The Ebay/Gamestop/Craiglist/Amazon/Goodwill/etc rant thread

[FireHazard51 | 2,043]

1 hour ago, RegularGuyGamer said:

Just had one of these cases on eBay get closed w.o a refund even though I had video footage showing no delivery was made during the time frame UPS claimed. They didn't even watch an instant of the video I sent. Just said in 2 separate appeals, tracking shows delivered

My case had other problems/red flags.  I bought a used graphic card that had multiple issues and didn't resolve around the camera alone.

• Tracking showed deliver time that camera didn't  confirm
• Box weight weight 5lbs yet retail box is only 1lb
• Tracking stated delivery to a loading dock, not a front door or porch
• Tracking started in Chicago and ended in Cincinnati, yet seller lived in New Orleans (I suspect drop shipping of a random item and they used that tracking information for my purchase)

Lastly I didn't buy through ebay but Mercari where the seller had no previous sells and I had a few previous purchases.  Mercari refunded me with 1 day of my one e-mail containing all the shady issues documented with screen shoots and hyperlinks to all information that would publicly available.  Also I told them I would claim fraud with PayPal if they didn't refund me.

[LeatherRebel5150 | 1,056]

23 hours ago, captmorgandrinker said:

I voted with my wallet.   I went from spending a few grand a year to only going in to use my 5 dollar pro coupon every month on a $5 Nintendo points card.

I quit their pro membership when they got rid of the preowned discount. I think Ive made a handful of purchases since then. And that was only when they did B2GO on Switch games, which they conveniently left out of the deal this year. Sometimes Im surprised they still exist

[Kguillemette | 1,544]

On 12/2/2022 at 5:54 PM, avatar! said:

Just got scammed by GameStop! What a shit company, I should have suspected something...

Out of the 5 "new" games I purchased, only one was new. The other 4 showed various degrees of wear and tear, including the case not even closing properly. Just, pure, shit.

AVOID GAMESTOP

I only browse their clearance bin these days. I do find good deals on the occasional Tshirt or plushie this way. Otherwise their prices and selection are truly lacking. Even the buy 2 get 1 sales are often times better off buying elsewhere. 

I do like the collectibles and plushies they carry.

[avatar! | 1,812]

On 12/2/2022 at 6:28 PM, LeatherRebel5150 said:

Not that I don’t sympathize, but this is a widely known thing. They sell the display copies as “new”

I'm obviously out of the loop, was not aware they do that - clearly I haven't shopped in GS in ages, and well, time not to shop there ever again!

[Teh_Lurv | 254]

On 12/2/2022 at 5:54 PM, avatar! said:

Just got scammed by GameStop! What a shit company, I should have suspected something...

Out of the 5 "new" games I purchased, only one was new. The other 4 showed various degrees of wear and tear, including the case not even closing properly. Just, pure, shit.

AVOID GAMESTOP

I got screwed over by this practice too. A couple of years ago I bought the display "new" physical copy of 40k Space Marines on PC from Gamestop for cheap. The case was gutted and the DVD and inserts were in the drawers behind the counter. Normally I wouldn't mind except when I tried to install the game and use the Steam CD key, it was flagged as already been used.

 

 

[Teh_Lurv | 254]

On 12/3/2022 at 11:44 PM, Kguillemette said:

I only browse their clearance bin these days. I do find good deals on the occasional Tshirt or plushie this way. Otherwise their prices and selection are truly lacking. Even the buy 2 get 1 sales are often times better off buying elsewhere. 

I do like the collectibles and plushies they carry.

Yeah I found some good stuff in the clearance bins lately with the 50% off all clearance items currently going on. But Gamestop still manages to annoy...

I scored a copy of the board game Rising Sun for $42 over the weekend. The box had a yellow $95 clearance sticker stacked upon two other stickers. Immediately I thought the board game must've been msrp $150-200.

I get home and carefully peel off the stickers. $50 is still a good deal, but what a load of BS...

[avatar! | 1,812]

13 minutes ago, Teh_Lurv said:

Yeah I found some good stuff in the clearance bins lately with the 50% off all clearance items currently going on. But Gamestop still manages to annoy...

I scored a copy of the board game Rising Sun for $42 over the weekend. The box had a yellow $95 clearance sticker stacked upon two other stickers. Immediately I thought the board game must've been msrp $150-200.

