Step 1 Get Money
First you need to find a way to get 60 dollars or less, depending on what game you are going to choose to rent.
Step 2 Visit GameStop
When you get inside GameStop, you have to choose a pre-owned game that you like. It could be any game, just make sure it is pre-owned.
Step 3 Ready PowerUp Rewards
When you get the pre-owned game of your choice, take it up to the counter and make sure you have an active PowerUp Rewards card/account.
Step 4 Pay the Money
You can either pay for it in store credit or cash, whichever you prefer.
Step 5 The Con
Now that you have the game of your choice, you will be able to start the free renting process.
Step 6 Return Policy
So the return policy with all pre-owned games is that you can take it back within a week, for many reasons, whether you say it doesn't work or that you just don't like it, and they will give you a full refund.
Step 7 (Almost) Free Renting
Get it? So, you can now get free unlimited weeklong rentals from GameStop by buying a game of your choice, taking it back within a week and choosing a different game. Then, repeat the process over and over again. It's free! You're just out the cost of the initial investment.
I have done this many, many times and have gotten new release games such as Halo: Reach, Fallout: New Vegas, Dead Space 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Red Dead Redemption, Borderlands and many more— all for free, thanks to this great loophole in GameStop's system. So, try this out sometime and you will never spend money on renting games again!
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7 Comments
I wrote a long response to this expressing disapproval, then I saw below how there are many such "con" how-to's. I see that the conclusion of my statement below is true. I kept the long statement so all could read my thought process in ending at my conclusion. WE ARE DOOMED.
2012, here we come!!!
This is why America is doomed. Unashamed lying and stealing are eroding social contract. That is the thing where we all silently agree to go about our lives without acting like this article suggests we act. Social contract has worked for a ling time because the majority followed it.
Now we have half baked ideas like this in black and white all over the internet, not because it is an original thought, but because we wont stand up to people for fear of offending.
How-to's like this do not belong on a website like this, e-how wouldn't allow it, wikihow wouldn't allow it. That is because it is not instructional.
Perhaps I am old now that I am over 30. Perhaps I still want to believe in the America that brought down the Berlin Wall. Maybe this type of article is par for the course?
Well, if that is so we are doomed. Rome fell from within. Crap like this in indicative of what will bring down the USA.
I lol @ you. Do you have any idea how much mark-up retail is over manufacturing cost? On a single game they make at LEAST $50. How many thousands, if not tens of thousands of games are sold EVERY SINGLE DAY at gamestop? If too many people started exploiting this do you not think they'd fix the loophole? We are cheated out of our money FOR PROPERTY TAX. Land that does not even belong to the government, as we bought it. And you think america will end? No it's things like these, small and obscure, that keep the balance.
It is people like you that necessitate the extra markup. You are not considering things like OVERHEAD. DO you think rent is free? Do you think employees work there for nothing? Who has to pay for the gaming machines inside of the store?
Who is really being cheated and conned? I don't think it's America. I think it's the people. America is one of the highest taxed places in the world and the revenue lost from doing some of these cons is such a low percentage that these businesses can just shrug it off compared to how much they are making. It costs around 75 cents to make a disc, and the publishers sell it to Gamestop for around 15 or 20 bucks brand new, they sell it to us for 60 dollars, more than tripling the profit made. Who is being cheated? I decide to sell a game I got tired of the other day at Gamestop, they offered me 15 dollars for it, I said no as thought this was a very low price for a fairly new game, as I walked out of the store I noticed the same game I was going to sell pre-owned for 45 dollars, which is what they would have sold my game back for. That's what inspired me to write this, I developed this technique a while ago and decide to help others to not be cheated, I wanted to help the poor man of America, which is what America's foundations were built on. To me this is not stealing but it is taking advantage of how corporate businesses take advantage of us. Stealing from people is wrong but these companies are not people they are monsters that suck the money out of good hardworking people like us. If America is this deceptive and cruel to it's own people then maybe it should be brought down. But I know that a few cons will not bring what used to be a prestigious and proud country to what is now a bottom feeding one down. I hope this comment has shown you what I think and maybe changed your mind a little, but if not so be it.
Adam Reeder, I too would be against this, but pre-owned games make companies an embarrassing amount of money. I recently moved to the US from the UK which meant parting with my numerous video games. I had a stack of probably two or three dozen Xbox games with many popular releases that I'd accumulated over the 15 months or so I had the Xbox, and got less than £30 for the lot of them. The Xbox itself only got me around £30 too. What's really sad is I couldn't even tell them to shove it and sell them independently because by the time my visa came through I simply didn't have the time. I saw some of the games I'd traded in selling for triple, quadruple... even a couple selling over ten times what they'd given me.
So it's a case of karma. They rip the customers off, in return customers rip them off. It's a pretty fair trade, when you think about it.
-FT
Wyatt and Tony,
First of all I commend both of you with your positive tone in your response. That is one of the most powerful tools of persuading someone. I voted up each of your comments. I am honestly interested in reading what you guys said ANOTHER time, because you handled it so well. Cheers to both of you.
I am an Eagle Scout. In my mind, the core principles what used to be "a prestigious and proud country" are those of the Boy Scouts of America. I know this sounds lame, and uptight. Look, I grew up in Los Angeles, and now live in the SF bay area, I have been a professional artist for 12 years, I have a masters degree, I am not a naive Ned Flanders.
I will say that I feel bad taking out my overall disappointment at the deterioration of the foundation of America on your tutorial.
However, in business, the common practice for pricing a product is 3x cost. Take the cost, multiply by 3, that is the price.
An extreme version of both of your arguments is the pirates in Nigeria. The "have nots" taking what they feel is unfairly denied them. Do you see how that argument makes it so a functioning society cannot hold together?
The answer is unclear, but dishonesty is not the answer. I like the way John Adams and George Washington handled inequity.
Unfortunately, this is a cruel world. I honestly dont see whats wrong with us doing this. You do bring up a good point Adam, and I agree with you Fat Tony (nice name). I dont know if being an Eagle Scout has changed your perspective, Adam (i presume it did :P) but we are not the only people "ripping off"; in fact, our ripping off is miniscule at best when compared to other people. This isnt a prestigious country anymore.
Well enough with the blabber.
:)
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