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**A Gamer's Experience with GameStop: A Mixed Bag**

As I stepped into my favorite store to purchase some slightly used and highly refurbished consoles, I couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of what could possibly go wrong. Unfortunately, some of our previous GameStop experiences had not been so fortunate, with consoles literally coated in dust right out of the box.

It's been a little while since we bought anything from GameStop, so I thought it was time to give them another try. To ensure that I would get a fair shot at experiencing the high-quality GameStonk experience, I decided to start by checking their website on gamestop.com. After some keyboard clacking, I had found exactly what I was looking for: PlayStation 5 consoles in various options.

When considering my purchase from GameStop, one thing that stood out was the fact that I had three options for the PS5. I could buy a new console, which would cost $500. Alternatively, I could opt for a pre-owned PS5, which was priced at $436. However, what caught my attention was the refurbished option, also available for $436.

At first glance, it might seem like these three options are identical. But upon closer inspection, there's a crucial difference between buying new, pre-owned, and refurbished. The question is, which one should I choose?

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Oh, GameStop, myfavorite store to purchasesome slightly used andhighly refurbished consoles.What could possibly go wrong? (laughs)Some of our previousGameStop experiences havehad consoles literally coatedin dust right out of the box.But it's been a little whilesince we bought anything from GameStop.So let's give them a fair shot.Let's go on gamestop.com,(keyboard clacks)buy some consoles,some gadgets and gizmos and seeif we can get that highquality GameStonk experience,or if it's time to Game Stop?Pretty, you gotta gimme,that was a pretty good one.Let's get some consoles, shall we?PlayStation 5 for $436, oh, refurb.One of the things to considerwhen you're purchasing from GameStop isthat, say, take the PS5, forexample, I have three options.I can buy a new PS5, which is $500.I can buy a pre-owned,which is 436 or a refurbished,which is also $436.Now you might think, "Oh, Iclearly want the refurbished."And normally that's the case.The problem though is thatin my previous dealingswith GameStop, there'salmost no difference.Some of these consoles are nice and clean,some are in absolutely terrible condition.You don't know what you're getting.Oh wait, hold on a second.Pro exclusive score, refurbishedSteam Deck for up to 20% off.I'm a pro.I want 20% off.And mind you, all theprices I'm quoting today arewith the GameStop Pro discount.So Pro I think is $20 a year.As much as I might not bea huge fan of GameStop,if you're ever gonna shop on GameStop,just get the pro.And I'm gonna quote all these pro pricing.Okay, a Series S for now,hold on a second.Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.What's, the refurbished is $265.The new one is 250.The thing is, there's a lot of itemslike this that will advertisethat they're availablewith same day delivery, but they're not.I have not seen any of thesethings actually let me do it.So they're telling me Ican get a Series S for 250.That's a damn lie.Are you telling me thatGameStop sell a Pelican casefor your Xbox Series X?Couldn't you fit your Xboxin a backpack or something?This seems so excessive.So we've got the new3DS XL, which is $218.Now I'd have to consult my crystal ball,go back in the past,(thunder booms)but I'm pretty sure that's more expensivethan this was when it was new.You know what?I've got an idea.What if, for the consolesthat we're purchasing today,we evaluate each onefrom GameStop and spend a little budget,take a little bit(geese honk)of that pocket money,and try to upgrade/refurbishthem ourselvesand see if we can improve whatGameStop has delivered to us?Or if we would've been betteroff just going on eBay or DKOldies?(wind whips)Oh boy, look at all thepower to the players.I am really excited.(upbeat electronic music)This is how these boxes showed up.This one actually just heldtogether with a rubber band.This one looks like someonejust sort of squashed it.(box rattles)First up we have, aha,our new Nintendo 3DS XL,with an AC adapter and afour gigabyte micro SD card.Is that packaging?Did they package the box?And the item, this is,I don't even recognizethis company anymore.Just to refresh ourselves,when the new 3DS XLcame out, it cost $200,but this is now worth$220 on gamestop.com.Now I'm actually not gonnading GameStop for that,new 3DS XLs are just more expensive,because unlike most Nintendo consoles,you can't play 3DS games on somethinglike the Switch.This is the best console you can buyto play those sweet, sweet 3DS games.Can't wait to gointo the eShop and justdownload everything.There's so many great games on there.I'm just gonna have a great time, huh?- Wait until you read a newspaperand see what date it is.- Did you also get a time machine?- Wait, what do you mean?The eShop's not around anymore?- It's only closed on days ending in Y?- Oh, I can work around that.I'll just, oh, oh, oh, okay.They put a screen protector.- I got scared!