Game Trade Frustration

Yesterday, I went to Best Buy to trade in some games and pick up DC Universe Online and Little Big Planet 2. The closest Best Buy, which is less than a mile from my office, does not participate in the used game program so I had to drive 20 miles down the road to a different store. I usually try to avoid that store because it's right on the Massachusetts border, so the roads and parking lots are always clogged with Mass residents trying to save a buck or two on sales tax. I got lucky with a parking space behind the building, grabbed my bag o' games and went inside.

I had five games, all at least a year old, so I wasn't expecting a whole lot. The biggest values were Forza 3 and Aliens vs. Predator at $15 each. All in all, the five games were worth $52 - I probably would have fared better on eBay but between that and $25 worth of Reward Zone points I was still saving a good amount of cash on the games I wanted. After standing there for 20 minutes or so, the BB employee asked for my license so he could put my info into the system.

The system was down, though. Not entirely down - it let the employee do everything up to clicking the button to wrap up the transaction and issue my store credit. But once he went to finalize the whole thing he got an error and tried again. And again. No go. I asked to speak to a manager (not sure why, since I knew they wouldn't be able to do shit for me). Per the manager's direction, the employee called the help desk who wasn't much help - they entered a ticket and said it would be handled within 48 hours.

I prefer Best Buy because of the Reward Zone program but I had heard that Gamestop offered better trade in deals on used games, so I grabbed my five games and dealt with more Massholes on my way down the road to the mall. For the same five games (remember: $52 at Best Buy) they offered $25. Most of the games were worth a quarter of what Best Buy was offering.

At this point I was frustrated by wasting what was now well over an hour, and my son was upset because he really wanted LBP2. On the way home I had to drive past Best Buy so I left my wife in the car in the fire lane (wasn't about to hunt for parking again) and grabbed LBP2 for him with my Reward Zone points.

I can't say I was entirely pissed, as Little Big Planet 2 is one hell of a good game and something my son and I can play together. I will probably try Best Buy again tomorrow (a different store, though, preferably upstate and away from the shithole called Nashua). Either way it will still be a couple of days before I can get into DCUO.