Gem Cards at 20% Off During the Best Buy Gaming Weekend (NA) - [Merged]

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/get-gem-cards-at-20-off-during-the-best-buy-gaming-weekend/

Gem Cards at 20% Off During the Best Buy Gaming Weekend

Are you eyeing a holiday gift for your favorite squadmate? Is your heart set on an especially fluffy springer? Maybe it’s just time for a total makeover. Stock your wallet with gems at a discount and make your dreams come true!

Guild Wars 2 Gem Cards are on sale during the Best Buy Gaming Weekend. From store opening at 10:00 a.m. on November 19 until closing time on November 21, visit your local Best Buy store location or BestBuy.com to receive 20% off when you purchase a $25 Gem Card.

To add the gems to your in-game wallet, scratch to reveal the code on the back of the card and visit the Guild Wars 2 Gem Store in the game. Select “Redeem Code” and enter your code in the field.

Mark your calendars and prepare to save!

For Your Safety

Over the past weekend, several areas in the United States announced enhanced restrictions on public gatherings to help slow the spread of coronavirus. The 20% discount will apply to $25 Gem Cards purchased online through BestBuy.com during the Best Buy Gaming Weekend, and you may have your Gem Cards shipped to you. Best Buy also offers no contact curbside pickup at physical locations. Please stay safe!

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Poster's Edit: Best Buy has stores in the US, Canada, and Mexico.However, according to posters below, this deal might not be available outside the US.

I also do not know if it's easy for players in other regions to purchase the Gem Cards online or not.

[Mungo Zen.9364]

I cannot see this promo on the Canadian Bestbuy.ca. Cannot see anything GW2 on the Canadian site actually.

Is this US only?

[nottsgman.8206]

that's great, but best buy in Canada hasn't sold them in YEARS, so I'm guessing this is a US only thing

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@Mungo Zen.9364 said:Is this US only?

@nottsgman.8206 said:that's great, but best buy in Canada hasn't sold them in YEARS, so I'm guessing this is a US only thing

It looks as if it might be US only. However, y'all now have as much information as I: that's the entire text from the official GW2 website. It makes no mention of where it's available.

[TDC.1627]

That's great, Too bad ANET, have stopped supplying Gem cards to Australia forcing us to be ripped off with an insane conversion rate.

[Fenom.9457]

Woohoo! I'll be buying.. well, probably as many as I can afford to be honest lol. At least from what I can tell, it should apply to all cards right, not one per purchase?

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

As a long-time buyer of Gem Cards online at Best Buy, it is good to see the 'Free Shipping' is back on the cards.(It should have always been 'Free Shipping' as they just pop them into the mail [uSPS].)

[Braynz.2906]

So why not make Gems 20% cheaper for everyone in the Gem Store?

[Steve The Cynic.3217]

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:As a long-time buyer of Gem Cards online at Best Buy, it is good to see the 'Free Shipping' is back on the cards.(It should have always been 'Free Shipping' as they just pop them into the mail [uSPS].)

Yeah, because naturally the USPS doesn't charge Best Buy for mailing Gem Cards...

[choon.6308]

Add the sales tax and that sale becomes obsolete

[Danikat.8537]

@Braynz.2906 said:So why not make Gems 20% cheaper for everyone in the Gem Store?

I don't think Anet arranged this, it looks like it's part of a general sale Best Buy are running and Anet just chose to advertise the fact that it includes gem cards.

I suppose they could have done their own sale at the same time, but if they did that any time a store somewhere in the world discounted gem cards they'd probably never have a consistent price. Gem cards are pretty hard to come by in the UK so I haven't looked myself in a long time but I know players in other countries are always advising each other to shop around because there's almost always somewhere selling them cheaper.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

@Steve The Cynic.3217 said:

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:As a long-time buyer of Gem Cards online at Best Buy, it is good to see the 'Free Shipping' is back on the cards.(It should have always been 'Free Shipping' as they just pop them into the mail [uSPS].)

Yeah, because naturally the USPS doesn't charge Best Buy for mailing Gem Cards...

I think they can afford to eat the 49 cents. ;)

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

@choon.6308 said:Add the sales tax and that sale becomes obsolete

No sales tax on 'Gift Cards' many places. Otherwise, you pay sales tax twice.

[zoejo.2317]

I have a EU account. If I get a hold of one of these cards, the code should work on my account, right? Gem cards aren't region-locked - correct?I know the necessary info to answer this question is not on the text; I'm hoping someone here has been in this situation and has an answer.

[kharmin.7683]

@TDC.1627 said:That's great, Too bad ANET, have stopped supplying Gem cards to Australia forcing us to be ripped off with an insane conversion rate.

Did they? Or did merchants in Australia decide that there was not enough profit for them to re-sell them. I'd like to see proof of your statement.

[Danikat.8537]

@zoejo.2317 said:I have a EU account. If I get a hold of one of these cards, the code should work on my account, right? Gem cards aren't region-locked - correct?I know the necessary info to answer this question is not on the text; I'm hoping someone here has been in this situation and has an answer.

