DEAD: Madden NFL 2004 for PC - $14.88 @ Target (B&M only) - hotter if OOS!

[Fingolfin269]

Originally posted by: leonc

Originally posted by: Fingolfin269
I think some of you are simply missing the 'big picture'. Most of you could really care less about Madden 2004 for the PC right? Yet, you had no problem going in and taking advantage of a great customer service offer MULTIPLE times. As I said previously, I have no problem at all with someone doing it once. Hell, I did it once.

So did you originally intend to buy Madden 2003 and go to Target because you saw the ad?

It's Madden 2004 (irony?), and yes I did. I actually saw it in the ad and decided to go get it. I had no idea about the raincheck policy until then. Great game btw... too bad most of you 'missed' it. Some of the coaching changes are pretty neat this year. You can actually train your players in the off-season!

Or did you read the post about getting 63% off and do it when you saw that post? I think you did the same thing as others and are now just bitching because you didn't do more than 1 and have regrets now about what might have been.

Don't make assumptions about what motivates other people. It just ends up making you look arrogant, and based on the fact that I'm the only one knows why I wrote what I wrote it also makes you look pretty stupid. If you want to 'play psychologist' then go to ifriends or something.

The fact that both customer service and cashiers in electronics offered more than 1 without being asked means that they don't consider multiple substitutions with a raincheck abuse.

This apparently only happened at certain stores. Read the thread. It also only means that those customer service reps and cashiers in electronics felt that way... it does not mean that people at Target's corporate office felt that way. It's no different than some of us not considering multiple subs w/ a rc abuse while others do think it's abuse.

If the policy goes away, it goes away, but I am not going to regret not having used the policy while it was here.

I'm sure you won't. After all, we don't even know about the deals until they appear here, right? How can you regret something if you never see it in the first place? Now that this has happened once it will happen again and eventually this extremely rare 'customer centric' policy will be gone.

Anyway, I'm not sure if you read the entire thread. Perhaps if you had you wouldn't have accused me of basically 'being jealous' because someone else bought 4000 copies of Windows XP and I wasn't smart enough to do so myself. All I have is a copy of Madden 2004 and an unused RC.

 

[Flexicon]

The Big Picture, imo, is that games are waaaaay overpriced and have been for a long, long time... just like cds, concert tickets, and other forms of popular entertainment. The fact that so many people went out and bought multiple games during this deal might be indicative that WE CONSUMERS have been taken advantage of. Let's hope the retailers get a clue and adjust the price point of all videogames so that they can make an honest profit and we can enjoy our games without feeling exploited by their greed.

I don't feel any more guilty for using this RC policy to my advantage than Target feels guilty when some poor sap doesn't use his $50.00 giftcard that grandma gave him. Give me a break! They're wiping their tears with hundred dollar bills.

Originally posted by: Fingolfin269
I think some of you are simply missing the 'big picture'. Most of you could really care less about Madden 2004 for the PC right? Yet, you had no problem going in and taking advantage of a great customer service offer MULTIPLE times. As I said previously, I have no problem at all with someone doing it once. Hell, I did it once. But, the big picture here is that if every one of us here, at FW, at HardOCP, at "Insert Deal Site Here" actually grabbed 18 RC's each and took advantage of this 'omgphatlewt' deal, then more than likely the RC policy will change.

I guess my beef is that too many people simply think of themselves and don't think of the collective 'big picture' when it comes to this stuff.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Oh, you're right. Retailers make SOOOO much money from box sales of computer games.

/sarcasm off

Now, if you had said that retailers were ripping us off for accessory items like printer cables, component video cables, ANY KIND OF CABLE, etc. then yah I would definately agree with you.

 

[tennisflip]

Originally posted by: Flexicon
The Big Picture, imo, is that games are waaaaay overpriced and have been for a long, long time... just like cds, concert tickets, and other forms of popular entertainment. The fact that so many people went out and bought multiple games during this deal might be indicative that WE CONSUMERS have been taken advantage of. Let's hope the retailers get a clue and adjust the price point of all videogames so that they can make an honest profit and we can enjoy our games without feeling exploited by their greed.

