Do you consider trading in games a ripoff?

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 11:59 pm

I, for one, feel that trading in games for credit at EB/Gamespot is a complete ripoff. Sure, you save towards that next game, but then you'll probably turn right around and trade that one in when you are bored of it! Let's see the math here......

You trade in a $50 game and it's worth about $15 in credit, making your next $50 game $35. But essientally, you are actually blowing $85 on a $50 game, since you paid full price for the game you are trading in. So, I think it's a waste of money. Of course, if you really want to get rid of that game you don't play anymore, go ahead and enjoy your "discount."

mannerbot · Post by **mannerbot** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 12:45 am

I consider this thread a waste of space and time. Can you add that to the poll?

icycalm · Post by **icycalm** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 2:38 am

Maybe he can add your mom to the poll.

I never trade in games. I'd rather eat them than help those assholes at EB make a profit. (Or Sofmap or whatever since I am in jland.)

landshark · Post by **landshark** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 2:40 am

icycalm wrote:Maybe he can add your mom to the poll.

Not sure why, but I actually laughed at that.

Marc · Post by **Marc** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 6:54 am

Heh, I had a mouthful of coke as I read that and just spat it over my desk laughing. Must be in a childish mood this morning, but I found it hugely amusing.

sethsez · Post by **sethsez** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 7:18 am

FatCobra wrote:But essientally, you are actually blowing $85 on a $50 game, since you paid full price for the game you are trading in.

To follow this logic to it's illogical conclusion:

I buy a game for $50. I don't like it and return it for $15, and buy another $50 game. This costs me $85. However, to earn that $85, I had to work (for the sake of math) 3 hours. So really, it cost me 3 hours and $85. However, during those three hours I also ate a Subway lunch. So it really cost me $92.50 and 3 hours.

To get my job, I had to go to college for four years. This cost me thousands, and four years of my life. But to get to school, I had to first work through K-12, which was full of the standard bullshit kids go through during those years. So really, I paid the sum total of all my schooling, many, many hours of my life, a lunch, and $85 on top of that.

God of War better give me the best goddamn orgasm I've ever had when I play it!

mannerbot · Post by **mannerbot** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 8:03 am

lol

I got owned.

Capt. Takehiko · Post by **Capt. Takehiko** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 8:20 am

Indeed, we have EB here as well and I am constantly amazed at how people find that trading in games like that is "good value" because thy get a discount on a newer game. This is why I never buy games I dislike and I never sell what I've got.

SheSaidDutch · Post by **SheSaidDutch** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 10:24 am

I never trade in games

sven666 · Post by **sven666** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 11:14 am

i traded midnight club and MGS2 + $10 for GTA san andreas on release day.. so yeah that was a ripoff allright

Post by **system11** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 12:16 pm

Keeping a game to stop a perceived loss is broken logic - as soon as you open a game and play it for a few weeks, it's no longer worth the $50 you paid for it - it's worth $20, It's called depreciation, and if you ever buy a new car you'll learn all about this - they lose THOUSANDS as soon as you drive them 1 mile from the dealer. Gamestop give you what a second hand game is worth, minus their profit. You could, if you really hate Gamestop, sell it on ebay instead - but for the convenience of just trading there+then for what you want off the shelf, the extra $5 is not really worthwhile.

If you don't like depreciation on a $50 item, then buy it second hand in the first place. This is exactly why I don't buy new cars.

StorminNorman · Post by **StorminNorman** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 12:30 pm

Forget games, EB here are offering AU$13 for Gamecubes.

Mind you, now that the machine has basically died, they go for AU$79 new.

marcus12024 · Post by **marcus12024** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 2:40 pm

I was a little shocked yesterday to learn just how little the main game store we have in my city actually pays for older (16-bit and older) games. I'm friends with the owner, and while talking to him I decided to buy a handful of genesis games they had. The total was around 35 bucks. He said that those 5 games were bought by the store for a buck and a half, total. One of them was Shadowrun, which is worth at least ten dollars (their pricetag said 15.00 but I talked him down).

I guess I should have expected this to be the case, as I know that they need to make money somehow. I just wasn't aware that the markup was so bad. The worst example is Super Mario RPG, which they slapped a $100 price tag on. I asked him how much they paid the kid for it, and he said $3. Three dollars! Yikes!

Of course there's also the stupidity of the person who sells something like Super Mario RPG for $3, since ebay would make a person much more than that amount.

Back on-topic here, I personally keep nearly every game I buy, I guess you could call me a collector. But I can understand why some people sell their games back to the store - if you buy a game new, for $50, then play it for about two weeks, the store will usually give you about $15 for it around here. However, if they're still selling new copies of that game, they'll give you around $30 trade-in value. Thus your next new game purchase is only around $20. If you keep doing this, you'll soon realize that after your initial investment (ie: the first new game you purchase), you're constantly only paying around $20 for each new game you buy.

Makes sense to me.

