I've been wanting to write this up for a while and just haven't had the chance to write it till now. I'm not rich and considering how little I make, I have to do what I can to make ends meet and still be able to buy all the new games that come out. How do I do it? Well, here's a small guide on how to do it and not cut any corners at all. I'll divide into into a few sections
TRADE-INS and SELLING
1. NEVER TRADE IN GAMES AT GAMESTOP OR EB. I repeat NEVER TRADE IN GAMES AT GAMESTOP OR EB. This corporation is a well known rip off artist when it comes to trading in games. The only time I ever trade in games at EB/Gamestop is when they have a crazy trade in deal like the extra percentages for pre-ordering. EB and Gamestop are great when it comes to pre-ordering and getting used deals, but are largely worthless for trade-ins.
2. Before you go trade a game in, try listing it for sale in an online marketplace. I've had bad luck with scammers on EBAY, but have had fantastic success with Craigslist. I usually sale my beaten or old games on Craigslist and get far more than I would have ever received in trade credit. The best part about craigslist is that it's cash only and you meet face to face and receive the money right away. The key to Craigslist is not overpricing your game. I check trade-in cost on a game, and price it $10-15 higher on Craigslist. People aren't going to give you $50 for a used game. I've discovered that $40-45 dollars is the sweet spot for a new release game. If you price your used games at that price, then I guarantee they'll sale before the end of the day. The key to Craigslist is to price your game a bit higher, so you'll have room to negotiate. People on CL love to hassle and love a bargain, so make them feel like they've made out like a bandit on the deal. Ads with pictures sell better, so include a stock photo with your ad. People also are more apt to buy if you put that item is in like new condition and contains the manual, game, and case. I've made a killing on CL, essentially turning new games into little more than a rental price after beating them. I usually keep the ad up for 3-4 days, then I head to a store to trade the items in. There are a few online game swapping sites, but I haven't tried any of them.
3. If you absolutely must trade in games, go somewhere besides EB/Gamestop. My personal favorite is Blockbuster which also has a chain of stores called Gamerush. Blockbuster is trying hard to compete with the gaming stores and gives several dollars more than EB/Gamestop. I bought a copy of Madden off CL a few weeks ago, and got offered $20 in trade in credit at EB. I took the same game to Blockbuster and got $35 bucks trade in credit (for those wondering, I bought it for $10 off Craigslist). Blockbuster gets most of the games I buy in and they're very competitive with EB as far as pricing and extras. Plus I love the fellas that work at my local Blockbuster and they take care of me as far as trade-ins go. Blockbuster is the very best when it comes to trading in games.
BUYING GAMES FOR NOTHING MORE THAN TRADE-IN CREDIT
I'm constantly looking for deals in all sorts of places. These places include pawn shops, clearance sections of stores, Craigslist,and at video rental places like Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, etc. I know a few people are a bit apprehensive about buying games at a Pawn Shop, but you truly can find good deals there, and pawn shops don't have the stigma they used to have. Most pawn shops around here are very clean and really nice. The key to buying games for trade in credit is knowing what most games trade in for. New releases will net you $30-35 bucks at Blockbuster and even more if you sell them on Craigslist. I can't tell you the number of times I've bought a game at a Pawn shop for $10, then turned around and traded it in for $35 thus netting me $25 profit in trade in credit. Most pawn shops price all games at a uniform price and will even offer discounts for buying more than one.
I've bought several new games off Craigslist for cheap and flipped them for trade in credit. The key again is to know what the games trade in for and set your offer several dollars below that. I bought Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 from a fella a few weeks ago for $35 for both of them. I turned around and traded them in for $65. You can make a profit at least trade in wise from buying on Craigslist.
Some of the Blockbusters around here have a sale on occasion for 50 percent off used games and I clean up then. As I posted a few weeks ago, I bought $70 dollars worth of used games during this sale and turned it into $125 trade in credit at one of the Blockbusters that wasn't having the sale. You just can't beat $55 profit and it's not something that happens every single day. As a matter of fact, that $70 inbought me NBA Live 09, Left For Dead, and money towards Prince of Persia as well.
I check clearance sales at Target and other stores for games which will trade in higher. Sometimes for reasons inexplicable to me, Target clearances games that haven't been out long. They did this with the Madden Collector's Edition less than a month after it came out. KMart and Circuit City also have great clearance sales as well. You can find some really good deals there. I check CAG at least weekly for clearance deals at stores.
BUYING NEW RELEASE GAMES
So you've now bought some games and gotten a lot of trade in credit for them, what's the next step? Most time at Gamestop or Blockbuster, there's a bit of extra incentive to buy them there via download codes, or various game related items. If I have a bit of extra money, I'll check the Best Buy and Circuit City ads since they sometimes offer a gift card back or something extra as well. I normally keep at least $100 trade in credit for both Gamestop and Blockbuster either in the store or on a gift card for those "holy sh@@, I've got to have that game" moments. I very rarely ever spend real money on games short of buying games to trade in. I prefer using trade in credit to pay for the new games.
A GAMEFLY OR BLOCKBUSTER GAMING PASS IS A GREAT IDEA
I have a gamefly account that I use largely to rent single player only games. I also use my Gamefly account to purchase new release games for several dollars less than their actual cost. I bought Tomb Raider Underworld last week for $30 plus tax. That's $30 off the price and since I got in near release date, no one else had rented it. Gamefly occasionally has exceptional deals as well on used games and they guarantee all their used games as well.
Well there you have it, I hope my tips save you a bit of money. My system works well for me and I'm able to get most all of the games I want for way less than retail or offsetting the cost with trade in credit.
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