I don't feel any more guilty for using this RC policy to my advantage than Target feels guilty when some poor sap doesn't use his $50.00 giftcard that grandma gave him. Give me a break! They're wiping their tears with hundred dollar bills.

[/quote]

Haven't game prices gone down? I remember back in the day when Super Nintendo games cost ~$60. If you just look in the right stores at the right time, i.e Best Buy, you can get a brand new game for only $35.

 

[Flexicon]

From fairplay-campaign.co.uk:

"The average figure for a game these days is around £1 million, and can rise much higher for certain titles.) But the cost of development has nothing to do with retail price. Albums can cost tens of millions of pounds to record, but you can still buy them for £11. Movies can cost hundreds of millions of pounds to make, but you can still see them for £5 or buy them for £15. Movies which only cost a few thousand pounds to make (like The Blair Witch Project) aren't any cheaper to see or buy than super-expensive blockbusters (like Titanic, which cost literally hundreds of times as much as Blair Witch). Books cost almost nothing to write, but sell for similar prices to albums.

What does all this show us? That the cost of development has no bearing whatsoever on retail price.

...99% of the cost of making videogames comes in the development of the game's computer code, which is an up-front cost. Once the game is written, the cost of producing more copies to sell is tiny - a few pennies each (except for the licence fee mentioned above). So there's basically no limit to how low the price can be set, as long as each reduction brings about a proportionate increase in sales. It's not a matter of cost, it's purely an economic policy decision by the publisher. "

Read the entire thing here. Fingolfin269, you can continue to overpay for your videogames all you want, but when an opportunity presents itself where the price is compatible to what I and many others want to pay, we'll buy more games. It's as simple as that.

Originally posted by: Fingolfin269
Oh, you're right. Retailers make SOOOO much money from box sales of computer games.

/sarcasm off

Now, if you had said that retailers were ripping us off for accessory items like printer cables, component video cables, ANY KIND OF CABLE, etc. then yah I would definately agree with you.

 

[carmann]

D@mn Fingolfin269, let it go already :| You already said you think it was wrong that people took advantage of Target. Others don't feel the same and nothing you say is gonna change that.

 

[Slickone]

Originally posted by: carmann
I wouldn't even call buying XP abuse. If the employee/Mgr said it was ok, how is this abuse?

I didn't buy XP but I did buy Office 2003. I asked the electronics Supervisor about the substitution and she said pick ANY computer software you want. When I took Office up to her, she said it was fine because it was from the same dept and she was only doing what the raincheck said. She had absolutely no qualms about taking 63% off.

Your right. I forgot about the 63% off (all my games were $14.88). I was only talking about XP for $14.88 (which some got).

 

[Winchester]

They did not get XP for $14.88, they got it for $199.99 - 63% =$73.63 . If they did get it for $14.88 then it is the Manager's fault for not typing in the correct percentage off.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Flex,

You're right that games themselves are overpriced. My major beef with your statement was that you said that it is the retailer's fault, when in fact the retailer is the last in line to actually make money. The main cost blame actually falls back to the developers, or someone else earlier in the 'chain', and not the retailers themselves. I do have one problem with this article :

"Fair Play's belief, supported by most of the industry, is that there's no reason whatsoever that games should cost more than, say, DVD movies, ie £15-£20. Any figure above that is still a con on the public."

That's just sheer propaganda. Comparing a DVD movie to a video game is an apples to oranges comparison. A person might go out and buy an average 75 year old movie tomorrow for $29.99. How many games are there from the early '90s that you would go pay $29.99 for? See, DVD's can have value forever, while a games value is short-lived due to technological improvements. But, I guess this discussion probably needs to end here because it could really take up its own thread in another forum.

Car,

You're right of course. I had totally intended to let it drop until someone decided to 'play psychologist' on me. This is definately one of those subjects where arguing with someone on the other side is actually like arguing with a wall because neither side will ever budge.

 

[Sesopedalian]

Thanks again sk3tch for what gets my very early vote for the "deal of the year." I will have fond memories of Target employees staring transfixed at the RC, desperately forming some obtuse and tangential logic in order to tell me what it says is not actually what it means. That a TV for a TV, a shirt for a shirt, a doll for a doll, could not possibly be extrapolated to mean "game for a game." Contrary to what others have expressed, I don't think this behavior results from supidity. I think it occurs simply because they don't want people TO GET THE DEAL. They are the ones who should be ashamed of themselves.