I get home and carefully peel off the stickers. $50 is still a good deal, but what a load of BS...

But... but, GameShit wants to remind you that "pros" (or whatever) get 2% back in rewards!!

[TDIRunner | 2,741]

On 12/4/2022 at 4:49 PM, avatar! said:

I'm obviously out of the loop, was not aware they do that - clearly I haven't shopped in GS in ages, and well, time not to shop there ever again!

Most of the time, that stuff is technically unused.  They just open it, and place the empty case on the shelf while the game sits in a sleeve in a drawn behind the counter.  Odds are the game was never actually played.  

With that said, I still feel that anything is no longer "new" once it's opened.  I feel there is a difference between "new," "opened/unused," and "used."  However, while Gamestop tracks between "new" and "used," they aren't going to create a new screw just for the stuff they open.  So I completely understand your frustration. 

One tip if you decide to go back is that if you buy a "new" game that is opened and shows sings of wear, they will almost always knock at least 10% off.  I've had very good luck with that.  You can always ask, and if they say no, just don't buy it.  

[Kguillemette | 1,544]

3 hours ago, Teh_Lurv said:

Yeah I found some good stuff in the clearance bins lately with the 50% off all clearance items currently going on. But Gamestop still manages to annoy...

I scored a copy of the board game Rising Sun for $42 over the weekend. The box had a yellow $95 clearance sticker stacked upon two other stickers. Immediately I thought the board game must've been msrp $150-200.

I get home and carefully peel off the stickers. $50 is still a good deal, but what a load of BS...

Too funny. Honestly like you said, I'll look at the sane marked down stuff for months waiting for them to actually mark down the stuff to a real price. And even then I'll cross check ebay or Amazon. It's the classic mark up-mark down trick to make you think you are getting a good deal.

[FireHazard51 | 2,043]

8 hours ago, Kguillemette said:

Too funny. Honestly like you said, I'll look at the sane marked down stuff for months waiting for them to actually mark down the stuff to a real price. And even then I'll cross check ebay or Amazon. It's the classic mark up-mark down trick to make you think you are getting a good deal.

Yeah, the one PSVR game that was marked at new for $15 (50% off) was really banged up.  Turns out Amazon later had it for $15 new.  I'm not terribly upset.  I'm intentionally trying to buy used PSVR games so I can get the cheapest full set.  But still kinda weird how hard it is to get a good deal with GameStop.  If they could just confirm if used games were CIB then I'd be going to them A LOT of games.  And yeah, any other company worth a dam would flag open new games as "open box" and never as "new".

[docile tapeworm | 4,198]

Whoever runs my local goodwill is a greedy mf. They did away with video games years ago. Fine. I’ll look through dvds like a complete dope. NOPE. Those are $3 a piece and get picked through before they ever hit the shelf. Ok I’ll sift through clothes. NOPE. $3 a t shirt and NEVER A SALE. I would occasionally grab a decent personal shirt. I gave up a few days ago when “what’s on the $10 rack”…….what do you know. Harley Davidson t-shirt with nice big graphic, nascar Jeff Gordon……any sports team…… gtfoh.

[TDIRunner | 2,741]

12 minutes ago, docile tapeworm said:

Whoever runs my local goodwill is a greedy mf. They did away with video games years ago. Fine. I’ll look through dvds like a complete dope. NOPE. Those are $3 a piece and get picked through before they ever hit the shelf. Ok I’ll sift through clothes. NOPE. $3 a t shirt and NEVER A SALE. I would occasionally grab a decent personal shirt. I gave up a few days ago when “what’s on the $10 rack”…….what do you know. Harley Davidson t-shirt with nice big graphic, nascar Jeff Gordon……any sports team…… gtfoh.

Sometimes I see prices at my GW that are so high, I assume greed, but then I see something on the next shelf so underpriced that I realize it's just ignorance.  Not sure which one is worse. 

[RH | 4,905]

24 minutes ago, docile tapeworm said:

Whoever runs my local goodwill is a greedy mf. They did away with video games years ago. Fine. I’ll look through dvds like a complete dope. NOPE. Those are $3 a piece and get picked through before they ever hit the shelf. Ok I’ll sift through clothes. NOPE. $3 a t shirt and NEVER A SALE. I would occasionally grab a decent personal shirt. I gave up a few days ago when “what’s on the $10 rack”…….what do you know. Harley Davidson t-shirt with nice big graphic, nascar Jeff Gordon……any sports team…… gtfoh.

