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Classic Games (Games)

Is Trading In Used Consoles Worth It? 71

Posted by Zonk from the selling-the-past dept.
DataportJunkie writes "Most people choose to trade in their used game consoles when a newer one comes out to save a few bucks, but this editorial at Gaming Horizon suggests that you just hang onto them. 'Stores typically only make $1 or $2 when you pick up a new console from them, but when they give you $70 for your used PlayStation 2 and sell it for $95, they just made themselves an easy $25.' The author recommends using eBay or donating your used consoles to hospitals if you need to get rid of a system."
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Is Trading In Used Consoles Worth It? More

Is Trading In Used Consoles Worth It?

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  • WTF are you smoking? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Linus Torvaalds ( 876626 ) on Thursday August 04, 2005 @10:50AM (#13240349)

    If somebody gives you $70 for something you don't use anymore, then that deal is worth $70 to you. It doesn't matter whether that person goes on to make $5 or $25 when they sell it on, the bottom line is you just made $70.

    • Well, the article suggests that it can be worth even more on ebay.
      • Well, the article suggests that it can be worth even more on ebay.

        And how much is your time worth?

        Unless you're a pro seller using pro tools (which cost money in themselves), it takes about an hour or so, all told, to set up an auction. That includes taking and editing photos (even the crappy photos you see on Ebay had to be shot and then looked at before uploading), and writing and uploading the text to accompany the auction.

        Then once you've "sold" your console, you have to go back and forth with the sel
        • If I don't need the money now for a specific purpose, you better believe it's worth it to me. Of course, most of my selling experience on eBay has been good. Being up front about shipping definitely helps, but usually I have my money (in Paypal) within a day of the auction's end.

          As for setting up the auction, I think an hour is overestimating. Snap a couple of pics on the digital camera, put the item description and any appropriate web-links, and you're done. Even without the pro tools, I can finish a s
    • No, what the article is trying to say is that while the deal may appear to be worth $70, a little bit of eBaying will net you $90+ for only a modicum of effort.

      Besides, in practice I've never seen a shop give anything like that much for trading in a last-gen console.

    • WONT YUO PLEASE THINK OF THE HOSPITALS?!? (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      The doctors only have a PS2 in their lounge. They need that xbox to pwn at Halo 2.
    • well.. you could have sold it yourself for 100$ probably. unlikely though. who is buying old consoles for that price?

      though, convience in just dumping it to the store is probably whats it.. but around here, you would practically never ever give an old console in exchange anyways(what would a store do with it?) so the whole article sounds like a fairytale to me.

    • the bottom line is that people want to be compensated fairly and when they're not some might just throw the console in the trash rather than see those lowlives make a big profit from it.

      that's what i got from reading the summary.

  • Spite? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by BlackCobra43 ( 596714 ) on Thursday August 04, 2005 @10:51AM (#13240361)
    So I should hang on to my consoles to spite the retailers? Come on, if my consoles are gathering dust and I can easily get a few bucks for them it's perfect - I don't feel like hunting down a buyer or organizing an ebay auctions with all the shipping and payment worries it entails. What's wrong with that?

  • Wait a second (Score:5, Funny)

    by Snowspinner ( 627098 ) * <philsand AT ufl DOT edu> on Thursday August 04, 2005 @10:52AM (#13240395) Homepage
    So because the store will make money if I sell them my system, I should not sell them my system?

    Because...

    Ummm...

    I want my local video game store to go out of business?
    • And why is that more advantageous than selling the item on your own then using that as a down payment for other used items at that store? At least with this alternative, you could both get something useful out of the deal.

      Now that I think about it, this would make three people happier: you for getting something else that you wanted, the person you sold the console to, and the store owner because you still took that money from the sale to help to keep them in business.

      So you can still sell your consol

  • The plan, Slashdot-style (Score:5, Funny)

    by SolarCanine ( 892620 ) on Thursday August 04, 2005 @10:57AM (#13240480) Journal
    1. Keep older console
    2. Taunt game store owner
    3. Track market for dust
    4. ...
    5. PREVENT profit!

    Hm, this doesn't feel like it usually does...there's a problem here somewhere...
  • I like the idea of giving the old systems to the hospitals... Not only do you make some hurt or sick people a little more comfortable, but you might also get a tax write-off at the same time.

