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Amazon UK is ending book and video game trade-ins
Did you know that Amazon UK accepts book and video game trade-ins? Nope, me neither. It seems plenty of other customers were oblivious, or at least haven't been using it, because the company has announced that the option is soon disappearing. The section of Amazon's site which lets you specify your trade-ins will go dark on August 31st, after which you'll have seven days to mail out your physical media. Of course, if you're still prepared to thin your library in order to accrue extra cash, you can still set up shop and sell directly through Amazon Marketplace. Otherwise, there's always GAME, CeX and eBay.
Wii games have superior resale value
Once the current economic crisis really takes hold and you have to sell your Wii collection* just to afford this month's supply of baked beans and ramen, be thankful that Wii games officially attract the highest resale prices. See, things aren't so glum!A poll conducted by the stat-tastic VideoGamePriceCharts.com has discovered that Wii software carries the lowest margin of loss when resold, losing on average 25.4% of its original MSRP. At the other end of the table, Xbox 360 owners typically lose 37.2% of their initial outlay whenever they resell a brown and gray futuristic shooter. Not only that, but Nintendo-published games are also high in resale value -- out of 45 publishers, only Bethesda's games are sold on for more. We suspect Wii Fit may have skewed the results somewhat, but all the same: yay!Make the jump for the publisher charts!* You did sell all of the family first, right?
Ten for under twenty at Gamefly's sale
In these belt-tightening, penny-pinching times, it literally pays to have a nose for the bargains. That's where we, or rather Gamefly, comes in. The game rental outfit has a broad selection of used Wii software for low, world banking crisis-friendly prices, and we chose ten of the best sub-$20 games to tempt you. Thar be bargains ahead! Baroque for $12.99 Battalion Wars 2 for $17.99 Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy for $9.99 Dewy's Adventure for $13.99 Geometry Wars: Galaxies for $16.99 Mercury: Meltdown Revolution for $15.99 NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams for $12.99 No More Heroes for $17.99 Sega Superstars Tennis for $9.99 Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure for $17.99 There's actually a ton more we could have mentioned, including Super Mario Galaxy for $32.99, Super Smash Bros. Brawl for $30.99, and Metroid Prime 3 for $26.99. Sadly, "One hundred and fifty-eight for under forty-two" just doesn't work as a headline. Hit up the "Source" link for the full set. %Gallery-3283% [Thanks, William!]
Pre-owned iPhones fetching crazy prices post-iPhone 3G launch
This little phenomenon has been going on ever since lines were wrapped around buildings as consumers waited impatiently for the iPhone 3G, but even now, original iPhones are fetching wild prices on the secondhand market. In a weird twist of economics, Apple's iPhone actually maintained the majority of its value even after its successor hit the market. Why, you ask? Put simply, first-gen iPhones purchased from eBay or other pre-owned resellers arrives sans an AT&T contract, and of course, it can be (relatively) easily unlocked to work with some other carrier. PSA: if you're still sitting on your old iPhone for no apparent reason, now would probably be an excellent time to test the market.[Image courtesy of IFOAppleStore]
GameStop selling used DS Lites at a decent price
GameStop usually sells its used DS Lites for $119.99, only ten dollars less than how much a new system goes for -- might as well buy a new one at that price, right? But for the next week, the video game retailer will be offering the preowned handhelds for only $99.99, provided that you present the above coupon. That sounds a lot more reasonable!Just cross your fingers and hope that your console's previous owner treated it a lot better than these guys did with theirs.
Rumor: no pre-owned games for PS3?
According to GamesRadar (who struck out on their last PS3-rumor at bat), Sony might be looking to prevent the sale of pre-owned games by using a software licensing system similar to the one employed in the PC software space. The rumor goes something like this: instead of purchasing the actual game, you purchase a nontransferable license to play the game, and the physical media is just a distribution method (think Microsoft Windows). While Sony does own some patents that might be used to this end, the issue is far more complicated than the technology and motivation behind it. Sure, Sony and most publishers would love to cut off the parasitic used-games industry, but would they do it at the expense of angering both retailers and consumers? Considering the dubious origin of the rumor -- "retail sources" -- and GamesRadar's past inaccuracy, it's far too early to get upset over this one.Next-Gen offers their (similarly skeptical) take on the rumor, getting responses from an expert in retail law and two publishing sources who, though admittedly in favor of such a plan, concede that the story is unlikely.[Thanks, SickNic and Kerina]
