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 wrote just a few weeks ago that Gamestop has been jacking up the prices of Fire Emblem and Pikmin games due to their “posthumous” popularity via Super Smash Bros. Brawl. They’ve done it again; the original Pikmin just went from $19.99 to $24.99. (This game was $9.99 or less a year and a half ago.)

There’s a great coupon in this week’s Gamestop email newsletter — 25% off used PS2 games, limit 2. This is one of the best coupons that they offer once every few months. This coupon will stack with the Edge Card for a total of 35% off. Good only from June 6 to June 12. (You may want to print it directly from the Gamestop site, lest the wage slaves give you any hassles.)

Credit to dcyphr and jp0213 at Cheapass Gamer for finding it a day early.

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.

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.”
(more…)