Do you know what's an even bigger rip off? Buying the crappy game that you eventually are going to trade in.

I quit trading in because of this....

I trade in at futureshop, they price-match gamestop/EBGames whenever possible. Plus the rates are actually fairly good, traded in assassin's creed (xbox 360) for $27.99, and a few 06' xbox games for about $10 each.

I wouldn't buy said traded in games however. Overpriced in my opinion still.

So wait you get almost 50% of your money back and this is somehow not a good deal? I would put them on ebay but this is too much work.

I've never traded or sold a game ever in my life.

Take it to a place that buys used games and ask them.  You don't have to actually sell it.  In fact, you probably don't even need to take the game in.  You can also call them instead of actually visiting the store.

In general, those closer it is to the game launch, the more you will get.

Don't buy used, Don't trade in.

Support the publishers.

As soon as you break the shrink-wrap, the game drops down to 1/2 value, you trade it in, and it's now 5 dollars below MSRP. It's a glorified pawn shop.

I'm so glad people are robbing Gamestops now. It's not 'power to the players' there. It's power to GS.

I hope no one dies, or gets shot, but I enjoy the string of robberies happening there.

it is a ripoff.... especially since you have the likes of Ebay now....
I actually bought my launch PSone solely on SNES game credit.... had a bit of luck with some of my self imported titles being rare and pricey =)

but yeah I find used games really expensive in stores.... and since it's all in DVD format, they are usually far from prime condition.

However, I also find that game prices drop far more than in the past... especially in the UK where us euro can also benefit of the low pound =D (new games there are cheaper than used in france...)

Yeah, it's exactly like driving a new car off of the lot.

But, uh... I can't really condone robbery.