How long is a piece of string? Selling games or game trade in? Which is better? Well since we can’t put them in a beat’um up game it will have to be a comparison between the advantages between each of the options.
What are Game Trade In and what are it’s advantages?
It is exactly what it sounds like.
You will trade in a game for an amount of in-store credit.
The in-store credit is usually a lot higher than what they will buy it from you with. So for example say you have God of War (2018) and want to trade it into CEX. They will, at the time of writing this, give you a £12 in store voucher rather than £8 cash.
This is great if you use the store at lot to gain new games and such. Some places even have reward programs so that you will get bonus points for doing a game trade in.
What are the advantages of Selling
When you do a game trade in then you are locked into only using only that store if you have accepted in-store credit or vouchers.
Some people like to have physical money in hand, don’t frequent the store enough for it to be worth it, especially since you often have a time frame to use that credit or voucher, or need cash for other reasons.
Also there are some games that do better selling than via game trade in.
Using the example above of CEX and God of War (2018). You would gain £12 in-store voucher or £8 cash via selling to them. However they sell that game for £18. eBay sales at the moment of the same game pre-owned and new waver between £8 and £15. So when you take into account eBay fees and postage, this makes CEX is the better option.
However using a different game like Stubbs the Zombie Rebel without a Pulse. You would gain £30 in-store voucher or £21 cash. They will then sell it for £45. On eBay the game is hitting £35-50 with postage on top. This makes it more appealing to sell elsewhere the classics like this game.
For more information on selling your games then check out Where is best to sell games.
Before doing any selling or game trade in I would highly recommend doing some research online of what the different places will offer.
Where can I do game trade in?
CEX
CEX is a store that has based it’s whole model on selling and trading in items. Games, DVDs, CDs to phones and consoles. It is also most likely one of the most known and even trusted places.
Like many of these kinds of places, CEX offers you the chance to sell for cash or in-store credit, and of course the in-store credit is higher than the cash amount.
I have used CEX to get rid of many of my unwanted phones, CDs, DVDs and a handful of games over the years. I have often found the staff pleasant and easy to deal with and usually reasonable offers on most items. Other than a time a Christmas return wasn’t honored. There are a few games however like I mentioned before that they will not give the best price for, these are usually ones that have a cult like following. Like Stubbs the Zombie or Project Zero/Fatal Frame.
It is often best to investigate online beforehand just to make sure you are getting the best deal. CEX is great in showing you what they will pay for a game and what they would sell it for on their site and store.
Game
Good old Game. Have many gamers from the UK not ever been in Game?
Game can offer like many other places the option of selling for cash or doing a game trade in. Like with the others the in-store credit is higher than the cash amount. But if you have Game Reward then you can get bonus points on your game trade in. If you are a frequent and loyal customer of Game then it will most likely make sense to use them and increase your points. For more on this then check out Best loyalty cards for gamers to use.
Still you should make sure beforehand you will be getting the best deal online by checking out what Game will offer you to sell your games with them.
I personally haven’t bought or traded anything into Game for a very long time however, I will still check them out however from time to time.
Independent
There are tons of independent stores that you can sell or trade games into ranging from specialist stores to those that take in everything.
Now usually the stores that specialize in games will give you the best trade in prices, whilst those that do not might give you a flat rate.
As such you will have to investigate on if these will be the best places for you to sell games.
Whatever you decide, both options help you to declutter and to make way for new releases.
Don’t forget to check out this post about why gaming is good for your mental health.
