I think the used game market is a wonderful thing, for a certain amount of people anyway. I think the buyer is winning out and the seller is making a huge mistake and I’m sure by the end of this post I will also prove that buyers really should not do this either.
I decided to do some research for my part of this post. I asked everyone on my friends’ list on Live and only 29 people responded to me. Out of those 29 people, 23 of them said that they would go to the local game store to trade or sell. Facts are Facts. The average person doesn’t think about selling games on e-bay or Craigslist. They will take them down to the game store and get, if they’re lucky, half of what they paid to begin with. Then we will go and buy the game for an inflated price. Truth is you’re not saving any money by buying it used because if it’s a game you want to try your only going to save 5 or 10 dollars at most.
If you want to try a game and don’t think it will be worth full price then just take the time to set up a Gamefly account. You can get the game, try it as long as you want, then just send it back if you don’t want it, and keep it if you do. Then you are completely doing away with the used game issue. Because I have said it before and I will say it again. When you get in the used game cycle it is just a downward spiral. You end up taking game after game in to trade for one game that will be traded later to something else later.
Truth is we don’t really need the used game market. The game industry was fine before and it would be fine without it. I can remember when I had my NES. Games were like 40 bucks. That was a lot of money then and there was no used copy of a game available to me. I still managed to get what I wanted though. The bottom line is we tell ourselves that used games are easier. It is easier but that doesn’t mean it’s always the best.
Still love the used game thing. If I feel a game isn’t worth 50 or 60 dollars, I will wait…like I posted in Speedle’s comment area of his ‘blog’. Granted, when you’re trading something in, you don’t get much back, but if you wait til prices drop on certain games, then when you think about it you’re not losing that much either. When high-cost games go down, you can get 2 games for the price of that one you just had to have, give or take a dollar or two extra.
Still love the used game thing. If I feel a game isn’t worth 50 or 60 dollars, I will wait…like I posted in Speedle’s comment area of his ‘blog’. Granted, when you’re trading something in, you don’t get much back, but if you wait til prices drop on certain games, then when you think about it you’re not losing that much either. When high-cost games go down, you can get 2 games for the price of that one you just had to have, give or take a dollar or two extra.