My suggestion, just sell your stuff on Craigslist or Ebay. You'll get more money for it, especially if it's fairly new!

And us slaves don't see a fucking penny of it, rest assured.

It's best to hang onto your games, build a massive collection, then throw it on ebay.

Lol, why on earth would anyone sell any of their games to gamestop. Last one I tried to trade in (some PSone game) the guy literally told me I would have to pay them a dollar to take it from me.

Well the key at Gamestop/Ebgames when trading things in is to wait for a promotion of some kind. Like an extra 10 percent when trading in towards something else, and thats probably the weakest promotion. Also with there card (Its $10 but you get a subscription to GameInformer anyways) you get an extra 10 percent.

If your trading in games that are fairly new anyways, unless its a really bad game, why did you buy in the first place? Renting and services such as Gamefly save you tons of money. Especially at 60 dollars a pop.

I buy all my new/almost new games from eBay. I NEVER trade games at Gamestop. I only go to Gamestop as a very last resort.

I'd rather support my local mom&pop cum Cellphone retailer. All the prices are don't include tax, and the owners actually give a crap about what they sell.

I have more than a few problems with them (an opened game is not new), but Gamestop has positioned themselves to be the de facto game store in the US for a long, long time.

But if everyone is buying second hand games... who's trading in?

@Zenax: LOL! Seriously? That is so pathetic.

Over here in the UK, we've got "GAME" which give you half of what the game is worth back, and that is only if it's sealed and brand new retailing at full price. I made the mistake of doing that twice when I bought my console because the games it came with were ass.

@Madeira: which is why i buy all my games off ebay. I knew i would never shop gamestop again when i went in to get a used copy of dead rising and it was still 50$.

@Detre: Wow, I got DR used for $30 at GameStop. $50 for a used copy is just wrong.

Here in Australia we have Gametraders, they actually give decent prices for used games.

I dunno...maybe I am the weird one here. I personally don't want to see my local GameStop taken out. I buy 95% of my games there. I use their discount card. With the magazine subscription, it pays for itself. I do all of my pre-orders there. The people at the location I go to are knowledgeable and courteous. I couldn't ask for much more from them. I'm willing to pay the premium for my games; new or used.

No, I don't own stock in them...lol

Sometimes you get fucked, sometimes you fuck 'em. Oh well.

Back in December when Circuit City was selling Call of Duty 4 brand new for 40 bucks, I bought one, played it until I was done with it, and then traded it in towards a pre-order for Smash Bros., which gave me a 20% bonus, plus I've got that Edge card, which is good for another 10% bonus, and I wound up getting 39 dollars in credit, which is only 1 dollar less than I initially paid for the game. I'd say I got a good deal on that one!

My local EB's usually pays well under half the original price for pre-owned games, then sells them for only marginally less than the new copies. The must be making at least AU$30-40 on each game.

It certainly seems like a profitable business.

However, both buyers and sellers would be better using auction sites. The prices are much more reasonable there.

@Detre: Yeah that's crazy.

My favorite Gamestop moment was when I was looking to buy PSP accessories and the employee was giving me shit about how the PSP sucks. But I have a friend who manages a different Gamestop and she's amazing, her store is great. It's all about the employees, really. If you just use Gamestop for specific things and be savvy to their more suspect policies, it can be an ok place to shop.

@Detre:

Just a little FYI, the majority of games sold on Ebay are in-fact stolen. There's little-to-no overhead in game sales, as most of the profit goes back to the developer/publisher.

You're actually helping the industry more by buying new-games from Gamestop than you are from ebay.

Of course, if its a location thing, different countries, etc. your mileage may vary. But Gamestop sees relatively little profit compared to its used-game sales.

@bigdonthedj: No one wants a damn magazine subscription. And the discount used to be 10%. And the card used to cost $5.

And I guess I'm a bit bitter about it.

@Scuba Steve: I agree that it was better when you could just buy the card for 5 bucks and forget the magazine. But isn't the discount still 10% ?

@SnakeCL: Where did you get this information that most games sold on eBay are stolen? I'd like to see your source.

Anyway, I've always found eBay to be not only a good place to buy used games, but sell them too. Cut out the middle-man (Gamestop in this case) and both the seller and the buyer come out on top.

Lots of people talk about going to eBay for their used games, but you're going to pay top dollar there. I do mostly trades through the Cheap Ass Gamer forums, and then there are sites like Goozex to facilitate trading. (I'm also lucky enough to have a local chain that competes in the used games market.)

