my eye. I am going to always remember him, and I hope his personal retailer is flourishing.

In order that’s it! Hopefully, you’ve got had as a lot enjoyable studying these tales as I had writing about them. It has been a good few years since I labored at GAME and it is secure to say that the corporate has modified fairly a bit within the time since. Regardless of its points, I am going to at all times keep in mind my time there fondly — the ups, the downs, the laughs, the frustrations.

Largely, I am going to keep in mind my colleagues, although; of us who, regardless of what the web might need you consider, liked video video games by and thru. Even when they could not identify all of the Skylanders.