How Do You Decide Which Video Games You No Longer Want?

March 8, 2008 12:35 AM

Asking for my son (a video-gamer question): How do you decide which games to get rid of (trade in for store credit, get cash value for, etc.)?

My son often trades in video games that he has "beaten" in order to get enough store credit to buy the latest game that he has his eye on, but then he later regrets letting go of a game he enjoyed and might like to play again. If you're a hard-core gamer, how do you decide which games to keep and which games to trade in? (My son is 15 years old, if that's relevant).

posted by amyms to technology (21 comments total)

I never have to make that decision. I am a somewhat serious gamer, but neither my collection nor expenditures are very high. This is because I almost always give my beaten games to friends on the understanding that I probably won't ask for it back for a long time (or ever). In return most of the games by my TV are actually classics borrowed from friends under similar terms (though I do try to return them after a few months, usually right after cleaning house). Maybe your son has friends he can barter with?
posted by thedaniel at 12:52 AM on March 8, 2008

thedaniel, thanks for your answer, and yes my son does trade and borrow with his friends, but his main concern is deciding which games to relinquish as trade-ins when he goes to the "buy-sell-trade" shop to buy new video games (his motivation being to trade in enough games to get something "new" without giving up games he might regret losing later on).
posted by amyms at 12:58 AM on March 8, 2008

Game reviews can give an idea of how much replay value there is in a game, but honestly the only way I've found to solve this problem has simply been to never sell games. Of course, I also try to only buy games when they're on sale, and only if I feel like I can spend the dough without having to worry about getting it back later on, so I don't feel nearly as much pressure to sell.

How long does your son often go before deciding he wants a game back? Another option, if the wait is long enough, is simply to buy back the game used—there's a possibility that in the interim, the used price has come down far enough that the hit he takes from rebuying the game isn't nearly as big. With really popular games there's also the chance it's come out in a Greatest Hits/Platinum/insert value line here edition, which can reduce used prices further and also allow your son to rebuy a new copy at a cheaper price if he really feels he needs a fresh package.

Finally, I can't find the thread at the moment but I'm pretty sure CheapAssGamer keeps a list of trade-in values for various retailers. This may help your son decide beforehand which games are still going to bring in a fair amount (and thus might be worth selling) and which aren't (and thus are probably easier to keep). Of course, the games that fetch more money also tend to be the popular ones, so he might find that all the games fetching top price are the ones he might most regret selling. C'est la vie.
posted by chrominance at 1:37 AM on March 8, 2008

Stores generally give better trade-in credit for newer games. Last time I did a trade-in, I got $1 credit for Grand Turismo and $35 credit for another game that was less than a month old.

A tangential suggestion might be to rent games: for less than ten bucks, you can often rent a game for as much as a week, which is long enough for many people to play one to completion. The other plus of this is that if he decides later that he wants to play one of the games he trdaded in at one point, he can just rent it for a short time instead of going out and buying it again, or dealing with the diminishing return of trading in newer games for older games.
posted by ten pounds of inedita at 1:55 AM on March 8, 2008

Replayability value of a given title is going to depend almost entirely on personal tastes.

One thing your son shouldn't do is regret letting go of a game he might like to play again. If there comes a time when he actually wants to play an old game again- that's the time for regret.

Personally I've just gone by intuition. I suspect I hang on to stuff a little longer than I ought to (losing some trade-in value), but I haven't ever regretted trading something in despite a pretty high turnover rate. Well, ok, I did regret trading Disgaea in, but then it came out for PSP and all was well with the world.
posted by juv3nal at 2:10 AM on March 8, 2008

I had the same dilemma as a younger kid on a fixed allowance. I tended to purchase/keep good multi player games and return/swap/rent shorter single player games. Truly it's a matter of what makes you happy. If it's not worth playing again, sell it.

Since he's trading in old to purchase new games why not check metacritic.com before purchasing anything and break this cycle all together. That way he can purchase only the best and rent anything below that.

At this point in history, it's silly to keep games for nostalgic reasons. By the time he'll want to replay Halo 3 in his dorm room he'll probably be able to download and play it on an emulator or on something like the Wii virtual console in the future.

