Feature: To trade or not to trade?
That is the question. Video gaming in Australia is by no means a cheap habit with each ‘hit’, per say, setting you back at least $70. With games in Australia still being $30-$40 dearer than the American counterparts regardless of how strong the Australian dollar is against the US these days, buying all the new releases can be hard. Gaming franchises the country over have implemented a policy where you take your old, no longer played games and trade them in toward any item in store. It used to be any item in store or cash but these days it is only the former.
Electronics Boutique (now trading as EB Games) was the trend setting company here. They were the first to accept trade in’s. However as time went on EB’s pricing for trade value became unfair with some games fetching only $5. Now stores like JB Hi-Fi and GAME also accept trade in’s and also have fairer prices than EB. These stores also have trade in deals, for example on the launch of Halo 3, EB Games had a deal where if you traded in three Xbox 360 games you would get a standard edition copy of Halo 3 free. They also have deals regarding consoles where you trade in an Xbox 1 and 10 games for example and get a 360 for $200.
This is all well and good but the question here is, is trading in games worth it and what alternatives are there?
This is all down to personal preference of course. Having the option to trade in old software and hardware for credit towards new software or hardware is a nice option to have and trading is certainly faster than trying to sell through a private sale but with the ever expanding eBay trading games in for most of the time less than half their original retail value may not seem so attractive. It is true that you can sell almost anything over eBay, so if you had a copy of Lost Planet that you were looking to get rid of (EB currently values this as $17 trade in) you could easily pick up $30-$35 over eBay. Postage and time consumption comes into play here and trading is seen as the easier solution.
You could however be a collector of video games and it is always nice to have a large library of games as well as always have the option of going back to any of them on a rainy day, but if you haven’t touched a game in over a year I think it may be time to use it toward something newer, that you will use, will play.
As I said before however, it is all down to personal preference. Trading games these days is part and parcel with the industry and anyone can trade in there (under 18 needs a parent or guardian) which is the one big selling point it has over eBay. No credit cards required, so you can walk in and walk out in less than 10 minutes.
But consumers in this day and age are becoming more savvy and will not continue to trade in their games that they paid originally upwards of $70 for $10 or $20. Pricing points need to be looked at, they have the right idea with the trade in deals but individual credit needs to be increased because it is coming to the point that trading just isn’t worth it.
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