[bigmonkey]

When I was about 15, after school I would go to the local towns and buy copies of games I knew I could sell for more at competing chains, claiming they were broken or were the wrong game or I just didn't want them anymore. I used to go around comparing the prices of the same game in different shops. I think the biggest difference I saw was a game marked at £35 in Electronics Boutique and £18 in MVC, so did that a couple of times. MVC was the best because they would actually give you a refund without a receipt. Virgin, Woolworths and EB all required receipts for refunds. So I'd take a game in there I had no receipt for (because I'd bought it 5 minutes ago from somewhere else) and ask to swap it for a game of equal value. This would mean them giving me a receipt which I could cash in at a later point. Once in Woolworths one of the assistants recognised that I had brought the same game back three times already and wrote on my exchange receipt "not for refund". I just went to their stationary section and cut that bit off with their own scissors.

In the end I think I made about £150 and called it quits as they were all catching on. My money went back into the gaming industry anyway as I used it to buy a Playstation. I think this whole enterprise is the closest thing I've ever done to being criminal. I'm not sure if it even was criminal, since they all consented. I was only giving them products back which they sold and for the price they sold it. I think it probably counts as fraud rather than theft.