I recently stumbled across an interesting site, StopGameStop.com, with an even more interesting goal: to divert visitors’ gaming funds away from the GS’stoppo and into local mom ‘n’ pop stores — or any other retailer, for that matter.

It sure is fun to hate on Gamestop lately. After all, there’s a laundry list of legitimate gripes against the mega chain: Selling opened games as new, poor employee wages, harassing customers into preorders, and, the worst crime for some game hoarders — putting *gasp* stickers directly on paper inserts. Hey, we’re OC about these things.

Personally, my biggest problem with the chain is a lack of surprise. I like to be surprised either by price or selection when I shop. If you find a used copy of, say, Ico on the PS2, it’s going to be $19.99 no matter if you found it in Maine or California, regardless of condition.

fye, on the other hand, is my favorite place to rummage for used games. fye is strict on having complete titles in excellent condition. While selection is YMMV, there are often gems to be found — Fatal Frame on PS2 for $14.99, anyone?

The gist behind StopGameStop is to upload a scan of your receipt from any other retailer as a protest against Gamestop.

I want to support this site — really — but the truth is that the process of scanning a receipt is just too laborious. As much as I’d like to stick it to Gamestop once in awhile, dragging out my flatbed scanner to show them how much I spent at Amazon just isn’t going to do that.

So while I admire the site’s goal, I don’t feel as if I can be bothered to participate. (Also, the code is a bit buggy and could probably use a slight makeover.) But if it sounds like your kind of thing, have at it, and best of luck to the site.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 11th, 2007 at 7:18 pm and is filed under Other sites. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.