    Otherwise, I don't see a big deal in selling the game system like most people have already said. Unlike the old Atari systems, there are A TON of the PS1's and PS2's or XBox's, so if you ever wanted to go back and relive your childhood later, you could always buy the system off E-bay (extremely cheaply) later on in li
    • Want to test my theory? Go to Ebay and type in "NES" or "Nintendo Entertainment System" and see how cheap things are for someone to relive their childhood...

      Not to mention all the emulators [and ROMS] available today. This makes me wonder if in about 5 to 10 years there will be a descent emulator for X-box or PS2, and of course, the machine power to emulate them.

      And just to continue going Off topic I have been thinking in doing something sligthly different than an 'emulator', what about a 'compiler' which g
    • Not only that, but there are even 3rd-party knock-off NES's and NES controllers that are still being made today and will run your old NES games. Plus, they usually read both sides of the NES cartridge contacts, meaning that fussy, worn-out cartriges stand a better chance of running.

    • Re:Hospital Give-aways (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I like the idea of giving the old systems to the hospitals... Not only do you make some hurt or sick people a little more comfortable, but you might also get a tax write-off at the same time.

      Except for one little thing; hospitals can't use your old consoles. Take a look at your controller. Go on, look at it. Notice the chee-to stains? When you see that, think "bacteria."

      The Penny Arcade guys found out as research for their Child's Play [penny-arcade.com] campaign that if the console/toy/etc isn't factory sealed, the hosp
    • Otherwise, I don't see a big deal in selling the game system like most people have already said. Unlike the old Atari systems, there are A TON of the PS1's and PS2's or XBox's, so if you ever wanted to go back and relive your childhood later, you could always buy the system off E-bay (extremely cheaply) later on in life.

      For now.

      Systems stop working. The lasers die, get misalligned. They burn with houses. They rot in dumps. They get stolen.

      The reason why the old Atari systems aren't as readily avai

  • eBay is not as easy. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by generic-man ( 33649 ) on Thursday August 04, 2005 @11:01AM (#13240548) Homepage Journal
    I once sold a broken PS2 for about $90 on eBay. I advertised it as such and it sold anyway. I bought a brand-new PS2 for $150 which included another controller, effectively making the replacement console cost about $30.

    However, eBay scares off a lot of people. You have to photograph your item, list it, and follow through with the payment and shipping process all on your own time. By contrast, bringing your PS2 to a game store takes virtually no time at all and you get your (smaller amount of) money immediately. There are businesses that sell your stuff on eBay by doing all the hard stuff for you, but a game console isn't valuable enough to make up for their fees.

  • Good reasons to keep old consoles (Score:5, Informative)

    by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Thursday August 04, 2005 @11:03AM (#13240575)
    There are plenty of good reasons to keep old consoles.

    First, when you get a next generation console, it might not be able to play the games from the previous generation (e.g. Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, and possible the Xbox 360).

    Additionally, some (like the PS3 is rumored to be) will not accept the memory storage devices from previous generations. Keep that PS2 around for PS2 games you've sunk a lot of time into but haven't finished.

    Also, old games can be a lot of fun again after you haven't played them in years. I have a blast playing football (Tecmo Super Bowl) against my friends on SNES. The 2D platformers on the system are awesome as well.

    Old games and systems can be worth a lot of money after a long time. I have in my possesion a copy of Chrono Trigger for SNES that I managed to find in a pawn shop for $5. I've seen the game for ten times that on Ebay. I wonder how much a pong machine or other really old hardware would fetch.

    You can let your young children play the games. Granted that children are pretty sophisticated nowdays, but at young ages a simple NES controller and game will be easiest for them. I'm guessing a four or five year old can handle Mario better than Marion Sunshine.

    There's probably more reasons for hanging on to a console after you're done with it. I traded in my GBA when I got a DS. It made it a little cheaper, but in hindsight I wish I would've kept my GBA. If you really must sell a console, sell it directly to someone else. You could sell that PS2 for $10 more than the game store would give you and your friend could get it cheaper than what the store would charge him. Better deal. Donating it to a hospital is also a good idea. As I recall the guys at Penny Arcade have been doing something similar to this and it's been working well.

