Best Buy Enters in the Used-Videogame Business
Gamestop, Game Crazy, Wal-Mart and Amazon.com are all now doing the whole used videogame business thing, and now you can add Best Buy to the mix. We have now learned that several stores are implementing kiosks, that let customers trade-in their old games using a vending machine and in return they receive store credit. The process is similar to whatWal-mart has been doing in some of their test stores, however, Best Buy’s seems a little more attractive.
Like Wal-mart, the customer inserts the game-disc inside the machine. Although, unlike Wal-mart, instead of waiting 3-4 days to get the redeemable credit, Best Buy is offering an instant gift-card — good towards anything in the store.
“We’re excited about this test, especially because we know how deeply passionate our customers and our employees are about gaming, movies and entertainment overall,” wrote CMO of Best Buy Barry Judge. “And the trade-in and used value propositions will give those passionate customers even more choice and value at Best Buy.”
Analysts believe this will help the used-videogames market reach a $3 billion annually. “While we believe that Best Buy’s entry into the used video game market will create a new overhang on shares of GameStop,” wrote Lazard Capital Markets’ Colin Sebastian. “We expect Best Buy’s initiative to expand the used videogame market rather than take significant share from the specialty channel. And he added, “We estimate the size of the commercial used videogame market in the USD 2.5 billion range worldwide, continuing to grow, driven by major players including GameStop, Game Group, Game Crazy, and Internet marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon.”
The one thing that Gamestop has over Amazon and Wal-mart is receiving instant gratification. You could walk into Gamestop, trade in your games and walk out with a new one. You don’t have to wait a few days until you get your credit. However, Best Buy is doing this same thing now, and instead of being limited to justvideogames and their accessories, you would have access to pretty much anything electronic.
As of now, these trade-in kiosks are only available in some test stores throughout Texas. Yeah, the same state that Gamestop calls their home.




June 23rd, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Hey, don’t forget about Hastings Entertainment. there are over 200 stores and we are the only ones left that take back Original Xbox Games. We give ALOT more credit than Gamestop and are also online at gohastings.com.
its not like i work for a tiny company here!
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:11 pm
best buy tried a version of this in select L.A. area stores a couple years ago and it didnt gain much traction. During that test phase they opened it up to all electronics as well.
June 30th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
hey kheas done forget that play n trade takes games all the back to atari in for trade thereis about 270 stores now open and more on there way