Dawdle.com not wasting time challenging GameStop's used sales
by Alexander Sliwinski 
{ Oct 8th 2008 at 9:30PM }
Selling games works by Dawdle taking a 12% commission, which is lower than many sites, and all proceeds from the sales are received by direct deposit. Meaning, the cash gets dropped directly into the seller's checking account (no PayPal). Dawdle says sellers will receive more value for their used items than at the local gaming pawn shop.
As for buying used games, Dawdle uses what it calls a "Standing Offers" system. Essentially, a buyer puts a bid out there for what they want and are willing to pay, if the system makes a match then the charge goes through (if you've used Priceline.com, it's the same principle). Dawdle also has some business partnerships that make it stand out from the crowd, but it'll take time to see if gamers begin using the service as an alternative to the almighty GameStop.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
aj @ Oct 8th 2008 9:36PM
Sounds interesting, but I still like the CraigsList/Kijiji model best: You place an ad, then people give you money, and you don't have to pay anyone for it either.
Saria the Cat @ Oct 9th 2008 5:18AM
Craigslist is definitely the best way to sell or buy anything used. No fees, and you deal with people in person, not online. That means no shipping or distribution costs. I guess to some people, however, they'd rather pay a commission to do the talking than deal with real life people.
aj @ Oct 9th 2008 5:25AM
...which is understandable, since 75% of real life people are complete morons. But I just bought some PSP games for next to nothing, and I didn't have to pay a "handling" fee for someone to just give me something in exchange for money. It was awesome.
007craft @ Oct 8th 2008 9:40PM
12%? ebay takes 5%. So why should I use this service, which is bound to net me LESS views when i list a game?
sachinag @ Oct 8th 2008 10:30PM
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html
eBay charges 10 cents to list plus 8.75% plus PayPal fees. No idea where you're getting 5% from.
Saria the Cat @ Oct 9th 2008 5:40AM
Geez, I wonder why you're getting your panties in such a bunch, Sachinag. Maybe it has to do with the fact that you're the co-founder of Dawdle.com? :P
Nate @ Oct 9th 2008 8:29AM
No, he's totally right. Paypal is 2.9% plus some fees... it comes out to about 12% with ebay's fees. The thing about ebay is that there's so many more people on there, demand is higher, so prices will be higher.
007craft @ Oct 9th 2008 9:34AM
OMG they certainly raised prices. It used to be around 5%. Regardless tho, 8.75 is still less then 12%. (and its 3.25% after the first $25). 30 cents to list your item is not even .1% of your sale anyway, plus they have a 10 cent listing day every month or so.
Paypal may also have a % on it, but you cannot add that on as paypal is optional. I often sell stuff on ebay and people pay me with cash (local pickups) or electronic money transfers (which is the exact same as dawdle uses)
I just see no reason at all to use this site, when they are more expensive then ebay, which will get me much more views. If your jumping into a new site venture like this, they should be taking like 3%, much less then the competition, in order to convince me to use their service.
idiot @ Oct 8th 2008 9:52PM
sounds cool to me
wocyob @ Oct 8th 2008 9:54PM
has anyone heard of GOOZEX.com... IMO the best place to trade games.... it maybe not for cash but its better then gamestop
mahzilla @ Oct 9th 2008 12:51AM
I use Goozex all the time, highly recommended!
sachinag @ Oct 9th 2008 11:00AM
We think Goozex is awesome for trading games. It's why we don't have trades - you can only buy and sell for cash monies. We're going after GameStop.
That Fuzzy Bastard @ Oct 9th 2008 11:22AM
Yeah, Goozex is definitely the best, in my opinion. They charge a flat $1/trade fee, which I think is totally reasonable, and a lot of the games are really cheap. Plus, unlike a straight trade, it makes it way easier to turn a few old games into one new game. I unloaded all my old Xbox/PS2/GBA games there, and now have more 360/DS games than I can actually play (damn you, Oblivion, and your 100-hours-of-gameplay!).
AnEternalEnigma @ Oct 8th 2008 9:56PM
I'm sure this will make Bungie even happier.
BIGFAT @ Oct 8th 2008 9:56PM
maybe trading games yeah, but as far as selling games ill stick with ebay. being able to make profit from selling a used game on ebay is just to much to turn away. and youll never be able to get over on savy gamer like you can on a soccer moms who surfs ebay.
Vcize @ Oct 9th 2008 10:47AM
Bingo. I have no idea why on earth someone would use this site instead of ebay, given that the fees are, at best, the same, and realistically dawdle's fees are a bit higher than ebays.
On ebay you get tons more exposure, less savvy customers that will pay more, and probaably already have feedback (whereas on dawdle you'd be starting with 0).
What on Earth makes these guys think they could put out this website and charge MORE than ebay? The only way to break into the market here is to charge LESS. Some people are fed up with ebay's recent price hikes so if they actually priced this competitively they might be able to steal some of the market.
Whatever, I hope they enjoy getting that 12% commission on the 6 games that get sold on their site rather than 3-4% of tens of thousands of games that could have been.
