GameStop selling retro games at ridiculous prices

2/3/12 6:45pm

GameStop has a new feature for their PowerUp rewards card (that's the program they have where you get used game discounts and a year subscription to Game Informer magazine). Anyone who bought stuff or traded items in using that card when accumulate points. Previously, it was for things like coupons and little game knick knacks.

The e-mail from them shows off their brand new Retro Game Vault, where players can now redeem those points for retro games. Well, hot damn! They got things from NES, SNES, Genesis and Dreamcast in here! Whoa, wait... wait a second...

That's the original Super Mario Bros. for the NES. It costs 43,250 PowerUp points. That is ridiculously high.

Generally speaking, 1,000 points equates to a dollar. You get roughly 10 points for every dollar of something you buy new, and 20 points per dollar on every trade-in and used purchse. Roughly.

Using this simple math, to get something like Super Mario Bros. pictured above, I would need to do, at minimum, a total of $2,160 of used game purchases and trade-ins. For Super Mario Bros.

Super Mario Bros. can be bought online and in Mom & Pop stores for like three bucks. With the points-to-dollar conversion, Gamestop is asking for 14 times that amount. Even Double Dragon is listed at five times its worth.

I love the idea of using PowerUp rewards for retro games, but at this price? No thanks. I am not that big of a sucker. If these were at like, 1/8th of their listed value, I would even find that a little more reasonable.

Maybe now they'll get Battletoads.

» Tagged In: #Gamestop, #Jared, #retro, #Rip-off

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darkvoid

February 22, 2012 - 4:57pm

They have ET as one of their games. Fuck you Gamestop. Fuck you.

darkhyrulelord

February 5, 2012 - 8:13pm

They will obtain your old used games for a buck each and then immediately "sell" them for $2000. GameStop sure can be tricky...

Flapperdoodle

February 5, 2012 - 10:58am

Wow... this needs no words.

JJJJJS

February 4, 2012 - 6:44pm

We can equate roughly 1000 points = 1 dollar due to their recent offer of a $10 certificate upon redemption of 1000 points. Rounding down, that means that Super Mario Bros. has a valuation of $43. Game Stop offers trade in credit/cash at 50% if you're lucky and they're running a promotion. Thus I will be taking 3 copies of super mario bros. to my local Gamestop and walking out with a brand new copy of Twisted Metal. I paid a quarter for each of those copies. Sweet deal Game Stop! Thanks! If only it actually worked like that...