Easy Come, Easy Go
Circuit City (CC from now on) is having a $5 video game clearance. Of course, telling you now doesn't do you any good. Everything worth getting—and there were many games worth getting (read: Disgaea, Boktai, Frequency for starters)—is gone after news of the sale were leaked a week early and CC's own prices were updated a week early (!!).
I found out about it on July 4th, after randomly deciding to check out Penny Arcade's forums. It was 1 PM when I looked at the forums and found a post listing all of the $5 games. By 2 PM, I was on the road with list in hand, intent on cleaning out the CC near Hilltop and the CC in Emeryville.
Too late.
The employees at CC were already doing some cleaning of their own, claiming games and marking territory. But this CC had a catch. The manager wanted to follow the rules: no $5 sales until the official start date (July 11). I decided to go through all their games anyway. I managed to find Boktai and two copies of Frequency. Neither seemed to match the employees' tastes. That's probably why one employee agreed to hold both for me, even though CC doesn't hold merchandise for customers.
Hilltop in my rearview mirror; on to Emeryville, where I found others shopping for $5 deals (how did I know? No gamer carries a shopping list unless something like this happens). The manager at this CC allowed $5 sales, but that didn't do me much good. All I found was Gundam: Federation vs. Zeon DX.
All of that was just the prologue. Today's story begins here.
It's July 11 (yesterday). Time to claim the two games held for me. Wouldn't it be nice to have Boktai and Frequency?
I thought to myself.
That must've been the thought that jinxed me. Everything worth anything was gone. There was nothing left but Mary Kate & Ashley and sports games. The employee that held the games for me gave me the standard "we're not supposed to hold merchandise" line. Fine. And then told me the sale started Tuesday. Fine. It didn't make any sense, but I didn't bother waiting for further explanation.
I browsed their selection, looking for a low-priced game to appease myself. Found nothing, of course (nodding, of course). Meanwhile, I saw one customer arguing with the same employee. Something about it not being fair. I overheard a couple guys saying that the employees probably cleaned the store out. They probably did. If you worked at CC, wouldn't you? Already last Sunday there was a scramble among the employees to claim games that they wanted. At the time, my selections didn't match their tastes. Since then, they've probably wised up. Buy all the games and sell the ones you don't want on eBay.
After browsing their selection, it was time to go. My parting thought: hey, isn't Sword of Mana supposed to be $5 too?
It was, but not anymore. CC reversed the pricing on certain games a few days after July 4th. Well whatever.
Easy come, easy go.