buy used video games

A brand new video game is probably one of the dumbest things you can buy if you’re looking to save money. Sure there are games-by-mail places like GameFly™ and now Blockbuster online, but those are actually kind of expensive if you don’t play through games fast enough. Wouldn’t you rather play a game for a week for free?? I know I would, and I do, and here’s how.

If you have a GameStop in your area you can take advantage of this little trick, if not you may be able to find another store that sells used games that has a similar policy. All you have to do is find a game you want to play, buy the used version of the game, play it for 7 days and then return it. GameStop’s return policy on used games is that if you return it within 7 days of purchase, you get a full refund. So in other words you can basically give GameStop a small loan to borrow a video game, try it out, and return it without losing any money.

If you find yourself beating games really fast or getting bored of them really fast this is definitely the way to go. I can usually fly through a First Person Shooter in a couple days so buying them is a total waste of money unless I know I’m going to play the multiplayer a lot. For example, I know I’ll be buying Call of Duty: Black Ops because I’ll play it online for the next year, but something like Medal of Honor, which I don’t think I’ll play the multiplayer too much, I’ll just pick up used the week after it comes out and bust out the single player in a week and return it. There are no negatives here, especially since there’s a GameStop right near my work so I don’t have to go out of my way to return them.

I will say that the easiest way to do this is to make sure that you pay cash for your games. If you pay with a credit card and then return it, it can sometimes take a few days to get the money credited back. Also I guess if you’re paranoid about GameStop cutting you off, using cash would be a better way to prohibit them from having a record of your returns. I’ve never had a problem doing this although I do it at my girlfriend’s brother’s GameStop, but he’s told me before that they don’t care if you do it because that’s the company policy.

So stop wasting money on new games that you know you’re going to get sick of in a week. Buy them used at GameStop (even new games can be found used for $55 about a week after release) and play them for a week and get a full refund. If you don’t happen to finish the game in a week and still want to play it, return it and go buy it at a different GameStop. I guess you could try to rebuy it right then and there, but then you might start running into problems. I can’t tell you how much money this method has saved me, but I know I hate watching games pile up after I stop playing them…. huge waste of money.

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