Which? Confirms What we Knew: UK Game Retailers Ripping us Off With Trade-ins
Trading-in games is something that a lot of us (me included) dabble in. It’s a nice way to not spend any money and still be able to afford to buy new games. The problem is that we’re really getting ripped off – and consumer group Which? has examined by just how much.
Which? has found that some stores will pay you under 30% of the retail price of a game, meaning certain games depreciate faster than cars do.
Which? took a “mint condition” copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops into Game three days after it was released and were only offered £16.50 in cash for the title. Other stores fared better, with CEX offering £33 and HMV £25. The recent additions to the trade-in market, Tesco and ASDA, offered only credit for the games, with Tesco offering £33 and ASDA £22.
Price mark-up was another issue. After getting just £6 for Red Dead Redemption at Blockbuster, the store resold it for £29.99.
None of this will come as much surprise to most people who’ve tried to trade games in. It’s never usually a very successful venture, especially at Game. I recently swapped in Fifa 2011 to Game for £23 credit only to see Gamestation offering £30 for it; something which seriously pissed me off.
What’s not mentioned in Which?’s report is online retailers such as Amazon, who have recently started offering game trade-ins. While only for Amazon credit, you can get £29.93 for Black Ops which far better than Game’s offering although not quite as good as HMV’s. Another game on Which?’s list was Just Cause 2 which’ll get you £10 on Amazon, a price only matched by ASDA and CEX.
What’s clear is that the traditional gaming retailers are going to have to wake up a little bit and keep up with broader stores that can offer more value to gamers. Either way, I won’t be going back to Game again. Bastards.
via: GamesIndustry.biz
As an employee of GAME; who wants cash at trade in but druggies and vengeful exes? Im sorry but the £25 we offer in credit for BlOps, which, as a gamer, you’d likely prefer because you want more games, not heroin, is, while not the best, at least more than half any other game on the market and is likely to stay that way for a while.
I agree trade in is rarely fair, but MAYBE you should sell it on yourself if you dont want the third party youre selling it to to do the legwork for you, whether it be GAME, CEX or Amazon!
It may also be worth mentioning that with the new EA code system, when traded in there will be missing content on the game which is rarely mentioned anywhere in store or on the packaging I think CEX is the only place I have noticed this mentioned.