Hard up for Cash? No Problem!
Times can be tough for gamers. With each new game setting us back 60 bones, it can be hard to find the cash to spend. And it’s not like turning games into GameStop really helps at all. Usually $25 is all you’ll get for the $60 game you just beat. Well I have a solution. A better place to trade in your games and get more bang for your buck when you want to grab a used game.
Goozex.com is a community of gamers that trade their games for other games, though it’s not so simple as that. Basically all games are assigned a points value. Each game’s value is based on both the age of the game, as well as supply and demand on the site. This means that even an older game can have a high value if no one has it, but everyone wants it. You can also now trade movies on the site, which is nice if you ever get tired of that stack of DVDs in the corner.
Points can be purchased, and the value works out to about 100 points equaling $5. By this logic, a $60 game goes for about 1200 points. That isn’t always how it plays out, but it’s good to keep in mind. Now the way it works is fairly simple. You join, and then compile a list of games in your possession that you want to trade. These games are placed in a queue, and if someone requests your game, and you are the first in line to trade it, then you are matched up. The site then provides you with the address to send the game to. You have to pay shipping, which isn’t much (go down to your local post office and buy either a bubble mailer or a cushion mailer, send it first class, and slap delivery confirmation on it). It will probably run you just below $4.00 per game if you are trading it in its original case (Goozex lets you offer/request games in 3 formats: full package, which must include everything the original game came with, disc and manual, which requires only the game and the manual, and disc only, which means only the game itself must be traded)); and bam, confirm that it has been shipped, enter the delivery confirmation number and await your points.
When requesting a game it is the exact same process save one minor detail. All you pay to receive a game is 1 trade credit, the equivalent of one dollar, to Goozex (though the smallest amount you can purchase is 5 at a time). So let’s say you just bought a new game at $60 and you beat it in one weekend and want to trade it in for another game. You could bring it GameStop, and let’s say they give you $30 for it (which is being generous). Then you pay another $25-30 for another game, depending on whether you want it new or used. On Goozex, the same process costs you $5. That’s quite a bit of savings.
Goozex sure sounds great, but it isn’t flawless. New games garner so many requests that many times, if you don’t stay up until midnight waiting for it to become available to request, you’ll be stuck behind 200 other people that want the same game. Waiting is something Goozex users need to be good at. Not only do you have to wait for your offers to be requested, you have to wait for your requests to be offered. Another issue is the mailing process. Occasionally things get lost in the mail, if those things are your games, you might be in trouble.
This is where I must stress ALWAYS BUY DELIVERY CONFIRMATION. It’s about 75 cents and saves you a world of hurt. If you have delivery confirmation and put the number into the order, then the Goozex help staff WILL resolve it. I speak from personal experience that the Goozex staff has its member’s best interests in mind. I once received a GBA game in the mail that was obviously damaged in transit. I took a picture of it immediately, with the packaging still strewn about my desk. I sent this to their help email address and within a few days I was given back my points that I traded for the game, and the trader was still paid his points for sending the game. I also kept in constant contact with the trader, he was a nice guy and I didn’t want him to be screwed over because of the post office.
Having delivery confirmation will also help you defeat shady traders. If you send a game and they get it, but say they haven’t, you can dispute the claim. Provide Goozex with the delivery confirmation number, and if it says it arrived, then it arrived. You get your points, and the shady character (if a repeat offender) is reprimanded.
I recommend this site to anyone with a stack of games that will never see play again. I have been a member for a while now and spent roughly $160, (max.) and received well over $400 worth of games (and that is calculated using GameStop prices for the used versions). And get this, when I traded for Tekken 6, I got it for 800 points ($40) and it came in the shrink wrap, brand spanking new. Goozex is also a great way of tracking down rare games; I’m currently 8th in line to receive the GameCube version of Code Veronica, something that I haven’t been able to find in any GameStop so far. And if you’ll remember my last post about my collecting the MegaMan Zero series, I obtained all 4 games on Goozex for roughly $5.00 each (the few times that I saw even one of these games at a GameStop they were $9.99). So get out there and trade, and tell ‘em Bramimond sent ya.
