Seems like retailers never have trade in values for newer games anymore?

Note: I'm talking about aside from GameStop, which I don't use much

For the past few years I got a lot of mileage out of buying pretty much any game I wanted, and making sure to quickly beat the ones I didn't need to keep and trade them in while the value was high. Some time around October of last year when I got the new South Park, new ACreed etc, I would check Best Buy, check Amazon, and it just seems like they never put anything newer into the trade in system. It has continued until today, I have Monster Hunter World which just isn't clicking for me and I wouldn't mind some trade in credit to use on other stuff, nobody has a value for it or is taking trade ins. I could get $27.50 at GS, but when Amazon or Best Buy used to accept a newer game you'd get $33 or more, and with GCU the values were usually awesome. 

I feel like I missed something, all of a sudden all these separate entities seem to have stopped buying back newer games. I guess it could be exactly because they realized people were buying, playing, and trading stuff in quickly? I could understand if they dropped values, but they simply aren't in the system any more.

Anyone have any input? 

DarkSouls said:

Note: I'm talking about aside from GameStop, which I don't use much

For the past few years I got a lot of mileage out of buying pretty much any game I wanted, and making sure to quickly beat the ones I didn't need to keep and trade them in while the value was high. Some time around October of last year when I got the new South Park, new ACreed etc, I would check Best Buy, check Amazon, and it just seems like they never put anything newer into the trade in system. It has continued until today, I have Monster Hunter World which just isn't clicking for me and I wouldn't mind some trade in credit to use on other stuff, nobody has a value for it or is taking trade ins. I could get $27.50 at GS, but when Amazon or Best Buy used to accept a newer game you'd get $33 or more, and with GCU the values were usually awesome.

I feel like I missed something, all of a sudden all these separate entities seem to have stopped buying back newer games. I guess it could be exactly because they realized people were buying, playing, and trading stuff in quickly? I could understand if they dropped values, but they simply aren't in the system any more.

Anyone have any input?

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It's because the used disc media business is on its way out. I would imagine you would have heard by now that almost 40% of game sales are now digital. It means there are fewer and fewer customers who are much interested in owning physical media, which leads retailers like Best Buy, Amazon (and of course Gamestop) to start to reconsider whether it wants to continue to serve a pre-owned business. Big trade-in values makes sense when there is a large consumer base interested in buying them; as that pool dries up, you should expect fewer trade-in deals, and generally decreasing trade-in values as those companies start to figure out it's no longer worth the trouble.

I would imagine in the next 2-4 years the sale of digital licenses will overtake physical discs, and you'll see more physical releases limited to low-stock runs.

It's clearly already happening. People joke about how there can so many LRG clones out there. Well, that's because there is now a market for those like me who will fork a premium to have physical discs. That market though is getting smaller, and I'm not sure even diehards will keep up with it as prices go higher.

romeogbs19 said:

It's because the used disc media business is on its way out. I would imagine you would have heard by now that almost 40% of game sales are now digital.

Click to expand...

I agree physical is on the way out but any idea how this number is broken out? Does it include mobile games and/or sales from add-ons (or whatever freemium game purchases are called). I've always wondered what the physical to digital distribution for console games vs mobile/PC games.

Just learn to sell on ebay.  I mean with Monster Hunter World you can sell for around $45 before shipping and fees.  Like other said, the used game market is slowing down so amazon and BBY aren't really going to care any more.

It just seemed like it happened so suddenly. And I could understand if they actually announced an end to taking game trade-ins entirely, based on this argument that physical media is just on its way out. But titles from just a season or two ago still have their prices assigned and they'd apparently still buy it. I could go to Best Buy and sell Sniper Elite 4 right now (just as a random example of a slightly older game), but something newer like Detroit isn't in the system? Doesn't back up the idea that they're done wanting used physical media sitting around on the shelf if they'll still buy some of this older stuff. And if they'd buy used titles at all, I'd think they'd want popular stuff from the past few months, not from the past year or two.

New God of War is in the Best Buy trade system for $28.80 right now, but not a lot of other recent stuff. Again, doesn't really back up the idea that there has been an overall stop to accepting game trade ins, just that it's very sporadic now. I see that MH: World finally has a value at Best Buy since the last time I looked. Yakuza 6 has a value in the system, not exactly the most popular series. So I'm not seeing this idea that they're just done with physical media. It just seems like this strange gap in time where a lot of things weren't being given values by BB or Amazon. Looks like BB has started to add more consistently again, Amazon hasn't.

I do sell plenty on eBay, just doesn't seem worth it for certain things like games where you have to have a competitive price if you want your copy to sell, you have to charge for shipping as a small seller versus some company that can offer free shipping, then eBay takes 10%, PayPal takes 3%, you take time out of your day to ship it, etc.

Gamestop does have values for everything, so I guess I just start going there if I want a retail space for my trade ins.

But as I mentioned in my original post, the nice thing about BB was slightly higher trade in values (God of War $28.80 vs Gamestop $25), plus GCU bonuses made it really worth it. 

Oh well, I am starting to play digital on PC more and only buying PS4 games for exclusives or good deals. Still wish I could do a quick trade with a good value on some of the exclusives when I'm done with them, though.