Today HMV are allowing people to trade in their unwanted computer games to earn credits to be used off anything else in store, as part of an aggressive campaign in this area.
News: HMV launches new-for-old Re/Play games initiative - Marketing Week
I know another retailer, Game, has been doing this quite a while with their trade ins and I suppose in the current economic climate, this makes some sense. However what irks me with this, is the seeming lack of regulation as to how these systems work. An example being that I took a game down, which was relatively new, but did not interest me. It was retailing new at around £30. I was offered £8 for it as a trade in. Yet when I looked in the second hand games for sale, there were copies of the game that I wanted to trade in, being sold second hand for £24.99. A 66% mark up, on a game that probably they have already made their profit on once already.
It is perhaps no wonder that HMV are trying to get their slice of this rather lucrative pie. I only hope that sooner or later someone looks into regulating this as I feel at the moment, consumers are being a little ripped off.
News: HMV launches new-for-old Re/Play games initiative - Marketing Week
I know another retailer, Game, has been doing this quite a while with their trade ins and I suppose in the current economic climate, this makes some sense. However what irks me with this, is the seeming lack of regulation as to how these systems work. An example being that I took a game down, which was relatively new, but did not interest me. It was retailing new at around £30. I was offered £8 for it as a trade in. Yet when I looked in the second hand games for sale, there were copies of the game that I wanted to trade in, being sold second hand for £24.99. A 66% mark up, on a game that probably they have already made their profit on once already.
It is perhaps no wonder that HMV are trying to get their slice of this rather lucrative pie. I only hope that sooner or later someone looks into regulating this as I feel at the moment, consumers are being a little ripped off.