Worst Game Trade In/ Selling Stories

[AnthrSolidSnake]

So today I'm going to get a haircut and then head out to my local game store (not a Gamestop) to get an estimate on a stack of games that I own the PC versions of, or just don't play anymore.

Before hand, I went onto Gamestop's trade-in reference and found that, in total, I'd get maybe about $15 for a stack of 9 games, half of them costing about $0.30. I'm going to see what my local store's offer would be as they expressed interest in seeing what I had (they opened up recently and need more stock)

So I'm wondering, what is your worst trade-in/reselling story? Whether through a game retailer, or through a single person.

UPDATE: I went into my local game store to see how much they'd give me: $18 store credit...I guess Gamestop isn't ripping me off as much as I thought in this case. To be fair, some of the games weren't recent, but a couple were only a year or so old. And that included a couple PS2 games that Gamestop doesn't take anymore.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

This isn't necessarily something that happened to me when it comes to trade-ins but this is something that I'm sure counts. Wind the clock back to April of 2012 when if you wanted to get your hands on a shiny new copy of Xenoblade Chronicles for the Wii, you had to buy it from Gamestop. The problem is that Xenoblade Chronicles seemed to have a limited release. I traveled about 15 or so miles out of my town, into a less familiar part of a neighboring town to get myself a copy which was apparently new (you know how Gamestop likes to take the plastic off of their games). It was definitely a game that I wish I didn't pay full price for but now let's fast forward a few months to...I believe it was the pre-Thanksgiving portion of Fall. Suddenly, every Gamestop I visit seems to have an abundance of Xenoblade Chronicles! This was a game that I could have sworn was a limited release and yet it seems like tons of people have come to trade in their rare Wii game! When I check out the price for the used copies of the game, in boxes that looked as used as the copy I had bought months previously, I was surprised to see them all marked up to about $79 or possibly $89 when they were originally retailing for $49. I'm a bit concerned that the same will happen with The Devil's Third on Wii U but a part of me genuinely believes that less than 5,000 were pressed to disc in the US.

 

[Elfgore]

I remember one of the first times I attempted to trade-in a game at the local Gamestop. I had two games, some fort building game on Gameboy Advanced and a Jurassic Park game for PC. Go up to the counter, they were already not taking PC games then, so that's one down. They would also only give me one dollar for the Gameboy game. Even at the age of eleven or so I could smell how bad of a deal that was.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I have two stories.

The first is when my brother and I were kind of forced to trade in our Nintendo and Super Nintendo, along with all our games, to go toward our PS2. Now, by "forced", I mean our Uncle kept saying that we should do it so we could get more games for the new system. Neither one of us really wanted to, because we liked our old systems too, but we were young and he knew best in our minds. It wasn't until both consoles, along with about thirteen or so games were gone and we barely had twenty dollars that we realized how bad a mistake we had made.


The other time happened to my friend, but I was there. My friend was broke. He didn't have a job, and hadn't for several years. Diablo III had just come out for the PS3, and we wanted to play together. So he decided to trade in all his games that he didn't play anymore. You know those grocery bags you get at Target? Two of those bags STUFF TO THE BRIM with 360 and PS3 games, plus another bag that was almost half full. We got a shocked look from the cashier when we walked into GameStop. My friend said he wanted to trade all those games toward Diablo III, and so the cashier began.
My friend STILL ended up having to pay about fifteen to twenty bucks, even after all that. We didn't say anything, he paid, and we walked out with a receipt that was longer than my arm, and as soon as we were in the parking lot, I turned to my friend and told him, "Now try not to think about how badly you just got ripped off."
We looked over the receipt in my car. GameStop had given him twenty cents for some of the games. Most games were lucky to break two dollars, and I think the one one he got the most for was about seven dollars.
I had already sworn off trading in any of my games unless I loath them (Street Fighter IV) because of stuff like that, and he has now vowed the same thing.

 

[Dan Steele]

I once bought a game called Lord of the Rings: conquest. The campaigns were fantastic and it was reminiscent of a medieval Star Wars Battle Front. Too bad the multiplayer and custom games modes sucked shit because everyone chose the overpowered mage, not to mention there were no minions/grunts in custom game mode: so any custom games you made felt empty and underpopulated. So I enjoy this game for 5 hours, I go to trade in this travesty of a game and GameStop only gives me back 7 dollars out of the 60 I payed for it.

