This topic works well as we round the bend of ending summer towards fall and the big "Holiday Season 2010." As I've mentioned in previous blogs, there are a plethora of games coming out this fall/winter that many people are eager to get their hands on. What I'm looking to do in this blog is list out all the ways I've used or know of for people to maximize their hard (or easy, I guess) earned $.
So, #1, pre-order bonuses. Yes, to be honest I fall for the gimmicky stuff at times, but since I play online I want to stand out when I can. Too bad; sometimes standing out is just dumb b/c then you're the primo target everyone see's when looking to make a quick kill (ie: flaming helmets or bright colored characters). But alas, gimmicks seem to work for increasing sales. The real winner though is the cash back deal. There are a number of retailers who want you to be visiting their store or their site to get that new game. I can guess that most any popular title coming out this season will be listed on www.amazon.com and will offer you a cash back bonus. For Amazon, they typically offer $10 or $20 credit towards a future gaming purchase. Walmart.com is doing the same and every so often you may hear of the same deal through buy.com or so. Just keep this in mind though, the credit you gain is not really cash you can spend anywhere. The credit may be only for specific products of the same type or may come in a gift card format, whether physical or in digital form.
To find deals though, you really need to empower yourself. Otherwise if you just "go with the flow", you may miss out on some great information. Friends are good, but they may only know about specific games they have interest in. For you, it is best you either subscribe to the alerts put out by popular retailers, add gaming companies and retail companies to your Facebook and Twitter feeds, or find a video game media company and frequent their site and articles frequently. Another thought is to find gaming sites or forums and join those. There are information Mavens all over the place who just want to share info and help people out.
Other options for you to save, or gain, money are to consider selling your old games, game trading, and buying used games. When I'm looking to make some money on games I've completed and likely won't play again I have a few routes I can take. First, I often go to www.amazon.com/tradeingames to get an assessment for what a retailer may be willing to pay to buy back my game. You can also launch into the Amazon marketplace for your game from that point to see what others are selling it for used. One thing to note with Amazon marketplace is that the site will take 20% off your sale total. Its a bit much, but I guess they deserve it for making the whole experience simple to set up and complete. I've sold a bunch of my games through their site. It does get a lot of traffic and has a more legit feel during the transaction knowing that Amazon will back you up if anything goes awry.
The other popular way to go is to go to Gamestop. I honestly don't care for their stores much mainly b/c they never discount game prices. They do offer nice bonuses ( like outfits and weapons in game), but other than that I never feel like I get a deal if buying through them. I did trade some games back to them a few months ago b/c there was a great bonus program going on at the time (trade in 3 games get 25% more value and $10 bonus). It is kinda sick though if you think about their used game market. They buy it back for nothing from you, then put it on the shelf for $10 less than a brand new game. It must be working for them b/c they've done it for years and haven't changed practices. I guess you can infer, that we gamers, are our own worst enemies for paying to play used games at that price.
My last comments on game sales and trades are my two least favorite, but still effective. If you don't want to pay for shipping and give 20% fees to Amazon you can elect to sell your game through Ebay. This is well known and popular, but its not my thing anymore. I used it years ago, but have since avoided it unless a last resort. The final option I can think of is to stick local and sell it through Craigslist. That is an easy platform and often has quick results. The only pain I found in that is working out the trade off location. Sometimes people have difficulty getting around, so it can be some work.
Besides all this, if you're patient and know the market you can take a chance and hold out on buying a game hoping for a discount down the road. To be honest, I want Medal of Honor this year...but I know the game is coming out a month ahead of COD Black Ops. I'm going to bank on the market here and guess that the game will sell well in the first week or two, but as the calendar approaches COD release, MOH will go on sale to compete. Even better for me, is that if MOHpre-ordered came down in price within a month. This told me not to buy games on pre-order anymore. I'm sure things will follow the same suit for Holiday Season 2010.
Game companies don't like this but you can form small trade groups with your friends for some games. Any games that are strictly single player or if you won't play it online, you can set up agreements among friends that each of you buy a different game then trade them off as you complete. I do this with a number of friends, and yes snail mail is involved (only $1.74 to mail a single game in a padded envelope). Great games I've traded around recently were: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Alan Wake, and Assassins Creed 2. If you all want to play online together, then you're each going to need a copy.
As I close out, don't forget we have Black Friday and Cyber Monday coming up after thanksgiving. There are always deals, and lately retailers have been putting their super deals available online so you don't necessarily have to wait in line at odd hours (and in the cold).
Phew...that was a lot to drop on this blog and I know I didn't squeeze it all out. If anything new comes up or you have ideas throw them in the comments. I will make edits or comments as things come up!
Common sites for helpful information posts and internet deals:
www.slickdeals.net (my favorite)
www.techdeals.net
www.dealdetectives.com
www.fatwallet.com
www.woot.com
www.cheapassgamer.com
www.trueachievements.com (A gaming site, but they often put up deal information when it comes available)
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