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 5:08 pm

You do have a point there. I've never thought of it that way. It would only cost $20 per game if you kept trading in recent releases. And if you do miss them dearly, just wait for a price drop. I kinda forgot about the whole depreciation thing. Obsolitance rocks at times.

$100 for Super Mario RPG? That's a bit too much for that game I think. Of course, this is coming from a guy who gladly forked over $50 for an Earthbound cart.

marcus12024 · Post by **marcus12024** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 6:16 pm

FatCobra wrote:You do have a point there. I've never thought of it that way. It would only cost $20 per game if you kept trading in recent releases. And if you do miss them dearly, just wait for a price drop. I kinda forgot about the whole depreciation thing. Obsolitance rocks at times.

$100 for Super Mario RPG? That's a bit too much for that game I think. Of course, this is coming from a guy who gladly forked over $50 for an Earthbound cart.

I definitely agree with you that $100 for Super Mario RPG (cart only even!!) is way too much. $40 would be decent. But yeah, the difference in buy/sell price at that store (who has a full "price guide" they follow) is insane! Their average markup on used games is around 1000%. That's crazy.

jp · Post by jp » Thu Jun 23, 2005 7:09 pm

Depends.

At Rhino I can trade in tons of crappy GBA/DC games and get tons more classic Genesis/SNES games. So IMO, thats a good value.

But EB and Gamestop? Yeah, they're raping the people who do trade-ins there.

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 4:09 am

jp wrote:Depends.

At Rhino I can trade in tons of crappy GBA/DC games and get tons more classic Genesis/SNES games. So IMO, thats a good value.

But EB and Gamestop? Yeah, they're raping the people who do trade-ins there.

Never heard of Rhino, but I too think they are raping people who trade in at EB Games and Gamestop. So I think the lesson is this: Rent the game first to see if you are willing to fork $50 over for it!

sethsez · Post by **sethsez** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 4:21 am

They're ripping you off if you buy games new at $50, but if you're not sure whether you'd like the game or not, why are you buying them at that price? I usually buy games at $20 and get $5-7 back if I trade them in a few months later. If I'm never going to play the game again, I'd rather get $6 then just have it sit on my shelf never being played.

Dartagnan1083 · Post by **Dartagnan1083** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 8:33 pm

it really depends on the store.

I RARELY go to a major retailer to trade games in.
More often I'd go to the smaller indie stores to trade in newer titles.

For special titles I have just lying around, I sell on Ebay at prices just slightly lower or slightly more than I originally got them for.

Some lucky ebayer got Dracula X: Rondo in my snazzy homemade case (obtained disc only) for only $70 after shipping. . .which nicely evened out the Complete copy I later got for $80.

adam76 · Post by **adam76** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 3:11 pm

Ordinarily, i don't trade-in games for two reasons:

1. I'm a hoarder. I keep anything and everything whether it be a video game or a video. Hence, 'The Omen 3:the final conflict' sits proudly on my shelf...

2. I don't make a habit of buying bad video games. Only videos.

Having said all that, theres always a first time and thursday was it. My sister had brought me xbox live for my birthday but got me the game pack instead of 'just live'. The game was Fifa 2005 and as i'm a Pro-Evo man, back to the shop it went. So i finally got Resident Evil 4 and there you have it-a happy trade-in story at last.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 5:03 pm

I do trade in games, but not so frequently as I used to. When I reach a point with a game where I know I never want to play it again, then it is time to sell it. This is typically different than just being 'bored of it', but rather I just don't like the game, it is frustrating in some way that makes it unplayable, etc. Basically, I only sell a game if I feel like it was a mistake to buy it in the first place.

TWITCHDOCTOR · Post by **TWITCHDOCTOR** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 5:47 pm

bloodflowers wrote:Keeping a game to stop a perceived loss is broken logic - as soon as you open a game and play it for a few weeks, it's no longer worth the $50 you paid for it - it's worth $20, It's called depreciation, and if you ever buy a new car you'll learn all about this - they lose THOUSANDS as soon as you drive them 1 mile from the dealer. Gamestop give you what a second hand game is worth, minus their profit. You could, if you really hate Gamestop, sell it on ebay instead - but for the convenience of just trading there+then for what you want off the shelf, the extra $5 is not really worthwhile.

If you don't like depreciation on a $50 item, then buy it second hand in the first place. This is exactly why I don't buy new cars.

But...only newer cars depreciate, whereas older ones increase in value!
Same with Harley Davidson motorcycles; they always "hold" their value.

I also agree though...video games lose their value faster than anything I can think of.
Which is one reason I have a decent collection...most, if not all my PS2 games would only be worth 10 bucks each by today's standards. So, I feel better off just keeping em.
Genesis games are only worth around 5 to 10 dollars, but I enjoy em!

Sometimes its the simple things in life...

shmups.system11.org

Do you consider trading in games a ripoff?

Do you think trading in games is a ripoff?

Do you consider trading in games a ripoff?

Re: Do you consider trading in games a ripoff?