- I got very scared real quick.I dunno if I would go so faras to say this is a premiumrefurbished console,but seems decent.Let's fire it up, shall we?Whoa, my eyes are, ah!Boy, that don't feelgood on your eyes at all.This actually seems(3DS XL dings)like we maybe didn't getscammed by GameStop on this one.I'm feeling cautiously optimistic here.Okay, hey, "Pikmin," activate.So I will say it, so far so good.Everything seems to befunctional in this 3DS.My issue, and it's a minor issue,but it is an issue,(upbeat electronic music)is just some of the wear and tear on this,like these little rubber pads,these seem to be kinda rubbed down.My circle pad definitely has scuffs on it.The plastic is not in great shape,and certainly the back shellis also not in great shape.So thankfully I thought aheadand I purchased a shell replacementfor the new 3DS XL, because,well, let's be honest,I bought a handheld from GameStop,so it was a pretty safe betthat it was gonna come scuffed.For 27 bucks,assuming that this is notincredibly difficult to do,'cause I've never opened a 3DS XL before,so it's probably gonnabe a little bit involved.But this can be a great wayto breathe some new lifeinto your old console.So we've got ourselves, ohboy, that's a lot of pieces.Oh, oh, okay.That's a lot of pieces.So this replaces this, this goes here,then this would go here, thisgoes here and this goes here.There we go, that's gonna look great.So I'm flying blind here.I've never done this before,so I'm just gonna start undoing stuffuntil I make progress.Oh, ew, look at all thegross stuff inside there.Do you see all the, I don'teven know what that is.It looks something growing in there.Oh, so now I'm gonna have to, oh,this is actually gonna be involved,'cause this is all tied in.Maybe gonna fast forwardthrough this part,'cause it's probably gonnatake me a solid hour,if not maybe an hour and a half,to actually tear the rest of this down.(upbeat electronic music)I have broken the 3DS.I crimped the ribbon cable,if you can believe that.I'm gonna see if I can get it to work.Best case scenario, the ribbonI snapped was for the camerasbut I think it's not good.Okay, ready, and,(dramatic orchestral music)press back power button.So the LED is on the 3DS has power,and it immediately shuts off.Luckily I have many otherexcellent deals from GameStopthat are totally gonna makeme feel better right now,lots of 'em.They're all gonna be great.What could possibly go wrong?What else is in our box?(wind whips)Ah, I didn't forget about this at all.- Oh, what?- It's our 151 Poster Collection!We do have three verynice little promo cardsand a poster.All the cards from the 151 set,or outlines of the first 151.See, GameStop would never lead us astray.I got a poster.Next up, let's see what'sin this very light box, which also is,(upbeat electronic music)I swear, it looks like thesethings just got attacked.Oh, I was confused.This is my 12 days of socks.So when I did the ordering scene here,there were a, no, no--- What, Wait, wait, wait,wait, wait, wait, wait.- Okay.- I was not herefor said ordering scene.- At what point is thisa refurbished thing and--- No, no, no, I'm evaluating GameStop.Here's the thing.They had buy 1, get 2 free from clearance.So I spent like 30 bucks,and got three clearanceitems for that 30 bucks.So each one of these sockscost me, like, 50 cents.Carry the one, square root, divide by pi.Yeah, it's about 50 cents each.Large variety of socks that I gotfor free with my GameStop order.Now let's just hope that the restof my items are in that really big box,'cause otherwise I'm gonnabecome a sock review channel.Subscribe for Austin Sock Tips.I'm gonna just sock it up.(wind whips)I'll also say this one isnot well packed either.I mean just lookat the, that's probably not super secure,but it's only slightly squashed.What is in the big box?I will say I'm a little doubtfulthat everything's in here.I don't think all of ouritems are in this one box.Ooh, hmm, yeah,we only got two more consoles in here.So we are definitelymissing some items, wow!- They're so well refurbishedthat they aren't, (laughs)I ain't got nothing.- I'm getting some Wish flashbacks here.All right, so let's go throughwhat's in this box first,then we'll go from there.- Is that a PlayStation 5?- An expertly packed PlayStation.So the thing is with GameStop,and we found this in the past,you get a variety.So some items, so that3DS, I think, actually camefrom the main GameStop location.So those tend to be alittle bit higher quality,not by a lot, but tend tobe a little bit better,because they've actuallybeen fully refurbished.The pre-owned consoles are typically,at least from my knowledge,if you were working at GameStop,you know better, pleaselemme know the comments,but the pre-owned consolesseem to tend to comefrom just stores, right?So someone traded this in,the store turns around andships it right back out.It doesn't seem like they'vereally been anything morethan just rudimentarily testedjust to make the sure that they work.So I spent a total of$209 on this PS4 Pro,the "Star Wars" edition.So let's take a look to see.- Imagine spending more moneyon a 3DS--- Than a PS4 Pro?- Than a special edition PS4.- Yeah man, well, that'sjust the world we live in.All right, let's see what we got.Well that, that's--- What, really?