CEX Credit to GS @387% + Final Destination Update
Call me crazy – call me a renegade – call me a loopholer who don’t play by the rules… Who makes up his own rules… Then plays by them.
*That* would be an accurate portrayal of todays post. CEX Credit into GS Credit… In order to continue fire fighting this giant fire sale… In order to get even more CEX credit.
It struck me the other day… I’m buying all these bits and pieces from GameStation (in my attempt to keep them afloat) and most of the time – I’m paying cash. Which, is good for the company – but I’m the mother-frigging-LoopHoler – I shouldn’t be paying cash.
Although the 10-day-return is being scrapped over the course of the administration – and (so I’m now told) it’s a 80% chance the PriceMatch is going too (certain stores – including my own – have already ‘held’ this – so its straight trades only)… There still must be room to make a few quid!?
In summarisation – Yes. Yes there is.
I was still sitting on my last horde of pre-website-shut-down (if you hadn’t noticed – the websites of Game Group have all been closed) goods as well as a boot full of other fire sale bits (every time I have a business meeting in a random part of England, ill venture to their GameStation to have a quick look round for titbits.
ALL cost me £1.98/£1.99 each
But before I decided to cash them in – I thought I would give the “losers” a quick re-scan at GameStation.
I’m talking the games that id stocked up on and the price had fallen at CEX.
Most surprising of them all was Strangehold. This is probably one of the oldest games I can remember playing on the Xbox – and if you look at my Gamerscore (which is automatically listed in “Date Played” order, Strangehold is right near the bottom – with Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo and the such).
*BUT* considering these are/were on the shelves of every Game/GameStation – as well as packed-to-the-rafters on their website for a mere 98p delivered (yes – delivered), and with a lowly trade of (something like) £1.10 at CEX – I was thinking that this gem of a classic couldn’t possibly hold much value.
I stand corrected (said the man in the orthopaedic shoes).
Stranglehold trades for £3.80 at GameStation? [jaw drop]
This game is freely available at CEX (and their website) for £2.00 – that’s nearly double your money from CEX to GS credit.
Seeing as all my CEX credit recently has been doubles (Arcania, EA Actives etc etc) then really, that £1.98 spend, that trades for £5.00 that could be turned into 2x copies of Strangehold (and have £1 change) could be traded for £7.60.
£1.98 to £7.60 + £1 CEX Credit change? 334% Profit?
This puts a new dimension on the Fire Sale. Unfortunately, my last bundle of credit notes are currently in the post to CEX Towers as we speak (eh, type) as its counteracting the £100+ order of BluRays I made the other day. But I am expecting a nice £40+ voucher in return (my change as I only £30~50 vouchers kicking around).
So I will be testing the water with other games too – see what they are looking like.
I appreciate the pessimists amongst the readers here will say that they are either A) Jumping up the prices, because they want as much tied up in Credit as possible for when they go pop – or B) They are simply trying to win people back and the rates will not last… But *IF* I’m spanking the credit instantly (which I am) then surely it’s a win/win?
Worth a look people!
How have people got on with the last loop? I myself have now managed to unload 4 lots of 5 Final Destination online – (5x BluRays posted 1st Recorded was costing me £3-something) and I’ve just managed to squeeze out my 6th (yes – count that up in your head) bundle of NINE into my local – and STILL the price is holding!?
More Arcania copies arrived – and found a Templar kicking around from a previous Loop.
Cash, Cash, Cash – its been crazy brilliant.
But here’s my update – as always, I strip the BluRays of anything that isn’t required. In this case, you don’t need the digital code – and they don’t specify that they need to have the Lenticular Outer Case (Slipcase).
So I’ve stuck those on eBay too – and at £1 a time, it just adds that little extra bonus on top.
Again, the pessimists and the abusers (when are you people going to realise that 1) I don’t respond to your harassment/abusive emails and 2) If you then write it as a comment on the bottom of a post – I just click delete as soon as I’ve read the first 4 or 5 abusive words. I’m not kidding – some of you seem to be spending *SO* much time writing these things that just get deleted?!) will say that there’s no point putting this sort of stuff on eBay because:
Selling at £1.99 (codes) means I will take a 10% ebay hit (20p) plus the standard 25p+3.5% PayPal Hit (32p) and the cost of postage (you can opt to email codes – but I find these are getting more and more easy to get your money back on as a large majority of people just say they didn’t receive it and without physical proof – you’re screwed – so add 43p postage on top.
