Has anyone purged their game collection? Is gamefly worth it?

R

rich2k4

CAGiversary!
I've come tothe realization that when I beat a game, I tend to not want to play it again. As a result, these games just sit and collect dust. I was thinking of purging everything i don't really want.

I was thinking Gamefly might be a good service for someone like me. Anyone have any opinions on it?


Another alternative would be to buy a game I want to play used, beat it in a couple days, and then resell it for the same price. Basically game for free.

Has anyone done this?

 
Oh, I love Gamefly.  It sounds like it would work for you.

I used to buy games and had 200+ of games on the Xbox/PS2 era, but then I moved on to the 360/PS3 era, and still kept buying games.  I then did a purge of my old PS2/Xbox games and saw that about 30% of my games I had not even played.  And then the same thing happened to the 360 era, I had 200+ of 360 games, but only played about 60% of them.  I decided to sell most of those games which I didn't care for anymore, and got a good amount of $ back (over $1400), since I had so many. 

Note, I was already a Gamefly member at the time, so even with a Gamefly subscription, I was accumulating a huge collection, and it was collecting dust.  I found myself playing my Gamefly rented games, instead of the games I was actually buying.  With Gamefly, I have been able to rent single player games, play them, beat them, and return them, and worst case it costs me $15.99 a month.  It has probably allowed me to play dozens of games and in the process saved me hundreds of dollars.

So again, I highly recommend Gamefly if you are interested in that route.  I did sell a lot of my games last year to slim my collection (still got over 100 games to be played, but it was much worst, I was collecting games before playing them).  Currently, I have The Last of Us and Remember Me rented, fun games, but glad I don't have to spend $60 on each of them.

 
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I tried Gamefly for a month, and while overall I thought it was a good service, it definitely depends on how close you are to a distribution center. Games took for me an average of 4-5 days total turnaround, which is awful, but definitely not netflix speed. Another thing is that you will most likely have to wait a good deal on anything recent. I was mostly getting older stuff, and didn't have much trouble, but if you like to play games right at release I think you will be a bit disappointed.

I would say it sounds like something that would work well for you if the above isn't a problem. Otherwise, why not just resell your games after you beat them? If it isn't terribly old you can probably get 50%-80% back at least on ebay or amazon. I'd say try the free gamefly trial and see what you think :)

 
Yeah I didn't like Gamefly due to the turnaround time taking too long. I've just adopted a play it, beat it, sell it mentality. I took a hard look at my "collection" which I never wanted in the first place and purged a bunch of stuff that I'd probably never play. I'm now playing games that I actually want to play and I still have about 38 games spanning 7 consoles (mainly BC titles PS1, XBOX etc.) on the shelf but I'm much better off then I was at this time last year. I recently finished Tomb Raider and I'm playing The Last of Us now. I hope to be 100% backlog free next gen as I'll probably literally buy a game or two at a time and that's it. I might even do another small purge soon.

It's working out though I've just recently finished God of War II, Gears Of War 2, and Metal Gear Solid 2...stuff like that, that has been sitting around a little too long and I should have played by now.

 
I'm in the same boat as jkam.  In beat and sell on Amazon mode as I work through my backlog, and don't plan on buying more than a game or two at a time next gen to avoid having a back log.

Gamefly doesn't make sense for me as I don't game enough to beat games fast enough for the value to work out for me.  For instance, I'm just under 5 hours into Last of Us which I got at launch.

 
Not that much purpose in not purging unless you're a collector.  If you beat/master a game, it'll likely be a long time before you'll want to do something with it again, if ever.  So sell soon when you can usually get the highest price (exceptions: when a game becomes collectable) and use the money from that on your next gaming acquisition.  It feels like getting a $60 game for $35.  This can get time consuming, though.  In the event you'll want to play it again, it won't be until long after, after the used price has likely gone down considerably.  So you'd still come out on top more often than not.

 
TalonsAlight said:
This can get time consuming, though.
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Not really. Just buy a bunch of padded envelopes from eBay or another site (can get 100 for like $20-25). Buy a decent postal scale like this one.

Then buy and print your shipping labels using Paypal shipping (cheaper than the USPS site or going to post office). Then all you have to do is stick it in the mail box, or a mailbox around town, the outgoing mail at work etc.

If you are still taking things to the post office and waiting in line etc., then yeah it can eat up time. But there's not reason to do that. I also recommend selling on Amazon rather than ebay. Very quick to list, less hassle from buyers (think I've only had one email me questions about a product, and never any disputes).

I listed 4 games yesterday, already sold 2 (Halo 4 and LittleBigPlanet) and put them in the mail this morning.

 
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I'd recommend gamefly as well. If you know how to use the system you can easily get any new release on the day it releases.  The last two games I had out were The last of Us and Dead Island Riptide and I have the Vita port of Muramasa coming next.  If you remove all the games on your queue and just put the new release on your queue before it's release they will send it to you every time.  The turnaround time is longer than Netflix but with the money you save having to wait a couple days for a game to arrive isn't really a problem.   

