So how much less money do you get when you sell your used game at GameStop than when you sell it somewhere else?  That’s what my investigation sought to discover.  I took four used games, at least one from each console, and started making calls and surfing the web.  Find out what I found out after the break.

The four used games I priced for the investigation were Grand Theft Auto IV for the Xbox 360, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for the Wii, Dead Space for the PS3, and Little Big Planet for the PS3.  I called my local GameStop, and consulted Gamestop.com for current prices.  For price comparison, I consulted Amazon.com and Ebay.com within minutes of getting the GameStop price quote.  Here are the results:  

Grand Theft Auto IV Xbox 360 – GameStop pays $8.40 for this game.  Amazon pays at least $20.66 for this game.  Ebay pays more than $20.00 for this game.  

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Wii – GameStop pays $18.00 for this game.  Amazon pays at least $37.74 for this game.  Ebay pays between $35.00 and $40.00 for this game. 

Little Big Planet PS3 – GameStop pays $20.00 for this game.  Amazon pays at least $52.00 for this game.  Ebay pays at least $50.00 for this game (excluding the “rare” recalled version scam). 

Dead Space PS3 – GameStop pays $20.20 for this game.  Amazon pays at least $44.99 for this game.  Ebay pays more than $40.00 for this game. 

So there it is. It would seem you never get a fair deal selling your used games at GameStop.  Keep in mind that the GameStop prices mentioned are for selling your used games, not trading your used games.  When you trade there for store credit, you get 20% more than the mentioned price for your used games.  Even with that 20% though, you’re still not getting as much as you would for selling elsewhere.  20% extra on the Dead Space example would amount to just $25.25 in trade in credit, still far below Amazon and Ebay prices.  And remember, trade in credit isn’t as good as cash because you’re limited in where and how you can spend it.

To be fair, it should also be mentioned that selling used games at GameStop is faster, and less of a hassle than selling them on Amazon or Ebay.  Sometimes the instant gratification might be worth getting a lot less money.  Just don’t go in thinking you’re going to get market value.

Walking through a box store yesterday, I happened upon a cache of these shameless ripoff handheld games that are designed to look approximately like a Wii Remote with a tiny LCD. The name on them is Tilt, and I saw them in a Baseball model and a Basketball model.

It’s a wonder products like these even make it to the shelves without someone thinking better of it. There have to be all kinds of legal considerations behind serving crap like this in an obvious Wii Remote form factor and calling it “Tilt.” This is a clear attempt to mislead the consumer.

I took a look around online and found a video someone made about the games, check it out below.