The Boy is a gamer. And he had conquered all of his games and wouldn’t quit whining, “I’m booooored.”
“Mom, can I have an early birthday present? I want a new game.”
“No. You have to wait until, you know, your birthday.”
“Pleeeease?”
“No.”
He left the room and came back a few minutes later.
“Can you take me to GameStop?”
“I already told you I’m not buying you a new game.”
“No, I want to trade them in.”
He had gathered up all of the games he no longer enjoyed playing. So we had the Craigslist vs. GameStop discussion. I figured that he would earn more from Craigslist, but it would take longer to find a buyer. I wanted to manage his expectations, too, and told him I didn’t think they’d offer him more than $2-3 for each game. The last time we’d investigated trading in a game or two, I wasn’t that impressed and had pretty much written off that option.
The Boy decided he wanted to see how much GameStop would offer him for his games before making a final decision. He was hoping to be able to get enough to buy the new Pokemon X or Pokemon Y game. (For the record, I know nothing about these games other than knowing they are rated E for Everyone.)
I figured this would be good learning opportunity, so I took him.
We got to our local GameStop with 13 Nintendo games in a baggie as well as a Wii game he no longer wanted. First, he looked to see if they had Pokemon X or Pokemon Y. They did.
And even better, there was a sign informing us that if he traded in games for either Pokemon X or Y, they’d give him 30% more in-store credit. This was looking promising.
The very helpful clerk started looking up the credit amounts for the cartridges he brought in. Because we had a GameStop Power Up Rewards card, he also got an additional 10% in-store credit. He also apparently had some in-demand games, which garnered a higher credit amount.
I was shocked when the clerk told the Boy he’d have enough credit to get BOTH games. And, on top of that, we have enough points to get $20 off our next purchase, which will come in handy at Christmas time.
We walked in with 14 unused games and walked out with 2 brand new games and a happy kid. And when he gets done playing these two, he can take them in and get credit for another game.
Not a bad deal.
It’s a great idea to have kids realize that they have to trade in their old stuff for new, and even though it worked out well for him this time, the next time it might not be as easy (he already has less games to work with).
The deal is only good if you also continue to buy secondhand games rather than at retail.. because as you can see, those games go out of fashion with kids pretty quickly (read: they get bored).
Clothes work the same way. I consign all the time 🙂
You and your son must be thrilled with that deal, I know I would be and more so because of the old games that have left your house! Way to go, I am inspired to go through all the old games at my house!
The trade in seems to be rarely worth it, but Big Poppa did take in 11 of our games and got enough credit to buy a pre-owned copy of GTA5 for $5 recently. I was stoked to get rid of 11 games for one, personally. Less stoked about the GTA5 marathons keeping him up every night. Ha.
If you have one in the area check pawn shops. It’s hit and miss on games, but they tend to trade two for one.
Could someone explain what ‘consigning’ is for puzzled British person?!……thanks.