Best Buy enters the unholy land of used games

 Best Buy has begun testing a new in-store program for customers to trade in their old games for store gift cards. So congratulations, you all have another entry to the list of places that will buy your games for less than the amount of change in your pockets.

The program is beginning with 600 locations across the country. Some will have special video game trade-in counters, while others will just use their existing customer service area.


Above: Finally, you can now sell your old videogames to use toward your refrigerator purchase

It's an interesting push in the opposite direction of the rest of the industry. Earlier this summer, GameStop said, "We don't like being in the used games business, but we have to be there." And Sony wants to start what would essentially be a used games tax for online games.

Nevertheless, buying a game for $7 and selling it to someone else for $30 is still a pretty good deal, and Best Buy profits have been in decline lately. What better way to start lining the store's pockets again than letting broke gamers do the lining themselves?

Beginning this Sunday, gamers who trade in qualifying titles will earn a $20 bonus on top of the regular trade-in value. Also, in an extremely bold move of transparency, the trade-in values are available on Best Buy's website, which could influence which games traders are willing to bring in. GameStop would rather you didn’t notice that they only gave you 50 cents for a one-time best selling game.

Aug 26, 2010

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