This means for every code sold – I’m ‘netting’ about £1.04 (lol).
But – this is my defence:
They have cost me nothing. They are easy to send (slip in an envelope). If I don’t have time to go to the post office (which is unlikely as I always have bits and pieces to send) they can be sent in a post box – but you lose the proof of postage. Most importantly, they build up my eBay profile. Its all about percentages – so 1 cheap negative against (for example) 10 positives for £1,000+ sales – is still shown as 91% positive on your profile. If I can have 100 cheap and cheery 5-star positives on my profile – then this will keep my star count high – and maintain a good level of selling.
If you don’t really care about your eBay account – then you don’t really need to do any of this. If I realise that codes aren’t selling – I give them away to BookFace friends instead.
However, the lenticular cases do marginally better – as these are considered collectors items (to certain people).
I was banging these out at £1 + £1-something postage. Again, these passed as letters, so I think the postage was only 43p standard. So I was probably making £1 on them.
Which considering I’ve done so many – I must have 30 or 40 of these sitting on my shelf at home (I admit, I forget to take the cases on the first few bundles I done – and worse still – I forget to take out the codes of the last 18 I did in store!) 
But its all just little brucey bonuses. I keep all the money in my PayPal and then when I see something I want – I buy it – and when it comes to the “breakdown” it says something like £3.43 from Debit Card and £16.57 from Balance. Which always makes me smile that it stacks up like that (and you forget about it!)
Not sure how long the price is going to hold at CEX though. Its been on the website for a while now – and not moved, so people who think that they hawk this site are wrong (although id be foolish to think they didn’t scan it once in a while haha).
But with HMV express postage being so expensive – it makes me think twice.
Their returns policy is pretty sweet though (they have stopped doing exchanges and will *only* refund you cost), so without having done the returns policy myself for a while – I don’t know if its free post returns – but the thought of such “win” (£45 cash profit per 9) is still very tempting.
Ill have a think.
Loop signing out.
Put in my order for Final Destination at HMV a few days ago and I’m now ‘On special order with our suppliers’ according to the order details. Booooo!
That sucks.
I noticed Play.com are the naughtiest for doing that. As it will say “in stock” or “dispatched in 1-3 days” (or the equally as wishy-washy “dispatched in 1 week”) and I’ve had stuff stay “awaiting stock” for months!
I sent them an email ones highlighting and summarising the amount of orders I had (some id got up to over a YEAR on!) and made some jokes about “when will it arrive”, I didn’t get a reply – and all my orders just disappeared. Lol. So not Play.com’s greatest fan at all.
But still – stock on order isn’t great either at HMV – although that does mean the price is locked in and if it arrives – it will be for that price.
Again, its all a waiting game with CEX – but worse case scenario is that they go back for a refund (although they still aren’t ‘cheap’ anywhere else – so might be some potential for other outlets, PlayTrade, eBay etc – would have to weigh up costs on that one).
I just hope Amazon pricematch again haha.
30/40??
That is mental.
That’s £300-£400 paid out into £450-£600 cash, + £2 extra per Blu-Ray for the cover and code, so netting in between £510 and £680, for a £210 to £280 on just one item??
I say, without a doubt, that is a WIN. Who needs a job?
Unfortunately – I do – with a partner and child to provide for – plus the monstrous mortgage that I have – I DEFINITELY need my job.
What it should read as is “Who CANT afford to do this on the side” haha!
I’ve just tallied up my email confirmations/receipts – and it was 10 copies from Amazon, and (wait for it…) 36 from HMV (2 batches of 9 and an 18 – pictured above).
That was a £360 spend – and like Pete said – foolish to have taken credit on a £15/£16 split – so that returned £540.
I was tempted to sit on one to watch it – but then I thought – well… no. Because if I wanted to watch it – id just buy it again for £10.
I think the HMV price will hold a lot longer than the CEX one.
But that was £180 cash in the space of 2 weeks.
For all the abuse I’m going to get for making this “ridiculous” statement, next time I’m in my local CEX – I’m going to take a photo of the shelf.
