Out with the Old Games and In with the New

JimmyJames70 Says: Gone are the days when only teenage guys played video games. These days it seems like everyone plays games, whether you’re a mom playing the Wii with the kids, or a 20-year old female holding her own—or better—on Xbox Live, game demographics are now 50% women and that figure is likely to grow. Reuters reported that 800,000 Wii’s were sold over the last Thanksgiving holiday. This family-friendly gaming console provides everyone a chance to play and have fun. Unfortunately, these games aren’t cheap. A new game can cost you $60, which helps explain how the gaming industry is worth $35 billion. How do you keep your family in new shoes and new games at the same time while the economy is crumbling? It’s simple, trade in your old games for new ones.

Most kids don’t want to trade in their old games, mostly because they might want to play them again, but that doesn’t stop them from wanting new games. Jennifer Galloway, mother of three and Goozex member (TNmomwith3kids), explains it to her kids this way, “They can wait on someone to buy them a new game while they just keep beating the same old game over and over, or, they can trade their beaten game for someone else to enjoy, and in turn get a different game for themselves!” This is especially great if they have a game that they didn't really enjoy and want a new one.

Several game-trading and rental sites exist, such as GameFly, SwitchGames, and SwapTree. Goozex.com happens to lead the pack. The site was profiled in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Cnet, and several notable gaming sites. The people behind Goozex have a caring heart, last December they partnered with Cause and held a two-month charity drive for America’s military wounded. They also act as mediator for any disputes that might arise during trading.

Chain stores like GameStop buy used video games for a fraction of what they are worth. Galloway says, “My kids were into trading their games for store credit at the Rhinos/Game Stop before I found Goozex. When they saw that they could get equal credit for their old game towards a 'new to them' game, they jumped at the chance.”

The concept behind Goozex is simple. When you’re done playing a game, make it available, and the system finds another gamer who is requesting that game. When the match is made, you are notified via email and you can choose to accept or reject the trade. If you accept the trade, you receive Points (the number of points you receive is based on the age of the game and supply and demand). You then use your Points to request a game you want. Each trade only costs $1. If you have a kid, or a husband—or even yourself for that matter—who burn through games faster than you get paychecks, then a service like this is a must.

Goozex Trade Credit Sale

Kube00 Says: Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Goozex is cutting their prices on trade credits by 50%. What is a better gift for your loved one on Valentine’s Day than credits!

Trade credits are used to get games from Goozex. Trade credits are worth a dollar. You give them to Goozex in exchange for using their wonderful, reasonable, and fast trading system. For example, say you are in line to get that copy of Resident Evil 4; currently that will cost you 200 points plus a trade credit. That’s a good deal, at retail, most copies are still $9.99-$14.99.

Spring and summer are rapidly approaching and that means more new releases are coming soon. The summer is a great time to game and you can find great deals. The sale is an excellent opportunity to stock up on credits for all your summer trading.

Also, The Goozex Report is looking for more writers. If you want to write for us, drop us a note.

Goozex Offers New Feedback System

The Goozer Says—A big part of joining a video game trading community is trust. You need a lot of trust in your fellow gamer to follow through on sending what they say they are going to send. You also need to trust that people will report back accurate and fair feedback. A gamer's feedback score reflects how reputable a trader they are. Does a trader send filthy, scratched discs and forget to send the manual; or does a trader promptly ship their games in pristine condition? There's no way to tell without a feedback system.

Until November 6, the only way to try and resolve a feedback dispute was to contact Goozex customer service. And you could consider yourself lucky if they responded in a timely manner. Luckily, I've never been victimized by a Goozex scammer. The worse that happened to me was that I got Neutral feedback from someone claiming all I sent them was the disc and manual and not the full package. In reality, I not only sent them the whole package, but it was in like-new condition. This situation didn't hurt me or any future trades, but the potential for harm is out there. That's why I was very pleased to read in yesterday's Goozex newsletter they are improving the feedback system:

From the Goozex newsletter:
Starting November 6, 2008 Goozex will introduce an improved feedback system that includes the possibility for sellers to dispute feedback, and for both parties in a transaction to find a friendly resolution to any issue.

The first major change is that neutral feedback carries a negative feedback score. Sellers will still receive the points for their games, but their feedback score will be negatively affected, and they may face further restrictions on trading.

The new dispute system will come in effect for any neutral or negative feedback given by buyers. At that point, sellers will have the option to accept the feedback (although they can still leave a message), dispute the feedback, or attempt to finding a friendly resolution with the buyer. For example, a seller that may have forgotten to ship a game manual, may offer to follow up and ship it to the buyer. A buyer may then choose to change the feedback to positive.

These changes are intended to give more control to you—our members—on the outcome of each trade. Also, they allow sellers and buyer to provide more organized information to Goozex, in case a negative trade issue needs to be escalated to our customer service. In turn, this simplifies our investigations and allows for faster resolution of problems.

I Love Goozex

It recently came to my attention that not everyone knows how Goozex works. I originally wrote about Goozex on one of my first blogs, Down The Hill We Go. I've since abandoned that blog, but decided to move the I Love Goozex post to The Goozex Report. This is the post that started it all. The response I received on this post is what prompted me to start The Goozex Report:

This was orginally published on Down The Hill We Go on August 19, 2008: I started using Goozex, the game-trading service, in April 2008. Since then, I have received 18 games. In my eyes, that’s $1080 (not including tax) worth of Xbox 360 games. If you’re a gamer, and you’re tired of dropping $60 for the latest titles, then I whole-heartedly recommend Goozex.

