An inside look at Goozex.com and what it’s like to trade for points

By Stephen Munn | September 22, 2008

As a long-time gamer, I’ve had a lot of games pass through my hands. There aren’t a whole lot of games that I’ve hung onto through the generations, though there are a number that I regret letting go of. At any rate, without an infinite supply of money and space, at some point you have to cap your collection. This is where trading comes in.

Giving things away feels good, but not as good as getting something in return. Selling can be pretty exciting, particularly when you do very well. For example, I once sold a Sega Master System game on eBay for $250. I was just as surprised as you are on that one. It turns out it was very rare. Much more common, however, is a game that has so little actual value that you can’t sell it for $5. $5 is a magic amount for me. If a game can’t sell for $5, it has no value, due to selling fees and things like that involved with selling online. Simplifying the trade process by assigning a point value to every game streamlines the process. Let’s see how it works.

The way trading works on Goozex is a little complex, but once you get it down, it’s not bad at all. First you create a free account. You’re given 100 points and 1 trading credit, and immediately, you can start trading.

You start by putting together a list of the games you have that you want to trade away. The site has had every game I’ve searched for so far. This includes games for the PlayStation, PS2, PS3, and PSP, Gamecube and Wii, Xbox and Xbox 360, GBA and DS, as well as Dreamcast, PC, and Mac. Earlier platforms are not available on the site. Find your games one at a time and add them to your “Offers” list, specifying how “complete” the game is on a three-level scale: game only, game and instructions, game and instructions with case. Complete copies sell the fastest. Each game has a point value ranging from 100 points to 1000 points that does not vary based on the copy’s completeness, but rather the game’s absolute market value. For example, Metal Gear Solid 4 on PS3 is 1000 points, and so is Einhander for PS1, while Burnout 3: Takedown on PS2 is 100 points. I listed six or seven games from a number of different platforms ranging in value from 100 to 500 points.

Then you assemble a list of “Requests” using the system’s database of games, once again specifying how complete a copy of each game you want. Disc-only games are the most common in most cases. As soon as you have requests up, the system will try to find a copy of the game in the system that matches your request, and provided you meet the requirements to receive the game, the system will ask the owner of the game to send it along, at which point the owner has 26 hours to say yes or no before the query times out. Receiving a game costs 1 trading credit and however many points the game is worth. I listed four or five games that came to mind right away.

I had hits on two of my “offered” games immediately. I confirmed the game, and specified when I’d send it: within one day or within three. Packaging and shipping were up to me, but first class shipping within the US with delivery confirmation tends to land right around the two dollar mark, or a little more, depending on weight. Most complete games seem to hit the 6 ounce rate when packed in a bubble mailer. I sent off the games to their new owners and waited.

As a new Goozex user, I faced some frustrating issues. Once two of my games were taken, I had no open trading slots. The feedback system throttles new users until they’ve made several successful trades. In order to get the credits from a trade when your feedback is zero, the recipient has to leave feedback. They’re given a stated 14-day but effective 21-day window to do this, in which time you sit and wait for your points to materialize and that trading slot to reopen. While most users could give feedback quickly, some simply never do. As I write this, I’ve shipped several games. The highest point value game, at 500 points, reached its destination more than a week ago, during which time Goozex has notified me that I have missed several of my chances to receive games due to lack of points. The user has not responded to the messages I’ve sent. Fortunately, as your feedback score increases, you start to receive your points for games faster, but only on those later trades. So while I wait for feedback to award me the points from my first trade, subsequent trades gave me my points before the game even reached its destination.

It’s a test of patience, to be sure, that has only been made worse by the fact that when I was first matched to receive a game, the person offering the game refused to confirm and send it, but they waited for 24 of the 26 hours they had to respond to elapse before doing so. While I waited for this trade to not happen, the points for the trade were held, which means once again I didn’t have enough points for any of the other trades that became available to happen instead. It seems like very much a backward system when compared to something like half.com or eBay where the buyer is paying the seller in advance and then the game is shipped. In this case, it’s happening the other way around. As a result, there seems to be little incentive for some people to actually do their part in keeping the system moving. There are people who won’t trade with a new user on Goozex, and there are people who list their games and then don’t read their email.

All games in either your offers or requests list are given a “position” number. This number reflects where you are in line to send or receive that game. This number is deceptive, though. You could be first in line, but if you don’t have enough points, a trading credit, and an open trading slot, you’ll be skipped right over when it’s time for a game to change hands. By the same token, you could have a seemingly prohibitive number in there, something in the sixties or even higher, and find yourself sending or receiving the game, simply because you’re the first person in line with everything needed to make the trade.

If the problem is lack of points, you don’t have to trade games to get them. Trading credits start at $1 each, and points start at $5 for 100, but both get cheaper if you buy a lot at once. I’ve bought a few hundred points to get things moving early on… it’s hard to resist when you get a notification that you almost got a game, but couldn’t afford it. Theoretically you could join Goozex and get a free 100 point video game without doing anything more, or you could trade a huge stack of games, amass a ton of points and feedback, buy some trading credits, and let the titles you want roll on in.

I’ve received a few pieces of feedback now, which has opened things up a bit more. Once you’ve gathered enough points to trade for games you want, things get much more pleasant. I’m able to have three games inbound and outbound at once, and all three of those slots in both direction are currently filled, though one of those three outbound is filled with that one game that’s still waiting for feedback. Now all I need to do is wait for my games to arrive: Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles, Sonic Rush Adventure, and Drawn to Life. Once I’ve reached 50 feedback points, I will be able to have more trades in both directions once again. Eventually it will become somewhat of a free-for-all, it seems, and things will feel much more relaxed.

Goozex seems to have the things most important for a system like this to work: lots and lots of users, and plenty of safety nets. They back every trade, which means if someone comes along and cheats you, you’re covered, which is not the case with eBay. The feedback system, which feels restrictive to an honest fella like me, keeps a heavy foot on the neck of the new users who might be screwing around until they manage to show they’re not… with a few successful trades. It’s hard at first, but it feels fair. The support from the people running the show is consistently reported in the site’s comprehensive forums as excellent.

Oh, and if you do decide to sign up, toss me a click so we can both get a referral bonus.