Used video game stores screwing the little guy?
Opposable Thumbs looks into the high margin world of used video game sales at local retailers. From the article: "The only place that margin can be improved in [retail game stores] is through used games, so of course the stores give the least possible amount for trade-ins, and sell them for as high as they can. You don't know how brutal it can be until you give someone US$5 for a game, and then sticker it for $34.99 as they walk out."Follow the link for the full article, and be sure to check out these free alternatives to trade-ins: Swaptree (private beta), TGN, and Game Trading Zone. While not free, you'll still get market value on a trade-in on the Internet, of course.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Scarabus @ Jun 21st 2006 8:12AM
This is exactly why I never trade in games. Even if I didn't like the game I bought it's not even worth the bustrip.
GlitchCog @ Jun 21st 2006 8:16AM
GameStop/EB sucks. Why would I pay a few dollars more just to deal with some kid with a pre-order quota to meet? The kid's invariably a shitty salesman, so he'll be a dick about it.
"Better put $5 down on New Super Mario Bros. or you won't be able to get a copy when it launches!" And then snivels at you when you turn him down, like you're making the biggest mistake of your life.
Meanwhile, WalMart has 75 copies sitting in a box that will last the whole month. Except for the Xbox 360 fiasco, WalMart is never out of stock of any game. And if you've got an issue because WalMart is a giant company putting little businesses out, consider that GameStop is the "WalMart" of the video game store business. Shopping there is just trading a specialized giant corporation for an unspecialized one.
Stop supporting pre-ordering. It's a sham perpetrated against frothing, impatient fan-boys.
Viridium @ Jun 21st 2006 8:31AM
I don't even buy anything new at EB Games anymore, let alone trade in. Their prices are so awful and the staff such a pain to deal with. Haven't set a foot in there for months now.
White Rose Duelist @ Jun 21st 2006 8:33AM
All my used games go on eBay. I get more money for them (even after fees) and the people who buy them spend less. I will look into those sites next time I have some to get rid of, though.
Actually, that's not entirely true. Recently, I had copies of Madden 2002, NHL 2002 and NHL Rock the Rink I wanted rid of. I couldn't even find someone to give them away to, so I tried trading them at GameStop. They wouldn't take them (they said they would only be worth 45 cents, and didn't take trades of lss than $1 - which is a shame, because I was buying something and would have been overjoyed for the 45 cents). I left them on the counter.
I don't have an issue with pre-ordering from companies who do not actually take money until you get your product (e.g. they have your credit card number on file, but don't use it). Some people want their game products on day one, but can't stand in lines for hours or days to get something. Why punish them for having day jobs or going to school?
On the other hand, handing over cash for something you won't get for months is the same as giving the store a no-interest loan, and I wouldn't ever do that. Except for console launches, there's not a video gaming product you can't find on day one if you're willing to look for it.
The real abomination is bundles, but that's another issue for another thread. Suffice to say, I'm buying the games and accessories I want when I want.
This is not really related, but did I miss the part where game releases started being on Wednesday instead of Tuesday? I tried to get a copy of Break 'Em All yesterday, but no one in my hometown had it. I live in a suburb of Boston, so it's not like I live in the middle of nowhere. Has something changed since I worked in retail, or is there something wrong with the supply line in my area?
X Budd @ Jun 21st 2006 8:34AM
EB Games screwed me over too many times!
ebay is too risky!
I am now a happy member of a Video game tradeing community site called iTradeVideoGames.com!!!
Check them out, you will thank me!
Scooby Doo @ Jun 21st 2006 8:35AM
Okay GlitchCog, I thought you were supposed to warn us ahead of time if you go on a rant. And what do preorders have to do with used games anyway? Remember to smile, I'm being facetious. But I do think the whole preorder thing is pretty lame.
The used games do fill a need for me as I'm afraid that my time and workload really don't allow me to be a good E-Bay shopper. I often look at the used games at GameStop or EB Games to try and find old titles that I can't buy at the bigger retail stores. I don't mind paying the extra money then.
However the difference on the trade-ins versus how much they sell them for is ridiculous. I understand that electronics have seen their profit margins shrink dramatically over the past couple decades and that these companies struggle just to stay in the black. But at that point, don't you start looking at your business model and making changes? The problem I have with this practice is that its hurting the most important contact: the customer. If we did this to our clients in my business, they wouldn't be my clients for long.
