Idiots that don't understand video game values

[Legal Eagle]

for textbooks depending on the subjetc the textbooks age quicker.

Over the course of a year a lot changes in law, politics, sciences but comparitive far less changes in German/French/whatever or literature based courses.

[LostMyMind]

Uh...the one that usually came with Duck Hunt/Super Mario Bros., and if you were lucky, the gun to use for DH...

Yep that the original, and yes I have the gun

[etrain]

Spoiled

To paraphrase The Gord:

"Videogames are not a hedge against inflation"

I buy them to have fun, and consider the whole cost of them as sunk. If I'm not that fond of the game, and end up trading it in, the credit I get is a bonus. You get less than you would on e-bay, but I am more than willing to think of the difference as a convenience fee for not having to take the time to post and ship it.

Most other stores of any kind don't let you trade in used stuff. Videogame stores do it as a way to encourage you to buy more games (it works on me as I'm there trading/buying stuff about once a week), and it is their main source of profit. The mark up on new games and systems is VERY small.

People never see it the other way around. You can buy a copy of ICO (PS2)for 9 bucks now (used), but I never see anyone complaining about how cheap it is, despite it being a great game. People will, in the same visit to a store, complain about the small amount of money that they are getting for a trade-in, and then go and find a good, cheap used game. You can't have one without the other.

[repsac]

One of the funniest exchanges I ever saw happened at a Rhino games I shop at.

This kid walks in with a crappy PS2 game, plops it on the counter and his father says. "he wants to trade that in." well, the father and son then turn and wander off into the store while Ron. (the manager and good friend of mine) checks the value. A few minutes later, the father and son return with a brand new game, some basketball game IIRC. Laying it on the counter they wait patiently. Ron does the sale and says your total is fourty nine something.

The father balks at this and says the classic words. "But this is a trade in. I'm trading that game for this one."

It took Ron the better part of twenty minutes to explain how the trade in works, and I'm not so sure the father and son understood even then.

[Ryu]

im going to get em online just havent had first class yet so dont want to guess which book to get

[Kiwi]

the library doesnt have many textbooks or if they do their always being used

come on now ryu excuses excuses

reserve the textbooks before the first week of class, photocopy them then, and you wont have to worry for the rest fo the semester

best way to get them online is to get on it now! and you can always checkout other stores in your city, the boarders right by our university got in textbooks and offered a 25% discount on the books but hardly anyone took the chance becuase they didnt bother to look around.

[Ryu]

eh im not worried about that but several textbooks i have bought the old edition and the new edition is so different its a difficult chore to use it either in it being reorganized and pages being greatly different and in different order or differences in content
i wasnt trying to take this off topic sorry
btw, nes/snes are awesome!

[AFpheonix]

Ryu: Then surely there's a classmate who'd let you borrow their new edition for an hour to copy the edited sections?


I always would advertise my old books on the school network: I could sell them for more than the bookstore would offer me, and the purchaser could get them for less than the bookstore would then charge for them.

[Ryu]

kiwi the only problem is i go to the a small school, used books arent always available and whe nthey are they go fast
their also still expensive from the bookstore
the library doesnt have many textbooks or if they do their always being used
this semester im going to try to get em all online but itsa challenge due to some places having absurdly long shipping times

[Lace Neil Singer]

I also had Streetfighter2, Mortal Kombat and Streets of Rage, plus 2 Sonic games and Columns. Maybe I'd get 10p for the lot?

I gave my old books from GCSE English to Oxfam; someone would have picked up a goldmine as every book had my scribbles in them, serious note taking.

[Kiwi]

Ryu you dont always need the brand new edition, sometimes all they have is a couple of pages different

buy second hand textbooks (online or at your universities textbook store) and then get a new edition from your university library and photocopy the pages that are different

It will usually state in the "revision" section at the start WHAT IS DIFFERENT about that issue compared with the other edition (usually its one or two sections that have been expanded or re-written) no need to get an entirely new book just for one chapter...

The only textbooks I brought new were ones I knew I would continue to use outside of school.

My Chinese history professor sole his "China since 1911" book at $50 and I found it on amazon for $9

[Lace Neil Singer]

I've still got old Megadrive games stashed away... my ancient Megadrive eventually died of old age a year ago. I can't be arsed to go and trade the games tho... especially as I'd be lucky to get more than 1p per game. I did love playing with my Megadrive tho... ahhhh, Bubble Bobble, Mega Bomberman, Megalomania, Micro Machines, Theme Park... how I miss them.

[Ryu]

ugh
i admit i get REALLY MAD about textbooks prices and how little you get for them used but not at the employees, at the companies who put out a new edition every year or two
paying 200 bucks to get 10 or 20 back infuriates me so i understand how they feel, in a way, but never ever take it out on someone with no control over the situation

[Imogene]

Uh...the one that usually came with Duck Hunt/Super Mario Bros., and if you were lucky, the gun to use for DH...

That was a package deal, if I'm not mistaken, but yes, that would be an NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) Just wait, though, I hear the Nintendo Wii is going to have a new version of Duckhunt for the first time since they originally released the game.

[Mark Healey]

"Dear customers,

First off, let me say that I understand the frusteration of buying a game new for $40 and having the game store offer you $6 for it. However, please understand that game stores are in business to make money and it is not a "rip off" if they pay you $6 for a game and then price it at $15 in the store. Why? Because they pay for the building, the employees, and finally, they have no guarantee that anyone will ever buy your game. Also, just like cars, music, and dvds, almost all video games lose value over time. Sorry bud, thats just the way that economics works.

I'm surprised you pay as much as you do. That's pretty much the same math that used book business uses. I would have guessed that you would have to pay and charged even less with platform obsolescence issues. A 50 year old book is just as readible as a new one.