CityOfAngels

Anyone know of any *free* sites that let you trade videogames with other members online? I know of GameTZ, but after a certain amount of time you have to pay, and even during the trial, you can't contact members about trades.

Also, I only have one game for trade right now, but if anyone's interested in Tsugunai: Atonement, lemme know.

P.S. I'd prefer to trade with an established member for obvious reasons.

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Nancy

Don't you have any "buy/sell/trade" stores in America? If you're lucky they might have some neat games in store

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I think my mask of sanity is about to slip.

CityOfAngels

Well yeah, but the point of wanting to trade my games after I beat them is derived from the fact that I don't want to actually pay for new games every time. And when you trade-in games to a store, they in turn give you store credit, which is MUCH less than what it would sell for on eBay (they're in the business for profit, afterall). You might as well sell your games on eBay and use that money to buy new games.
I wanted to cut out the middle-man (eBay), and just go straight to bartering. I've found what I was looking for: http://www.tradegamesnow.com/

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The words "love" and "life" go together. It is almost as if they are one. You must love to live, and you must live to love, or you have never lived nor loved at all.

irateplatypus

yeah, no shortage of those around here. for me, they're a good place to buy used games (guarantees, no ebay hassles, no waiting for postage etc.) but a poor method of getting the most of the ones you already have. sometimes it makes me sick to see some parent come in there with a system and 15 games and leave with $40 bucks or so. i just wanna take them by the arm and tell them i'll give them twice that... but of course, that would be an awful thing to do in someone else's business establishment. so, i just wince and turn away.

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~ Winston Churchill

Lasereth

Ha ha, the other day I went in to EB Games and saw a 20 year old guy raising hell about what they were offering for his games. He was trading in about 30 PS1 games and 10 PS2 games. They gave him $20 credit. He accepted after arguing. $20 for 40 games? That's why I keep every game I buy.

-Lasereth

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Stompy

Hahaha, I did that once in ... EB I think? (Wasn't gamestop... might've been Babbages..)

This woman was selling THPS 4 around Christmas after it came out saying, "My son doesn't really like this, I just wanna sell it and buy something else." The guy was gonna give her $10 for it!!!

I turned around and said, "Sorry, but they are ripping you off. If I were you, I'd go home and sell it on ebay. You'll get nearly what you paid for it since it's like new... around $40 or so."

She thanked me, left, and the guy behind the counter was pissed. Well, not pissed, just gave me a look like, "..what the hell are you doing?" I said, "Hey, I know *you* don't set prices, but you can't tell me you guys don't rip people off by doing this... it's not right."

Man that felt good

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Echodork

So yeah, I work at a Gamestop. We know the trade in prices are low, especially on sports games and games with multiple sequels. Yes, we do get parents screaming "I PAID $50 FOR THIS GAME AND YOU WANT TO GIVE ME FIFTY CENTS FOR IT?!" now and then. But hey, that's business. Vice City trades for something like two bucks right now... why? Because in my store, and almost definitely in most others, we have about 25 copies of the game sitting in the back that will probably never get sold. Even shelling out two bucks is probably a loss for the company, because that particular copy will probably never go back out the door. But hey, that's business. I guarantee you'll get something for your games, as long as they're PS/PS2/XB/GC/N64. Try selling a copy of Madden 2002 on Ebay and see what you come up with.

By the way... if you stand in the store and tell other customers to go on ebay, or offer to buy games from other customers in an attempt to "cut out the middleman," we won't hesitate to throw you out. Restaurants don't let you sell chicken nuggets in their waiting area, we don't let you offer to buy games in our store. If you absolutely, positively must be a Good Samaritan, you can do it outside the store when the person is on the way back to their car.

As for the original post, I don't know of any sites that perform such a service for free. You're basically asking a company to set up an infrastructure, a website, and a customer base with no chance of making a profit. You can probably find message boards where people trade games, but if you want any sense of security whatsoever, you're going to have to pay commission to a third party to handle the trades for you.

keyshawn

heh...
i actually already do it, amongst my buddies and kids from school.
Works out pretty well, I guess. [Do the same thing for movies too]

Kadath

I agree. I just hang on to all my old stuff and give it to young cousins and so forth when they hit the right ages-- otherwise, they'll never know about the Dreamcast or really great old games.

Edit: Lasereth is a good sport.

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Lasereth

Edited accordingly. I'd never betray my friends like that!

-Lasereth

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"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

Stompy

Understandable on a game like that since they come out yearly and are based off current players/stats, but... something like San Andreas... if somone traded it in next week/week after, I'd be very surprised if any of those stores offered them anything above $15. $15 for a game they'll turn around and sell for $40!

I don't blame the workers (like I said), I just think it's not a very good business strategy and it isn't fair to unsuspecting people. Consumers have rights, and I feel that informing them on how to better spend their money isn't at all wrong.. especially in this day and age where many companies PURPOSELY try to rip people off.

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SiNai

It isn't fair to consumers, but these guys have a ton of things to pay for, and it's not like I haven't seen them go out of business every now and then. I was the little stupid child back when, trading in 5 Genesis titles for 1 stupid baseball game, I hated it, but I did it.. I definitely would not do it again. But, as a legitimate business, they have every right to charge these fees to stay afloat. If you don't feel like being ripped off, just don't sell a game to a place like this!

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Coppertop

Exactly. I gave my Genesis with all its games and my Playstation and all its games to my nephews for Christmas two consecutive years. I think my sister still hasn't forgiven me. Nor has one of my friends, for that matter.

Echodork

The trade-in value on GTA:SA is $35 right now. Fable is $33. Tony Hawk Underground 2 is $25-30 depending on system. Even Halo is $15, because there's a demand for used copies. For freshly-released games, the trade-in value is usually about 50% of the new price. Depending on how many copies of the game sell and get traded each week, the trade-in price might stay constant (like Fable, where we never have more than one or two used in stock) or drop like a rock (like Madden 2005, where we have at least 10 at all times). If we take in 40 copies of a game one month and only sell 13, you can expect the trade value to go down, and fast.

See, the entire busines revolves around supply and demand. There are just some games that Gamestop gets more copies traded in than they could ever sell. For games with more supply than demand, you get very little credit. That includes old sports games, games with recently released sequels, "bargain bin" games that release for $20, unknown titles, and relatively popular titles with no replay value. The back room of my store looks like a damn Max Payne graveyard. Unless there's a huge Max Payne resurgance and copies start to sell like crazy, you can continue to expect bottom dollar for your own copy if you choose to trade it in.

How many times have you gone into a Gamestop saying to yourself "My God, I absolutely HAVE to find a copy of NBA Live 2002?" Well, nobody else does either, and that's why the trade-in credit for it is a buck when you paid $50 two years ago.

Some of the people in this thread have the right idea, though. If you're truly unhappy dealing with a business who's seeking to make a profit off of you, or you feel unfairly ripped off or jipped by used game stores, then donate your used games to family members or charity organizations. Browse yourself over to Penny Arcade's Child's Play website and sign up to donate. It's definitely a worthy cause, and might very well be worth more to you than the 50 cents you'll get for your scratched copy of WWE Smackdown.