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How dumb is my roommate, really? ($25 "wholesale" new ps3 games)
Rius
Globex CEONobody ever says ItalyRegistered User regular
Globex CEONobody ever says ItalyRegistered User regular
I mean, seriously. We were talking about how the Force Unleashed demo came out, and he started downloading it, and said "oh, I canceled my pre-order for this. I met a guy who will sell me wholesale copies of games for $25. I'm already getting Madden '09"...
I laughed and tried to argue the silliness of his belief, but my roommate is a guy who absolutely refuses to acknowledge that he might be wrong, and he takes his stands on the silliest of points. Like this one.
Is there any way at all "wholesale" (new in box, keep in mind) cannot possibly equate to "fell off a truck"?
I laughed and tried to argue the silliness of his belief, but my roommate is a guy who absolutely refuses to acknowledge that he might be wrong, and he takes his stands on the silliest of points. Like this one.
Is there any way at all "wholesale" (new in box, keep in mind) cannot possibly equate to "fell off a truck"?
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I host a podcast about movies.
Luckily, most people will learn from this after one burn. It just depends on how big an idiot your roommate is.
Just make sure he doesn't "pre-order" from this guy.
They are able to do it because of some veteran license or something.
Anyway, $25 only sounds scammy because of that particular price point, but it's not impossible is all I'm saying.
On the same note, why does it bother you so much that he posted that you felt it warranted a comment on the forum?
On topic: I work for an online store company and we sell things at barely above wholesale simply because not having brick and mortar stores cuts out a ton of our overhead. I don't know how game distribution works but it is possible that it could be legit.
Games don't have an 150% markup.
- Complete rip-off. He'll either never get his game or get a 're-branded' game (not the actuall game but an older one either in a new box of even with a new label printed on it) and never see the guy again.
- Games were stolen. Best case scenario: he keeps getting cheap games. Worst case: he gets arrested for knowingly buying stolen merchandise. He doesn't really have much of a defence, since the mark-down is so drastic and the source so shady, it should be obvious they were stolen.
Unless he knew for a fact the games were stolen (and the police can prove it, not say he should have known but actually prove he was told or discovered the games) he can't be charged with receiving stolen merchandise. If the police somehow got his name the worst that would happen is they would take the games and he'd be out whatever he paid.
All they have to do is prove it was stolen and that he has it, not that he knew it was stolen.
Being in exclusive possession (that is, there's no evidence it came from someone else) of stolen property in some states is sufficient to uphold a conviction of theft. Being in possession of stolen property in any state is enough to uphold a conviction for receiving stolen property. In neither case is it necessary that the defendant know the game was stolen. There's some protection there depending on how you get it, but buying from a private party at a suspicious markdown probably doesn't carry any of those protections unless he's offered the chance to cooperate and catch the seller, in which case he should know that immunity agreements are non-binding and he should still have a defense lawyer on retainer.
Unless he has a criminal record or they suspect him of some other crime they can't nail him on he won't get in any trouble over this. The crime of theft does not include unknowingly purchasing stolen property (the cops can't say but it was cheap so you should have known, that's not evidence of any kind and would never hold up in court so a DA certainly wouldn't waste their time on it) and he's not the one fencing it either. What case study/statutes are you getting your info from?
If the thief gets caught he can roll over on the roommate and say he told him the goods were stolen if it will get him a lesser charge.
Except the cops wouldn't be interested in the people who bought the goods so much as who the guys was fencing through and where he got his goods if he was a fence himself. It wouldn't be worth the cops time.
Do games have some sort of individual tracking number on each disc or something? Because if they don't, you can't prove he didn't buy it from somewhere else.
Wholesale to retail, it's maybe 10%. Like 5 out of 50 dollars.
I don't know what it is distributer to wholesale, but if the guy can get more than one brand of games he's obviously not buying them from a games company where he works.
I host a podcast about movies.
That's really low, how do game stores make any money with a markup that low?
yeah those games are different publishers.
They push used equipment.
And Mag sales, and pre orders, and in some cases warranties.
preorders dont make us anymore money then a normal sale and the mag sales are just so you will get the discount card so youll buy more used games, which is where we make our money.
But essentially they act as interest free loans.
On a store to store basis, preorders don't make you any more money, but the company gets to sit on that $5 for weeks to months at a time and earn interst on it.
Another thing to note is that people do not always act on preorders. On at least one occasion I've preordered a game at GameStop (putting down $5), only to discover on release day that it is $10 cheaper and in stock at a random big department store and buy it there.
They always keep those records on file though. You should be able to go and put that money towards something else.
Least that's been my experience.
That's good to know for the future. The gamestop in question actually told me there was nothing I could do - either buy the game from them (losing $5 more) or give up the $5 I had put down. This was years ago though, and this particular gamestop was pretty shitty in general so they may just have been lying.
That's a large part of why you so rarely see independent game stores around, without the bargaining power of a nation wide chain behind them they get raped to death by the game publishers/distributors.
I used to work in a jewelry store and there the markups could get incredibly high. I can think of sterling silver pieces we got for $1 that we'd sell for $25.
I work at a local videostore, and each week we order games for rent.
Markup is that high. New PS3/360 games are 52 bucks for us I believe. Owner actually raised the prices on their rentals due to this.
Also, accessories.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH