GameStop to Sell PC Hardware

Krenum

Krenum

Fully [H]
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Apr 29, 2005
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Finally. Gamestop grew a brain.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/gamestop-to-sell-pc-hardware-including-rtx-3000-graphics-cards

"Desperate customers looking to own an RTX 3000 series graphics card might want to keep tabs on GameStop. The video game retailer is starting to sell PC hardware, including GPUs and laptops.

In a Tuesday earnings call, GameStop CEO George Sherman said the company will expand its product catalog. “This includes growing our product offerings across PC gaming, computers, monitors, game tables, mobile gaming, and gaming TVs to name only a few,” he said".

* "The retailer plans on featuring the PC hardware on a dedicated page at GameStop.com/PCGaming, which will also sell desktop PCs".
 
Derangel said:
Seems less like growing a brain and more like desperately grasping onto anything to postpone the inevitable.
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Yup!

It didn't save Radioshack when they started carrying Non-Tandy PC hardware, and it won't save Gamestop. You have way too many other choices to buy PC hardware locally (with better stock), or online.

Gamestop can at-least make a case for it's existence selling consoles and games, but for PCs you need to be a super-store to make any profit on it.
 
defaultluser said:
It didn't save Radioshack when they started carrying Non-Tandy PC hardware, and it won't save Gamestop. You have way too many other choices to buy PC hardware locally (with better stock), or online.
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It may. Back then, computers were much more of a niche market. They are wildly more popular now.
 
I feel like this sort of decision doesn't even require a brain cell. Two feet of vertical space, and you can fit probably two of each brand of top tier video cards, or the whole stack of two top brands. Another foot would cover the CPUs that you might consider for a serious gaming system...
 
deruberhanyok said:
where the heck do you live where this is true?
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What the fuck, did you swap out your old brain for a new one, and forget to reimage?

Just the major national chains within an hour of me off the top of my head:

https://www.walmart.com/cp/computer-components/1073804

https://www.staples.com/Computer-Parts-Components/cat_CG1272

https://www.target.com/c/computer-components-computers-office-electronics/-/N-kpf5z?Nao=0

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/computers-pcs/computer-cards-components/abcat0507000.c?id=abcat0507000

https://www.microcenter.com/

https://www.officedepot.com/a/browse/computer-cards-and-components/N=5+1461921/

https://www.costco.com/computers.html

As long as you're willing to forgive stores having less selection than a Microcenter, you can take care of most of your computer component needs at any one pf these places (and find tons of prebuilt pcs).

There is no fucking way Gamestop will be able to compete with the massive size of any of these megastores. so they will fail just like Ratshack.
 
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If they can somehow become a micro version of microcenter they will do well. If they're going to try and sell large slow movers like desks, complete systems and tvs? They will fail miserably.
 
the local store was going out of business so I popped in. They had 3 cooler master cases for 60% off. Like $20 for a masterbox q300l. I almost bought one, but I really have no use for another case.
 
hititnquitit said:
If they can somehow become a micro version of microcenter they will do well. If they're going to try and sell large slow movers like desks, complete systems and tvs? They will fail miserably.
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And since no one has managed to pull that off in the 40 years it's been around, may I say just how unlikely that is?

Going all-in like Microcenter would mean ditching the current sales judgement system for something more redeeming (commissions) I think that is as likely to happen inside a Gamestop store as pigs flying :LOL:

You can't get people as helpful as MC employees if you rule over them with daily threats of expulsion every day, and there's n fucking way GC b broken corporate culture is ever going to fix itself that much!
 
defaultluser said:
What the fuck, did you swap out your old brain for a new one, and forget to reimage?

Just the major national chains within an hour of me off the top of my head:

https://www.walmart.com/cp/computer-components/1073804

https://www.staples.com/Computer-Parts-Components/cat_CG1272

https://www.target.com/c/computer-components-computers-office-electronics/-/N-kpf5z?Nao=0

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/computers-pcs/computer-cards-components/abcat0507000.c?id=abcat0507000

https://www.microcenter.com/

https://www.officedepot.com/a/browse/computer-cards-and-components/N=5+1461921/

https://www.costco.com/computers.html

As long as you're willing to forgive stores having less selection than a Microcenter, you can take care of most of your computer component needs at any one pf these places (and find tons of prebuilt pcs).

There is no fucking way Gamestop will be able to compete with the massive size of any of these megastores. so they will fail just like Ratshack.
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I've yet to see any Target carry gaming computer components. Maybe 2-3 types of gaming keyboards of mice is about it. Obviously their webstore has more. They do have some prebuilt gaming laptops, maybe a tower or two locally. Office Depot/Staples are pretty much going out of business, at least around here. Selection varies from nothing at all (aside from laptops) to a few gaming brand keyboards/mice. Maybe a very few other things.

Really around here, now that Frys is gone, is Best Buy and maybe small local computer stores.

All that being said, Gamestop is dying. PC hardware can't save them.
 
Flogger23m said:
I've yet to see any Target carry gaming computer components. Maybe 2-3 types of gaming keyboards of mice is about it. Obviously their webstore has more. They do have some prebuilt gaming laptops, maybe a tower or two locally. Office Depot/Staples are pretty much going out of business, at least around here. Selection varies from nothing at all (aside from laptops) to a few gaming brand keyboards/mice. Maybe a very few other things.

Really around here, now that Frys is gone, is Best Buy and maybe small local computer stores.

All that being said, Gamestop is dying. PC hardware can't save them.
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Right, if you think Target's pc hardware selection is shitty, you should try and imagine how much worse a store the size of GameStop would be.

You need to be huge to be competitive in local pc retail.
 
ChadD said:
I can only see this working for them if people can trade their 6 month old GPUs in for 1/20th of their value.
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Might be a legit option. A local boutique here does exactly that and they make bank off the used parts on ebay.
 
cybereality said:
Gamer: "I got this 3060 Ti I'm looking to sell"
GameStop: "Best I can do is two fiddy"
Gamer: "Two hundred fifty, yeah, I can work with that"
GameStop: "No, $2.50"
Gamer: "..."
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Hahahaha!

You know. That right there may be the reason why they got into PC hardware, looking at their scummy history.
 
Krenum said:
Finally. Gamestop grew a brain.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/gamestop-to-sell-pc-hardware-including-rtx-3000-graphics-cards

"Desperate customers looking to own an RTX 3000 series graphics card might want to keep tabs on GameStop. The video game retailer is starting to sell PC hardware, including GPUs and laptops.

In a Tuesday earnings call, GameStop CEO George Sherman said the company will expand its product catalog. “This includes growing our product offerings across PC gaming, computers, monitors, game tables, mobile gaming, and gaming TVs to name only a few,” he said".

* "The retailer plans on featuring the PC hardware on a dedicated page at GameStop.com/PCGaming, which will also sell desktop PCs".
Click to expand...

Flashback to when I worked for Software Etc. (one of the precursors) 20 some years ago and we sold all manner of hardware. Glad you guys figured out that one Gamestop :rolleyes: (Electtronics Boutique, another predecessor, of the same vintage sold all manner of hardware as well plus my Duke Nukem Forver presale from 1997 which I was shocked to find in the system after the companies merged and I started working there. It had been 2 years....who kept presale that long! Then the game came out in 2011 and the damn presale was still there........).
 
[Spectre] said:
Flashback to when I worked for Software Etc. (one of the precursors) 20 some years ago and we sold all manner of hardware. Glad you guys figured out that one Gamestop :rolleyes: (Electtronics Boutique, another predecessor, of the same vintage sold all manner of hardware as well plus my Duke Nukem Forver presale from 1997 which I was shocked to find in the system after the companies merged and I started working there. It had been 2 years....who kept presale that long! Then the game came out in 2011 and the damn presale was still there........).
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Yeah that Duke Nukem really stayed true to its name.

