I bought a Game of Thrones recently. Within a week I decided I was going to sell it. I'd played the game tons of times at tournaments, etc and loved it, but once I had it at home and could play it as much as I liked I realized it was very repetitive. In tournaments I didn't notice that because I had to worry about surviving, but at home you can just play again if you fail.

But to your "why didn't they play it first?" comment: why would you? Worst case scenario you can sell it again and maybe lose a few hundred dollars. I know a lot of people who buy all their games without ever playing them, just based on looks. Some stay a long time, some leave instantly. Playing it elsewhere isn't comparable to playing it in your own home, why worry about it?

Yeah, even better! As soon as I've decided I want to buy a game (since it looks like it could be good) I specifically avoid playing it until I can get one of my own

Honestly I feel like you should be prepared to lose a few hundred on any fully working game you buy. It could break and not be worth fixing, it could just go down in value, etc. Or maybe it goes up in value and you luck out. Who knows, hopefully it balances out at worst. Plus you got to own and play the game! Some value loss is normal, you got your 'plays' out of it. If it's a NIB, then you also got the great box opening, new game smell experience. There's probably a few hundred dollars in wiggle room on many transactions. Or a few hundred dollars in rebuild parts I'm going to put into a game.

Learning the game is part of the experience to me. If you've already spent a lot of time on the game before buying, that's lost time and coin drop on a (probably) sub par game/experience. Plus time out of my day I spend playing the game. It's just way too much to think+worry about

I've owned 60+ games and only maybe 10-15 I'd ever played before purchasing them. Most of those turned out not to be keepers. The games that seem the funnest the first few plays I gave them rarely had staying power. Sometimes I played a game elsewhere and didn't like it much at all, but then picked one up cheap on a whim and loved it.

Your 'due diligence' is a loss of value and time to many people. You can't go asking 'why do some people do <thing I wouldn't do>?' and then try to apply your reasoning to the explanations.

Some pins are fun for years, others are fun for weeks. If you only buy the 'years' pins you miss out on a lot of fun.

I learned all the rules to iron maiden from one Twitch stream, then got to all the modes, etc except the final wizard mode within like 10 games. Didn't see anything I liked, now I avoid playing it. If a game isn't for you it's pretty easy to tell.

Mistake on their part, code has gotten much better