PenitentPenguin @ Jun 21st 2006 8:48AM
I work at a Game stop- And i will be the first to say- yes we take peoples money- we buy games as low as $2.00, then sell it for $9.99- But you also have to know, a product purchased must meet the trade in value then profit. You would do it too if you had a video game store. As for the Res, we DO have a number (Get 1 reservation for evey 8 customers *almost impossible* and 1 subscription every 15. They drill this into our heads, threatning to write up- it also affects how many hours you will work the next week- get bad numbers, you get bad hours. Secondly, We get nothing (The peon's- Game advisors) We HAVE to meet the numbers, and we dont get ANYTHING! no commission, no free stuff, no extra prividlges, Not even a kind work from a Direct manager.
I on the other hand support reserving games- thats only beacuse i do get a discount- which i cant get at wal-mart, including all the sweet goodies they give away to ppl who reserve stuff- but i will say this, i will NEVER reserve a console from Game Stop for as long as i work there. I reserved a DS lite (The second person to ever DO SO!) I paid it in full, and i waited months before it was finaly the day- I go into work to pick up my system- guess what? We only got 3, and since we had more reservations (that were NOT employees) They said "Beacuse you work here, you have to wait a week to get your system, beacuse we only got so many in and were making you forfit it"- I wanted to say "Well, if i quit can i take it now?" But i dident, then i asked, "can i cancel my reservation and get my money back so i can go buy one at Walmart or best buy" Then i was told "No, beacuse all the Store credit you had on your reservation (Store credit can be redeemed back for you cash) has been turned to Game bucks (Which is Tax free, but CANNOT be used anywhere else except a gamestop)- insted, i went to Best Buy and got one there, i also got a Free copy of Brain Age! ( even though i was out another $140!- i went back to work, canceled my Res on the lite- and the sweet thing was- bought $140 more of games and a travel pack (8 games to be exact) Which was nice beacuse it was all tax free....and included discount. My manager said- " How you going to play these? You dont have a lite yet."
Then with a smirk on my face i pulled out the DS lite from my pocket and just grinned as i held it next to my face.
"I even got a free copy of Brain age when i bought it at BEST BUY!" I said it loud so people would hear.
He then proceeded to try to make me feel bad by saying
"Well, you shoudl have waited beacuse you would have gotten yours today- "
Which was a lie.
In closing,
Dont reserve games at game stop when you know you can get the Else where- only reserve games that you know will sell out (NCAA, MADDEN, HAlo 3, Fifa, ETC.)
And consoles are good to Res (as long as you dont work at the Evil mega corp. that it Game stop)
Tox @ Jun 21st 2006 8:49AM
Have a look at some of the hilariously low trade-in values of recent games. The markup when they sell the used games is 100% in some cases!
http://www.ebgames.com/gs/trade-ins/trade-ins.asp
MosquitoControl @ Jun 21st 2006 8:50AM
I never understood why people sold back here.
On ebay you can usually get just shy of the ebgames selling price. So going to gamestop pretty much makes you an idiot.
But, since ebay prices are usually very close to ebgames prices, I don't often get used games there. I'll often just go to amazon for that. Amazon has given me surprisingly good deals on used games and is much easier than monitoring ebay auctions.
Thomas Crymes @ Jun 21st 2006 8:50AM
How much they pay for a game is irrelevant. They'll pay what people will accept and not a penny more. And they will sell it for what people will be willing to pay and not a penny less.
If people won't sell for the price they are willing to pay, then they have to raise the price they are willing to buy it for, and if people are unwilling to pay X dollars for a used game, then they will have to lower the price.
They are not forcing anyone to do anything. All that said, I won't do business with them, because they offer me less for trade-ins than I am willing to accept and charge more for them than I am willing to part with.
Hopefully enough people will be smart and do the same.
Ben Roe @ Jun 21st 2006 8:52AM
Isn't the advantage of trade-in that it requires virtually no effort, risk or outlay - you give them the game, they give you £5 or whatever. I've never done it, but I can see why people would.
As for the resale price, you can get some pretty good deals, and it's basically exactly the same product: it's not like the Koopas will be too tired out to play second time round.
Anticrawl @ Jun 21st 2006 8:52AM
Apparently you consumers are missinformed. Ever heard of a pawn shop? Jesus man you have to be desperate or sheltered to resort to a game trader. I sell to actual people or if I'm feeling really needy for the cash and sick of looking at a game I got to a pawn shop. Rule of thumb is to NEVER go to a specialty shop selling or buying an itme they specialize in. There are a few exceptions to this but when it comes to games, cameras, tv's, ect this is generally the case.