If your local game store is giving you a bad deal, you could always try selling them on ebay or craislist.
posted by JimmyJames at 2:10 AM on March 8, 2008

It seems to me there are two parts to this equation: hanging onto good games, and not trading in good games for bad ones.

As for the first part: as juv3nal said, it's almost entirely a matter of personal taste. For example, I'm not the sort of gamer who likes running through the same scenario over and over again with increasing numbers of bad guys, but many games are designed to appeal to that sort of gamer, and your son may be one of them. Encourage him to think more actively and consciously about what he likes about the games he plays, and whether they are likely to continue delivering that experience.

As for the second part: Metacritic is the best source to tell him which of the super-hyped new games aren't actually that much fun to play, and which ones might be worth getting even though they aren't on the cover of EGM. And as ten pounds suggested, renting is a cheap way to check out new games without having to give up our old ones.
posted by jjg at 2:30 AM on March 8, 2008

I rarely trade in my games, for credit or otherwise. I have done so in the past, but as I said, it's rare.

I generally keep the games I have an investment in, or games I really, really enjoyed and which I think have a good chance of me playing them again at some point in the future. So for example, I currently own a Wii, and I have played and finished Zelda: Twilight Princess and Mario Galaxy. I'll trade neither, because I'm a hard core Nintendo fan-boi, and I love the Nintendo franchises like Mario and Zelda, so I'm keeping them forever. I will also probably replay both many, many times, so I'll keep them.

I also own ExciteTruck, which I finished, but I'm keeping because it was really fun and I want to play it again and again. Maybe only for 5 or 10 minutes, maybe for several hours, but I don't know when. But when that day comes, I want it there, ready to play.

However, I used to own Rayman: Raving Rabbids and Wii Play. I liked both games, but I traded them when my EB had a special for Super Paper Mario for $20 when you trade any two Wii games. That was a damn good deal. Raving Rabbids and Wii Play were sacrificed because in Rayman's case, while I liked it, it had started to annoy me and I was getting sick of it. In Wii Play's case, I saw the game as naught more than a technology demo, and I thought the chances of me ever playing it again were very slim. And to get Super Paper Mario for a dirt cheap price in return? It was a no brainer, really.

So to cut a long explanation short, potential for replayability and enjoyment are the two major factors in deciding which games I keep and which go back to the store. Investment in a particular franchise comes a distant second.
posted by Effigy2000 at 3:36 AM on March 8, 2008

The game retailers make more money selling used games and damage warranties than they do selling new games. They buy your used game for half its original value, and then sell it for a couple of dollars lower than a new copy (Toronto, Canada). Every time you trade in a game, you're feeding the system of exploitation.

I never trade in any of my games, and I never pay the extra five bucks for the disc damage warranty. I only buy games I know I'll like.

Borrowing or renting are better options for games you're only mildly interested it.
posted by BeaverTerror at 3:50 AM on March 8, 2008 [2 favorites]

My only rule is: always keep anything published by Atlus unless you're sure you'll never, ever want to play it again and you're desperate for money. Atlus's games are the only ones I know of that appreciate in value on the secondary market.

Also, what BeaverTerror says immediately above is true--you're making at least a $10 charitable donation to Gamestop/EB whenever you trade in there. You're far better off eBaying games, where you are more likely to get their true secondary market value.
posted by Prospero at 4:48 AM on March 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

Metacritic is good, but Gamerankings is better.
posted by box at 4:54 AM on March 8, 2008

Echoing the above: consider selling old/used games on a place like half.com. It's nowhere as convenient as going to the local game store and trading the games in, but you'll receive slightly more money. Trading games in at a store (especially Gamestop / EB) is an enormous ripoff, and I can't recommend it.
posted by peeet at 5:17 AM on March 8, 2008

Any game that is not rare and has no replay value. Even ihighly rated nintendo made game I would trade in IF I have already beaten it if it has no replay value
posted by majortom1981 at 5:47 AM on March 8, 2008

I rarely trade in because you can get more money on eBay and it's actual money you can spend, rather than being locked into credit at one store. I can be pretty heartless about getting rid of old games, because I rarely have time or inclination to go back and play old favorites. There's always something newer, shinier and cooler coming down the pike and, most of the time (with the possible exception of some Japanese RPGs), video game prices are in constant decline, so it can be cheaper to just get rid of a game I'm tired of now and rebuy if I want to play again.

