I was hunting for clearance video games at Kmart this week when something strange happened…

A woman (who appeared to be the store manager) went through the store handing out raffle tickets, promising a giveaway at the jewelry counter. Once the customers gathered around for the “giveaway,” we were instead subjected to a 5 minute sales pitch for really cheap (and cheap looking) “gold” jewelry at a “special price” of $21 for 4 necklaces and 4 bracelets.

At first, she claimed to be taking a “survey” of whether the audience liked each piece or not. I’m pretty sure the survey was just a ruse of social engineering to get people thinking about whether they would like to own each piece. That’s when the “special” sale came in.

The woman claimed it was some kind of partnership with the Home Shopping Network (dubious!) and after we all endured the soft sell of standing in place for several minutes, the giveaway was for one of the bracelets (big deal).

This was obviously not Kmart’s usual jewelry, as the woman literally dumped the stuff into ziplock bags before selling it. You stay classy, Kmart.

I’m amazed that Kmart thinks this is better for business than, oh, say, having more than one checkout open at any given time.

My recommendation is if you get a raffle ticket while in Kmart, just ignore it, because it’s really not worth your time.

Anyway, the whole thing smacked of something scammy, and I’m really curious to know if anyone else has seen one of these pitches in a Kmart recently. If you have, please leave a comment. For the record, this was at the Kmart in Hagerstown, Md., on Wednesday, Sept. 3, around 4 pm.

And as for games, I picked up Square Enix’s Project Sylpheed (Xbox 360) on clearance for $10. I also saw Nights for the Wii on clearance for $10 but left it behind.

I love Amazon to bits, but I can’t help but shake my head at this… Their scratch ‘n’ dent discount site Warehouse Deals is selling an original model PS2 with “cosmetic blemishes” (read: scratches, dings, dents, or who knows what else) for the low, low bargain basement price of $133.13. And that doesn’t even include the original box. But hey, shipping is free.

Maybe they can dig me up a dirty N64 for 10% off MSRP?

It appears that anti-Gamestop site Preorder Pushers is offline for good. The last update on the blog was a photo of a sand-filled African ghost town, with a caption that read something like, “This blog is now just a ghost town.”

It was lacking in updates in recent months, but I’m sad to see it go. The ‘net needs more vocal unhappy customers if we are ever going to get Gamestop to change some of its more unsavory policies (gutting new games, preorder pushing, stickers directly on cover inserts, etc., etc.).

I saw Apollo Justice today at Game Crazy with a new price tag of $19.99, probably the lowest I’ve seen it anywhere.

On a side note, this was at the Frederick, MD, store, where they recently expanded to about half of the total floor space with Hollywood Video. I was extremely disappointed to see that they have now gutted ALL of their new games and put them out on the floor. As a collector, it made me sick, and the last thing I want is for Game Crazy to become another Gamestop with their practices.

I know it’s for higher “visibility of the product” or whatever, but I don’t care. I guess if I want a sealed game, I’ll have to take my business to Best Buy/Wal-Mart/Amazon now.

You wouldn’t buy an opened DVD from Best Buy, so why is this an acceptable practice for video games?

(I would say “you wouldn’t buy opened food from the supermarket,” but that’s taking it too far, even for my rhetoric.)

Gamestop just got wise to the fact that Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance is becoming one of the most sought-after Gamecube titles, perhaps due to the recent Wii sequel, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. They just raised the used price by 50%, from $19.99 to $29.99.

The fact that Fire Emblem is becoming such a hot collectible is especially interesting if you remember that Nintendo cut the retail MSRP to $14.99 just before it went out of print. In the past year, Gamestop’s used price has jumped from $12.99 to $17.99, then to $19.99, and finally to $30.

This isn’t the only ascending price at your local Gamestop — they recently jacked Pikmin up to $19.99 and Pikmin 2 up to $39.99, due almost soley to Captain Olimar’s newfound popularity in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Here’s a Consumerist-style one for you.

Dick’s Pawn is one of my favorite places to visit in Myrtle Beach… just be sure to remember your elementary math. 5 DVDs for $12 or 10 for $25… hmm, I wonder how much 20 DVDs would cost. $60 maybe? Sounds like a deal to me!

I shouldn’t complain too much, because here’s what I got for my $12:

• Vampire Hunter D Special Edition
• Peter Pan (Disney)
• Castle in the Sky (Ghibli/Disney)
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney, out of print)
• Microsoft Office Student and Teacher Edition 2003 ($100-$200 on eBay)

I witnessed a rather frustrating occurence over Black Friday weekend at Gamestop, which, thankfully, did not happen to me.

A middle-aged man was buying some used games for his young son. The cashier was a jolly looking older man who earlier described himself as a retired college professor who “loves video games too much.” The cashier asked the customer if he had the Edge card, Gamestop’s 10% off discount card for used games. It costs $15 per annum and also gets you a subscription to the Gamestop-owned magazine Game Informer, which tells you which games you should be buying at Gamestop. No editorial conflict of interest there, no.

The customer presented his card, and after the cashier squinted at it, he responded, “I’m sorry, but I don’t think you can use your card today. The ink has rubbed off on it. You’ll have to bring in your address label with your account number on it to get your discount.”
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