Everytime you sell a game to EB god kills a stripper.
Please think of the strippers, they're people too.
Anticrawl
awdboxer @ Jun 21st 2006 8:59AM
+1 for http://www.iTradeVideoGames.com. I've been using that site for awhile and love it.
that guy @ Jun 21st 2006 9:10AM
What are people talking about, getting $5 for trade-in games at EB? I live near Toronto, so pricing will be different from US/UK, but I traded in Oblivion months after its release and got nearly $40. Traded in Super Mario Strikers and got close to $30. Almost any 360 game will get you tons of cash, especially when they have special deals - the one I used gave you an extra $5 on top of any trade-in value.
I traded in a bunch of games at EB and now have over $500 in credit. Best thing is, it's all tax free when you buy stuff there. So if Wii comes out (in Canada) at $299.99, that's how much I pay on the nose, not a cent more. Same with games, accessories, etc.
I'm not saying EB is a store worthy of God Himself to work at, and I'm sure as hell not sticking up for their employees (99% of them are completel tools in my experience) but it's not all bad. We don't have GameStop up here so I can't really comment on that. All I know is when EB starts accepting pre-orders for Wii, I'm first in line (they're already taking an unnofficial list of names to call when they accept pre-orders; another plus on their side) and I'll be saving a lot of money than I would if I bought it at Wal-Mart or Best Buy.
SG evaNERV @ Jun 21st 2006 9:14AM
Best Buy is demoing the used market. Rumor has it they can offer high trade in values and lower re-sale cost. Since they are so big... they can take less margin and still make a killing.
We'll have to wait and see.
Draco @ Jun 21st 2006 9:15AM
I sell my stuff to Blockbuster, they give me in some cases more then I paid for the game, Mario Party 7 they are buying for 40$CDN right now, this was the same day as I bought it for 50$CDN at futureshop.
They give a minimum of 8$ for a trade in, and sell some of thir games for 5$ (and then second is half price)
the most expensive used game I saw was when GT4 just came out and it was 10$ less then retail, but they were buying them for 20$ less then retail.
costs about the same to rent for the weekend as buy then sell back a month or 2 later.
Sam @ Jun 21st 2006 9:19AM
Half.com people...Half.com!!
TDub301 @ Jun 21st 2006 9:38AM
Wow, some good ideas, thanks. I used to take old games to Funcoland or something, just because I'm lazy mostly. But that Blockbuster thing sounds good, as well as the ebay and pawn shop ideas.
HotShotX @ Jun 21st 2006 9:44AM
"I am now a happy member of a Video game tradeing community site called iTradeVideoGames.com!!!"
I've also been using it ALOT, and using the credit on all my old games, I have not spent a DOLLAR on any game I've purchased since then, aside from the $1 fee it is to buy a game (selling is free).
Joystiq, could you please give a shout-out to iTradeVideoGames.com? The community has been growing pretty steadily, has expanded into Anime, DVDs, and soon consoles/handhelds, and offers a secure places for gamer-gamer trading without all of the bullshit.
Current Market Value on trading FTW!
~HotShotX
murph @ Jun 21st 2006 9:46AM
the stores are a rip-off. we all know that. i trade my games on www.gametz.com or sell them on Ebay. i actually just sold about 15 really old PS2 games for about $90 in total.
Ramen Junkie @ Jun 21st 2006 9:47AM
As others have said, I never trade in old games. If it's actually something I don't like, it's probably not worth money anyway. If it's something good that I did/do like but I don't want anymore, I'll sell it on ebay for ten times more than EB will give me.
Then there is the other end. Used games stores always charge way too much. Hey guys, you know why you have 500 N674 games laying in abit that havn't moved in years? Because each one is proced ten to fifteen dollars too high. Slash the prices and watch them fly out the door. The same applies to all those Playstation 1 games.
sambo @ Jun 21st 2006 9:59AM
www.HALF.com
its owned by ebay, been using it for years.
Nushio @ Jun 21st 2006 10:09AM
I often buy/sell/trade games between my friends. We keep all the cash, we sell them a bit higher than the trade in value at Gamestop, which is good for the seller, and a lot lower than their advertised price, even with instruction booklets and all that.
ry @ Jun 21st 2006 10:09AM
when metal gear solid 1 came out, my friend who was an assistant manager at a microplay in montreal let me know they were making about 5$ profit for every 70$ copy that was sold. With that in mind, I'm all for these guys making as much money as they can off used games. No one's forcing you to take 3$ for a game you could sell for more, just like no one forced anyone to buy a DS lite on top of their phat, just like no one is forcing anyone to buy blu-ray/hd-dvd to replace their already capable dvd players. If you do, then suck it up ya pussy.
