Holy cow, 60 dollars for Ogre Battle on ebay.

I'd rather pay $60 for Ogre Battle on Ebay or Amazon than trade in 3 $60 games each for $20 credit to buy it at Game Stop.

I will never understand why people trade games into Game Stop. If I have something to sell I sell it myself on Ebay or Amazon. I walk away with more money and my customer pays less then Game Stop. Plus my old games are in much better shape that the crap Game Stop sells for $5 less than the new price.

It's easier to just walk into a store and sell your games so I think that's what makes people do that.

Or you now, get Ogre Battle 64 on the Virtual Console.

I think it's easier to take a picture, post an auction, and drop into the mail inside a flat rate envelope. It's easy and nets often nets twice what Game Stop would give you. And it's money not credit.

I honestly have nothing again Game Stop. I'm not one of those haters who has some person grudge against the company. I just think trading in games for a tiny fraction of their worth is a bad financial decision.

But then again, I very rarely sell my games. I keep a very large collection with items dating back to the 70s all the way to today. But when I do decide to get rid of a game I sell it for what it's worth instead of trading it in for a pittance.

This is the big hole in their idea, for sure. Most old games worth owning are available to own, aside from some few that get screwed over by legal concerns (like Earth Bound or some N64 Rare games), such that this sort of thing would only really be viable for collectors and not for the mass market.

Edit: And i would like to add that reworking your business model around collectors at all is usually a bad, bad idea (except for things that only have value as collectables). Anyone remember the Great Comics Crash of 1996?

It all depends. With ebay, you are paying for shipping and handling, you are paying a fee to ebay. You are risking the buyer completely screwing you depending by disputing the product on paypal. I personally sell to friends or on ebay, but I could understand why some people don't. Not everyone is technologically savvy.

Also if you wait for special gamestop deals you can get a very reasonable amount of credit for your games. Just a small personal example. When modern warfare 2 came out gamestop had a list of games you can trade in, 2 for $40 credit towards MW2. Two of those games were Left 4 Dead and Call of Duty 4. Both games had direct sequels come out those holidays, and by then retailed for under $30 new. There is no way you could have gotten $20 for those games from ebay after shipping costs and transaction fees. Gamestop was a better deal then since I knew I wanted MW2 and it wasn't for sale anywhere, so it was a very good deal for me.

I do agree with you. Those who bring in a couple dozen games and just trade them all in for cash will get screwed. But if you wait on special deals and incentivies you can get more gamestop credit than cash from ebay.

Specials and sales are allways a smart way to spend your money. But like you said on an average day Game Stop trade ins are not a good deal.

As for selling your games yourself. Ebay and Amazon take a tiny percent. If you sell your game in a regular auction on Ebay the listing itself is free. You can always charge the shipping to the buyer. Overall it's very easy, and with a smart phone app it's as easy as a pic and a click.

As for getting screwed by the seller. That has never happened to me. I only sell quality and I always use shipping insurance. I've never had anyone complain to ebay or paypal about anything I've sold. My user rating is 100% and you don't maintain that kind of rating with as many sales and buys as I've done without being honest and professional. Sure if you you sell a scratched up game disc without it's case or manual without giving a picture and calling it "like new" the buyer is going to be pissed when they get the package. But if you describe it as it is, and include a good picture the buyer can't complain because they bought it knowing exactly what they were getting.

I do both, personally.  Or at least here in the UK we have CEX as a trade-in option, and for the most part they're very good.  I'm guessing it's very different with GameStop.

For example, if I'm thinking of selling a game, I'll first check how much I can get for it pre-owned on amazon, factoring in how much I can realistically charge for it based on the condition and how much amazon will take/any shipping losses etc.

Then I'll go on CEX's website and check how much they're offering for trade in.  They have two prices - a lower one for just giving you cash, and a higher one for store credit.  If the store credit one is more than I'd be getting on amazon (which about 70% of the time it is) then I simply trade it in and save the store credit until something I want comes along.

I've kind of 'made a profit' with some of this kind of stuff too.  For example, I bought Twisted Metal new for £30, played it for a week or so then traded it in to CEX for £28 store credit.  Then I waited a couple of months, bought it back from them for £18 from my credit.  Obviously I've not made any money because I'm out of pocket from the initial investment, but I still have the same game plus £10 credit - and realistically I wouldn't have been playing the game during those few months anyway (because of the server issues).

But anyway, I suppose all of this is kind of moot because GameStop trade-ins are more likely to be like Game/Gamestation over here, where they give you bugger all money for your stuff and don't let you check the prices of anything without going to the shop.  In which case, I don't use those kinds of services.