 
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I have it. The only problem is if you take forever to beat a game. If you take too long you've paid for the game or possibly more than the game is worth. So you have to have a lot of time to play games so that you don't have them for very long.

 
How exactly do you use the system? I signed up for a trial when last of us released and canceled this morning because no activity.

I would also recommend purging the collection. I sold 26 games on amazon this past week as well as my PS3 so I can salvage some value before it drops later this year. My plan is to use all the credit towards PS4 and just grab games from redbox as needed.
 
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mr.me said:
I have it. The only problem is if you take forever to beat a game. If you take too long you've paid for the game or possibly more than the game is worth. So you have to have a lot of time to play games so that you don't have them for very long.
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Yep. That's exactly why I can't do Gamefly. It's rare for me to blow through even a shorter game since I'm lucky to get 5-10 hours a week in, and often less than that. More lately--but just from wasting time in Animal Crossing.

I just can't get through enough games a week/month/year to make Gamefly a good value. I'd spend more on it than I do just buying a games cheap, selling after beating etc.

It's a great option for people who do power through a game a week or so though.

 
QiG said:
How exactly do you use the system? I signed up for a trial when last of us released and canceled this morning because no activity.
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You add games to your gameq to be sent out and whatever game you add that is "available now" will be sent. If nothing on your gameq says "available now", you'll be wating awhile to get a game.

 
I'm on the single game plan which costs me roughly $120 a year.  As long as I finish 3 games in that year then it's paid for itself in my eyes.

**edit**

Also if you have a PC, there are a lot of PC games you can download and play at no extra charge.

 
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WalkinPneumonia said:
I'm on the single game plan which costs me roughly $120 a year. As long as I finish 3 games in that year then it's paid for itself in my eyes.

**edit**

Also if you have a PC, there are a lot of PC games you can download and play at no extra charge.
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This

How i valuate it. Was on the 2 games at a time plan but dropped to one as I dont game quite as much as I used to. But if you do the one game a month, its 120 a year so as long as you are playing 5-6 games a year from it you easily get your money's worth I think (6 games retail is 360, say you traded all in right after beating, right after launch and averaged 60% returns, youd still wind up paying 144 on those 6 games, and again thats assuming 60% ROI, which would possibly be closer to 50% which puts your payout to 180 for the year buying games.) Also not to mention the perks you get after so long, after a year 5% off all game purchases, and every 3 months a 5 dollar coupon. Coupled with the used games sales GF has all the time, you can get some really cheap used games that come in perfect condition as far as case, manual, and codes goes.

 
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Gamefly is generally a pretty great service, especially if you have several platforms.

I love being able to play a lot of games I would otherwise pass on because of price, rating, difficulty, etc.

Their downsides are the same as the old Netflix model, you're gonna wait a while for newer releases and mail turnaround can take days.

On games that you could spend many hours playing like a Saint's Row, Assasin's Creed, etc; I use it more like a demo, if I like it, I send the game back and put it on my list to buy later, or you can keep it and buy it from them.

Luckily because of the Xbox One kerfuffle, they will likely be around for a few more years. It will be interesting to see if they can eventually move to a newer Netflix model, where you can rent games digitally.

 
WalkinPneumonia said:
I'm on the single game plan which costs me roughly $120 a year. As long as I finish 3 games in that year then it's paid for itself in my eyes.

**edit**

Also if you have a PC, there are a lot of PC games you can download and play at no extra charge.
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It's $15.95 a month, that's way more than $120 a year. That's more like $190 a year. So 3 games a year if they're all brand new $60 games is $180, you'd be better off buying the games.

 
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mr.me said:
It's $15.95 a month, that's way more than $120 a year. That's more like $190 a year. So 3 games a year if they're all brand new $60 games is $180, you'd be better off buying the games.
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Not if you buy gift certs. I pay under $120 a year actually.

 
The problem for me is two-fold.

1.  I don't buy enough games every year that I'm always spending that much. I can take a year or two off easily and just work on my backlog.  Plus this is CAG and I'm mostly paying $10-20 for games after getting them cheap and selling them after beating them.

2.  I'd have to be constantly canceling and restarting a Gamefly subscription as I wouldn't need it for several months after buying something like Borderlands 2 or Skyrim that's long and eats up all my gaming time for 2-3+ months.

Gamefly just doesn't make much sense for someone like me who games 5-10 hours a week on average, with a few longer weeks around a big release, and a lot of weeks where I don't game at all due to work etc.

Redbox makes more sense if I wanted to rent something, as I can just wait until I have a free weekend and go rent a shorter game and blow through it, or a longer game I want to try before buying.

 
I just traded in a lot of games to get the 3DS XL. I had a bunch of old Wii and DS games collecting dust. I mostly just play it, beat it, let it collect dust, then sell it. I'm not sure about Gamefly but it might work for you. Also, they do have decent sales on used games.
 
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