I really miss Software Ect. I used to go to the one in Texas near the Northeast Mall in the DFW area, the manager there was cool, older guy. It was connected to a book store so you could get your PC Gamer or whatever PC magazine you read, then walk right through to Software Ect. I remember them having all sorts of PC hardware, from graphics card to soundcards, keyboards mice whatever, in the end they started to sell more pop culture type products (toys & figurines) and I knew that they didn't have long left, Good times. I miss seeing all those game boxes lining the walls. It was like going to a PC game library. It was a great store to nerd out on. :) I never once felt that way about Gamestop, I always wanted to get out of the store as quick as I could.

Maybe this will be some sort of turning point for Gamestop, although I highly doubt it. I've never had any of their employees give the the feeling they actually like their job or are interested in their customers other than getting their money or pre orders. We shall see.
 
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Given how few outlets there are for this thing locally, it could work. However, Gamestop needed to get into this years ago. At this point, I don't know if they can stop the bleeding before they are too far gone. Hell, the company might be to far gone as it is.
 
Dan_D said:
Given how few outlets there are for this thing locally, it could work. However, Gamestop needed to get into this years ago. At this point, I don't know if they can stop the bleeding before they are too far gone. Hell, the company might be to far gone as it is.
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They were in it years ago...........
 
Dan_D said:
Given how few outlets there are for this thing locally, it could work. However, Gamestop needed to get into this years ago. At this point, I don't know if they can stop the bleeding before they are too far gone. Hell, the company might be to far gone as it is.
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They need to radically restructure. All the way down to how their employees treat customers, to how they deal with used items. Basically IMO the company needs to shed its old self and start anew. Something along the lines of a Microcenter, but focused on games, hardware and outstanding customer service, without selling any of the pop culture crap you see filling stores these days. Does that stuff really sell?
 
ChadD said:
I can only see this working for them if people can trade their 6 month old GPUs in for 1/20th of their value.
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That would be a legit great idea, at least in bigger markets. But, they would have to drastically change how they handle trade-ins. They'd need stores big enough to allow them to test hardware and employees capable of doing it.
 
Krenum said:
They need to radically restructure. All the way down to how their employees treat customers, to how they deal with used items. Basically IMO the company needs to shed its old self and start anew. Something along the lines of a Microcenter, but focused on games, hardware and outstanding customer service, without selling any of the pop culture crap you see filling stores these days. Does that stuff really sell?
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I bought a real nice pokemon shirt there before. Was tempted to get a PSOne mug too, but decided to pass on the (really nice looking) chinese lead-painted ornament.
 
[Spectre] said:
They were in it years ago...........
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I don't ever really remember them selling anything other than PC games and peripherals. At least any of the ones I've been to.

I mean, I think I remember they used to sell sound cards back in the day when you needed a sound card to plug in a joystick, but that was because they were selling joysticks, not PC components; that was also back when they were Electronics Boutique. IIRC they also sold whole computers and upgrade components, but it's not like you were going there to custom build a PC.
 
If they had stock of hot PC items, it could work. There is nothing computer-wise around me. Only Best Buy and that's it.

So if GameStop really had a selection, I would consider driving there but honestly I don't see it really. Closest GameStop by me is in the mall, and the store is a hole in the wall.
 
[Spectre] said:
They were in it years ago...........
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I recall GameStop having PC games, but the hardware section was pretty scant. Hard to remember clearly, but if they did have video cards it was the equivalent of GT 210. Not anything anyone would seriously want to buy.

What I do remember is the last PC game I bought there before they went console only. It the the Alone in the Dark 2008 remake. When I went to the counter the buy it, the clerk even said "Don't buy this game. It sucks." I bought it anyway (I like bad games).
 
I bought my daughter a barbie video game at Meijer for...hell i dont even remember what console its been so long. PS1, n64 maybe? Anyhow she hated it. So i took it to this brand new store called Gamestop figuring id get a couple bucks for it. They hadnt even computerized their buy/sell lists yet. The kid looked up the price on a piece of paper. They gave me $60 cash for a game i paid $15 for. The store i bought it from was 100 yards behind them. Of course i RAN back to Meijer and bought the last dusty 4 or 5 copies they had and made a killing that day.
They would hand out copies of their wanted list as an incentive to build up stock. So we would go to every store in town and price check. Word got around quick until they got wise but for a couple of weeks my college friends and i made up for their future offenses a bit.
 
