Best Buy May Be Able To Beat GameStop At Its Own Game

VGN Author writes: With the recent announcement of Wal-Mart accepting used game trade-ins for store credit, I decided to share my recent experience from my local Best Buy. I recently went to my local Best Buy to trade in a few games I don’t play anymore. Normally I’d go to Game Stop to do the trade in, but I was also planning on picking up a few Blu Rays as well. Twenty minutes later, I walked out of Best Buy with an awesome experience that will only get better with time.

[PoSTedUP]

damn best buy, going hard, huh. get that store credit and buy PSN cards for PS+ discounts, win win Win situation in my book.

[techologie]

Yeah, and you can use the store credit to purchase anything in store :)

[PoSTedUP]

ill take games for 100gb SD card, alex. XD

[admiralvic]

"damn best buy, going hard, huh. "

I don't know where you've been, but Best Buy has been doing this for years. Like the gaming magazine and GCU have been around since 2010 ( http://www.joystiq.com/2010... ), trade in promos have been swapping from 50% to 100% for ages, for a while they've offered bonus trade in credit for trading in towards a preorder (similar to GameStop) and literally nothing mentioned here is any different than what they were doing back in November 2013 or June 2010 if you want to be overly literal.

[PoSTedUP]

me either... i guess the last 3 years of my life Were that intense bc i honestly didnt know they were doing this.

[techologie]

This is for the people who didnt know about it. I appreciate the comment on giving the heads up, but Reporting it is a bit much.

[techologie]

Hey Admiral...do you mind approving this :)

[BX81]

That's what happens when you don't promote well. I didn't know best buy had a trade in program. I'm going to check it out.

[Juiceid]

I haven't been to gamestop in a loooong time. Even the used prices I have shopped for blew away gamestop.

[admiralvic]

"i honestly didnt know they were doing this."

Thats a shame. The magazine use to be an insane deal. You got some coupons for joining, like 10 magazines, various coupons, like 10% trade in bonus for $15 a year. The best thing was Best Buy did a lot of "clearing" coupons, which dropped some games to absurdly low prices. One example was XIII-2 being something like 14.99 after coupon, which came with the book (preorder bonus was a pack in) and traded into GameStop for something like $30 at the time. They also had some coupons overlap with sales and that resulted in games like Deadliest Warrior, Tanks! Tanks! Tanks! and a few others to be free with the coupon and they traded in for at least $10 at GameStop.

Now a days the magazine costs $120 for 2 years, but offers 20% off all games (excludes price matches). Oddly enough, this article doesn't mention this. They also upgraded select GCU preorders of Titanfall to the $200+ dollar CE for the standard edition price and a number of other things over the years.

[PoSTedUP]

ah noce. that sounds really good. $120 up front is a bit much imo, but im definatly willing to go chek BB out now, still seems promising.

[Talidan]

If the credit can be used for Amazon cards, then that's where I'm going from now on. That's what I do at Gamestop, but if I can get more for my games then no reason not to.

[kma2k]

A heads up i learned this not to long ago in best buy you can buy "amazon kindle" cards its implied it for buying books on the kindle but you can put the card into your amazon account & buy anything you want from the website.

[Talidan]

@kma2k
Yeah, same with Gamestop. Just get the Kindle card, and on the bottom it says it can be used across Amazon.

[Chupa-Chupa]

I really like Best Buy, their customer service is superb!

[WeAreLegion]

I hope so, but at the same time, there are like three GameStops to every Best Buy in my state. I have to drive a much longer way to get to Best Buy. :/

[Juiceid]

They do mail in trades as well

[JustJdog]

Yea Gamestop has the worst customer service, I try to avoid them at all costs.

[Belasco]

I recently got $90 for 2 games, awesome deal. Also, beware of any games you own that were a "Wal Mart" edition, like AC4, BB will not accept them.

[kurruptor]

I'll soon know if Wal-Mart has the same policy. I sent in AC4 "Target Edition" for trade-in for $38.

[admiralvic]

"Also, beware of any games you own that were a "Wal Mart" edition, like AC4, BB will not accept them."

Unless the policy changed, you could just trade in the game and they will enter it manually to prevent a problem.

[Belasco]

Well damn, they wouldn't take it, they said they could not shelf that particular SKU.

[ZombieDust]

Ive gotten so much more than both gamestop and best buy by selling on ebay, and its not very hard... Now I do take some of the harder to sell games, or unsold games to best buy.

[SpitFireAce85]

Not a bad article...but i dont agree with the last bit.

"One big negative that Best Buy has is the price of used games. Game Stop still has the cheapest used games"

That's because gamestop gives you crap for your trade so
they can sell you some of the games cheaper..But some of
the games they try to sell you are only 2 dollars
cheaper then the new copy of the same game..

[Shadonic]

I went full on gamestop ages ago.

[iliimaster]

never knew this gotta check it out for the game that ive been waiting to get my hands on! mariokart8@!

[Illusive_Man]

Gamestop business model is not sustainable. They will go away with the DoDo. It's inevitable.

[josephayal]

I would think gamestop is the best place to go

[Belasco]

Best Buy can probably be a little more flexible as far as trade in value goes because they sell so many other things that can possibly offset the cost. just a hunch, probably wrong.

[JustInTlME]

Gamers Club Unlocked at Best Buy also offers 20% off all "new" games (as in just not used). Totally worth it. I've been making almost all my purchases at best buy and Amazon warehouse deals now.

[aquamala]

but they have been downsizing their gaming department, they used to have a gaming section with a desk and dedicated employee there doing trade in's, now it's smaller and you do trade in's at the customer service section. half of the their store is now the "samsung experience" or selling phones and tablets.

[CerealKiller]

I had the Bestbuy Unlocked gamer membership when it was $15 a year and it was wonderful. Now its $120 for 2 years. Seriously?

[shorty74a]

I had it for the past 3 years now at $15. I had paid for 2 years by accident, and when they changed to the new system (at $120), they grandfathered me in. I no longer get a magazine, but instead get 20% off new games. I only buy games at BB now. If I had to pay $120 maybe I wouldn't have got it, but from my experience with it now, it is totally worth it if you buy at least 6 new games a year.