Over the last several months Amazon, Best Buy, and Toys R Us have joined GameStop and Game Crazy in the used game buying market. Gamers now have five national retailers to choose from when deciding who to sell their games too, plus eBay and Amazon Marketplace. Which of these seven options gives the best prices for old games?
We randomly chose 100 games for PS2, Xbox 360, PS3, PSP, Nintendo DS, or Wii and calculated the average price each store would give you for every game. The results are below:
 |  |  |
| Ebay* | $10.54 | 0 |
| Amazon Marketplace* | 10.11 | 0 |
| Toys R Us | 8.78 | 10 |
| Best Buy | 8.46 | 54 |
| Amazon | 5.67 | 32 |
| Game Crazy | 5.02 | 16 |
| Game Stop | 4.09 | 3 |
* eBay and Amazon Marketplace prices are after subtracting selling fees
Column Definitions:
Average Price - The average price for 26 games that all seven stores offered prices on.
Can't Sell - The number of games that the store won't buy from customers.
Other Factors to Consider When Selling Games
eBay
- Best price on average even after subtracting ebay and paypal fees
- Every game ever made can be sold
- You have to deal with shipping, payment issues, and customer service
Amazon Marketplace
- Second best price (after subtracting Amazon selling fees)
- Almost every game can be sold. Niche systems like Neo Geo, Vectrex, and even Atari 2600 don't have listings
- You have to deal with shipping, payment issues, and customer service
Toys R Us
- Best prices of all the stores
- They don't pay for 10% of the games we tried
- Will take trades on all systems from PS2 era & next-gen consoles
- Every vintage game is the same price, $0.50 for Earthbound
- They pay you via Toys R Us gift card
- Offers instant online quotes
Best Buy
- Wouldn't buy back 54% of the games
- Good prices for the games they do purchase
- Will take trades on all systems from PS2 era & next-gen consoles
- You can trade-in electronics too
- They pay you via Best Buy gift card
- Offers instant online quotes
Amazon
- Worst prices of the online stores
- Doesn't buy 32% of games we searched
- Will take trades on vintage games too
- They pay you via Amazon gift card
- Offers instant online quotes
Game Crazy
- Better prices than GameStop
- No online quotes
- Will take trades on all systems from PS2 era & next-gen consoles
- They can pay in cash or store credit
- Not in every market nationwide
GameStop
- Worst prices of all the stores
- No online quotes
- Will take trades on all systems from PS2 era & next-gen consoles
- They can pay in cash or store credit
- More than 4,300 stores in the United States
Methodology
We randomly chose 100 video games for PS2, Xbox 360, PS3, PSP, Nintendo DS, or Wii and found the prices for them on September 14th 2009. The list included 42 PS2 Games, 9 PS3, 20 Nintendo DS, 7 PSP, 13 Wii, and 9 Xbox 360. The list includes a wide range of games like Fallout 3, Animal Crossing Wild World, Marvel vs Capcom 2, Pokemon Platinum, and My Chinese Coach, Mini-Ninja's, and Cars.
When calculating the "Average Price" we only used the 26 games that every retailer offered a price for.
8 comments:
another great article. confirms what we've all long-suspected, that game stop is the worst place to do trade-ins.
Not surprised at all about GameStop being at the bottom. I keep telling my friends to either hold on to their games or swap/give them to someone they know. Not worth it at all to sell them at any of their stores.
The problem with eBay is not so much dealing with idiots, as it is actually selling something. There is nothing worse than the disappointment of taking the time to write a good listing for your Game, and having it sit there because you weren't willing to sell it for 90% less than you paid for it.
Personally, I've had good experiences with a website called Swag Bucks, because not only can you add any game in their inventory to your "to sell" list, you can then print the label off and send them off in your own box. What you get in turn is virtual money that can be used to buy games for every system, and even consoles and accessories.
I much prefer the online trade experience to doing it in store like I foolishly used to. I even thought Game Crazy gave much more for trade-in's, but all it takes is a couple of new game trades for you to figure out that they're only marginally better than GameStop.
Give Swag Bucks a shot, because they don't just offer games - they have lots of apparel, collectibles, books, gift cards, etc. It's something you have to be diligent about though, if you do sign up. You use the Swag Bucks search engine (Which is just Ask+Google in one engine) instead of others, and you get rewarded for it. It's a great system.
I think the reason Gamestop can offer the lowest prices on the trades is the convenience. It is very easy to bring a game into their stores because they have locations everywhere and the consumer gets the money right then. They don't have to wait for the money like they would with an online trade-in.
Instant gratification and convenience allow GameStop to offer lower trade-in values.
@JJ Hendricks I've never left a GameStop feeling gratified after receiving $4.09 for a week old game.
JJ, Thanks for the great research!
As a gamer, retro video game collector and eBay reseller, I've spent a great deal of time figuring out the best way to buy and sell games. I'm happy to know that your data matches my experience. And, now that we have new options for selling games, it's great to know how those options stack up.
For new and used games, I've done best selling on eBay. In my experience Amazon is great but takes a little more commission. Naturally both of those options take work and patience on the part of the seller.
There's always good ole Craigslist, flea markets, pawn shops, etc, but it's nice now that people have some easy options for selling both new and vintage video games.
Thanks again! --Mark
I prefer Amazon by far because it is much easier to list and sell games without having to create descriptions, take photos, etc.
What about the some other webistes that buy them in bulk? like:
Garots Media - http://www.garotsmedia.com/sell
New Town Video - http://newtownvideo.com/
Second Spin - http://secondspin.com
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