All of those shops are around me, too, defaultluser , and with exception to Microcenter the options at them are all the same. Keyboards, mice, laptops and prebuilts. And random USB flash drives and hard drives. I have occasionally seen video cards at Best Buy. And the Office Depot type stores are reliable for network cards and USB CD drives. Sometimes they have DVD drives!

Not near enough to build a PC, unless these high prices have changed the definition of “build a PC” to “buy a prebuilt and add an external hard drive to it”.

I guess that counts as being able to buy PC hardware locally, technically, but there’s no option other than Microcenter for me if I actually want to get parts to build a PC.

That’s pretty cool that your Target sells processors and RAM though. I don’t think the ones near me even have a computer section, just half an aisle with some laptops over by the TVs.
 
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I used to go to FuncoLand. That was before GameStop, you could buy/sell used consoles and games. Had a lot of fun times there, especially as a kid I was broke, so I could fund my console purchases by selling the last gen with all games.
 
Krenum said:
They need to radically restructure. All the way down to how their employees treat customers, to how they deal with used items. Basically IMO the company needs to shed its old self and start anew. Something along the lines of a Microcenter, but focused on games, hardware and outstanding customer service, without selling any of the pop culture crap you see filling stores these days. Does that stuff really sell?
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It does and the margins were, at least when I worked there, ridiculous. New games we would sell at $49.99 with a unit cost of around $47.99. That's why we had used game, margins way higher than that. The closest they ever were would be $5 from a new game. But that margin difference was way higher. Some stuff would be more than 500% especially on vintage games.

Then there were the accessories. Branded products had a margin of about $4 a piece while the "off brand" Madcatz kind of stuff was closer to $7 a unit.

Or the publications. We did not actually buy the inventory on PcGamer or whatnot. We had zero store cost on those. If we sold a copy they got a payment from of us that was less than 1/10 of the sale price and we kept the rest. However, we dumped more than 90% of that inventory in our clearance bins because we never sold it.

Then there was the used console and accessories game. We paid a very low cost on consoles because they were all crap. People think we paid crap trade in numbers because it was how we could screw people. No, we paid crap because people traded in crap. We wrote down so much used inventory that it was insane we stayed in business. I swear our MBAs were idiots and underestimated the amount of shit we took in by orders of magnitude.

But, all that said......that is part and just part...of why Madden 2020 is $47.99 used when Madden 2020 is $49.99 new.
 
cybereality said:
I recall GameStop having PC games, but the hardware section was pretty scant. Hard to remember clearly, but if they did have video cards it was the equivalent of GT 210. Not anything anyone would seriously want to buy.

What I do remember is the last PC game I bought there before they went console only. It the the Alone in the Dark 2008 remake. When I went to the counter the buy it, the clerk even said "Don't buy this game. It sucks." I bought it anyway (I like bad games).
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GT210 is about a decade later than when I worked there and can ateast to the companies business practices as a member of corporate management.
 
defaultluser said:
Right, if you think Target's pc hardware selection is shitty, you should try and imagine how much worse a store the size of GameStop would be.

You need to be huge to be competitive in local pc retail.
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Gamestop in the recent past was better than the Targets at least locally. EVGA GPUs and the like. Targets have nothing like that.
 
It's like someone from GameStop is listening because selling PC hardware was one of my suggestions. That and retro consoles but I don't think their stores have enough room for all that.
 
They need to close about half their stores and then convert their remaining ones into mini Microcenters spread out throughout the country. Make most purchases online with in-store pickup to make most efficient use of space. 3-5 knowledgable employees at each store including tech support. The future is working from home for many industries now, having these types of mini tech stores spread out throughout the country would be very beneficial.
 
You already have to become a preferred member with gamestop to buy a ps5/series x, hard to find gpus will follow suit. At least it may gate some of the scalpers out.
 
The success of Microcenter indicates this could be a winner if they do it right. Anyone saying there are already good PC retail alternatives dont live in a city without a MC. There are more urban centers without a MC than there are with one. Gamestop, on the other hand, has multiple locations in every urban center right now. If they get focused, and carry the right products then they could have a chance.
 
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