 

11 minutes ago, TDIRunner said:

Sometimes I see prices at my GW that are so high, I assume greed, but then I see something on the next shelf so underpriced that I realize it's just ignorance.  Not sure which one is worse. 

I'd almost like to work for Goodwill for a season just to figure out what goes on there.  I've heard that the whole corporation is actually a very grey organization.  Supposedly the deal is that though it's a "non-profit", the CEO (and likely other higher-ups) make top CEO dollar.  Generally speaking, with non-profit managers and workers can make as much money as is market-fair for the type of work they are doing.  Ergo, the more money Goodwill makes and the larger the operation in general, the more money the CEO, and probably other C-level managers, get to make because the "value" of the company increases.  If this is true, it wouldn't surprise me if the top dog was netting between $5-20 million a year because Goodwill is a huge organization and compared to a public company that size, that's the general salary for CEOs of major corporations (not including stock options they might also be given.)  Possibly even more because I have no clue how big Goodwill really is.

I admit I've only heard speculation on that, but if it's true, it explains why "Goodwill is so greedy".  I know I almost never find games at mine either and if I do, they are always, always about 10-15% above eBay prices.  I legit think they are instructed to search for prices and then mark them as such.  Another really, really odd think is that almost all of the electronics I ever find are things like coffee makers, toaster ovens and alarm clocks.  Rarely, super-rarely, will I see anything like a sound system and even then it looks busted to heck, or it's a speaker with holes poked into it.  Goodwill is where everyone drops off stuff and I have far better luck finding electronics at my much smaller Salvation Army, and that just doesn't add up.  I think they might be instructed to load this stuff up and send it to a distribution center that determines if they should put it up on eBay or use that Goodwill Auctions site.

In a way, whether they are a non-profit or not, I get that they are a business but at the same time, I've always felt that it was an unspoken agreement--we as a community give them our cast off, but fair conditioned stuff, and they get to sell it cheaply as to move it quickly and get near-free money.  Nope, not Goodwill!  It's all about maximizing profits.  If 100% of legit went to helping people, I'd probably shrug it off and just rarely shopping there because their prices are too high.  However, if corporate managers  are skimming a bunch of the profits, then the whole thing is a shill and they've  lost my support.

Edited December 7, 2022 by RH

[Mega Tank | 961]

33 minutes ago, RH said:

It's all about maximizing profits.

One of them around here is referred to by some as Bloomingdales because it's ridiculously expensive. We tried picking up some holiday decorations for work and everything was very expensive. Xmas stockings? $10 Any outdoor decoration, $30+ (similar ones at Home Depot etc were going for about the same or less). Thankfully not all locations are like this, but it does make you wonder about their pricing differences and all that.

[RH | 4,905]

11 minutes ago, Mega Tank said:

One of them around here is referred to by some as Bloomingdales because it's ridiculously expensive. We tried picking up some holiday decorations for work and everything was very expensive. Xmas stockings? $10 Any outdoor decoration, $30+ (similar ones at Home Depot etc were going for about the same or less). Thankfully not all locations are like this, but it does make you wonder about their pricing differences and all that.

One of the more amusing things I've seen is that Goodwill and Target apparently have a working relationship, at least in our region.  If items in Target don't sell from clearance, they often make their way to Goodwill and they never bother taking off the Target discount price tags.

Usually the price of the item is less than the Target discounted price when it was clearanced.  But not always.  Seriously Goodwill, you're willing to advertise that "Oh look, had you bought this at Target two weeks ago, you could have had it for $2.49 but since it's now at Goodwill, you're gonna have to pay $7!"

All frustration aside, they can only do this because people are willing to pay these prices.  I think that's what gets me.  Goodwill isn't a designer-thrift brand.  Yes, they have massive reach, but when you can find far better deals at any thrift shop, any where, it amazes me that they can get away with near-retail prices.   I am kind of impressed.

