What kind of people trade in their games?

[quote name='Rodimus']So you're saying 15% of preowned games are hot? I didn't realize kleptomania was so rampant. But then again I always wondered why they had so many disk only games. Why would so many people junk their cases and manuals?[/QUOTE]

My numbers are probably wrong and not the norm everywhere. I know there are some GameStops in particular around me that you know the majority of the games, especially disc only, are stolen.
 
The example given in the OP is an extreme example. GS was giving $40 for copies of Bioshock 2 in early March and probably got killed by that. I'm sure they're still sitting on that inventory. I'd be surprised if they didn't end up losing money on that game when it's all said and done.

Just because they have it priced at $34.99 doesn't mean that people are actually buying it at that price. Sure they'll sell a few, but the fact that Gamefly still has copies available for $20 indicates that Gamestop is going to have to go lower to get rid of what they have.
 
I was listening to a podcast recently, and one of the guys on it compared Gamestop taking games from kids to the idea of Walmart letting a kid on his own bring in his bike and trade it in for an action figure. Spot on.
 
I usually trade in to gamestop when there's a new game that I absolutely must have.

Keep in mind I'm unemployed, have zero income, and usually only get games when it's a birthday or holiday such as christmas. Other times I may get a game or two for free from a friend who didn't like it, or beat it. But since I have only one friend who video games, these occurences are rare. Other times I may get lucky and find a game somewhere on the net for under $5, so I may rarely snag a game that way.

For me, gamestop is really the only way to trade up, and that's only when they have the 20 or 30 percent bonus credit.

I won't use sites like goozex or amazon, too much of a hassle to learn the system, and I wouldn't trust anyone enough to supply good feedback or whatever it is they use on those sites. I have to use my mom's credit card to buy online, so buying from gamefly isn't an option when most games are $20+shipping. And it really doesn't matter if something is dirt cheap on clearance locally if I don't have the funds to spend. Not working makes even scraping up a spare $5 for a game impossible.

So the only real option is to trade in 6 or 7 older games to gamestop, when they have the +% promotions, to get one new game. When fallout new vegas comes out I'll trade in the games I got last christmas for it, and hope I get enough in credit that I'll only have to add a few bucks to get the game.

So it's people like myself, with no other options, gamestop is still a complete rip-off, but my only real "easy & simple" option.
 
Actually Gamefly just had a nice free shipping sale at the end of last month and GoHastings.com has Buy 2 Get 1 for $1 sales very often too. So there are options if you look around.

There's also at least 3-4 local shops you could try.;) I'm a fellow local CAG and I still find deals around here at times. It's just tough and does require a bit of legwork at times.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']Actually Gamefly just had a nice free shipping sale at the end of last month and GoHastings.com has Buy 2 Get 1 for $1 sales very often too. So there are options if you look around.

There's also at least 3-4 local shops you could try.;) I'm a fellow local CAG and I still find deals around here at times. It's just tough and does require a bit of legwork at times.[/QUOTE]

I don't see those as viable options for my situation though. If you can only spend $5 on a game using a credit card online then it doesn't matter if the shipping is free when the game still costs $20, or $15, or $10. Bought some older games on half.com for under $5 shipped. One per month after the cc payment was sent in. .75 cents +$3 shipping for Lego Indy (for example). Unless gamefly or gohastings offer those kinds of deals they're not for me.

And like I said, if there's no cash to spend there's no point in even trying to search out shops and do legwork. Does me no good to find a deal somewhere and not have any money to spend on it. There's a shop two blocks up from me on main ave, but no point in ever going there since I don't have the funds to spend. Gamestop is a rip-off, I know that well, but it's better than nothing.

I do the e-rewards surveys and got a $25 giftcard in the mail today for gamestop. Took the card, cuz I wanted to Finally get Borderlands. I figured with the credit and my edge discount I'd only spend like $5, but my edge card expired so no game for me. Came home, checked the gamestop website, and ordered the game via credit card with coupon codes for under $5. That's my allotment for this month on the cc (we're maxed out and only have so much to spend each month on the card). Now next month I'll take borderlands, and several other games and hopefully get enough at gamestop for fallout vegas.

It's not the cheapest way to go, but it's the easiest and simplest way to get the game without the hassle of doing legwork, dealing with trying to make money off older games online (craigslist/amazon/goozex), or bothering with trying to trade cag members my games they already own.

Trust me, if I were working, and had some disposable income I'd be out there at k-mart and target a few times a week looking for games to flip, but since I'm basically poor white trash at the moment gamestop is a lifesaver :lol:
 
I don't sell many games because I have kids who like to play older games so I'm more than happy to hold onto a great game that I'd like to see my kids enjoy in the future. But every now and then I pick up a game that just isn't worth keep once I finish it so I'm willing to trade it in knowing I'm taking a loss.
 
