How does the pricing for trade-ins at gamestop work? A while back, I went in and bought a game for $60. I had it for one day, didn’t like it and I took it back the very next day. Now, I wasn’t expecting to get the full amount for it, but how in the hell did it depreciate by 50%? I know there is no way to tell how long someone used a game for, but if you just saw me yesterday and are able to check the condition of the game and see that it’s flawless, you can tell right away that it is in near mint condition. I should at least be able to get $45+ back for it, especially if the game was just released yesterday.
I noticed that when I looked on the shelf a few weeks later, there were copies of the same game that were considered used and they were selling for $54.
Now I’ve spoken to an employee in the past about trading in some older games that I had. I had an idea that the amount of money you get for a game is based on age, popularity and the condition of the game. This I can understand.
I had a friend that used to work at gamestop but I haven’t been able to get in touch with him for some time. From what he told me, they are always out to make a profit and come out on top. I can understand that because they are after all a business. I’d like to know how much are used games being marked up? Where is gamestop getting it’s information from to decided how much used games are worth and can I somehow use that knowledge to my advantage?
One last thing. I hate to be pressured into buying games. You see all of these commercials on TV telling you that if you preorder a such and such game, they’ll give you a code for a super awesome alligator that drives a monster truck that has a tattoo of death wielding a flame thrower. The only problem I have with that is that a lot of these games today aren’t worth $60. Sure there are some great games out there, but lets face it, as good as GOW3 was, you can finish it in about 4 hours tops. I personally like to let the prices of games go down before I buy them. What I would like to know is if these codes given out for preorders of games are perishable? Is there a stack of these things sitting in the store that can be used months down the road? Are these codes accounted for in the store are online? Oh yeah, how long is it before the prices start to drop on games in general and at what percentage rate?
Basically, it doesn’t matter how rare the game is but how popular it is. The only games that don’t apply to that rule that I can think of are MvC2 and Nocturne, anyway there are very few. The idea with used games usually is that they buy it for 1/3 the price the will sell it for. Unless it is a game like Halo, then usually they will buy it 1/2 the price as long as they know they can get rid of it. Gamestop makes it’s money off this and accessories, they only get 5$ profit for selling each new game. Most of the time it is a rip off. The best way to see a game is find a store that does compensate for rarity, or what I normally did, wait for deals. Sometimes they will have “trade in a game toward a pre-order and get an extra 10~20% value” or “trade in 3 360 or ps3 games and get an extra 20% trade value”, stuff like that. Of course if you want cash you are screwed. But if you plan on getting another game then best wait depending on the game.
edit: The price/value of a game depends on how popular it is, how new it is, and sometimes how rare it is. Don’t expect more than 20$ for Disgaea, and do expect them to sell it of 40~50 bucks.
I traded in my extra copy of Soul Caliber 4 like 4 months after it came out, and to my shock, they gave me $45 for it. People must of really wanted that game or something. Other games that held their value for a while was Batman Arkham Asylum, which after two months, they still gave me $35 and Wolfenstein, which after two months, they gave me $30.
My friend got owned once at Gamestop as well. He bought Prototype, and a week later went to trade it in and instead got only $20. He was hoping at least $30 lol. Oh well.
Honestly, I hate trading in games unless I got extra copies because to me, I become attactched to playing that game and someday my kids might ask me about such odd games such as Bayonetta or something so instead of telling them a fancible story, just pull out the game I show them myself. I know its stupid, but we all got dumb ideas.
it’s very possible. The eb near me has a promotion on certain big titles where if I return the game within the first 2 weeks, if I didn’t enjoy it/completed it/got bored of it, I would get full value back. My friend has done all the big releases lately all on the same $60.
don’t let gamestop get you with their trade-in value crap. Its just them trying to make money off of your uninformed ass. Just use ebay/craigslist, and you get more money for your items. No more, oh damn I opened the plastic on this game now I can only trade it in for $40 even though it’s brand new…
Also, they aren’t even concerned with the condition since they’ll put anything in the used section. They use the people who buy those games as the lab rats for whether or not they work properly. Plus, anyone who is afraid of ebay/craigslist are fucking idiots who are stuck in the stone age.
I remember getting neg repped back to the stone age when I said something similar in another thread. So, I’m sure there are a couple of employees lol
Its not “afraid” of using ebay that’s the problem; its that sites like Amazon are sooo much better.
And yeah Gamestop is a ripoff. Generally you can make back a decent percentage of the original game’s value though if its popular/wanted and you manage to trade it back in early enough after its release. But in general, expect to receive very little and then come back the next day to see it selling for for far more.
I fail to see how amazon is better. For books its really good, but other than that I dunno why I’d ever buy something used on amazon instead of Ebay. Also, you’d be surprised how many people are scared of using sites like Ebay to buy/sell used items so they cling to trading in games back to Gamestop. They do this because of this false sense of security they get from selling it to a store as opposed to another consumer (lol).
Just about the only thing ebay has over Amazon is you can’t find some things on Amazon (like say arcade boards and things like that).
Besides the aforementioned point, if you say you don’t know why Amazon is better than Ebay then I guess you don’t really use/take advantage of Amazon. But that’s getting outside the scope of this thread so I’ll leave it there.
So true. I’ve had the most luck selling on Half.com (which is a branch of Ebay). It’s so easy, and it makes me wonder why people still trade in their games to the stores.
Any specific reasons as to why its better? I use amazon, but not for selling used items. I once tried to sell my psp on there, and it was moreso a hassle compared to ebay at least for me.
With Half.com here’s what happens for me - I list my item and set a price, when someone buys it I get an e-mail with the address I need to ship it to, I ship it, I mark it as shipped, and then the money is deposited in my bank account (Half.com makes payments twice a month, so whatever cycle you fall in is when you’ll be paid). It’s really that simple. They actually give you a certain amount for shipping costs, but obviously if it’s more to ship it than what they give you, you pay the difference. I’ve also tried to sell things on other sites and have found it to be somewhat of a hassle compared to Half.com.
I live in a small town that has a blockbuster with a small shity selection of games. So rentingg isn’t practical for me. I’ve been meaning to get a gamefly account for a while now but i keep putting it of. I don’t by games very often. i usually by fighters’ but when i step outside that realm things get risky, so i sometimes end up with a shity game.