Grant @ Jun 21st 2006 10:20AM
Thomas Crymes, no one's saying GameStop etc. is forcing anyone to do anything. We're all saying the same thing as you: they offer too little for games, and better deals can be found elsewhere.
Nate @ Jun 21st 2006 10:21AM
That's strange...
The EB that just opened near me give significantly more for trade-ins than any EB I've ever been to.
I just went and traded in Ghost Recon: Summit Strike for Xbox thinking I'd get somewhere around 4-5 bucks for it maybe....turns out I actually got 9 for it, while they put it on the shelf used for 17 bucks....I was kinda puzzled, but said whatever, and picked up a used copy of Soul Calibur 2 without having to throw out any more money (it was 7.99).
p-diddy @ Jun 21st 2006 10:22AM
Forget half and ebay. Try craigslist. Gamestop turned down my Gamecube because it didn't have a port cover (for the GBA adapter). I posted it on Cragislist and had cash in hand by the end of the day.
As for the EBGames employee in the Square One Mall in Saugus, MA: Thanks for being a dick when I asked about Guitar Hero the week it came out. Like a guitar-based DDR game must suck since you hadn't heard of it, right? I haven't spent a dime in your store since, and yes, you still work there because I come in all the time.
-p-
JS @ Jun 21st 2006 10:22AM
If you are going to complain about the margin and capitalism, then be consistent. Complain about the sick and unreal margin the gas companies have.
How about restaurants? do you really think that shell steak you just paid $30 for , that you can get from the supermarket for $8 is worth the markup?
How about when you go to the movies and you and your date stuff your fat whining faces with a $8 tub of popcorn that is worth a quarter?
Or your crappucino $5 venti lattes that are worth a dollar tops in ingredients and packaging.
Where are your angry posts on that?
Face it kids--- Gamestop makes no margin on new games, because of the Walmarts out there. If you think that they don't deserve to operate on the same capitalistic theories you were brought up with and allow everyone else to use, then you deserve to live with ONE megastore that dictates what you can buy. Let us all work at Walmart because that would be the only place still open.
If you are going to complain about it then do it acroos the board----- every business you spend your allowance at operates on maximizing margins practically at all costs at the expense of employees pensions and health benefits among other things.
Kaneda @ Jun 21st 2006 10:24AM
http://www.craigslist.org/about/cities.html
for any city in the us (almost)
http://newyork.craigslist.org/
NYC
It's cool, because you'll get someone who wants the game, and is willing to pay for it. Also, the prices are negotiable with the seller. Its an online swapmeet.
Lagomorpho @ Jun 21st 2006 10:28AM
1) Capitalism
2) When you buy a game, you make the decision (like the intelligent moneyed individual that you are) to pay a certain amount of money to play the game. How does that turn into deserving money back when you've played through the game and gotten your moneys worth?
3) If the game sucked, tough luck. Check reviews/ask you friends' opinions before you buy them because you probably won't get much for that game if anything at all. See 1.
4) Trading games with friends is a very nice alternative.
5) Used games stores offer a service. The store I go to guarantees all games and systems and will replace any non-working game/system with another one or give you store credit. Try and get anything like that on ebay or Amazon.
6) I can walk to a used game store and buy any system and all the good games for that system RIGHT NOW. Instant gratification is very nice.
The Maddness @ Jun 21st 2006 10:29AM
Hey, you can rag on the trade in prices all you want.
It's not going to change anything.
Sure we may give .05 cents to some poor shmucks Madden 2004. Then we sell it for 1.99. OMGWTF!#@#@!# WHAT A HUGE MARKUP. Do you realize how many people want to BUY Madden 2004? Nobody. The same goes for a LOT of titles. Nobody wants your crappy copy of NHL Hitz 2002. Or that stupid Socom II you decided to finally get rid of. When someone trades something in, we take the risk of it not selling, ever.
When you purchase a game, we give you the ability to get your money back even if YOU DON'T EVEN LIKE IT.
Can you do that if you buy a game from your friends? Or from an online trading site?
Clearly almost none of you trade stuff in there anymore, so why bother complaining about something you don't use anyway.
Will @ Jun 21st 2006 10:32AM
Considering how ridiculously low the profit margins are on new games, video game specialty stores have to do stuff like get these huge returns on used games in order to be viable. It's the same thing every single one of us would do in their position, assuming we were all concerned with keeping our stores profitable.