Altairio @ Oct 9th 2008 11:06AM
Most ebay users use PayPal since it offers some level of protection and makes the transaction that much easier. So when you combine ebay fees and PayPal fees it comes out to around 15%. Which is also the fee for using it's sister site half.com. Dawdle's 12% is a slightly better deal if you are talking about selling nationally instead of locally, but it's exposure is nowhere near ebay's. Craigslist is obviously the best option when it comes to fees, since there are none, but it's generally limited to local pickup. ebay offers the most visibility which is why the fees are justified.
Mr Khan @ Oct 8th 2008 9:58PM
hmmm...
Sounds interesting. Bookmark'd. I very, very rarely sell my games (as i very rarely make bad gaming decisions, despite following my gut in many cases), but both times have really left me with the short end of the stick. GameStop gave me $0.75 for my copy of Pokemon Stadium, literally 1% of it's purchase value, then when i tried to push Crystal Chronicles by letting my friend eBay it, he just never got around to it, and i didn't get a damn thing out of it
Could also be a neato source of used games. I could beat Nintendo's rates for N64 games, and pick up some cool GB/GBC games.
aj @ Oct 9th 2008 5:29AM
I once bought a crappy game, and just got so sick of it I went to trade it in at EB the next day.
With the 49.99$ price tag still attached, the clerk looked me in the eye and said he could only give me 2$ for it. On a 50$ game. That literally came out one day ago. I nearly jumped the counter and beat him to death with the game in question.
Sam Zebian @ Oct 8th 2008 10:08PM
I have a great idea that would literally kill gamestop and most game renting/selling options. Of course I would do it, but the problem is I have nobody to help me to get the website up and running. And of course I would have to buy a warehouse, which, uhh, most 16 year old guys can't afford. But it is a good idea that would work easily and cheaply. Too bad we have to put up with Gamestop's bull and paying a ton of money for rentals.
Sam Zebian @ Oct 8th 2008 10:11PM
Oh and of course I wouldn't be stupid enough to post my idea here for someone to find and use as their own. So I do have a good idea, but I can't tell you. Unless you want to help me make a website and possibly acquire a warehouse, which I doubt you would do. Why, Because I'm 16 and whoever reads this probably thinks my idea would be dumb. But think about it. just, think about it.
Morisato @ Oct 8th 2008 11:01PM
It's probably gamefly.
Ordeith @ Oct 9th 2008 1:13PM
6 billion people in the world.
What do you think the chances are that someone else has the same idea, and if it is workable, is actually doing something about it.
Pretty good, right?
wiredknight @ Oct 8th 2008 10:11PM
Yea, and Amazon only takes 6%, you don't have to use Paypal, and is my opinion a bit more secure than eBay.
The "Standing Offer" feature is intriguing though.
sachinag @ Oct 8th 2008 10:51PM
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=1161240
Amazon charges $0.99 per transaction plus 15%. No idea where you're getting 6% from.
wiredknight @ Oct 9th 2008 1:16AM
Learn to fucking read. It clearly says :
"Electronic items = 8 percent"
Which admittedly, I mistyped in my original post. But it's not 15%. I've sold several games on Amazon, so I have a bit of experience, thanks.
RDub @ Oct 9th 2008 1:15PM
I think "electronic items" refers to gadgets and gizmos like consoles. Media, I believe, is 15%. At least according to this, as long as it's not out of date:
http://www.bestsyndication.com/?q=20080414_amazon_sales.htm
wiredknight @ Oct 9th 2008 3:19PM
@ RDub
If you browse Amazon, using the drop down menu on the left, their Video Games section is a subset of Electronics. Nice try though.
Saria the Cat @ Oct 9th 2008 5:31AM
:( I hate to say this, but this article looks a LOT like an ad for Dawdle.com. I know it probably isn't and it is probably just a response to the Counting Rupees post about GameStop and used game sales, but it just looks really, really bad. I think it would look a lot better if it were an article about ways to circumvent GS, listing more methods than just Dawdle.com, such as using Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, eBay, garage sales, etc.
sachinag @ Oct 9th 2008 11:01AM
Ha - we really tried to get Joystiq to write about us. Trust me - we didn't pay for this post. If we did, we'd have wanted it to be longer and more effusive and to go up at 12 noon ET. But we wouldn't, and we don't - we're not going to even come close to the Gerstmann-gate line.
Saria the Cat @ Oct 9th 2008 11:06AM
@sachinag: Oh, I am confident Joystiq is never paid by third parties to post a particular article, or would accept payment from third parties. I guess I am just upset with an obvious plug. All journalism is biased to some extent, but this just seemed to lack the substance and integrity that readers enjoy from the rest of Joystiq. I don't blame Alex or anything, I just wanted to express my distaste with this sort of slanted article.
Levi @ Oct 9th 2008 12:57PM
Joystiq has substance and integrity? That's news to me.
Jason @ Oct 9th 2008 8:13PM
enjoy this while you can. disc-based games are not long for this world.
Dralthi @ Oct 9th 2008 10:47AM
Hate to say it but, I'd still rather use GameStop for trade-ins and used games.
I hate selling games online because then I have to be bothered with driving to the post office or UPS to ship the stupid game to the buyer. I don't have time for that.