My guess is that some people are just not all that concerned with saving money. It's all about how easy they can make their life. And if they are missing out on $20 here or there they don't particularly care.....just a guess :)
 
[quote name='Rodimus']So you're saying 15% of preowned games are hot? I didn't realize kleptomania was so rampant. But then again I always wondered why they had so many disk only games. Why would so many people junk their cases and manuals?[/QUOTE]

[quote name='JP']My numbers are probably wrong and not the norm everywhere. I know there are some GameStops in particular around me that you know the majority of the games, especially disc only, are stolen.[/QUOTE]

I would not be surprised if yours numbers were not that far off, JP. I know a number of people work in the LP department of Sears, and over the years, a lot of employees have been fired from the electronics department for stealing stuff. There's no telling with how much stuff they got before they actually got caught. Or how many people steal stuff and never get caught.
 
I stopped trading in games years ago. I still do it, but very rarely. I am a collector, and also, I pretty much only buy what I know I will enjoy. I will buy mediocre games for $10 or less. To me, getting cerdit or cash isn't worth it; I'd rather have the game.

Thanks to CAG, I rarely pay full price for games, but I'm not like those of you who wait till a game hits $20. A lot of decent games drop quickly, but many of the best games take years to hit that mark. These days, I preorder through Amazon. I do pay full price for some games, but I get $10, or more often $20, in credit toward my next purchase.

My philosophy when multiple games I want are being released in a short time frame (such as this fall) is to pick up the big multiplayer titles first, such as Madden, NHL 11, and Halo: Reach. I/you/we get the most value from those games when they first come out due to the online communities. Single player games, even the really good ones, can wait since they'll still offer the same great experience later down the line.

Using CAG, I've gotten hundreds of games across platforms from the GC to the DS to the Wii, the PS2 and PS3, the Xbox and the 360... I have fewer expenses now than I did a few years ago (been here at CAG for 6 years) so my collection has ballooned. I went from getting GTA IV for the Xbox 360 as my 20th game for the system in April 2008 (plus maybe 8-10 arcade games) to now having 83 games on disc and 35+ downloaded on my 360 alone, and almost all of them are high quality games bought new and sealed (I hate used games). Throw in 12 PS3 games and multiple Wii games, and that's one hell of a haul on low income.
 
Why not? The choice is basically between having a game I don't like, or don't like enough to ever want to play it again taking up space, or I can trade it towards new games. I don't know that I come out that badly anyway.
 
[quote name='Matt Young']
My philosophy when multiple games I want are being released in a short time frame (such as this fall) is to pick up the big multiplayer titles first, such as Madden, NHL 11, and Halo: Reach. I/you/we get the most value from those games when they first come out due to the online communities. Single player games, even the really good ones, can wait since they'll still offer the same great experience later down the line.

I went from getting GTA IV for the Xbox 360 as my 20th game for the system in April 2008 (plus maybe 8-10 arcade games) to now having 83 games on disc and 35+ downloaded on my 360 alone, and almost all of them are high quality games bought new and sealed (I hate used games).[/QUOTE]
I only play 2 games online for multiplayer now(GTA EFLC, Red Dead Redemption) and most times I just make a private game so I don't have to deal with the douchebags who will try and kill me for an hour.

Other than that I steer clear of playing online against other people due to many games having players with seemingly no life and insane skills in the game to prove that point. I learned this lesson most with two games: MAG and Uncharted 2. You had people on there who killed you within half a second of respawning, repeat that ad nauseam for the entire length of a game and it got old FAST.

As for buying games new/sealed versus used, as long as you watch what you're buying used you can get some pretty decent games for a bunch less than MSRP if you wait for a number of price drops and buy them used as well.

But if Sears and Kmart's clearance go back to normal anytime within the next couple of years I'll go back to waiting till games I want go on clearance there and just buy them there for $5-10 rather than even waste $20-30 on a used copy.
 
[quote name='JP']
3. Deal Hunter/Flippers (10%) - Smallest percentage of trade-in people and really the way the stores like it. These are the people that buy games at discount at one store and will trade to another. They take advantage of any glitch/loophole they can find. Some people build up massive amounts of credit this way and rarely have to pay large amounts for any games they want, even if on release day.[/QUOTE]

You know, I wouldn't put the number nearly this high, whether counting customers or even percentage of games traded in. At least around where I am, I see very few other people doing this sort of thing - all the better for me ;).

[quote name='jkanownik']The example given in the OP is an extreme example. GS was giving $40 for copies of Bioshock 2 in early March and probably got killed by that. I'm sure they're still sitting on that inventory. I'd be surprised if they didn't end up losing money on that game when it's all said and done.