Of course, you should buy new when possible, especially if you want to support a game or its makers.

What really bugs me about EB is that their prices frequently change on used titles. I recently went in and saw a copy of FFX for $24.99 used. Yet I could swear that I've seen that game used for $14.99, $9.99 etc. I would love to know what factors go into setting their used prices over time.

@Scuba Steve:

EB's version (before merger) cost $5 and you could buy separately. GS's did not, it cost $10 (for 10 months) at one point and you always had to purchase it with the magazine (you could never buy the card separately from the mag.

@the rest:
If you don't like their practices, service, or prices - fine. Use ebay and one of the big box retailers like the rest of us. Cheapassgamer.com is pretty good for finding the great deals.

Whining about the same crap every time someone posts a GS article seems pretty repetitive.

@CaptMonkey:

The average profit from a game sale at retail is 1-3 bucks.

Think about that for a second. You'd have to sell 50 games to make $50-$150 profit.

Sure, there are occasionally people who sell games on ebay to get rid of them after they've been sitting around unopened for a while, but there's no reason for someone to be selling 5 copies of a game that was released days ago for retail price.

I'd rather have a game that works from the first try than a 10% off item that has a 50% failure rate. Oh, and doesn't help that I have to wait 5mins for the next store clerk when there's only 2 or 3 customers in the store.

As much as I like getting decent deals for games, the time tradeoff going through the pains of EB/Gamestop keep me from using them unless they're the only one that have something I need -- something which doesnt happen too often now, since the JP xbox limits you to NTSC-J regions from time to time.

There are only 2 reasons I buy used stuff.

1: its impossible to find the game new.

2: if I know the game is ass and am bored but want to try it out anyways.

Asides from that I prefer to make sure my $$$ goes directly to the developer.

I'd rather buy used games on eBay where they're usually around half of what GameStop charges for used games.

@CaptMonkey: Where did you get this information that most games sold on eBay are stolen? I'd like to see your source.

Same here. I buy a lot of Games/Controllers/accessories on eBay. Granted I never buy new games on there (I tend to preorder at Gamestop or Amazon depending on how quickly I need them.)

Of course I do question the legality of some of the controllers showing up on eBay and other places lately.

If you are looking for an alternative way to trade games for other games (and not just trying to get cash for them) you should check with goozex.com I've been using it for a while and it's pretty sweet and I think the value you get for trading a game to another person (even with shipping the game to them..$5 USPS priority with delivery confirmation) is still better than you would get by trading it for store credit at Gamestop.

They work on a point system. You trade games out to people you don't want any longer and you get points for it. I traded three old Nintendo DS games and got a total of 1450 points on my account now. Even the newest game like Smash Brothers Brawl on the Wii or Army of Two on the 360 are only 1000 points. So for shipping three old DS games I never play and spending $15 to ship all three to different places I have enough points to get a brand new title and a couple of low end games if I want. I think I'm going to get the newest Trauma Center and Resident Evil Umbrella Cronicles though. That's what I've had my eye on.

Normally you have to buy a trade token for $1 to request a game from someone (that's how goozex makes their money) but during the month of march they charge nothing and you can trade as many as you want without the trade token. Here is a link to the page with my referal id in it. If you sign up using it or under a friend that's already using the service we both get a trade token and 100 points after you trade your first game. click for goozex. Someone even tipped me 50 points when they received one of my DS games because everything was in mint condition. It's a nice little service.

@Witzbold: Your number 2 is how I bought Bullet Witch... and although it has a certain charm, I wish I bought Stranglehold instead...

I don't actually mind trading in some games to EB. If I buy a games Previously Played at Blockbuster for $39.99, keep if for a few months, and then sell it to EB for even as little as $5 I see that loss as the cost of basically having rented the game for an extended period of time. Considering renting costs close $8 for a 7 day period. It still sucks... but it helps me sleep at night.

I don't think that I've ever traded in a game that I bought new though.

@schizogony: But where is your guarantee that it will even work? If it does, then what happens if you don't like the game? At least at Gamestop if its used you have a 30 day warranty, and a week to bring it back for something else. You even have the option to get your cash back you paid for it. How could Ebay be better than that?

/mode +b #my-life GameStop
/kick GameStop

*bows his head in shame*

@FranUnFine: Stranglehold personally to me was a waste buying it new. Granted it was a good braincell killer, there just wasnt enough "love" put into that game past the first level. :x

Which by far was the best due to how much of the environment you could use to damage enemies also. That feature kinda vanished as the game went on. :/

Personally I enjoy my local EB Games-turned-Gamestop. The staff there (Petaluma, CA location) are really great people and know their games, they're always stocked with the latest games and acessories that I want, and if there's something that I do want which they don't have in stock they put in an order for me.

