Buying a PSP at Best Buy

We were at the end of our business trip and as usual had to make an important purchase on the remnant of the resources, this time it was the PSP I had promised my son. I sat at a PC in a store on W35th Street and simply typed in 'Best Buy' and looked for the prices of Sony PSP as well as the locations of the nearest stores in the Best Buy chain.  

Best Buy - Midtown Manhattan529 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10017-4608(212) 808-0309 seemed the best bet,‎ and wife and I decided to walk in the crisp cool sunshiny winter afternoon. Looking at the online map I had selected my directional points as W44th Street and 5th Avenue.

A relatively long walk it turned out to be. But we made a most important stop along the way that I will write on in a later article. We arrived at the electronic giant and made a beeline for the gaming aisle.

“Excuse me sir…ahem… I know nothing about these things but I promised my son a PSP, I’m not afraid to use the word cheapest, but for you it would be the most inexpensive model…Could you assist me I’m really not an expert…I mean...”

The fellow explained to me the difference between the PSP which uses a gaming card, and the PSP-Go which functions on a built in memory for games which can then be downloaded.

“I think he wants the PSP,” I said. He even suggested the game Little Big Planet which I did not purchase, read on and find out why.

After endless minutes of my phlegmatic indecision I convinced myself that the system for my son was indeed the Sony - PSP-3000 Core Pack System (Piano Black)

Of course the first salesman had moved on to other interests by now and a second one appeared who repeated the differences between the PSP and the PSP-Go, and answered my thousand questions including “I spend all this money and don’t even get a complimentary game card?”

Could you test it for me?

Is there a warranty then?

The most interesting answer was to the question “After I have paid for the PSP, could you at least keep it here for a couple of hours and let it charge so I could return to test it?”

“No sir, we don’t want to be responsible if it gets stolen.”

That’s New York for you.

While in the store I discovered that there was a shop called Game Stop where I could purchase pre-owned games at very low prices whereas the new games I were ticketed at 39.99 and such. So I simply paid for the Sony PSP 3000 Core System. A more thorough customer service experience would have seen to it that I also purchased the memory card and at least one new game.

We hurried to search for GameStop and surely found it. Disappointment, they had a limited choice of pre-owned games that I liked for my son. I purchased Need for Speed Most Wanted, Spelling Challenge, and a very cheap car racing game.

He is very happy with Need for Speed, the other car racing game is useless, cannot load.  Spelling challenge looks like it might have some potential.

The product write-up on the Best Buy site says:

This lighter, slimmer version of the PSP offers incredible go-anywhere versatility. More than just a gaming system, the PSP-3000 lets you listen to favourite music, watch movies, view photos, access the Internet and more. Games and movies come to dazzling life on the all-new vibrant 4.3" widescreen LCD screen, and built-in speakers envelop you fully in a thrilling multimedia experience with powerful stereo sound. This piano-black PSP-3000 packs an impressive array of features into a slim and portable package. With 64MB of internal system memory and a dedicated CPU running at up to 333MHz, the PSP has the horsepower you need for an exciting gaming experience. The built-in IEEE 802.11b wireless LAN offers convenient Internet connectivity in infrastructure mode or connections to the PSPs of your friends in ad hoc mode, while a built-in microphone adds to the interactive excitement.

Product Features

Play games, watch videos, listen to music, view photos and more

4.3" TFT-LCD widescreen with 480 x 272 resolution and 16.7 million colours provides sharp pictures and high-quality images

Read-only UMD drive makes it easy to play thrilling games or watch favourite movies

Video-out connector lets you play games or view movies on your television (cables not included)

Enjoy wireless communications in infrastructure mode and connect up to 16 consoles in ad hoc mode

Interact with friends using the new built-in microphone

USB 2.0 connector offers convenient connectivity; Memory Stick Pro Duo slot makes it easy to add extra memory or enjoy other saved media

Includes PSP-3000 system, AC power cord, AC adapter and battery pack

Colour: Piano Black