Sparcrypt User Info

July 20, 2009 12:39:13 AM

I used to work at an EB Games and I can tell you - the profit these stores make off a new game is near to nothing. You buy it for 60 bucks, they paid about 50-55 for it.

Now used games.. wow did we get abused about this. You bring in a brand new game that you paid 60 bucks for and trade it, I give you 30 bucks for it. Then I go to sell it for $55. So many people whinge and cry and say that I should be giving YOU 55 bucks for your game, it's near new! But then how do I sell it? Noones paying $58 for a game they can get for $60 new.

OK you say.. in that case if you're only giving me $30 for it, why not sell it for $35 or $40? Why only $5 cheaper then what I paid?

Answer? It DOES get sold for $35. Or $25. Or $15. Not every traded game walks out the door 10 minutes later.. plenty of them sit there for months, or years. And 2 years later the best that game is going for second hand is a lot less then the $30 you got for it. So not only do the pre-owned games need to pretty much sustain the business, they also need to make enough profit so that half of them can be sold at a loss.

Bottom line, ask any game store manager - if it wasn't for pre-owned games there wouldn't BE any games stores, they would all go under.