    • Old games and systems can be worth a lot of money after a long time. I have in my possesion a copy of Chrono Trigger for SNES that I managed to find in a pawn shop for $5. I've seen the game for ten times that on Ebay. I wonder how much a pong machine or other really old hardware would fetch.

      That's not because it's old, that's because people so many people specifically want Chrono Trigger. If it wasn't so famous, it would be a lot cheaper, because it's really not all that rare, especially without box or i

      • though the original Atari home version does have some collectibility simply because it's the first one.

        Atari's Pong was a clone of Odyssey, the first commercial video game, made by Magnavox.

  • Very nice... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by SoCalEd ( 842421 )
    So I should throw away $70 because somebody else might make $25 on the transaction. Its called capitalism, folks, and it works.

  • Craigslist (Score:4, Informative)

    by fwice ( 841569 ) on Thursday August 04, 2005 @11:08AM (#13240663)
    I personally have never gotten rid of any console I've had, from the Atari to the Virtual Boy (bleh) to my PS2. I tend to have tons of fun replaying the old games.

    However, my friends aren't as packrat-ish as I am. Instead of using ebay or funcoland/gamestop, they use Craigslist [craigslist.org]. It eliminates the middleman and let's you put your stuff out there at a better price.

    funcoland offers $70 for that ps2? ask for $80 on craigslist. you'll probably get it.
  • I really think this should have been filed under something more like Politics or AskSlashdot from the 'should I support the corporate beast or local charity' desk.

    Honestly, I can understand feeling a little cheated to know that the game you may have received only a few bucks for is going to make the store a lot more money, but there's a little more to the economics than that:

    To these stores, video games are their life blood while they're simply our replacement for food and sleep. Whereas we would slowly wit
    • So what if they lose business? (I hardly think they would have to close just because they don't sell used games anymore)

      Do they feel obliged to support the games industry by not selling used games, a practice which costs the industry many millions or even more every year?
      No, they want to make a profit for themselves.
      As long as their pockets are full, they don't give a shit about you, your money, charities, or waning games sales.

      So why should you feel obliged to support the guys who do unfair business
  • This just in - cutting out the middleman can save you money!

  • The question is specious at best (Score:5, Insightful)

    by WidescreenFreak ( 830043 ) on Thursday August 04, 2005 @11:25AM (#13240914) Homepage Journal
    There is a rule of thumb to which I strictly adhere: Nothing is obsolete until it no longer suits your purpose

    When it comes to the question of trading in consoles, there is no blanket answer. Some people will say, "Yeah, I'll sell it for $90". Others will say, "Well, I'd rather give it to a friend or relative who would not be able to otherwise afford it, thus saving them $90 while giving me a feel-good moment." Which one is a better deal? More importantly, who am I to give an answer for your particular situation?

    The problem with questions such as this is that worth is completely relative. Someone might see absolutely no value whatsoever in a product whereas someone else might put a huge value on it. Case-in-point, on eBay I sold a used optical drive with shrink-wrapped media of 1.2 GB each that I was given - trash interception, as it were. I expected it to go for maybe $50. That was my expected value based on my perception of this unit compared to the price of new DVD drives and blank media, which holds 3x as much as the opticals that I was selling. The drive sold for more than six times my percieved value after a bidding war ensued at the last moment. Obviously, someone else's value was completely different from mine.

    In contrast, I've sold items that I thought were of a much higer value than the final price, but the highest bidder (and therefore everyone who bid less) thought otherwise.

    So, the whole question of "Is it worth it?" is specious and subjective at best. The only person who can determine if a console (or any item) is worth trading in is the person in the mirror.
  • College bookstores have been offering pennies on the dollar for used textbooks for years now. What it comes down to is whether or not it's worth it for each individual. Some people get the cash back for every textbook they buy. Some people do not sell back any books. Most people sell back books they don't forsee needing again and keep the books they think they might need again. Even though there are other avenues for making more money off selling a textbook (textbook exchanges, etc), most people do not
  • Last I check, while you could trade in your game console for a respectable $70-$90, it would be in store credit, not in actual cash. EB Games and Gamestop do not give you cash for you games, at least from what I remember.

