The reason I didn't take advantage of the Future Shop Trade

The "deal" of this console generation wasn't for me

I would be remiss if I didn't at least mention Best Buy in this fiasco as well.

And yes, it was a fiasco...

• Stores didn't get enough warning to staff up
• A lot of stores allowed individuals to reserve online the game for in store pickup the next day. Then they went in to pick it up and traded instead. Avoiding the lines.
• Stock levels were all over the place
• Despite advertising as a three day event the stores did not restock so all the games were gone on the first day
• They labelled, sealed and processed the traded in games right then and there making the individual (and line) wait for each one. Instead of dumping them in a box for later processing
• Many individuals traded for more than one game at a time despite the official legalese of "Limit one title per customer per day" (they even bolded it)
• The estimated time of 10 minutes per trade in was low
• Some individuals obtained PC copies of the game despite it being listed as present generation console only
• Other issues

As I said, fiasco.

However, this is about me and why I did not take advantage of the trade in deal. Not that I didn't mean to try...

This past weekend my family went to Toronto to visit friends. Instead of being home to try and take advantage of the trade in I was away. Staying in a hotel.

A hotel that turned out to be one block from the downtown Toronto Future Shop. Didn't really expect to get a chance to drop in, definitely not long enough to line up for more than an hour or so but I took a couple of old games with me just in case.

After visiting the new aquarium some of us chose to walk back to the hotel instead of taking the TTC. Since the walk took us right by Future Shop I joined the walking group. It didn't hurt to take a look. At least, that's what you would think.

So I dragged three friends into Future Shop with me and discovered that they still had a lot of stock left. That is shown in the photo at the top of the story.

And at first glance the line up didn't look so bad...

This was before we peeked around the corner.

When speaking to a staff member they said the line had been that long all day, since 7AM. I believe the store opened at 10AM.

I told my friends not to panic, I wouldn't be waiting. Since Ice had been volunteered to wait with me he was more than happy with the news. After looking at that line and realizing that it had not moved the entire time we had been there I decided I would rather spend the $59 than line up. Per game.

This, of course, was before we headed out of the mall and turned around the corner toward the hotel to discover the overflow line...

I can't even see the sidewalk past all these people. I have other photos of the line up, they are all worse than these. Let's just say the line went down to the corner and no one else could use the sidewalk. Note that this was a Toronto block. When questioned by my friends whether this was really the "game" trade in line I pointed out that every so often you could see someone holding a game case or a game case sticking out of a pocket.

Sadly, this was the game trade line. It's worth the $59 (per game) to not stand in that line.

I walked past the same Future Shop late Sunday afternoon and there was no one lined up outside by that point.

To me there were two highlights to this entire Future Shop Trade In Fiasco:

ONE: Pwn Call pointing out that my Personal Game Reviewer was upset that he had not been included in the original email exchange discovering the trade deal. I would like to point out how much I admire his professionalism and dedication toward covering his own news beat. Impressive. Particularly considering the Financial Post (who originally broke the story) is part of the newspaper chain he works for. Kudos PGR, kudos. Aren't you supposed to be telling us about this stuff?

TWO: an email which greeted me as soon as I returned home. An email from EBGames...