Hey guys. I swung by my local Game X Change, a fairly decent size used media chain. It has video games, pops, and movies. Maybe more, but those are the things I’ve noticed.

Now I have a handful of games I consider buy on the sight games. Darkwatch on Xbox is one of those games. Guess what game they had.

That’s right. They had the game I’ve been looking for. And at a great price, too.

They had it for almost $10 under pricecharting. When I opened the case and saw the manual, this became a no brainer. What I really didn’t expect to see was a Nintendo Power, in my collecting goal range, no less. Nintendo Power 198 with Ike from Fire Embelm: Path of Radiance as the main cover attraction.

Ike is my favorite character in Super Smash Bros Brawl on Wii. This game, in particular, is a crown jewel for Gamecube collectors. I’m going for every Nintendo Power in the N64 and Gamecube era. All these factors make this another easy purchase. I flipped through it, trying to see if it still had its poster. Truthfully, I didn’t see it, but I was rushed. I’ll double-check for it in the morning. Obviously, the posters are usually not deal breakers for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather have it than not have it, but I’m fine either way.

Now for my rookie mistake. Let this be a PSA to everyone buying from a non-big box retailer but anywhere really because this stuff can happen at your Walmarts and Dollar General’s as well.

I got to the register and began talking to the employee. He’s been there the last few times I’ve gone, and we’ve struck up conversations each time. We talked about comics, the store, Ryan Gosling, etc. Well, my total should have been $35 plus tax. It rang up $43 dollars. I thought, “Dang, what is the tax rate again?”

When he handed me the receipt, I noticed Darkwatch rank up $30 instead of $25. I asked him about it. He informed me it’s based on the system price, not the sticker price. He said he could refund me, but really I didn’t want a refund, just my five dollars back.

Now, I’m not here to bad mouth Game X Change or that employee. I should have said something or he could have pointed out the price discrepancy. But we were both distracted by talking. I worked at a video game store for years. So I understand. This sometimes happened there, too, but mostly with games that got traded in often. Maddens, Call of Dutys, etc. One trade in these games are 5.99. The next time they’re traded in, they’re 7.99. So when the employee puts the game in the system, the system is updated to reflect 7.99. A customer can pick up that 5.99 and be shocked when we ring it up. Obviously, the easiest solution is to either just keep pricing the games 5.99 if our inventory already reflects we have 1 on the floor. Or update all versions of that game to the 7.99 via a new sticker. Take your pick, but that eliminates this problem.

So I get it. Some games are going to slip through the crackl. I’m just surprised it was Darkwatch. The one I got was the only one they worked out on the floor. And that copy was priced in April, not yet 4 months ago. So I’m a little surprised for the sticker to system discrepancy for an uncommon game. Of course, an employee could have always messed up the sticker price or the system price.

Either way, my copy was still cheaper than Pricecharting. It was still an easy purchase and I didn’t feel like making a big stink about it when it was still a good deal even with the mishap. But I do think it bares repeating to pay attention when checking out.

Has that happened to you? When you found something at a good price you rung it up just to find the price was different?

This is different but it’s similar enough of a story to tell here. When I was working at Dollar General, we would run sales on certain sizes of certain products [don’t ask me what it was now.] But my boss had warned me about this customer. She would intentionally take an item, move it to the section on sale, then bring it up to us, and act surprised when it didn’t ring up on sale. Then, she would make us leave the cash register to show us where she got it from. Now, mind you, I was a lowly grunt at DG, I could not void transactions, nor could I go in an altar price. So I would have to go get my boss to explain the situation to her. Unfortunately, my boss said we just had to give her the price she wanted because it just wasn’t worth hassling with her. Again, my situation is different, but I’ll never forget that woman, so this seemed like a good time to reminisce about here.

Anyway, not a bad haul. Thank you guys for reading and have a great day!