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OK, I found that the gamestops are hit and miss with the stickers on the spine. some put them on the wax paper, some on the inserts... and some none at all.
I went out to Tysons Corner today, and some games where hit and miss with those damn stickers...
So I guess my part of the country is shit. I see they still wanted $35 for a used copy of FFT for the PSP, wonder if they can price match?
BUT! They fucking nickle and dimed me. Fucking toll roads outside of the area...
Yeah, I have yet to have the issue of having a game with a sticker on the insert cover art. June 8, 2008. My family and I took a small trip 2 hrs away from home to Pensacola Florida. I went to an EB games and got Crackdown (360) for $16 ( which is great because it still goes for $30 ) Anyway, while I was there I looked all around because at the time you and me had the first part of this discussion, no games with stickers on inserts.Quote:
Originally Posted by David J.
BUT, BUT, BUT !... You might know how anal I am with my games ( see link )
http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5339
So, anyway, I bought a good condition Pokemon snap from my local play n' trade and it had a sticker on the right hand edge of the N64 cartridge. So, I figured, " Whatever, I'll get home and take this right off." So in my room, I was about to clean off the cartridge because even though it was in good condition, it definatly had seen better days. So I use " Glass plus wipes" and I removed that sticker, and playn' trade sticker residue, is THE most mind-numbingly horrible residue ever put forth on this earth. It took 14 wipes, 14 WIPES, to get the residue off, and that was before I cleaned the whole cartridge off. I still love play n' trade. I am going to apply for a job at play and trade next year.
there's a trick with Play N Trade stickers if they haven't been on for too long (I would say 2 months is the "too long" point). Take the sticker off trying your best not to tear it (if it tears its probably been on too long), then "re stick" and remove rapidly and it will take the remaining sticky off. When I say stick, I don't mean completely replace it, I mean kind of slap it down and yank it off instantaneously and it will pull the glue remnants with it. If it has been to long, pull out the goo gone and deal with that whole mess. I don't know why Gamestop and Play N Trade use those terrible stickers, I've bought old used games with sale stickers on them that just pop off and leave no residue. IMO the stickers should be more or less the same as post-it note material, I mean, they have to know that everyone hates those damn sale stickers on their games and hate glue residue even more.
Thanks 17day, much appreciated. Should I get a job at play n' trade, is it worth the time and effort.
The thing about Play N Trade is that they are all independent franchises. Its basically like a mom and pop only with some sort of corporate rules/help like access to distributors and pricing information. Each one is different and if it will be cool or suck depends on the owner. The one I work for is owned by a 25 year old. At first it seemed awesome because we're something alike and would probably get along well outside of a working environment, but at the same time he doesn't have alot of business sense or experience so everything is always very chaotic and disorganized. It took me forever to get the back room organized to where I could actually function and do console repairs. If you want to work at a Play N Trade, I would first look into this: 1) who is the owner? how old is he? is he a pushy dick or an inexperienced mess, etc? 2) how long has it been opened? generally the longer the better as employees will be more experienced and things will run more smoothly and 3) understand that if you are working as a normal employee (register/customer service) you will have to deal with asshats that are either know-it-alls or completely retarded and RARELY a competent person that isn't a douche. Many will bitch that they aren't getting enough for trade-ins, that the used games aren't clean/scratch free enough (even after resurfacing), try to talk you down on prices because of nicks, etc. and a whole bunch of other stuff. If you can't handle that, its not the job for you. Even though I do repairs so I don't normally deal with those people, it doesn't bother me much so I would be OK working in the front, but some people take it very personal and get fed up very fast dealing with that sort of thing. Console repair is pretty awesome if you really know what you're doing, but at the same time you don't have the manufacturer's official test equipment and barely have anything you couldn't get on eBay or at a hardware store so any work is purely based on basic functional principles and visual scans of the hardware and sometimes you may fix things and think it will work and later find out it didn't and have to put up with shit again. In time it gets less and less because you learn what will and won't work.Quote:
Originally Posted by sega fan
I guess this explains why most of the kids working at video game shops are arrogant pricks. I kind of figured that this was the case, but I still hate being automatically lumped in with the other idiot customers whenever I go to one of those places. GameCrazy is particularly bad, I've found
@ 17daysolderthannes.Quote:
Originally Posted by 17daysolderthannes
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I can deal with idiots and utter retards. I go to high school. I'm the one person at my school that any of you could sit down and talk with me and you'd be surprised at how great I form my conversations. I only vent and get pissy on the internet, which I'm cutting down on with great success. I would like to get a system repair job here at my local P'n'T because each time I go there, I see consoles in need of repair but each time I come in, the pile keeps getting bigger and bigger. By the time they fix one, they have two more to do. Last time they had a stack of :
8 Xbox 360
1 Xbox
3 PS3
2 Ps2 ( one of both models )
and a couple others put behind those, there might have been a side of a mark I genny sticking out of the side of the " Dead 360 Mountain ". I'm assuming that they fix the newer consoles first because they were at the front of the pile.
