Flipping: General Advice and Pointers?

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drgnasdt

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Hey Guys,

I'm still relatively new to CAG, but I recently found out about "flipping," which was described to me as basically buying something (game, system, w/e) from one place and then selling/trading it in for more money/credit at another place.

To me, it seems like a good way to make some money/build some trade credit, especially if I see a game for cheap (e.g. on clearance) and am not particularly interested in playing it.

So I was just wondering if any of you have general advice or pointers on how to do this effectively. Where do you guys determine the trade-in value or sale value of those items (besides eBay)? How do you know that something GS sells for $x.xx can be traded in at BlockBuster for $xx.xx?

I know that this thread might get stolen from FW/SD, so please PM me with responses if you don't want to post here.

Thanks!
drgnasdt :)

P.S. I have bought several Target clearance games (all sealed), so if I were to trade them in at other places, what should I do before bringing them in? Remove the red price stickers (which are sometimes insanely hard to take off), etc.?
 
First off, welcome to CAG, I hope you find as many deals as a member here as I have over the past 2-3 years.

Second, take a look at the top of the page, on the right you'll see a spot that says CAGWiki. If you click on that, it'll take you to pages where you can find out about penny guides, like when they dropped, which ones and at what stores. Moreover, you can find a rough estimate of trade values for MANY stores(Gamestop, FYE, Gamerush/Blockbuster) on another set of pages within the wiki.

However, if a current value for a game isn't listed or the value is over 3-6 months old, you can always use my method, which gives you a ballpark figure of what to expect from Gamestop at least.

If you can't find a value on the Wiki, this is how I determine trade value for Gamestop. Find the price the game sells for used on Gamestop.com, then divide that price in half, then subtract between $2 to $5 off of that total. Old sports games will typically be worth only a dollar or two after a little more than a year after their release, since they are yearly titles.

Lastly, NO STORE that I know of will take in games while they are still shrink wrapped, so you will have to tear open the shrink wrap to trade in the games. However, it's not a good policy to open them before you know for certain WHAT price you will be getting for them. Many places WILL give you values if you bring up the case from another copy of the same game, but if you take them in shrink wrapped, expecting to just open them in the store and trade them the same day, they'll think you stole them and you'll have to wait till the next day or so.

Most stores will NOT give you values over the phone, with the rare exception being if they're not busy or whatever, but usually they won't.

Also, if you want to determine trade values for games at FYE or at least get a ballpark figure again, try going to wherehouse.com's website, which has a value finder for games. Since wherehouse is another Transworld company, it was determined a while ago that the values should be just about the same.

Of course, every store typically will de-value a game by a bit from a reported trade value if they have a ton of used copies on hand. They also do drop values a bit during trade promos(like the current one from Gamestop for current gen games).

I hope this helps and gets you started on flipping and makes you ALOT of money/credit. I know all of this info certainly would've helped me, had I known it when I started at this site.
 
I would advise against flipping. Not really for any other factor then you start to view games as dollar signs rather then fun.. and the reason you are here is probably because you want cheap video games (who doesn't right?) but be prepared if you start flipping it can easily consume your time that you would normally spend playing games.. its a tight line to walk .. many people here after a certain amount of time just get such a backlog of games that it is near impossible to play all of them. .i've sinced backed off a bit on my gaming habits but I enjoy finding games for cheap in the wild.. and i love my collection of GBA games.. but you know for a while there I was spending more time BUYING games then i was PLAYING games.. so just be careful

also if you live in a smaller area (meaning you don't have BB, TRU, CC, Target.. + GameStop/EB/FYE ) flipping is a lot harder to do and USUALLY not worth the effort..

however.. look for games that are 70 % off or greater you'll most likely be able to get the most out of those ones.
 
Buy low, sell high.

Also, realize that because gas prices are so insane nowadays if you have to drive more than a mile or 2 out of your way JUST to buy something you're going to flip, it's probably not worth. Now if you were going there anyways, then you're all good.
 
Just keep an eye on the gamr rush topic. Gamestop and FYE are only worth the trouble if they got some sort of trade in offer.
 
[quote name='Warner1281']Buy low, sell high.[/quote]

This.

I am a pretty avid flipper, and no it doesn't mess with my love of games if anything its added to it, by being able to afford more.

I'm a full time college student so as you can imagine money is a bit tight, but by flipping and by manipulating deals ($10 trade in to GS for 2 next gen games....etc.) I have been able to pick up all 2.5 next gen systems for relatively cheap.

PS3 60 gig for 140ish
Wii for around 70
Xbox 360 Pro for about 120

Every little bit of savings help, thats why this is CAG. :) welcome to flipping
 
Thanks for all the responses and general advice everyone.

I understand the concept of flipping, but I was just wondering how people find out specifics. My friend (also a fellow CAGer) tells me that Gamestop always tries to rip you off for your money, and you would get very little trade-in value for the stuff you give them. From what I've read on this thread, it seems most flipping is done to Blockbuster/Gamerush. Unfortunately for me, I only have Blockbusters in my area (one huge one recently closed), so I guess that'll be harder for me to get good deals.

How do you guys know when something will be good to flip? Besides having general knowledge and checking the CAGWiki, are there certain sales that will usually generate a good flipping revenue (e.g. Gamestop's B2G1 free, Target/CC clearance sales, etc.)? The idea of checking the CAGWiki and Gamerush thread every day doesn't seem like the most effective way to figure out what deals are good, though I'll certainly do that as a place to start.
 
Don't forget Goozex! It's true that:

1) Flipping is addictive - So much so that like others said I actually spend about 90% trading/selling games and about 10% playing them. My backlog of games is in the hundreds so buyer beware! This may in fact change as of tomorrow as I'm getting an HDTV for the first time, but I have a feeling I'll still be spending many hours on CAG a day =P

2) Gas is expensive and therefore flipping isn't as tempting as it once was. This being said though, if you are creative enough with your shopping (or if you have three Gamestops in your mall like I do) you can work around the limitations. Having a hybrid car is also nice :) Go Prius!

3) Goozex is a really nice avenue for flipping. If you find games that are highly requested and you can find a game cheap chances are you can make a lot of points in the process. This is especially good for getting games that you want for much less, as well as game trading fodder for Gamestop sales and others where they give you X dollars for X games traded in and extra percentage bonuses.

Good luck and have fun on CAG. Game shopping is really, really, really addictive though. I can't say that enough =P
 
[quote name='goomba478']
Good luck and have fun on CAG. Game shopping is really, really, really addictive though. I can't say that enough =P[/quote]

Haha, I know! I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes going bargain hunting for deals just as much as actually PLAYING games. I would say that I spent 99% of my time hunting for games, and 0.1% playing them, because a lot of them just accumulate, still shrinkwrapped, in my collection and I have a ton of others I need to finish first.

And this is all since I've started being active on CAG... haha wow.

But I've learned a LOT from reading the Blockbuster/Gamerush thread, so I don't think I'll need this thread as much anymore. But thanks so much everyone for all the tips! :D
 
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