Most of the older games I do have I've kept because they aren't worth trading in or selling, and I just can't bring myself to throw a game away.
posted by MegoSteve at 6:24 AM on March 8, 2008

I tend to wait a month or so after I've beaten a game to see if I still like it/would want to replay it. Then again, I also buy games that have been out for a while, so I'm not really worried about the value depreciating too much.
posted by dinty_moore at 7:59 AM on March 8, 2008

I never trade in anything at those trade-in places (we've got a couple local ones here, besides GameStop/EB). If I want to prop up a video-game store, I'll do it by buying weird old 2600 and Saturn games, not by selling them last year's $60 sports game for a dollar. But here are some of the things that I consider before I get rid of a video game:

1. Is it likely to appreciate in value? (Hint: If it hasn't started already, it's probably not going to happen.)
2. Do I own a better version of the same game, or a similar one? (Why would I ever play Burnout 2 or Tony Hawk's Underground again?)
3. Is it likely to remain available? (If you're willing to pay, you can always get a copy of Super Mario 64. Snowboard Kids 2, though, or Pocket Music, there might not always be a copy available.)
4. Is it something that I'm likely to bring out to show other people? (There's a lot of weird crap from the 16- and 32-bit eras that, while I'll probably never play it again alone, I might still enjoy showing it to people. Occasional legendarily-bad titles also fall into this category.)
5. How much money will I actually get out of it? (If it's only worth a couple bucks, why bother? I'd probably rather hang on to the game--what's one more thing in an already unwieldy collection?)

There are plenty of other reasonable considerations, but that's a start.
posted by box at 8:12 AM on March 8, 2008

Like many people I tend to sell single-player games quicker than multiplayer games. I never trade-in newish games--I've found that I typically get 40% more by selling on ebay. With older games it can makes sense to trade-in, especially if there's a promo going on.
posted by aerotive at 8:17 AM on March 8, 2008

I'd recommend sidestepping this dilemma entirely and signing up for a game rental service like GameFly, which is essentially Netflix for games. You can have a certain number of games out at once, depending on how much you're willing to pay per month, and you just send them back when you're done.

Later, if you have a hankering to play a game you've already returned, you can just rent it again. Or if it's a real classic you'd like to have on hand at all times, you can buy it. You're likely to still come out ahead, even with the monthly fee.
posted by emmastory at 8:24 AM on March 8, 2008

If a game isn't fun for me any more (feels like work) I sell it if I don't think I'll have an opportunity to play it with others or show it off later. I hold onto showcase games and games that are fun to play with other people when they come over to visit.

In terms of selling games, you can generally get more money back by selling on Half.com or on Amazon Marketplace than you get from a brick and mortar game store like GameStop. The downside is that you don't get the instant gratification of trading in one set of games for another.
posted by braveterry at 9:58 AM on March 8, 2008

Thanks for all the good answers. I agree that trading/buying at major retailers like GameStop is a rip-off. But, my son is pretty loyal to a local independent game store and he gets very satisfactory trade-in value for his games. I think his dilemma is more on an emotional level, if that makes sense. But all of the answers here have provided good food for thought.
posted by amyms at 11:30 AM on March 8, 2008

As far as the emotions involved with deciding to get rid of something, I think this is something we all need to learn to deal with as we get older. Working this out is part of developing emotional maturity.

We need to answer for ourselves: What am I giving up? What worlds will open up for me because I gave up something old to try something new? Will I regret the road not taken, will I regret that I hung onto the known instead of sampling the unknown? Will I regret the loss of what I used to have, when I choose this new thing in my life that I want to experience?

It's probably a bit tougher to deal with these questions in general when you are 15, but the stakes get much larger than games when we get older. I think his dilemma is that he's practicing for making bigger decisions. It's nice that he's discussing this with you. Talk it over, and encourage him to consider the consequences and make his own decision.
posted by yohko at 1:18 PM on March 8, 2008 [1 favorite]