Edited December 7, 2022 by RH

[TDIRunner | 2,741]

22 minutes ago, RH said:

One of the more amusing things I've seen is that Goodwill and Target apparently have a working relationship, at least in our region.  If items in Target don't sell from clearance, they often make their way to Goodwill and they never bother taking off the Target discount price tags.

 

I've seen similar, although I can't say for sure if it's Target or another store.  I often see a dozen of the same item, often still brand new and unopened and it's pretty clear it was donated from a store that couldn't sell them.  I bought Kirby's Epic Yarn brand new and sealed from GW that way.  I had over a dozen to choose from.

[TDIRunner | 2,741]

For the record, just because a business is "not for profit" doesn't mean they don't have margin built into their prices.  Even an NPO needs to generate funds for improvements and future expansion.  Of course there are lots of rules and regulations because an NPO is tax exempt.  But at the end of the day, there should be no expectation that just because some place is an NPO, their prices should be dirt cheap.  I'm not trying to defend GW in any way.  I see a lot of things with GW that I don't like and I often times see scummy behavior.  But on the flip side, I see a lot of expectation that prices at GW should be dirt cheap when in reality there is no reason why anything in their store should be anything less than the market value for any given item.  

[Tabonga | 2,318]

7 minutes ago, TDIRunner said:

I've seen similar, although I can't say for sure if it's Target or another store.  I often see a dozen of the same item, often still brand new and unopened and it's pretty clear it was donated from a store that couldn't sell them.  I bought Kirby's Epic Yarn brand new and sealed from GW that way.  I had over a dozen to choose from.

What they do is buy lots by the pallet load from the store (often damaged packaging etc or overstock) at a reduced price - which is why the color tag they use for such stuff almost never goes on sale (used to be purple around here) since they would loose money.  They likely still lose money since that stuff lingers forever and gets damaged in the process.

[TDIRunner | 2,741]

1 minute ago, Tabonga said:

What they do is buy lots by the pallet load from the store (often damaged packaging etc or overstock) at a reduced price - which is why the color tag they use for such stuff almost never goes on sale (used to be purple around here) since they would loose money.  They likely still lose money since that stuff lingers forever and gets damaged in the process.

Sure, it may not be donated, but even if they are buying it, you know it's pennies on the dollar.  And since it's Goodwill, the write off can be considered a charitable donation.

[Tabonga | 2,318]

2 minutes ago, TDIRunner said:

Sure, it may not be donated, but even if they are buying it, you know it's pennies on the dollar.  And since it's Goodwill, the write off can be considered a charitable donation.

From my friend who worked there at the time they paid a fairly good (if reduced) price but hoped to make it up with better quality goods they could charge more for. I am guessing it was close to a wash with a lot of stuff in the mix that wasn't very saleable in the first place.

[FireHazard51 | 2,043]

How the fuck does a magazine take over a month to ship from UK to US but every order I have from Japan takes 3 days to ship to me.  I've had longer ship times to go from Cleveland to Cincinnati via USPS than Japan to Cincinnati via DHL.

[avatar! | 1,812]

6 hours ago, FireHazard51 said:

How the fuck does a magazine take over a month to ship from UK to US but every order I have from Japan takes 3 days to ship to me.  I've had longer ship times to go from Cleveland to Cincinnati via USPS than Japan to Cincinnati via DHL.

[monsterG | 17]

What causes an Amazon product page to disappear?

Legit / non-bootleg games which used to be accessible now show stupid dogs instead of listings

Ironically, searching on Amazon sometimes yields bootleg versions' product pages. Usually search yields 1000 things not related to what I typed.

[avatar! | 1,812]

17 hours ago, monsterG said:

What causes an Amazon product page to disappear?

Legit / non-bootleg games which used to be accessible now show stupid dogs instead of listings

Ironically, searching on Amazon sometimes yields bootleg versions' product pages. Usually search yields 1000 things not related to what I typed.

For such a huge, rich, powerful company, amazon's third-party selling is really the wild west. You sometimes find wonderful deals, other times just bootlegs and scammers. Definitely caveat emptor.

[FireHazard51 | 2,043]

https://www.wired.com/story/royal-mail-ransomware-attack-security-roundup/

I would say this explains my UK magazine delivery times... Except this was a recent event so it should have no impact on my package.  Now this latest one one being shipped to me (two PSVR games) will be impacted.  Let's just see how long this second one takes