I'd like to share the story of how in a very roundabout way I got Gran Turismo 5 Collector's Edition basically for free. I was a bit shocked at some of it and amazingly, it actually involves digital downloads. And everything involved deal combinations, no shadiness or theft by anyone's definition.
During the course of the year (starting with Bioshock 2), EB has had numerous combinations of games with both Gameplay Guarantee (buy a game and return it within a week and get the full value of the game in in-store credit) and Trade 3 options and some with 50% Trade increase (trade a game in towards a select list and get an extra 50% in trade value) and Gameplay Guarantee options. I loved using that Gameplay Guarantee option 'cause other than Red Dead Redemption and Fallout New Vegas, it wasn't that hard to actually beat the games they had on there within a week. On average, I was able to essentially get $65+tax (total of just under $74) of trade credit for under $35 after taxes. That essentially getting in-store trade credit at about 45% of the cost. And I had built up a decent amount of it, more than enough for my needs.
Way back in March, I purchased 3 games for about $33 Cdn and traded them in for Gran Turismo 5 which had hit EB's trade 3 deal (trade 3, get it free) and was assumed to be coming out in the spring. I got $69.99 in trade value towards it. The Collector's Edition costs $99.99+tax, so I essentially needed to use up $30 of my credit to pay for the rest of it. Running the numbers you'll see I paid about $46 or so out-of-pocket money for the Collector's Edition (it would retail for $113 after taxes here). Obviously, I was perfectly happy with that as I was always looking forward to the game. I wasn't overly enamoured with the items in the Collector's as I really didn't think they were worth the extra $40, but I got it for a good price and it was a good thing to add to my collection.
A couple of weeks afterwards, my bud who runs EB tells me the Collector's Edition was completely gone and was pretty rare. Out of curiosity, I went on Ebay to see how much it went for. Turns out it was going for a bit of a premium, up to about $150. I had no intention of selling it as I wanted to play it but I was curious. But what I noticed while I was there was how much the Chrome Line Car Pack was going for. For those who don't know, the Collector's Edition game with a code to download 5 unique cars that were only available with that edition (it's actually just an unlock code as the cars are already within the game as far as I know). With 1000 cars, I really didn't care for it and wasn't really planning on using it. But it was going for $20 or more on Ebay which I thought was insane to pay for just a couple of extra cars but hey, to each his own.
So I put up my code which I would likely never use on Ebay in a 5-day auction. Amazingly, it went for $41.85 USD. After PayPal and Ebay fees, that's about $34 USD or $35 Cdn. For the hell of it, I took a look to see how much my EB/Gamestop pre-order promo card which allows you download 2 additional cars. It's going for upwards of $15. So I tossed mine up on Ebay and it's already at $5 with 1 day left, 6 watchers, and over 65 visits. I figure it'll go for about $10-15 at this rate. If that's the case, I'll probably net about $7-12 Cdn take home. That means selling two codes for 7 cars will net me between $42 and $47 Cdn, which is right around what I paid for the entire thing.
And that is basically how I'm going to end up getting my Gran Turismo 5 Collector's Edition for free. And to tie into our previous discussions, none of that would even be possible if I were to just digitally download the game. In the future I could probably sell my Collector's Edition for close to it's original asking price of $100 as well if current trends hold. Hard evidence of how having a physical copy (and, in this case, codes for digital downloads, giving them some real value) is monetarily advantageous to digital downloading.
During the course of the year (starting with Bioshock 2), EB has had numerous combinations of games with both Gameplay Guarantee (buy a game and return it within a week and get the full value of the game in in-store credit) and Trade 3 options and some with 50% Trade increase (trade a game in towards a select list and get an extra 50% in trade value) and Gameplay Guarantee options. I loved using that Gameplay Guarantee option 'cause other than Red Dead Redemption and Fallout New Vegas, it wasn't that hard to actually beat the games they had on there within a week. On average, I was able to essentially get $65+tax (total of just under $74) of trade credit for under $35 after taxes. That essentially getting in-store trade credit at about 45% of the cost. And I had built up a decent amount of it, more than enough for my needs.
Way back in March, I purchased 3 games for about $33 Cdn and traded them in for Gran Turismo 5 which had hit EB's trade 3 deal (trade 3, get it free) and was assumed to be coming out in the spring. I got $69.99 in trade value towards it. The Collector's Edition costs $99.99+tax, so I essentially needed to use up $30 of my credit to pay for the rest of it. Running the numbers you'll see I paid about $46 or so out-of-pocket money for the Collector's Edition (it would retail for $113 after taxes here). Obviously, I was perfectly happy with that as I was always looking forward to the game. I wasn't overly enamoured with the items in the Collector's as I really didn't think they were worth the extra $40, but I got it for a good price and it was a good thing to add to my collection.
A couple of weeks afterwards, my bud who runs EB tells me the Collector's Edition was completely gone and was pretty rare. Out of curiosity, I went on Ebay to see how much it went for. Turns out it was going for a bit of a premium, up to about $150. I had no intention of selling it as I wanted to play it but I was curious. But what I noticed while I was there was how much the Chrome Line Car Pack was going for. For those who don't know, the Collector's Edition game with a code to download 5 unique cars that were only available with that edition (it's actually just an unlock code as the cars are already within the game as far as I know). With 1000 cars, I really didn't care for it and wasn't really planning on using it. But it was going for $20 or more on Ebay which I thought was insane to pay for just a couple of extra cars but hey, to each his own.
So I put up my code which I would likely never use on Ebay in a 5-day auction. Amazingly, it went for $41.85 USD. After PayPal and Ebay fees, that's about $34 USD or $35 Cdn. For the hell of it, I took a look to see how much my EB/Gamestop pre-order promo card which allows you download 2 additional cars. It's going for upwards of $15. So I tossed mine up on Ebay and it's already at $5 with 1 day left, 6 watchers, and over 65 visits. I figure it'll go for about $10-15 at this rate. If that's the case, I'll probably net about $7-12 Cdn take home. That means selling two codes for 7 cars will net me between $42 and $47 Cdn, which is right around what I paid for the entire thing.
And that is basically how I'm going to end up getting my Gran Turismo 5 Collector's Edition for free. And to tie into our previous discussions, none of that would even be possible if I were to just digitally download the game. In the future I could probably sell my Collector's Edition for close to it's original asking price of $100 as well if current trends hold. Hard evidence of how having a physical copy (and, in this case, codes for digital downloads, giving them some real value) is monetarily advantageous to digital downloading.
I was there on that fateful day, were you?