The web site works off a point system. Each game is assigned a point value, which fluctuates based on popularity, availability, and for how long the game has been available. Points can range from a maximum of 1000 to a low of 200. You can obtain points two different ways. The first way is to trade the games you currently own. The second way is to purchase them; you can purchase 100 points for $5. For each trade, you need a Trade credit. A Trade credit is worth a dollar. To keep it simple, think of Points going back-and-forth between the traders, and Trade credits go to Goozex (they have to get paid somehow). After someone requests one of your games, then it’s up to you to purchase a bubble envelope, print out the address, and head to the post office. Not a big deal, but on some days it can be a hassle getting to the post office, but they do give you three days before you have to mail it.

A game like Peter Jackson’s King Kong is worth 250 points. Simple math says that you can purchase King Kong from Goozex for roughly $12.50. If you bought it brand new in the store when it was released, you would have paid $60. While King Kong is a fun game with awesome dinosaurs, there is no way the game is worth $60. It is, however, worth $12.50 and I was very happy with my $12.50 game. What made me even happier is that I purchased the game for 200 points and I sold it back for 250 points. That made me very, very happy. In the end, I earned 50 points ($2.50) off the game. That offset the cost of shipping.

For every excellent deal like King Kong, there’s a Viking: Battle for Asgard. A simple button-masher of a game, it does offer beautiful scenery and awesome cut scenes. However, it is very repetitive and the core of the game tests your button pushing skills. I bought this one for 900 points (a big mistake) and, two months later, it’s still sitting on my shelf waiting for someone else to request it. When I do sell it back, I will only receive 750 points (provided it does not drop further in value). I’m looking at a potential loss on that one. Looking at it positively, if I trade it for 750 points, then I will have spent 150 ($12.50) points on the game. Yes, the game is worth $12.50, so in the end, I’m still happy.

Then there are games like Grand Theft Auto IV. When this game released, I ran to the store to purchase it. The game critics were raving about it and it was deemed the game of the century. Personally, I thought the game was severely over hyped and did not live up to it’s potential. I finished the single-player missions and promptly put it up for sale on Goozex. Less than an hour later, someone requested it, and I earned 1000 points for it. My $60 purchase of GTA IV earned me the equivalent of $50. Basically, I played GTA IV for $10. The only way you could beat that is if someone gave you the game for free. This is the beauty of Goozex: it allows you to buy games you wouldn’t normally purchase in the store and it allows you to sell games that you’re not happy with.

The service does rely on the honor-system: if you say you’re going to trade a game that is in good condition, then you better do so. You can provide Positive, Neutral, and Negative feedback. That way, if you decide to be a jerk and trade scratched games, or never send the game at all, then karma will come back to bite you. On the other hand, if you keep your game, case, and manual in new condition, promptly mail the game to the requester, and send a nice note, then you will receive Positive feedback and your karma remains healthy. I’ve only had one negative experience so far and it wasn’t really that bad. I sent a requester a full package, and they gave me Neutral feedback saying I only sent the game and the manual. In the long run, this hasn’t hurt me or my standing with Goozex, and I have had no problems since then.

Welcome Quadville!

The Goozex Report is a relatively new blog, but it’s gaining readers fast, thanks in large parts to networking. Quadville is a family blog that my wife found and we read it on a regular basis. They were kind enough to list TGR on their blog, and so I wanted to say Hello, and let the Quadville readers know what this blog is all about.

TGR is probably not the typical blog found on family blogs, but it probably should be. I don’t know the exact numbers, but I’d say a fair majority of kids are playing video games these days. There are probably a fair number of Dads (and Moms) who play video games as well. I'm a parent of twins, I grew up playing video games, and I turned out to be a responsible, contributing member of society (at least most of the time). I figure at some point my kids will start playing games as well. So, video games are not evil, they are just expensive. And that’s where Goozex comes in.

Goozex is a game trading community that allows gamers to interact and trade games with each other. Each game is assigned a point value. When you want a game, you simply make a request for it and you are placed in the queue. When you want to trade a game, you simply make an offer, and again, you are placed in the queue. Games are traded for points. To earn points you can purchase them or you can trade games you currently own. When you first start, you might want to purchase points, but after you trade for a while, you’ll find you have plenty of points and no longer have to purchase them.

The Goozex Report provides recommendations on when to purchase, when to trade, and when to offer games. We also post game reviews as well. In short, if it has to do with Goozex and video games, we’ll post it.

I hope you enjoy reading TGR and we look forward to hearing from you.

The Goozex Report Starts Reporting

If you're an Xbox 360 gamer, who enjoys playing games but does not enjoy paying full price, then Goozex is for you. I started using Goozex earlier this year and I've already played over $600 worth of games for very little cash. I mostly trade my games in for other games.

I take Goozex a step further than most other people. I keep a spreadsheet detailing the game point changes. I want to know when a game starts dropping in value, so I can get it on the cheap. Why spend 700 points on a game when next week it will be worth 600?

In the short amount of time that I've been tracking Goozex, I've already noticed trends. For example, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 is now worth 750 points; it started dropping in points on July 22. I'll probably request this one after it stops falling in value. If you continue to read this blog, then you too will know when the best time is to request a new game.

Let's get started:

• Call of Duty 4 has dropped to 950 points. This is the first time Infinity Ward's Game of the Year has dropped in value since it was released. If it's like Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, then it has potential to start dropping 50 points every eight days. I made my copy of CoD4 available back on July 24 and it had a long wait, it's been a month, and I'm now #45 in the queue.
• Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 is now worth 750, it was worth 1000 back on July 11, so the mighty are falling.
• Madden NFL '08 has dropped from 550 points on August 13 to 450 points on August 25. I'm guessing all the Madden fans with '09 are finding their copies of '08 are now useless to them. I might get '08 once I see the points hit a low point or start to hold steady.
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour '08 is also starting to drop and is now worth 650.
  

Become a Goozex member now and immediately earn 1 free trade credit and 100 points.