 

[Flexicon]

Just because the retailers are the last in line to get their cut doesn't mean that they aren't partially to blame for the inflated prices; they're making a healthy chunk of change or they would bother to sell them. But you're right in that my previous post sounded like I was laying most of the blame on them when in fact high game prices ( and cds and concert tickets, etc) are the result of many people's greed. That goes without saying.

And, like I said before, they abuse their own policies to take advantage of people who don't redeem their giftcards for various reasons: some people lose them, others leave them sitting in a drawer somewhere and are charged bogus fees for non-use, or maybe they don't like what the store has to offer, but are denied a cash refund, etc. Approximately 10% of giftcards are never redeemed and retailers like Target use this "store policy" to their advantage. This adds up to about 4 Billion dollars a year in free profit. So forgive me if I don't lose any sleep over bargain hunters scoring a good deal on some overpriced videogames. Cheers! :beer:

 

[Flexicon]

Oh, and your statement that "dvd movies have value forever while a game's value is short-lived due to technological improvements" is just plain ridiculous. Ever hear of videotapes? People had to buy them back in the dinosaur days before dvds were invented. I ain't no Madame Cleo, but I'll go out on a limb here and predict that dvds and dvd players will go the way of the videotape and vcr someday in favor of other, technically superior products.

Originally posted by: Fingolfin269
Flex,

You're right that games themselves are overpriced. My major beef with your statement was that you said that it is the retailer's fault, when in fact the retailer is the last in line to actually make money. The main cost blame actually falls back to the developers, or someone else earlier in the 'chain', and not the retailers themselves. I do have one problem with this article :

"Fair Play's belief, supported by most of the industry, is that there's no reason whatsoever that games should cost more than, say, DVD movies, ie £15-£20. Any figure above that is still a con on the public."

That's just sheer propaganda. Comparing a DVD movie to a video game is an apples to oranges comparison. A person might go out and buy an average 75 year old movie tomorrow for $29.99. How many games are there from the early '90s that you would go pay $29.99 for? See, DVD's can have value forever, while a games value is short-lived due to technological improvements. But, I guess this discussion probably needs to end here because it could really take up its own thread in another forum.

Car,

You're right of course. I had totally intended to let it drop until someone decided to 'play psychologist' on me. This is definately one of those subjects where arguing with someone on the other side is actually like arguing with a wall because neither side will ever budge.

 

[nikkai]

Originally posted by: Flexicon
Oh, and your statement that "dvd movies have value forever while a game's value is short-lived due to technological improvements" is just plain ridiculous. Ever hear of videotapes? People had to buy them back in the dinosaur days before dvds were invented. I ain't no Madame Cleo, but I'll go out on a limb here and predict that dvds and dvd players will go the way of the videotape and vcr someday in favor of other, technically superior products.

Originally posted by: Fingolfin269
Flex,


Like through games played in your cereal bowl while you eat. The future is now!

=D

The past threads have seriously been off-topic of the deal itself. People gotta just chill. If people are still finding targets where employees are willing to do teh raincheck and not the freaking "you have to wait till it gets closer to the expiration date bs," please post. Especially in San Diego. =)

 

[Abrasive]

Originally posted by: Sesopedalian
I will have fond memories of Target employees staring transfixed at the RC, desperately forming some obtuse and tangential logic in order to tell me what it says is not actually what it means. I don't think this behavior results from supidity. I think it occurs simply because they don't want people TO GET THE DEAL. They are the ones who should be ashamed of themselves.

LMFAOROTFF.

Exactly!

This dead thread has some long legs.

 

[unclebud]

that is because people feel so guilty that they are trying to justify (and flame) anybody who doesn't agree with them
guess it's just the american way

 

[tennisflip]

I was just at Target and Madden 2004 is selling for $19.99 so it's still a hot deal IMO.

 

[Winchester]

Is that the "sale" price or now the normal price?

 

[dabuddha]

Originally posted by: Winchester
Is that the "sale" price or now the normal price?

Normal price.