« | Main | »

RPG Deals 12/13- 12/19

By Russ | December 13, 2009 at 4:11 pm

Deals this week are pretty good. As an added bonus, advice on how to do returns is included. As a horrible extra, so are my thoughts on Christmas.

Best Buy has a ton of PC games on sales. Blizzard and NCSoft, with a touch of EA, are the deals here:

Target is Offering Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, and The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for $25 this week.

Toys R Us is offering gifts cards when a customer buys multiple games. The gift card has six hours before it is usable. The denominations and requirements are below.

Play-Asia has some coupons available if you are buying import stuff. Sign on to their mailing list and they will get them to you. Supporting Play-Asia also helps this site.

As stated above, included is advice on how to return stuff during Christmas. There’s actually a whole day for this right after Christmas. It’s a cluster@#$% of unimaginable evil. Surprisingly, it’s not called Boxing Day like I originally thought. Boxing Day is some sort of post-Christmas Black Friday.

Returning gifts anywhere within one month of Christmas is a pain in the ass. This next section contains tips on how to lessen this rectal burden.

  1. You need the receipt. If you do not have a receipt, gift or otherwise, then do not bother returning an item. Even places like Wal-Mart are strictly embracing return policies. If you do not have the receipt, forget about the return. The store is not obligated to help you.
  2. Do not be shy about asking the gift-giver for the receipt. The receipt is necessary for the return. If you are having trouble approaching a relative or friend, suck it up and just ask. With games, it might be easier to trade it in, but the amount you get is so little compared to the game’s value that you are doing everyone, except the company buying the game, a disservice. Yes, it’s hard to approach family. Yes, it sucks to tell Grandma you already own the game or whatever reason you don’t want the gift. In the end, I am sure the person will understand. If they do not, it’s one less gift to give and receive next year. Or maybe they will just give you a gift card or cash – bonus!
  3. Be patient. Lines will be long, especially after Christmas. This is to be expected. It’s a harsh thing to say, but you if you choose to shop at this time, it’s your own fault. A lot of patience will be beneficial to you.
  4. In addition to patience, make sure you have plenty of time to be out shopping. Don’t go to the store if you have to be at work fifteen minutes later. It won’t help you, and no one cares where you have to be when they have to be places as well.
  5. Plan ahead. Make sure you know what you want when you go into the store. It will make your trip much easier. Several places have great deals right after Christmas. It will not be hard to check the paper ads and take it from there.
  6. Gift receipts will more than likely only net store credit. Be prepared for this.
  7. Don’t argue with the person behind the register unless you are 100% certain you are right. And if you are, request a manager as they can actually fix the problem.
  8. A straight swap for something of the same price is the most useful type of return. Try to go for these types of returns.

You’ll notice on many of these points, and with prior columns, I sometimes come off sounding like a douchebag. Well, I am. Plus, I really dislike Christmas. I mean, I absolutely despise the holiday. It should totally be a holiday in the vein of Thanksgiving, where everyone cares about food instead of gifts.

But that’s why these tips exist. This is a terrible time of year. I feel sharing some of this advice will just make it easier.

Happy Hunting.

Disclaimer: Deals may not be available in all stores. Prices in each store may differ. You can try different stores to mitigate this, and always ask if a store has it before writing them off. You might be able to get a raincheck. A lot of these deals are in-store only, except where specified.

Topics: Uncategorized