@ Mr. Matthews
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Have I come off as a prick. I'm sorry if I do, I am a really intelligent person in a real conversatin. thats what I hate about forums is that, you don't get to hear the persons way of talking or their personality or outlook on things.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sega fan
Dude...dude, don't wuss out...if you think he was insulting you, challenge him to a duel and shoot him with a flintlock pistol. Whether he meant to or not, context be damned, if you even have the slightest hint that you were insulted, pistols at dawn! That's what I say! They don't do enough of that anymore...(like below)
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/iss/arch...image/duel.jpg
I see the gentleman on the right plays Gauntlet...that's an awesome game.
You dudes need tophats too...
Walther PPK, A 7 bullet clip, plus the option for a spare bullet loaded in the chamber. A James Bond fans's weapon of choice.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tanegashima
What? No, no, I wasn't saying YOU were an arrogant prick (which you very well may be - I know I am). I was referring to the people working at video game stores (and only, as you implied, because they deal with idiots all day long).Quote:
Originally Posted by sega fan
Crap, I'm sorry, Tanegashima got me all excited for a showdown and stuff, but hey thats why I love tanegashima. He can take a peace offering and make it into something weird like a sword fight to the death on Mt fuji, while wearing neon bath robes. :D
Understand that console repair isn't as easy as watching a repair video and following the steps. There are alot of grey areas that require real understanding of function principles from both mechanical and electrical standpoints. I'm a senior in MCHE that has done tons of independent research over the years and even I have a hard time determining problems sometimes. Like I said, you really don't have access to any specialized diagnostic equipment so its not any different than fixing your own PS2 in your garage. Fortunately, most repairs are just cleaning out a dirty system or doing the RROD fix (which I still don't trust, Microsoft replaces the heat sink with a heat pipe exchanger, the fix I'm supposed to do involves a few washers and some screws, yeah, you do the math on that), but some have some weird ass problems that can take a while to figure out (like an XBOX drive that turned out to have a piece of tape that caused the drive belt to wear out and need replacement). Also, the work load can be inconsistent which means the pay will be inconsistent. If no one brings in systems, you don't make any money. Once business picks up and what not I'm going to try to get him to schedule me to work if there aren't any systems to repair to keep my pay up, but until then I'm stuck with what work is available. Its also annoying because all the employees don't know shit about even simple stuff (like that RF doesn't work on a hi def TV) so I keep getting shit that isn't broken or is completely unfixable plopped on my desk and it gets really annoying having to show the employees that nothing is wrong with a Nintendo because they were using it on a hi def TV or didn't clean the games enough. Its also annoying sometimes because no matter what the owner thinks everything is fixable and I have to sit him down and explain that a PS2 full of rust and roach shit isn't going to be fixed with a laser replacement.Quote:
Originally Posted by sega fan
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Yeah, I know what you mean. Seeing pictures on the internet is one experience, Having a system opened right with the main board out in front of you is a whole other one. I just fixed my Best Friends NES, Old copper cart slots are always the culprit, so then a week later. there's problem with the part where you put the power cable in the back of the NES. Popping it back open, the place where the power supply is in the NES itself is a metal boxed that is sealed off, no screws or anything. So, I told him about the best clone system ever, In my opinion, The Yobo FC. So yeah, I can relate to what you said about having obvious fixes then fixes with problems beyond your reach. And yeah, I have dealt with opening a system or two. Plus like you said, no new broken systems, no money. over the summer, like I said they have busted consoles coming in like crazy and not enough man power to service them all and coming in a week ago, all were fixed.Quote:
Originally Posted by 17daysolderthannes
Over the summer i could probably get a cut of the cash while the getting is good then, scram before school starts and consoles get serviced. Also, with my friends NES, If he doesn't get a Yobo, I wonder if a soughtering Iron could help unseal that damn box.
If he broke the dongle for the power cord, you might as well toss it in the trash cuz its done. See, thats another problem, even if you can identify the problem, many times its just not fixable (or not economically fixable). I won't even work on a system older than PS2 except for the NES because by the time he paid me he would have spent more than the system is worth. Plus, all the accessories and controllers are valuable so if, say, a PS1 is toast, its more economical just to just sell the controller, A/V cable, and power cord separately than to try to fix the system. Also, spare parts for anything older than a PS2 (again, spare for the NES) is near impossible to get because of that reason, making it even more impossible/impractical to try to repair older systems unless you have a few that you can swap working parts to frankenstein a working system together. Your best bet would be if you could talk the owner into letting you apprentice under the current repair guy, but at 14 he probably wouldn't take you seriously at all. To be honest, you would probably have to be at least 20 to expect to be taken seriously for a repair job.Quote:
Originally Posted by sega fan