GunForHire @ Jun 21st 2006 10:32AM
I work for a games retailer in the UK, and I have to agree with the article. Also, someone posted in the comments on ArsTechnica that games stores should do like book stores in some ways.
It'd take more outlay when actually opening a store, but wouldn't it be good to have a big store with lots of demo units running the latest games, informed staff, reasonable prices (even if they're still a little over the MSRP) and that certain something which makes you want to come back as a customer?
That'll never really happen though, not with the corporate retailers anyway.
RocketSeason @ Jun 21st 2006 10:33AM
I stopped trading in games for that very reason. I would rather keep the game and possibly enjoy it later on rather than trade it in for a few measly bucks.
Marc @ Jun 21st 2006 10:33AM
I've been shopping at a store called Gamerama in Toronto, ON. They're great about used games, and I love the way they handle pre-orders. In fact, they don't have pre-orders, they have reserves. If you want to reserve a game they write your name and number on a list, when that game comes in they give you a call. No money changes hands until you go to pick up a game. It's a fantastic way of doing business.
Sorry for my bad english @ Jun 21st 2006 10:37AM
eBay has become hard to sell because it's always overstock. which make hard for anyone to sell.
Jacob @ Jun 21st 2006 10:38AM
Reminds me of the old days, long ago in the '90s, when I worked at a small independant game store.
I don't think we charged more than $15 more than what we paid for a used game.
Those were the days... the tail end of the SNES, the start of gaming websites, and magazines didn't suck yet.
Foo Mo Jive @ Jun 21st 2006 10:54AM
Thanks for the tip on the trading sites. I signed up and I'm looking forward to trading games I'm done with.
Zak @ Jun 21st 2006 10:56AM
What the hell are you people blabbing about. If a game store pays you 33 dollars for Oblivion, and they sell it for 54.99, how is that a ripoff. For one, you don't have tons of new releases that are going to be in stock as used yet, so the price will be maintained, and if you have a discount card, the price is taken down to fifty dollars. How is it bad to make 15 dollars on a product?
Want to know what Best Buy is making off of that tv you just bought? How about that DVD player? Or a Blu Ray player? Yeah, you would stop this ridiculous notion that GameStop is evil because they are out to make a profit. Do some research as to what markup is on EVERYTHING tech stores sell. It's a corporation, not your neighbor, not your best friend, these are companies who want your money, pricks.
Grant @ Jun 21st 2006 10:58AM
"If you are going to complain about the margin and capitalism, then be consistent. Complain about the sick and unreal margin the gas companies have.
How about restaurants? do you really think that shell steak you just paid $30 for , that you can get from the supermarket for $8 is worth the markup?
How about when you go to the movies and you and your date stuff your fat whining faces with a $8 tub of popcorn that is worth a quarter?
Or your crappucino $5 venti lattes that are worth a dollar tops in ingredients and packaging.
Where are your angry posts on that?"
Um, probably not on a gaming blog? How do you assume people don't complain about this stuff where it's appropriate to do so?
Anyway, I wish people would stop screaming "it's capitalism, they have the right to charge what they want!" No one's saying they don't have the right, people are just saying the prices are too high and that you should go elsewhere. That's how capitalism works... if a price is too high, you go for someone offering a lower price, and if enough people go do that, the higher prices fall. This post is part of the process of gravitating towards the market price.
Tobor @ Jun 21st 2006 11:04AM
EB/gamestops days are numbered anyway. I truly believe this will be the last generation of games to be sold on physical media. Xbox Live Arcade and Virtual Console are the first steps towards full digital distribution. Steam, Gametap, everywhere you look, everyone is headed in the same direction.
How will EB/Gamestop maintain profitability without a used games market? I don't think they can.
User1138 @ Jun 21st 2006 11:09AM
I worked for EB Games for 5 years and i felt like a dirty horrible person for giving someone 10-15 dollars in store credit and then re-selling the game for 40-45 buxs. It sucked even worse when you trade without a box, then we give you like 40% of the trade in value but still re-sale it at the full price point. But it's pretty much the only way that a profit is being made by retail gaming stores. Towards the end of my career the only people trading in any games of quality where probably giving me stuff they stole the night before, They did not care that i was giving them $20 in cash for the factory sealed copy of a new release.