    Personally, I keep everything I own, and have only traded in three games. Two of which sucked ass, and the last cause I brought the remake on the GC and I could not stand the original on the PS1. But I am a packrat like that.
  • The hospital line is a good one. My daughter was in a children's wing recently and they had two N64's, each with exactly one cartridge. She had a GameCube in her room, but they didn't have a single game for it anymore. (By the way, thanks you jerk-offs for ripping off donations from a hospital). If she'd stayed any longer, I was gonna go buy a couple older or used games and just donate them when we left.
  • I would be too attached to sell my old consoles to some big gamestore chain. For example, I have a PAL version of Streets of Rage 3 for the Mega Drive (genesis) that's worth about £40 ($71) but when you can play as a kangaroo, I'm holding on to it, even with the possibilities emulation holds.
  • A friend of mine goes around to garage sales and buys any videogame systems he can find, and he's been doing it for years. There's a room in his basement with random systems just stacked to the ceiling, just about any console you can think of (yes, even that one). He says the reason he does it is because he can grab an NES or an SNES for $10 or less at a garage sale then sell it for $50+ to desperate people on Ebay around Christmas time. Works wonders.
  • I have recently come to the realisation that I horde too much rubbish.

    In my mind if you have an item you don't use much anymore then why hold on to it when you can make money?

    I mean if it's worthless (or close to it) why hold on to it - MAYBE using it - then (knowing me anyhow) - deciding oh hell I'll get rid of it, after 3 years of hoarding it, but it's lost it's value by another 50 or 70%?

    I recently got rid of a heap of shit on ebay and I couldn't be happier - my small apartment is cleaner, I don't have a

  • I call b.s. on the figures (Score:3, Informative)

    by nunchux ( 869574 ) on Thursday August 04, 2005 @07:47PM (#13246151)
    'Stores typically only make $1 or $2 when you pick up a new console from them,



    I call b.s. on these figures, that seems ridiculously low. Can anyone who works in retail verify them?

    ...but when they give you $70 for your used PlayStation 2 and sell it for $95, they just made themselves an easy $25.'



    Again, I think the figures are off-- I don't think there are many stores that will pay $70 for a used PS2 or X-Box, maybe a few years ago but not now.



    Either way, a markup of roughly 1/4 is a litle high, but hardly a ripoff. That "easy 25%" is keeping them in business.

    ... The author recommends using eBay...



    eBay is no picnic. You have to pay to list, take pictures of the console, and wait roughly a week for the bids to roll in. Then, assuming the buyer didn't jack you around, you have to box and ship the item (or charge the buyer more to have it done for you.) Not to mention, if you don't have a decent history (like 20+ transactions) your auction will be passed over for the dozens of others also selling consoles that day.



    So unless you're already an ebay seller, I'd take the easy $70 right now over a potential $95 two weeks (and a few hassles) later. Then again, I'm not a starving college student any more, maybe that $25 is worth it to some people.

    ... or donating your used consoles to hospitals if you need to get rid of a system."



    Giving to charity is of course a great thing; in addition to hospitals there are hundreds of causes-- from church youth groups to foster homes to after shool programs for underprivileged kids-- that would love your old system. But isn't this is supposedly an article about getting the most bang for your buck? Way to throw the guilt card in there..

    • My brother works for Best Buy. He gets things at cost plus 5%. (I don't know if that is 5% of cost or 5% of the discount, I am guessing cost) Anyways, he went to get a Gameboy Advance SP and the discount was less than a dollar. They said it is almost the same for all of the consoles, so apparently they make almost no profit on them.
  • This is what you do.. if you see someone about to enter a game store with their arms full of consoles and games, just tell them you will give them $10 more than what the game store offers. You will get the best deal in town. I have seen people sell stacks of games and movies for $30 or less.
    • I had a friend do this at a pawn shop and got himself and his seller banned for life. I'm sure the proprietor of any game shop would be similarly upset, and I don't blame them.
      • I was half joking, and erased half my message, but in response to your message.. man..to be banned from a pawn shop...your friend's life must be in ruin ;)

  • Uhm... (Score:1)

    by jo42 ( 227475 )
    How about not spending the money in the first place on a gaming console? Save you larges amounts of dosh and give you back many untold hours of your life.

    Eh, wot?

  • All game stores around here have been bought by "Gamestop." They sell many used games/console/accessories. While I think their prices on new items is competitive, the used items are sold for merely $2 less than their new counterparts. Also, on particular items (old but famous games), they overcharge heavily. Needless to say, I'm not pleased with the way they do business.

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