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All good things must come to an end, and eventually those once-loved video games that took up hours of playtime will lose their luster and end up gathering dust. Instead of sitting on the shelf, the good news is that those games can be used as credit towards new games or better yet, cold hard cash in your pocket. Let us walk you through the basics:
1. Take Inventory
The best way to understand the value of your gaming library is to take note of what you've got. Look for scratches on the game discs, torn manuals or broken cases; those will all set you back in your quest for dollars. If you have quite a few games, you may want to invest in a disc cleaner to help polish up some of the more weathered discs. Once ready, divide up your totals into three camps:
a. Like new copies: This includes a game, its manual and case, with a minimal of wear and tear on the disc.
b. Used copies: These are games that might be missing a manual or case, or those materials are damaged, but the game disc is in good playable condition.
c. Trash: Severely scratched or cracked game discs should go in this third category. Unfortunately, there's no home for your broken games.
2. Go Shopping or Go Mailing
There are quite a few video game stores that accept trade-ins, and now even Toys 'R Us, Best Buy and Blockbuster will buy your old games from you. Typically, all you need is a driver's license or other proof of identification, and to fill out a form.
In-person trade-ins are typically the easiest way to offload games, but usually not the most economical. For example, Toys 'R Us will give you at least half the face value for those used copies of games, and GameStop often goes even lower than that.
Sound like a bad deal? You may do better by checking out online stores, such as Amazon. Amazon will let you ship your games to them for free, and reward you with a gift card. The drawback is that although the stamp might be free, the packaging isn't, and you'll need to do that yourself.
If even that's not giving you the returns you want, there's yet another option: listing your games on a service like eBay or Craig's List. It requires a lot more time, but in general, the extra return could be as much as $10 or more per title. However, listing fees, shipping overages, and the general hassle of dealing with flaky buyers may make this more trouble than it's worth.
3. Credit Vs. Cash
In today's game trade in world, there are two schools of thought: credit towards your next purchase, or cash to be used elsewhere. In some cases, credit can lead to better deals. Online game rental service GameFly lets subscribers trade-in games for credit against their subscription -- but better still are GameStop's special deals on trade-ins: you can earn 25% extra when putting that credit towards a pre-order on another game, or receive an extra $10 when trading in 3 Xbox 360 games. Those deals usually come with poor value on the game being traded in, but all the same, the rule of thumb seems to be that if you're going to apply that money to a pre-order you might be best off using GameStop.
4. The Value
So which store has the best deals? We looked at Amazon, GameStop, Toys 'R Us, GameFly, Blockbuster, Best Buy and Game Crazy, as well as eBay and Craig's List, and found quite a range of prices and policies. Our key takeaways were:
1. eBay and Craig's List consistently yielded the most money. eBay had a return of at least $10 over any trade-in service, and although Craig's List sales are harder to quantify, it looks about on par.
2. GameStop is a pretty lousy deal. A brand new copy of Guitar Hero 5 that costs $59.99 can be traded in for a mere $18.50, and even the just-released Halo 3: ODST only puts $30 in your pocket. However, if you're applying the trade-in to a pre-order, that $30 becomes $39 and easily one of the better deals out there.
3. Surprisingly, Blockbuster (via its Game Rush gaming section) offers some great deals on trade-ins. Two separate locations in Los Angeles quoted us prices just $5 less than new: $54.99 for Batman: Arkham Asylum and The Beatles: Rock Band, both $59.99 games. Your mileage may vary, as these prices seem almost too good to be true.
4. Wii games lose the most value. In almost every case, the Wii version of a game returned less than a Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 copy. Wii exclusives fared worst of all, with a $49.99 game like Wii Sports Resort netting a mere $8-10 in most cases. Nintendo DS, games don't do much better: Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days retails for $39.99, and trades in around $16.