My job was constantly on thin ice because of Pre-Played sales, i was threated to be fired on a Bi-weekley basis, we were coached on a constant basis to turn our stores into a "PRE OWNED CULTURE". Althought i left on my own accord months before the Gamestop buy out, The amount of profit being made thru selling "pre-played" games made the job so uncomfortable from upper managment. Just to shine the light on how great of a company EB Games was to work for, The top Store that out performed the rest of the region received rewards like ... a $50 gift card to your own store !!! or a Wallet with flames on it !!! That is what you get for bringing the greatest amount of profit.
riffgod @ Jun 21st 2006 11:16AM
I've been saying this for years. I can barely stand to walk into one of these stores. I used to be able to find good deals on games for past gen systems, now most don't even carry them. I don't know why anyone would want to sell their games in the first place, but why someone would sell their games to one of these stores is beyond me. The only possible exception I see is children. They don't know the value, they just know what they want. And the parents are probably trying to get them to lessen the amount of games in the house, which potentially lessen time spent on gaming, so they don't care if their child gets screwed. They really need to teach their children better values if you ask me, but who am I to tell people how to parent.
I am a collector of sorts of video games, so I have no reason to sell my games in the first place. Besides why you wouldn't want to keep a game (even if you've completed/tired of it) when you could take it out a few years down the road and play it all over again. A crappy game I could see selling off, but why you buy crappy games?
Lagomorpho @ Jun 21st 2006 11:31AM
#39/Grant
I don't think the prices are too high. The used games I usually see are about 10 bucks cheaper than the new version. I think the problem here is the people think they aren't getting enough money for the games they sell.
Used game stores are there for convenience. Go down right now and sell the game (or trade/getstore credit for a bit more). Or put it up on amazon or ebay and wait the week/month that it takes to sell and give a slice of that to amazon/ebay.
Grant @ Jun 21st 2006 11:45AM
Lagomorpho, point taken. I'd agree that the price paid from store to used game seller is the more ingregious deviation from the market price. And I'd agree that the convenience of selling it at a local store justifies a lower buyback price, but not THAT much lower.
Zak @ Jun 21st 2006 11:54AM
The point that I try to make is, if you are trading in a game that has been out for a while, and it's a game that the company has a lot of in stock, where is the demand for it? I have seen trade values go up and down, it happens, it's the ebb and flow of things.
If you take a 94 Civic to a dealer for trade in, good luck getting more than a grand for it, and I guarantee it will sell for at the very least five times that much. Now Civics are great cars, and they always have been. Socom 2 can be called a great game, and that hasn't changed since it was first pressed and released, but there are hundreds of thousands of used Socom 2's out there, same thing with used Civic's.
Oh well, a good 90 percent of the posts here seem to gain joy in saying how they don't go to GS or EB. So really, what's the point in complaining about a company that you aren't a patron of anyway? That's like me complaining about how congested the Autobahn is(I've never been to Germany.)on Friday nights.
Will @ Jun 21st 2006 11:59AM
So what's the alternative? Should GameStop give us 90% of what they're going to sell it for? Then everyone would be selling back their used games, and they'd end up with more used copies than they would possily re-sell, meaning they'd end up losing a lot of money on one of their very few very profitable ventures.
If you want to skip the middle man, fine. But don't bitch at the middle man for doing what it can to remain in business.
Bryan W @ Jun 21st 2006 12:05PM
Have any of you guys tried www.lendmonkey.com for gave trading?
mercatfat @ Jun 21st 2006 12:30PM
Can anyone tell me why digital distribution will ever take off as some here claim? Hard Drive space isn't infinite, as it would only take a few DVD9's to fill up on X360's drive as is. It sort of works for PC's, but you have issues of reformats/reinstalls and problems that can arise from that, even though you've alrady purchased the title. Not to mention the immense amounts of time and bandwidth for each re-download. Ouch.
Music, on the other hand, is very small and can go anywhere. Small files are perfect for digital distribution.
As far as selling games goes, Amazon/Half.com's Used market is basically the best thing, although the fees are a bit higher than Ebay. It may even out after you add the listing/closing/paypal fees, but I'm not certain.
Also on the subject of used games, I think commercial resellers should be required to give a certain amount (say, 15%)to the developer. This would cause the prices on games to fall (at least somewhat) dramatically.
Lagomorpho @ Jun 21st 2006 12:33PM
Grant, refer back to my other post(30). You've got your moneys worth by playing through that game. You shouldn't expect any money back at all because you paid for something and you got exactly what you paid for. If you want to pay for a game, play it, and then get most of your money back, you shouldn't be buying games. You should be renting them.