I tend to have a love-hate relationship with the place, most recently hate because of their antics with the Tanooki suit keychain pre-orders for Super Mario 3D Land were to receive.
Sometimes I love the place for having games no where else in town does and still keeping older classics from the GameCube and PS2 around.
Then there are times like these...
In my daily skimming for Skylanders I found that GameStop was selling the figures for $4.99 each! Holy smokes that is a great deal!! Toys'R'Us did the same thing a few weeks ago with the 2 for $10 deal and it literally decimated the shelves!
So I proceed along and then I'm slammed with reality...
GameStop will sell these to you for $4.99 but you can't pick your Skylander because they are "shipped at random." I mean really...get with the program. If you walk in to the grocery store, stand in line at the deli to get a 1/2 lb of Honey Maple Ham do you really want the attendant to tell you "Oh, the deli serves at random...Here is your Lemon Pepper Chicken." Uh, no...that is pointless. No one buys blind, this isn't a "grab bag" at your local card shop...this is something that you specifically want and they have available.
Short of someone buying the game for the first time and having no Skylanders this is a horrible idea. I could literally order 10 of them hoping for Eruptor and Bash and wind up with 4 Chop Chops, 2 Stealth Elfs, 2 Wrecking Balls, a Boomer, and a Prism Break...There is no method to the madness.
And to be more than fair with GameStop I just tried to check stock at the local stores..."In Stock" was the result...Really? I bet they are in stock, but which characters? Geez!
If you want to buy Super Mario Galaxy 2 you don't want Super Mario Sunshine and you sure don't want a Mario title to ship at random because "Wii games are in stock." GameStop really needs to step-up to the plate here...it is the holiday season, tons of great games are out, and they are dropping the ball big time!
Like I said I have ha love-hate relationship with the place (it does usually smell good since they tend to be nested with Subways, lol), but as of late I have only been disappointed. If they would just list out what characters they have they would likely sell a ton more since I am certain I'm not the only one who doesn't want to take a crap shoot on "blind" Skylanders.
Thus, for now, I will continue to buy from Target, Toys'R'Us, and Walmart before I give GameStop a shot...I'm sure they will redeem themselve, but this marketing is just absurd. Have fun not selling many Skylanders online...