It makes me chuckle every time I go in
Pardon my shocking maths – but I’ve just looked at my paying in slips from the week – and it was 46 copies I traded in to various CEX’s over the course of the two weeks (36xHMV/10xHMV)
I thought I had more money in the “LoopHoler Account” then the original £540-£360=£180 calculation.
It would have been £460 spend – so £690-£460=£230
Couple this with all the little wins that I surrounded it with (various Fire Sales as shown in the receipts above like Links Training + Zapper, Arcania – which was a nice double – plus a lot of “In-the-window” specials at Various Gamestations – lots of unboxed treasures like EA Active 1 & 2 on various platforms at £1.98)
It has been a brilliant couple of weeks for the LoopHoling community.
Take out the PriceMatching at GS – and this was a stone cold CEX straight deal.
Who says I “cant keep doing what I’m doing” now that GameStation/Game will be closing 287 stores.
That still leaves approximately 313 stores to chose from (fingers crossed my 2 locals are the ones that make the cut!)
PS Along with everyone saying “I told you so” about the collapse of Game Group (especially Game stores) I’m going to add that their customer service was awful. Not only do you all know – vividly painted by my words – of my distain/arse-ache and general grief I get from the staff – I recall writing GameStation head office THREE letters over the years.
All of which resulted in no reply.
I rang their complaints line once and that started all the who-har with the “Go in and speak to the manager” – yet my complaint – was ABOUT the manager.
“Hi there, id like to make a complaint”
“About who?”
“You.”
“Get out my store”.
I had exactly the same problem with the manager of my Game store. Told you about it in an earlier post on another deal, effectively ripped me off for £12, turned round and instantly blamed it on me not listening properly. I asked what his name was so I could register a complaint, he told me, but added that I would just be wasting my time as they wouldn’t do anything about it and they would trust him over me? :S
I phoned up customer services to make a complaint as you can’t really register the complaint with the manager: they aren’t going to be motivated to pass this complaint any higher.. I didn’t get any trouble with “Go and speak to the manager”, because I told them it was the manager. Person I talked to was polite and told me that they would follow up the complaint and asked for a number to contact me on with the result. Not heard from them since…
As to stores closing. Luckily my Gamestation is staying where it is, even though it is fairly close to a Game store. One of the Game stores is closing down though, understandably the really big one. (Must be a killer rent bill) They don’t really have any more games that the smaller ones anyway, so pointless to have the shop so big.
Northampton is losing it’s Game store in the city centre: 17 Abingdon Street. Milton Keynes is losing it’s Game in the city centre too: Unit SU 10, Midsumer Place.
Think they are targeting all of the Game stores for closure, not surprised.
What you said about the shelf in your CEX made me laugh, brings back memories of walking around my local seeing all of the Loops I’ve done over the past month or two. The AC/DC was the best, had about 30 on the shelf directly in front of the door.
Take a picture for us if you get the time, next time you’re in. Want to see exactly how good it looks.
Wow, I’m not surprised at all.
Spookily though – the Game Manager was in the GameStation store room the other day… I’m assuming that matey-boy and the Manageress of GameStation (who hates me) are actually married.
Game is always dead – as with MK too. Game is dead – GameStation is busier – but with the arrival of CEX (about 18 feet away from GS) its killed the pair of them.
The gutting this is – when one store has 50+ copies (for example) and other stores have none, if ever they get an internal transfer to another store – most of the time, they will siphon off copies to alleviate their own shelves and spread sales). But I’m hoping they’re still there.
I remember Full Metal Alchemist – the shelf was CRAZY. There’s only about 8 shelves dedicated to BluRay – and it was the entire bottom 2 shelves.
If its been announced about the closers – then I think I might attempt to drive by after work today – might as well stick my nose in – would be rude not to.
I know there must be “Other Operatives” in my area – as we also have about 10+ AC/DC on our shelves haha!
That, or the store that you hammered for it – transferred some over here!
Lol, having a quick look – and fat chance of Amazon price matching.
When they did do it – it lasted… One day haha!
http://charts.camelcamelcamel.com/uk/B00594N12G/amazon.png?force=1&zero=0&w=725&h=440&desired=false&legend=1&ilt=1&tp=all&fo=0
Here’s a list of the Game/Gamestation stores that are closing as well: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/341609/game-gamestation-complete-277-store-closure-list/