Just because they have it priced at $34.99 doesn't mean that people are actually buying it at that price. Sure they'll sell a few, but the fact that Gamefly still has copies available for $20 indicates that Gamestop is going to have to go lower to get rid of what they have.[/QUOTE]

Bingo - this is the thing people always need to remember when they are oh-so-shocked at GS trade-in prices.

Let's also not forget that GS always has some sort of promo going on. And it isn't usually just 10% like a previous poster said - it is usually around 25-30% (preorder bonuses are typically 25% and apply to any games traded in) and has been as high as 50% a few times just this year. With their current promo, it can actually be even higher than 100%. (Current promo is trade 5 games over $2 value, get $20 extra - ie, $4 per game. For example, if you trade a game worth $2.50, you get $6.50). True, taking maximum advantage of these deals, especially if they are "trade 3/trade 5" type things, requires a little knowledge and planning, but even casual traders can usually get something out of them. But those never-ending 25% preorder bonus deals are usually for the big games that casual buyers want to buy day 1 at MSRP, anyway, so it should be easy enough for them to trade in their outdated junk for AT LEAST the 25% bonus to get their new game o' the day (Madden, Halo, etc).

The only thing I see at GS that makes me shake my head is when some kid comes in with a huge stack of games and wants cash for them. In that case, it isn't even that they are trying to get rid of old games so they can get a new one - who knows where the cash is going. Or maybe they are that stupid and using the cash at Target, or possibly even at GS some other time (I know "store credit" has a stigma to some people but you gotta be smart about it ;)). What is so stupid about that (on the customer side) is that they get 20% less and DO NOT qualify for any of the bonus promos. So maybe they get $20 cash for stuff that could have gotten them $60 in store credit. And before anyone says it was probably stolen stuff, I've seen this happen plenty of times with kids with their parents there watching (so it is unlikely it was a stolen stash unless the whole family is in on it ;)).

Funny observation at GS the other day that maybe sheds a little light on how GS makes money off of so many people: a kid is there (with parents) wanting to trade a bunch of original Xbox games. GS no longer takes them so the clerk tells them about another store that does. But apparently they have a couple of games they do take (probably PS2 games) and will get a whopping $4.50 in cash, somewhat more in credit. The kid asks (I'm paraphasing): "If I trade the Xbox games for cash at the other store, can I bring that here and use it to buy a new game?". Yeah...
 
Well . . .

eBay: Obviously people bid on things there, but they never seem to bid on MY things there.
Craigslist: Done it a couple of times, but meeting strangers in a parking lot and exchanging money . . . it gets less attractive as the years go by. :)
Rentals: Fine if you're going to spend the entire weekend playing one game, I guess. I don't do that.

I don't pay full price, I don't buy on release date (well, twice I did, with games I REALLY wanted and had a boatload of credit), and I don't trade until there's a promo.

And I'm willing to bet my net worth is in the top 10% here, so I suppose I qualify as wealthy AND uneducated, per Riyonuk's standards. ;)
 
[quote name='pob14']Well . . .

eBay: Obviously people bid on things there, but they never seem to bid on MY things there.
Craigslist: Done it a couple of times, but meeting strangers in a parking lot and exchanging money . . . it gets less attractive as the years go by. :)
Rentals: Fine if you're going to spend the entire weekend playing one game, I guess. I don't do that.

I don't pay full price, I don't buy on release date (well, twice I did, with games I REALLY wanted and had a boatload of credit), and I don't trade until there's a promo.

And I'm willing to bet my net worth is in the top 10% here, so I suppose I qualify as wealthy AND uneducated, per Riyonuk's standards. ;)[/QUOTE]

What? That wasn't meant as an insult. If you trade in a game at GameStop, you're indeed uneducated that there is a more proficient alternative and something else out there that is worth more of your time and money. I'm not implying you're stupid and cannot amount to anything. I wouldn't say something like that. Way to flaunt your wealth :p
 
[quote name='pob14']
Craigslist: Done it a couple of times, but meeting strangers in a parking lot and exchanging money . . . it gets less attractive as the years go by. :)
Rentals: Fine if you're going to spend the entire weekend playing one game, I guess. I don't do that.

I don't pay full price, I don't buy on release date (well, twice I did, with games I REALLY wanted and had a boatload of credit), and I don't trade until there's a promo.[/QUOTE]
I've done the CL thing, though I always meet the people INSIDE the mall. If they don't wanna meet inside the mall, then they can get fucked since I'm not gonna risk getting jumped. I had some d-bag a little while ago who refused to go the extra 20 feet into the mall to meet me in the food court just because he was 'doing this deal on his way home and he drives blah blah blah distance to and from work'.