So if you have time on your hands and want the best deal, you're probably best off with a service like eBay, so that you can earn cash to buy whatever you want. However, if you just want to offload your games for the best price, hope that Blockbuster's high return rates stay true. And last, but never least, frequent gamers should opt for GameStop's pre-order plan, which yields the best return.
source
1. Take Inventory
The best way to understand the value of your gaming library is to take note of what you've got. Look for scratches on the game discs, torn manuals or broken cases; those will all set you back in your quest for dollars. If you have quite a few games, you may want to invest in a disc cleaner to help polish up some of the more weathered discs. Once ready, divide up your totals into three camps:
a. Like new copies: This includes a game, its manual and case, with a minimal of wear and tear on the disc.
b. Used copies: These are games that might be missing a manual or case, or those materials are damaged, but the game disc is in good playable condition.
c. Trash: Severely scratched or cracked game discs should go in this third category. Unfortunately, there's no home for your broken games.
2. Go Shopping or Go Mailing
There are quite a few video game stores that accept trade-ins, and now even Toys 'R Us, Best Buy and Blockbuster will buy your old games from you. Typically, all you need is a driver's license or other proof of identification, and to fill out a form.
In-person trade-ins are typically the easiest way to offload games, but usually not the most economical. For example, Toys 'R Us will give you at least half the face value for those used copies of games, and GameStop often goes even lower than that.
Sound like a bad deal? You may do better by checking out online stores, such as Amazon. Amazon will let you ship your games to them for free, and reward you with a gift card. The drawback is that although the stamp might be free, the packaging isn't, and you'll need to do that yourself.
If even that's not giving you the returns you want, there's yet another option: listing your games on a service like eBay or Craig's List. It requires a lot more time, but in general, the extra return could be as much as $10 or more per title. However, listing fees, shipping overages, and the general hassle of dealing with flaky buyers may make this more trouble than it's worth.
3. Credit Vs. Cash
In today's game trade in world, there are two schools of thought: credit towards your next purchase, or cash to be used elsewhere. In some cases, credit can lead to better deals. Online game rental service GameFly lets subscribers trade-in games for credit against their subscription -- but better still are GameStop's special deals on trade-ins: you can earn 25% extra when putting that credit towards a pre-order on another game, or receive an extra $10 when trading in 3 Xbox 360 games. Those deals usually come with poor value on the game being traded in, but all the same, the rule of thumb seems to be that if you're going to apply that money to a pre-order you might be best off using GameStop.
4. The Value
So which store has the best deals? We looked at Amazon, GameStop, Toys 'R Us, GameFly, Blockbuster, Best Buy and Game Crazy, as well as eBay and Craig's List, and found quite a range of prices and policies. Our key takeaways were:
1. eBay and Craig's List consistently yielded the most money. eBay had a return of at least $10 over any trade-in service, and although Craig's List sales are harder to quantify, it looks about on par.
2. GameStop is a pretty lousy deal. A brand new copy of Guitar Hero 5 that costs $59.99 can be traded in for a mere $18.50, and even the just-released Halo 3: ODST only puts $30 in your pocket. However, if you're applying the trade-in to a pre-order, that $30 becomes $39 and easily one of the better deals out there.
3. Surprisingly, Blockbuster (via its Game Rush gaming section) offers some great deals on trade-ins. Two separate locations in Los Angeles quoted us prices just $5 less than new: $54.99 for Batman: Arkham Asylum and The Beatles: Rock Band, both $59.99 games. Your mileage may vary, as these prices seem almost too good to be true.
4. Wii games lose the most value. In almost every case, the Wii version of a game returned less than a Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 copy. Wii exclusives fared worst of all, with a $49.99 game like Wii Sports Resort netting a mere $8-10 in most cases. Nintendo DS, games don't do much better: Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days retails for $39.99, and trades in around $16.
So if you have time on your hands and want the best deal, you're probably best off with a service like eBay, so that you can earn cash to buy whatever you want. However, if you just want to offload your games for the best price, hope that Blockbuster's high return rates stay true. And last, but never least, frequent gamers should opt for GameStop's pre-order plan, which yields the best return.
source