To this day, worst 60 bucks I've ever spent

 

[mrdude2010]

It didn't really look so bad unless you looked at how much they were selling the games for. I wouldn't have been that annoyed that they only gave me $4.00 for Madden '08 if they weren't selling it for $35.00.

 

[sXeth]

It didn't really look so bad unless you looked at how much they were selling the games for. I wouldn't have been that annoyed that they only gave me $4.00 for Madden '08 if they weren't selling it for $35.00.

Yeah, I went in to clear out some PS4 games (including fairly popular stuff like Far Cry, and still relevant titles like GTA5 and ESO) and they were only willing to give me aroundabouts 35 in total. Meanwhile Far Cry on their shelf was 35, and I think ESO was still 50 or so.

I've found it much better to just sell it on Kijiji/Facebook/whatever. Often netting at least 5.00 a game, or even 20 for some of the better ones. Even my PS3 cleanup I was able to sell to a guy at 4.00 a game, instead of the 0.15 to 1.00 they offered.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Suddenly, every Gamestop I visit seems to have an abundance of Xenoblade Chronicles! This was a game that I could have sworn was a limited release and yet it seems like tons of people have come to trade in their rare Wii game! When I check out the price for the used copies of the game, in boxes that looked as used as the copy I had bought months previously, I was surprised to see them all marked up to about $79 or possibly $89 when they were originally retailing for $49.

I remember those prices stirring up a bit of controversy. The unusually pristine condition of those used copies also sparked accusations [footnote]notable from Neogaf[/footnote] that Gamestop, knowing about the demand for the game and the high secondhand prices, had held onto unsold new copies or had received a reprinting of the game, which it then relabeled as used so it could sell them at an increased price.

Source

I don't know whether or not any of those accusations are true and Gamestop really did purposely create scarcity so it could inflate prices. The evidence at the time wasn't conclusive.

 

[CaitSeith]

What is the point of this topic? I didn't see any problems during my visits to gamestop to trade in my games so, I don't see a problem here.

He was asking what would he expect to experience in the Gamestop's trade-in he planned to do.

 

[AnthrSolidSnake]

What is the point of this topic? I didn't see any problems during my visits to gamestop to trade in my games so, I don't see a problem here.

I thought it was pretty simple. I'm asking for peoples experience reselling games/consoles, specifically to retailers like Gamestop (I also asked for "single person", as in you met with someone and they tried to rip you off by offering significantly lower than you wanted.) You're telling me you've never had a game, maybe a rather recent one, and took it gamestop thinking maybe you'll get at least half what you paid for back, and you get maybe $10-15?
If yes, I'm happy for you.

 

[Drathnoxis]

One time, I sold a game. I've regretted it ever since.

 

[Flathole]

C.2002: at garage sale, sold Nintendo 64, 4 controllers, Expansion pack, memory pack, rumble pack, Zelda OOT, Majora's mask, Mario 64, Pilot wings, Jet Force Gemini, Donkey Kong64, Banjo Kazooie, Star Fox, Pokemon Stadium (1), Pokemon Snap, Mario Kart64, Diddy Kong Racing, Pilot Wings64, an arcade classics collection, and several other games I don't remember

Received: about $125.
Present day: see OOT, Star Fox, and Banjo Kazooie for $50-60 each at local used games store.

Moral of the story: don't sell your memories for under 50 bucks each.


On the upside, from that same game store I got Condemned 2 for $5, DMC HD collection (1-3) for $10, and Resistance 3 for $10. Also a bunch of other great used/older PS3 games in near-perfect condition for <$20. And the PS3 (a newer model, larger HDD but no backward compatibility)+controller was like $200 total.


New moral of the story: it all evens out?

 

[Kotaro]

I can't remember any specific times that I felt ripped off by what GameStop gave me for trading in games. But what I do know is that many, many times, I got an urge to replay a game, only to realize I no longer had it.
As of a few year ago, I never sell my games anymore, unless I just don't like them, or have a copy of a better re-release.