I told him 'I don't need your life story asshole, just yer fuckin' money, now are you gonna meet me INSIDE the mall or not?'. He said no. I said have a nice day douchebag and I sold it to the next person who was interested with no hassles and they drove up to MY area to meet me to do the deal.

As for rentals or paying full price, I've paid full price for 4-6 or so games in the last couple of years and I couldn't even tell you the last time I rented a game.
 
Yeah, craigslist just gets more and more unappealling for me, although I think my gripe is that it's not so much a safety issue so much as it is a scheduling/planning hassle, especially when you gotta deal with the "I will nots" like this guy up here ^^^

I told him 'I don't need your life story asshole, just yer fuckin' money, now are you gonna meet me INSIDE the mall or not?'. He said no. I said have a nice day douchebag
Click to expand...

The poor kid probably just didn't want to go through the hassle of parking. I gotta say, your many stories of doling out verbal lashings sorta seem to clash with the reports that you're something of a mute online. Just sayin' ;)
 
[quote name='eastshore4']Yeah, craigslist just gets more and more unappealling for me, although I think my gripe is that it's not so much a safety issue so much as it is a scheduling/planning hassle, especially when you gotta deal with the "I will nots" like this guy up here ^^^

The poor kid probably just didn't want to go through the hassle of parking. I gotta say, your many stories of doling out verbal lashings sorta seem to clash with the reports that you're something of a mute online. Just sayin' ;)[/QUOTE]
I've had equally annoying experiences on CAG too, like people who won't pay the extra $.20 for first class shipping versus Media Mail or the $.75 for Delivery Confirmation on a package since I buy it right from the post office and don't get it for $.16 from Paypal or whatever.:lol:

As for not wanting to be hassled to park, the guy sure had no problem thinking he got me to drop a significant amount of money off my price by haggling.

First email of his to me was 'it's only worth blah blah to me'.:roll: Thing is I almost always give myself a little breathing room with my prices on CL(and sometimes on CAG), so that people can try and 'deal' with me and as long as they don't go below my minimum price I still wanna make I'm ok with taking their offer.:D
 
1. Kids that don't have a job and need money for the next big game. (that was me in Middle School)
2. People who don't do business online.
3. Guys that just robbed your entire house.
 
My trade-in to GS tonight:

:ps3: Chaotic Shadow Warriors - $5
:ps3: Darksiders - $8
:wii: Big Brain Academy - $6
:wii: Top Spin 3 - $4
:360: Brave: A Warrior's Tale - $2.50

Yeah, so on the surface, it doesn't look great: $25.50 total, or only $20.40 if I took cash. Though, really, even that isn't so horrible.

But because of the Edge card and trade 5/$20 bonus, I ended up with $48.05 in credit.

At best, on eBay I'm going to get $20 shipped for Darksiders (or even as little as $15), $10 shipped for Chaotic (with some auctions ending as low as $7), $10 shipped for Brave (and that's for new copies, since mine was new ;)), $15 shipped for Big Brain Academy, and $10 shipped, if I'm lucky, for Top Spin 3.

So that's a total of $65. But wait, I said shipped, so I have to deduct shipping at around $2.50 each (that is using very cheap bubble mailers bought online), plus, oh yeah. eBay fees of 15%, and PayPal fees of around 4%. So the total take after all that is... around $40...

Now, sure, $40 cash is probably better than $48 at GS, though I will make use of the GS credit eventually. But you also have to factor in the hassle of packaging and mailing 5 different things and the potential for problem buyers and bad feedback even when you do everything right, etc... I do sell on ebay so I'm not one of those people that dismisses it as a big headache, but sometimes (more often that you might think), GS can be the better option.

Clearly, the cash option at GS is what is for the most part pure stupidity. You are taking 20% less and losing out on the promo deal. If that were the only option, I'd definitely eBay the stuff for twice as much even with the hassles that entails. So, in the end, unless you are unloading stolen goods, I don't see why anyone takes cash from GS. If you are a kid or parent looking to dump a bunch of old games to get something new, they you ought gladly to take the credit + bonus promos and buy your hot new game with that. But it astounds me how many times I see kids/parents taking cash. I think part of the problem is that most GS clerks aren't aware of the promos and don't total it up to the end to figure what the cash vs credit difference really comes down to. For example, in my trade above, the clerk would probably say "$25 credit or $20 cash" and most people, even if they might want to buy something at GS later, would take the cash. But the promos usually factor in when they are finalizing the trade so neither they nor the customer sees that at first.
 
Yeah, between the promos and the convinience, for me nothing beats Gamestop right now. I have traded in some stuff at Toys R Us though, but only once or twice...not sure why. Partly Toys R Us hasn't really done new game promos recently, and partly I'm semi-worried they might not know why I'm there or something when I show up at the desk.

Hmm...maybe I should switch over again. I don't know.
 
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