I also don't see the ire raised in some people about their used games. I mean, they're a store, they're MEANT to make money. And yeah, I might be able to make an extra $10 selling my copy of PGR4 to someone on eBay, but I don't want to deal with all of the other variables that go along with that system. With Gamestop I just go in, put the games down, and then put the money towards a new preorder. No wait, no hassle or fuss.

@SnakeCL: In case you didn't know, there's people that run legitimate businesses on eBay. They get wholesale prices on sealed games just like retailers do. That is why they sell new games at retail price on eBay. They aren't stolen, and it's retarded to assume so by your logic.

Also, no one was ever talked about how much they make in profit from a new game. Most of the discussion here is how you can trade a game in there and get $5.00 or put it on eBay and get $40.00. What sounds better to you?

Last weekend I went into a Gamestop and was pretty shocked to see all their used 360 games were priced as if they were new. $60 for used games that I could walk to the other side of the same store and buy new for the same price? Are you kidding me?

I go well out of my way to avoid Gamestop. Its the very last place i'll go to get a game. €5 in the difference between a new and preowned game in some cases. If your in Ireland check xtravision, they have much better trade in prices.

Also, am I the only one who feels dirty trading games away?

I only ever get rid of them if they completely suck. I traded some stuff in at EBGames ten years ago and I still regret it to this day. Since then I've only ever gotten rid of games I thought sucked (WarioWare: Smooth Moves for example) on eBay. I got $40 for it there, whereas Gamestop would have given me $7.00. Huge difference.

Anyone arguing the "additional costs" of eBay. The buyer pays most of them (besides the listing fee and paypal fee), so there isn't much that cuts into your profit margin. There's no way anyone can argue that trading at Gamestop is a better deal.

Which is precisely why I don't buy anything from them.
I'm tired of arguing with someone too stupid (or thinks that I'm too stupid) to realize that once a game is opened, you can't sell it as new. I don't give a shit if the store opened it or not.
It's the reason most stores have what they call "open box" items and sell them for less.
Stop letting these jackwads rip you off.

F gamestop. Use Gamefly's 'keep it' option.

- 2 games per month: $25
- time lost when you select "keep it": ~ 4 days
- cost of those 4 days: $3.33
- cost of the game, if u want to keep it (skate in this example): $36

It costs $40 for a used game. The case is in pristine condition too when they send it to you. Gamefly rox.

And sorry for a third post. For those of you who don't know, there is a number of Play and Trade stores across America right now and they offer much better trade in prices (around 20%-30% more in most cases) than Gamestop. They also take everything from NES to current.

Plus, they price their games in a very fair manner. My friend (I'm not shitting you) got a mint copy of Snatcher for Sega CD for $4.99 last week.

Please support them, many of their franchises a struggling to stay afloat against Gamestop.

[www.playntrade.com]

I am eager for this recession. Prime time to buy a house with the rate dropping again in October.

If you don't like what GS offers you for a trade in, here's a neat idea - um, DON'T TRADE IT IN! Is someone holding a gun to your head? Do you need $5 right this second to go buy methadone? Then why is GS the bad guy for giving you money for something you don't want anymore? Seriously, I just don't get the ire.

I went in to a GS months ago to trade in some old games, some I hated, a few I cared about. When they offered me a pittance for Crimson Skies (which I love) did I trade it in then blow hatred all over the internet about how evil GS is? No, guess what I did? I KEPT IT! Great idea, huh? Problem solved.

Buying used games and accessories back is as much a service to the public as to the companies. You can't go to the Gap and get new clothes buy selling them your old socks, you can't go to Burger King and get a Whopper by selling them back your half-eaten food, yet you can go get a brand new game by selling your old ones? That sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

As for independent game stores, I support them whenever possible. The problem is most don't get new releases anywhere near the release date, and new/used game sales are barely enough to keep the going. The city I live in use to have 5 within walking distance from me. The only one that's still open makes more money off airbrushing than games. It has nothing to do with GS, it's the tiny profit margins of video games. For that, thank the developers and manufacturers.

I find it funny how everyone here claims to stay away from Gamestop, yet you all claim to know the policies and trade prices so well. Wait, where do I jump on the "it's cool to hate Gamestop" train?