 

[Ryallen]

A few years back, I was a little low on funds and was scrounging around my nightstand when I saw that I still had my old Nintendo DSi, despite having gottena 3DS a few months back. I decided it would be a good idea to go to Gamestop and try to sell it to them, so I got my mom to drive me over to the store. When I walked up to the clerk and asked him how much the DSi was, he asked me if I had the charger with me, and I said no. He then told me that they would buy the DSi for about $5 because I didn't have the charger with me. I asked him how much the system would be worth WITH the charger and he said $15. I looked behind him, saw the bags with other DSis in them worth about $100, gave the clerk a look and just walked out of the store. And that's why I don't sell stuff to Gamestop anymore.

 

[EHKOS]

I traded in my Dark Souls II Collectors Edition a year ago. I got eleven bucks for it, it was complete, in near perfect condition, besides the box. I mean, I got it half off, which means I paid $60 for a $120 product, but still. That thing came with a statue, soundtrack, map, and Black Armor edition.

It's fine though, the store is great and very generous with me usually, but that one time blew my mind.

 

[FPLOON]

I tried trading in my old Dreamcast... Couldn't do it due to the console looking yellow...
I tried trading in some PS2 controllers... Couldn't do that without a working PS2...
I tried trading in a working PS2... Disk drive broke during the demonstration...

Other than that, during the final years of selling GameCube games, the [used] copy for both Odama and Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix (without their required peripherals) costed over 60 bucks... I had to get my mom to buy the peripherals for me for and extra 25 bones due to lacking cash on hand...

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

Frankly I don't understand how the reselling market even functions. I get how Gamestop makes a profit, but I don't understand why people actually sell their games to them. The only time it seems at all viable is if the game was released within about 2 weeks to a month of you reselling it. How much do you get from a selling a $70 game a week after it releases? I'd guess $30, maybe? If it's in really high demand. I know that if it's a year old, you're lucky to get $5, even though they're selling it for $30. If I ever decided to sell my game collection, Gamestop would be the last place I'd do it. I'd probably bring in $30 total over 40-50 games. That's probably an exaggeration, but I imagine only by a small margin. I'd make more money in about as much time taking a 2 hour instructing shift at the climbing center

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

I don't remember specific stories, but I do remember Gamestop offering a bag of wet pocket lint for nearly everything I've tried to trade in (if they were willing to take said items). That's why I only traded in something I knew I wouldn't likely play again and have pretty much stopped.

Frankly I don't understand how the reselling market even functions. I get how Gamestop makes a profit, but I don't understand why people actually sell their games to them. The only time it seems at all viable is if the game was released within about 2 weeks to a month of you reselling it. How much do you get from a selling a $70 game a week after it releases? I'd guess $30, maybe? If it's in really high demand. I know that if it's a year old, you're lucky to get $5, even though they're selling it for $30. If I ever decided to sell my game collection, Gamestop would be the last place I'd do it. I'd probably bring in $30 total over 40-50 games. That's probably an exaggeration, but I imagine only by a small margin. I'd make more money in about as much time taking a 2 hour instructing shift at the climbing center

I guess there are enough people who are either desperate for the cash to buy new(er) games or constantly trade in titles they are finished with, usually from the 2 week to 1 month old window. The latter especially makes sense, considering the lack of a decent way to rent most video games after the video rental stores died out. Although, it still seems like a hefty waste of money, IMHO.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

[quote="Hairless Mammoth" post="9.934026.23506454"I guess there are enough people who are either desperate for the cash to buy new(er) games or constantly trade in titles they are finished with, usually from the 2 week to 1 month old window. The latter especially makes sense, considering the lack of a decent way to rent most video games after the video rental stores died out. Although, it still seems like a hefty waste of money, IMHO.[/quote]

You know what I'd actually like to see? A video game rental service where you can put the cost of renting towards the price of the game. Something like $30 for a new AAA release for a 3 weeks. If after that period of time you want to buy it, you only need to pay the difference between the rental fee and the game. Could work pretty well with digital distribution too, as a replacement for selling used games.

I know that Gamestop would hate it though, and so it'd be difficult for it to become widespread. Gamestop has a bit of a vice grip on publisher's policies. Lots of money gets paid to Gamestop to have your game displayed in a easily viewed location in the store. If you do something to harm their used game market, they have the power to basically hide your game away where no one's likely to see it. I hear this has actually been done several times in the past