- I don't know why I am surprised.They just shoved it in a box.So we got an HDMI cable, a power cable,a very short micro USB cable,an orange, is this a Nerf controller?What is the color (indistinct)?I've never seen this controller before.- It's the New York Mets.- Pre-owned, wow, wow, wow.Look at the beautiful console.If you look really closeyou might be able to noticethat there are a coupleof very minor blemishes.So there's one here, and here, and here,and here, and here, andhere, and here, and here.Oh, and then there's more(crickets chirp)over here, and then a lot over here.And then there's some over here,and then that's just chunk missing.And then there's a few over here.All right, well,(upbeat electronic music)I guess there's only one way to proceed,which is to fire this up andsee what we're working with.So we did find one problem.The micro USB they gaveus doesn't really work.It would charge the controllerfor a split second and then stop.So we actually had to swap that out.But other than that, thisdoes seem to be functional.- Yikes.- Dude, look at the frame rate.Oh my god.It doesn't help that I'mso close to TV, but oof.That being said, this has nothing to dowith the PS4 Pro.It's just the fact that this was a gamethat was a very early PS4 title,and this is pretty much what I expectfrom a GameStop console,especially one that ispre-owned, not refurbished.Now I'll give them that pianogloss black is very difficultto keep clean anyway,so if you were to get one of these,as much as this StarWars design is all right,you probably would wanna put like a dbrandor something on it.But when it comes to $209, the thing is,I actually do thinkthat that's a somewhat reasonable deal,especially consideringthat a base PS4 is notthat much cheaper.And I will hands down take a PS4 proover one of the base consoles,just maybe ask to take a look at itat your local GameStopbefore you open the box,because this one is notgood looking at all.Next up we have our pre-ownedNintendo Switch Lite comingin at a whopping $152.(upbeat electronic music)Oh, good lord,(box rattles)it's the same thing.So we've got ourselves theoriginal Switch power adapter.So okay, that's fair, that's fair.It does come with that.And we have the Switch Lite itself.I'm can't believe I'm about to say this,this actually looks likeit's in very good shape.So with a charge,our Switch Lite seems to be fully running.I don't want a system update.Thanks very much, Nintendo.As with most items thatyou purchase from GameStop,it is real luck of the draw.It's like one thing ifyou're actually in storeand they'll actually show you the item.For that, I feel pretty confidentthat you can see if somethingsuper scuffed or whatever.When you order online,it's a way bigger crapshoot,because you know thisitem came horribly packed,does not seem like itwould be good at all,and yet was essentially unused, right?There's next to nowhere,all these buttons look clean and fresh.I think someone bought thisand just trade it backin almost immediately.And even though the backis a little scuffed,it's not that bad.However, I preemptively purchasedsomething expecting thisto be way worse than it is,and I'm gonna commit to the bit anyway.I purchased a replacementshell for the Switch Lite.Now I used an older versionof this for my personal Switch Lite,which I am absolutely a huge fan of, that.(parts clink)Look at that.But imagine that on thefront and this on the back.Does that go together?Or is that, oh wait,those are slightly toosimilar colors, aren't they?- Kind of.- I actually think Imight not swap this shell,mostly because thisone's in such good shapeand we actually have a Switch Litethat we purchased from a pawn shopin a video a couple months agothat has a super scuffed shell.Maybe I'll just save this for that oneand maybe I'll make a YouTube Short.So subscribe to the channeland I'll make that soon.But for now I, this is going good.GameStop, you're not letting me down,even though this was quite literally loosein the box when we bought it,but other than that.(wind whips)Because GameStop had(upbeat electronic music)such a great clearance deal,not only did I get my wonderfulaccoutrement of socks,I also have my new Kirby sweater,which was $37 on clearance.Yeah, I got it for free, baby.(bell dings)Look at that.- Oh, I don't like that we can--- Why, wow I think we found(Austin imitates dance steps)a new shade of white.- This is GameStop style,my friends, because this fit was freewith the purchase of myGameStop Charger and Game Dock.I have to, is this Ikea?Do I have to build the whole thing?- Oh man,we get to see him assemble something.- No I'll figure it out,don't worry, it's fine.Oh, is this attached tothe back of the dock?Oh, so is that the way it goes?- So you meed a Switch dock to--- Non-Switch-Lite, 'cause theSwitch Lite can't be docked.- Oh yeah, it needs a good Switch.I can't help but notice you'reoutta boxes over there.- I'm gonna find the restof my GameStop packages.I'll be right back.(steps plod)- Woo! (imitates explosion)(power surges)- Game!- I work for him.