Today’s gazillion-dollar gaming business has a much bigger pie than it had in any previous era, and hence room for many more platforms and a whole heck of a lot more great games to play.  10 years ago we might have talked about the “must-have” games of the year.  There are times now when I wonder if we should discuss the “must-have” games of the month.  So how in the blazes can you maintain a good game collection without the deep pockets of a spoiled Hilton heir?  How can you avoid navigating the shark-infested waters of Ebay or pimping your games out to the local video game shop for a fraction of what they are really worth? 

Well, lucky for us we have this fancy new thing called the internet, and there are a handful of sites dedicated to gamers who want to trade their dusty old wares for shiny new ones.  Game Trading Zone, Playswitch, and Goozex are the three largest game trading sites.  I have had fantastic results since joining Goozex in November last year, so I’ll focus on that site and how it works.

Goozex works on a point system for buying and selling games.  Each game has a point value set by the administrators of the site.  Brand new games start at 1000 points (well, other than collector’s and other special editions) and the lowest point value assigned to any game is 100 points.  The first thing you do is add the games you have available for trade to your trading queue.  The system will automatically search out other users who are looking for the games you have.  The system will notify you if it finds a match, and you will have the opportunity to accept or reject the trade.  As the “seller” you are responsible for the cost of shipping.  First class shipping with delivery confirmation (you want this to protect yourself, and as a courtesy) runs less than 3 dollars to anywhere in the US.  I also ship my games in bubble mailers which run about 50 cents a piece, and less than that if you buy in bulk.

Buying games on Goozex works the same basic way.  You add games to your queue that you’d like, and the system tries to match you up.  The only real difference is as a buyer, you do not pay for shipping, but have to pay the point value of the game and spend one “trade token” per game bought.  Trading tokens are essentially the equivalent of paying Goozex 1 dollar per game you buy through their site. 

Aside from points and trade tokens, there is also a feedback system.  You give feedback when a buyer, and receive feedback as a seller.  Your overall feedback score dictates how many open trades you can have going on at one time, and also effects when you receive points for a game “sale.”  New users will not receive their points until their game is received and feedback is given by the buyer, but after establishing a good enough reputation (roughly 4 positive trades) you receive points as soon as you confirm a game has shipped.

I won’t lie, you can’t sign up tomorrow and expect to have God of War III shipped to you by the end of the week.  New titles obviously have a lot of people interested, and you will have to wait for your turn in line to get a crack at them.  Now, how this works for brand new games is that on the game’s release date at midnight central time, the game is made available on the site to add to your queue.  If you can stay up that late, and don’t mind dealing with a slow server, you can land a good spot in line for brand new titles.  I managed to snag the 6th spot in line for Dante’s Inferno, for instance, and received the game less than 2 weeks after it was released.  I was then able to finish and review the game within a week and a half, and I then traded it back out.  Another aspect of brand new games is that though they start at 1000 points, if you trade a new game within 30 days of its release, you also receive 200 bonus points.  This worked out great for me with Dante’s, as I paid 1000 points for it, yet finished it quickly enough to receive 1200 points for it.  Pure profit! 

My experience with the site and its community has been top notch.  There are scammers that try to take advantage of the system, there always are, but you are protected and will never find yourself out of a game or points with nothing in return.  It’s very easy to search for and add games to your queues, and the system is just plain easy to use. 

A few years back I had tried Game Trading Zone, but my issue with that site was that I had to try to negotiate a match with users directly.  Let’s face it, it can be hard to find someone who has exactly what you want and who wants exactly what you have in return.  I spent more time trying to negotiate deals than I care to admit, and I quickly lost interest in the site. 

I admittedly had my doubts about the Goozex system in the beginning.  So I elected to play it safe in the beginning, using it to off-load old Xbox 1 games and PSP titles.  I quickly came around, though, when I saw how great everything worked.  I can’t recommend it enough, and as a father of two without a lot of disposable income, it’s been a great, great way to build up my PS3 library.  It’s really made mail-time around my house pretty exciting.     Honestly, I can’t even imagine bringing my used games to a local store any longer.  What do you get for practically brand new games?  30 bucks?  Maybe 40?  Well, I essentially traded Bioshock 2 straight up for Dante’s a few weeks back – I dare you to try to do the same at your neighborhood Babbage’s.