The code itself will work because the game doesn't distinguish between EU and NA accounts, literally the only difference is which server cluster you connect to and that can be changed at any time. I've also used US gem and promo codes on my account on an EU server and they worked.

But as far as I can see these are physical gem cards which are posted out (or can be collected from the store), not a code sent by email. If you're playing on EU servers but live in the US that's not a problem but if you're in Europe then I suspect even if you can get the card sent to you the shipping cost will cancel out the discount.

(Because I'm in the UK and connected to the US website it seems to have decided I'm in Maine and keeps telling me I can collect them from Bangor or Portsmouth, which confusingly are also towns in the UK.)

[Blude.6812]

@kharmin.7683 said:

@TDC.1627 said:That's great, Too bad ANET, have stopped supplying Gem cards to Australia forcing us to be ripped off with an insane conversion rate.

Did they? Or did merchants in Australia decide that there was not enough profit for them to re-sell them. I'd like to see proof of your statement.

Yep they (Anet) did , ALL sources of Gem Cards (Canada) disappeared from all the places they were available (including Amazon CA which only has the cards from 3rd party vendors that are selling (stealing) at inflated prices). I really doubt that walmart,best buy, eb, amazon etc colluded to not carry them.

[Josiah.2967]

Time to spend $500 :-)

[Trise.2865]

@Braynz.2906 said:So why not make Gems 20% cheaper for everyone in the Gem Store?

Because cross-promotions are funded by the retailer, not the supplier. Take it up with Best Buy.

[Hesione.9412]

@Blude.6812 said:

@kharmin.7683 said:

@TDC.1627 said:That's great, Too bad ANET, have stopped supplying Gem cards to Australia forcing us to be ripped off with an insane conversion rate.

Did they? Or did merchants in Australia decide that there was not enough profit for them to re-sell them. I'd like to see proof of your statement.

Yep they (Anet) did , ALL sources of Gem Cards (Canada) disappeared from all the places they were available (including Amazon CA which only has the cards from 3rd party vendors that are selling (stealing) at inflated prices). I really doubt that walmart,best buy, eb, amazon etc colluded to not carry them.

I can't buy them in NZ, either. Also, the gem cards were in local currency, so they need to be produced with the currency individually for each country. And, possibly more confusingly to some people in the USA, in NZ and Australia our sales tax must be included in the item cost. The item cost must be in NZD. So a $20NZD gem card was sold at $20NZD, including tax. No gem cards in local currency (including our 15% goods and services tax) == no cards available for sale in my country.

[sewenewes.4176]

@Braynz.2906 said:So why not make Gems 20% cheaper for everyone in the Gem Store?

@Trise.2865 said:

@Braynz.2906 said:So why not make Gems 20% cheaper for

everyone

in the Gem Store?

Because cross-promotions are funded by the retailer, not the supplier. Take it up with Best Buy.

People understand that this promotion is coming from Best Buy but they also remember Arenanet repeatedly disregarding players outside North America in previous promotions. Promotions that they actually had a say in. Players are jaded but to be fair to Arenanet, this modus operandi isn't unique to them. A lot of 'murican companies do business as if they had no customers from outside the country even if they have just as many or even more of those than North American ones.

They could e-mail out discount codes for online gem purchases (so no double-dipping in combination with the discounted cards) and it would show good will on their part even if they limited those codes to one per account. It's not a mindblowing discount and for many it's not about the cash saved but the ever-present impression that they are less valuable customers purely due to their geographical location.

[TDC.1627]

@kharmin.7683 said:

@TDC.1627 said:That's great, Too bad ANET, have stopped supplying Gem cards to Australia forcing us to be ripped off with an insane conversion rate.

Did they? Or did merchants in Australia decide that there was not enough profit for them to re-sell them. I'd like to see proof of your statement.

Yep sure did, Was told that by multiple EB Games Staff and their head office. Cards no longer being sold or restocked in Australia once existing stock expires.

[Fenom.9457]

@choon.6308 said:Add the sales tax and that sale becomes obsolete

Sales tax is generally 8.25%, a ways off from 20%. Also, if you pay that when you buy a card (it varies by retailer but Best Buy has always taxed me personally), you'll be paying that whether the card is on sale or not, so you still end up paying 20% less than you would otherwise. You aren't even exempt from taxes if you buy gems through the game

[DaVid Darksoul.4985]

Saw that a retailer is offering a 20% discount on gem cards for the Holidays, would be nice if Anet would mimic that thru the TP. Being a virtual currency whose production costs are practically non-existent the loss of profit per unit by applying a discount would be vastly overshadowed by the increase sales volume.

[zoejo.2317]

@Danikat.8537 said:But as far as I can see these are physical gem cards which are posted out (or can be collected from the store), not a code sent by email. If you're playing on EU servers but live in the US that's not a problem but if you're in Europe then I suspect even if you can get the card sent to you the shipping cost will cancel out the discount.

No worries; I have a US resident friend that will receive it at his address and send me a photo of the scratched off card.

Thank you for the confirmation!