- All right, inside we have,(upbeat rock music)aha, this is our Steam Deck.Okay, so the Steam Deck I'm curious about,because they make a very big dealabout how they are GameStoprefurbishing the Steam Deck,and, well, I am skeptical.And as far as price goes,to buy yourself a refurbished512-gig Steam Deck,which is the highest end modelwith the anti-glare display,buying it brand newfrom Valve, it is $650.Now if you're able to get arefurbished console from Valve,that's gonna cost you about $520,and it's the same price on GameStop,although if you have a Pro discount,I was able to get this for 493 bucks.Behold, our brand new Steam Deck!Did they change the waythat they designed these?'Cause I don't remember.This is, mine's definitely black.- Mine's black too.- Yeah, yeah, yeah.So maybe this is likea slightly newer one.Oh that's definitely anti-glare.I can immediately justtell you that right now,right off the off the bat.- Oh the anti-glare onehas its special case.- Oh!- That's great.- And you need the screen,I see, I see.Okay, all right, all right.You know what, that's fine.So comparing thisto the original Steam Deckthat we purchased directly from Valve,that one was also in very good shape.Obviously it didn't havethe anti-glare displaybecause of 64 gig,but it did actually havesome scuffs on the back.And I'll tell you that,I'm looking super close,just some super minor stuff,but you're absolutely just tryingto find something at that point.So to test the Steam Deck,I'm going to be trying "Counter-Strike 2,"which is the first timeI'm playing whatsoever.I don't know how well thisis optimized for Steam Deck.So this is also justme just trying it out.Yeah, it actually runs really well,and I hear that the fans are now,they're starting to spinup, are still pretty quiet.I didn't hear of thegrinding at the very least.Ah, okay, you know Ikinda had that one coming.So we are running at 19 watts,so it's definitely pushing the Steam Deck,and that fan is really pretty quiet.I don't think we're gonna havea major problem with this.(gunfire rattles)The only thing I wanna do is take a lookon the inside to see ifthere's anything nefarious.But honestly, unless I seelike some horrible red flag,or clearly, like amodified SSD or something,I actually thinkthat this is a prettyclear win for GameStop.It doesn't look likeGameStop opened this upto do anything, but honestly that's fine.They didn't need to.This seems like it was aperfectly functional Steam Deckthat is in good shape that they resold,and honestly I'm kind of okay with that.Well look at the time,(wind whips)it's almost like our finalitem took an extra twoand a half weeks to show up from GameStop.So this should be our PS5 Digital.Now every other item got herewithin a week, pretty standard.But this one, even though it said it wasin stock when I ordered, it was backorder.So it was stuck as a pending orderfor almost two weeks before it shipped.And it took a few daysto actually get here.All right, well, we've gotpadding and a PlayStation.Hopefully it's a PlayStation 5.Wow, wait, hold on.Is this GameStop?They put padding in abox, it's revolutionary.Wait, this is actually like properly done.Look, they've even got foam,custom foam and everything.Sorry, I just gotta, canwe all just take a moment,is this GameStop doing a good job?All right, so I have afew questions with this.First and foremost, is itscuffed and terrible or not?And at first glance, it looks very nice.In fact, I would say, very, very nice.I'll take a close look in a second.Let's plug it in and makesure it actually works,and then we can see if weactually got a good deal.But so far not bad.I am attemptingto get a game loaded(ominous electronic music)and the display keeps flickering,but I saw something really strange.Oh, and there it's back.There is zero anything on here?All right, I'll be right backafter I figure outwhat's wrong with the PS5and spend the rest ofthe day trying to fix it,or Ken just smacks it(Ken smacks)and it starts working again.So by swapping to a 1080p display,we have now got the PS5working a lot more reliably.It has flickered once on us,which doesn't fill me with confidence.At least gameplay seems to be fine.I don't think we're crashing or whatever,and there's no disc drive to check.So that's one more point ofit can't be that scuffed.Lemme do this, so I wasgonna open it up anyway,because, knowing GameStop,(upbeat electronic music)I figured it was gonnabe a complete disaster.So I preventedly ordered thedbrand Darkplates specificallyto swap it out.It actually doesn't need it.In fact, a lot of thethings that I orderedfor this video aren't necessary,because they were inperfectly reasonable shape.But regardless, I'm gonna go aheadand throw the the Darkplates on anyway,so I'm gonna crack it open.This is not sponsored,by the way, I bought it,just in case you're curious,'cause I support dbrand.I don't know why I still do, but I do.Woo, that's so cool.Yo, dude, look at that.(upbeat rock music)Oh man, that's so sick.How did Sony not ship it like that?That is so cool!This PS5 needs to be returned.I do not trust the HDMI.A couple of these items couldhave been packaged better,but honestly not bad.GameStop might be improving.It's kind of a little too early to tell,because this was not a flawless order,but some improvement'sbetter than nothing.I'm so just, I can'tstop staring at this PS5.It's just so good.It's so good, sorry.Subscribe to channel,(bell dings)ring-a-ling the ding-a-ling button.That way you can knowthe next time that I gothrough the GameStop experienceso you don't have to.I'm gonna take these platesoff and put it on my PS5 now.