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By now you should have noticed all the great games on sale at the moment at Dick Smith. Lots of gamers took advantage of their first sale in June and I personally thought that would be the last we saw of such great prices. Yet Dick Smith has continued offering great bargains once again, putting up another sale in July with prices even better (in some instances) then their previous sale.

At the same time as pleasing many bargain hunters I believe Dick Smith has also angered a lot of gamers by not keeping their prices consistent during the sale period. I believe it's the first time a store has changed prices on their games on a daily basis in several instances. Take Conan for example, it was just $25 at one point but then suddenly jumped to $50 shortly after, and now rests at $70. Whoever is in charge of sales is definitely trying to cover his mistakes by the looks of it, When they find a game has been too greatly reduced they seem to then retract their deal, as can be seen with the $250 Halo Xbox 360 incident of several days back.

I can't speak for the other states, but from what I've seen at various stores in Queensland is that  these stores have not bothered to update the prices on their games to reflect those located on the Dick Smith website. Could it be they do not want to warrant a change that may not be legitimate the next day? Many of the games have two stickers on them, one yellow and one white both carrying the same price. No wonder people are oblivious to any sale at all. The upside to this whole fiasco is that some savvy gamers have been able to snag some great bargains due to their regular checking of the Dick Smith website, taking advantage of the great deals before stock runs out.

Lets look at some of the positive points of the Dick Smith Sale. Their website is great, it allows you to view which store has what game and roughly the amount of remaining stock. The prices on some games are just incredible. I never thought we would be buying Phoenix Wright games for $5 in such a short period of time. The last time prices were this low was just before the PS3 was introduced to Australia, retailers where trying to get rid of the old to make way for the new generation of games. It sparked Big W to have a crazy sale with their PS2 games. Could it be that Dick Smith has some sort of information we dont? Possibly another DS on the way and they are trying to get rid of old stock?

Many gamers have been able to pick some excellent bargains because they were following internet revelations (cough ecogamer cough) and forum discussions on game prices. Some of the games are true gems: Mario 3 On 3 and Mario VS Donkey Kong to name two, while others will wind up as trade bait for bigger and brighter games.

So what do you think? Has the Dick Smith sale been the best thing since pizza or a nightmare in the making due to its inconsistency and lack of stock in many stores?

Many thanks to blink and Anthony for help on the article.