This would be great. My friend just got robbed a few weeks ago and i told him to check pawn shops. They took his PS3, Wii and laptop. This law definately would have helped him.

I believe states have attempted to apply this sort of law to games shops before but it is over-reaching the laws set out at governmental level.  Actually I recall this being on a gameshop related internet site *goes to find*.  Anyhow, they could only apply this to Pawn Brokers.

http://www.actsofgord.com/Justice/chapter05.php

Enjoy :)

Well here in MN there is already somthing like that in some area's.  We have whats called an APS (autmated pawn system) at the store i work at   where when ever we do a trade   the police the data that night of the trades for that day.  if we mess up  (like miss type the license number)  we (as in the employee who did the trade) face a 500 fine and the company could face loosing it's pawn lisence in the area if the issue isn't fixed soon. and there are 3 stores that would be affect by that.  hell there was a mom and pop game store in the mall that used to take trade till the cops came up and said "hey are you on our APS system?" ..... now they don't trade lol.  but yeah. some customes like it but at times it sucks. cause it limits what ID's we can use for a legal trade. which is limited to DL and ID's issues by a STATE in the USA only,  Have had alot of customers get mad over that. then again i had one freak out over asking for his phone number

 

NKF

wrecked systems.com

This is LONG overdue.  And they need to enforce a 30 days wait period on consoles for GameStop, too.

~~All Knowledge is Worth Having~~

This makes a lot of sense for systems, but it's utterly pointless and would be a pain in the ass for games.  I say pointless because where's the serial number for a game?  They don't have them, and a serial number is the thing that could get the police to have the pawnshop hand over your item.  Yeah, your copy of Halo 3 might have a tear in the bottom-right corner of the clear plastic on the case, BUT that's not going to hold up in court and get you your game back...a serial number will.

Long story short, write down the serial numbers for all your electronics so the police can track them.

I'd call this one a two edged sword personally. While it'd be great to have for game systems, and other electronics, it'd likely be a real annoyance for the games themselves.

-Gray17

It's like that here in Ontario for a while, although I don't know how long. Stores like EB are treated under the law as pawn shops when dealing with trade-in consoles, too. I don't know if the actual games are protected, but the hardware sure is.

---

Chris 'coldacid' Charabaruk <coldacid.net>
IGDA Indie SIG Coordinator, Programmer, Designer

Wow. Good news for once.

 

-Entertainment isn't the reason the world sucks. It's the reason we know the world sucks. For information on games and psychology, look up: Jonathan Freedman(2002)Block & Crain(2007)Grand Theft Childhood, by Harvard researchers Larry Kutner&Cheryl Olson

While it's all well and good, they need more cooperation between states (and provinces). I had my bike stolen last month, and while I gave the police the serial #, they admitted that it was likely not going to show up anywhere in this province. It's just too easy to truck them to Alberta, where they have no knowledge of our registries.

-- If your wiimote goes snicker-snack, check your wrist-strap...

The registration and reporting of used consoles sales (Gamestop, GameCrazy, or Pawnshop alike) is certainly something that will be good for most parties in the end. The end-user (a process to aid recovery), the shops (to help catch those selling these things under false pretenses), and the police (for the same reason as the shops). The only thing I would not agree with is the inclusion of video games. Sure they do cost an arm and a leg, but it is impossible to track those as they just do not have a unique identification like a console or PC.

---- There is a limit for both politicians against video games, and video games against politicians. http://www.goteamretard.com

Yes, it would apply to GameStop and company. In California, they're already required to record any purchases (that is, purchases *they* make, not you). I don't think it's necessarily about electronics, but actually video games and game systems specifically, because they're very fungible and have high margins on resale. Basically they're joining laptops on that list of required reporting items, for states that already expanded it beyond jewelry. (My roommate used to run a pawn shop)

I think some pawn shop laws in Oklahoma apply to our game stores too. In Oklahoma, we have to collect the person's phone number, name, and address for every purchase. Every system trade-in requires a serial number. We even have a law that you can't give cash out for trade-ins unless you're 18 or older.

This is a bunch of bull!   The existing laws on jewelry buying/selling don't work, so how the heck do you expect this to work with games and equipment?  If the pawn shops or "jewelry buyers" aren't observing the laws what makes you think that enacting laws for game buying/reselling is going to work.  Crooks are crooks and no regulations are going to clean up that dirty industry.  My jewelry was cashed in at a Scranton, Pa. jewelry buyer/seller location, supposedly a very reputable one at that, and I was able to buy back one of my pendants seven days later.  I returned the next day to get back two others along with my previous days purchase price, but the rest of my good stuff was gone, melted, or whatever!  The police are supposedly on it, but not much one can do when the goods are broken down, melted, or disposed of.  So much for enacting laws and regulations!!  I'll believe it all when I see it work.  Until then, God bless anyone who has their belongings stolen.   Just call me skeptic!