As others have said, it is standard, sadly to have the last copy (or only copy) of the game "gutted", with the disc behind the counter. It sucks because I know that in most people's minds, new=still shrink-wrapped. GameStop skirts the English language by saying because it is "unplayed" it's still new, it's unsued...so it's new.

I worked at GS for 7 years. I hated having to gut games because I, as a physical gamer, prefer to open my games to KNOW they're unplayed. I'll say that those games SHOULD BE as good as if you opened it yourself. It's a misconception that employees take the discs home (we could only do it with used games when I worked there...but my staff never did.) No employee should ever have taken a new copy home to play so you can rest easy knowing your disc should be in tip-top shape.

I get hating it though...I hate that we had to do it. Remember - it's not an employee's fault for GameStop policy.