09/19/2026
Some insight into how we handle trade-ins and where it goes from there…
Sometimes, we aren’t able to come to an agreement about a trade, and there may be a lot of reasons as to why that is. We always want to give the best offer we can for any particular trade, and we also do our best to be thorough during the trade in process while also being fair with our customers. In order to be transparent about our process, here’s some details about what goes into our offers.
During the trade in process, we make sure to evaluate every item’s condition, do our best judgement about how fast we can actually sell the item, and consider how fast we can get it sales floor ready. We take into consideration whether a console has all its cables and controllers, whether a game has its case and manual, the condition of these items, the condition of a game’s label(s), and how many copies of the game/how many consoles of that type we have available for purchase. We have much stronger offers for clean, complete games as opposed to dirty, loose, or missing component items, and there are some categories we can offer much better than others, like the GameCube(very strong offers) versus Sega Master System(not so strong).
Because of this, while we hate outright declining a trade, there are some categories of games and consoles we don’t currently buy. This isn’t a judgement on the quality of the trade offered, just an evaluation on our ability to sell those items.
We also will decline a trade due to evidence of an infestation. Unfortunately, we aren’t equipped to properly address those types of issues, and we can’t risk the integrity of the store, our merchandise, and the wellbeing of our employees. Please be assured if we do decline a trade due to this issue, we are absolutely not passing judgement on the individual offering the items.
While we can and sometimes do take in defective items, the rate will be reduced depending on how severe the defect is. A NES console that offers a flashing screen when a game is inserted is common and easy enough to deal with, while a PS5 with a broken HDMI port is common but a much more labor-intensive process to fix.
There are also other things we watch out for. We don’t buy or sell counterfeit merchandise, and many consoles have games that are known to be problematic. Blue Stinger on Dreamcast, the Digimon World games on PS1, and Persona Q and Pokémon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire on 3DS are a few examples of games with known issues. Depending on what the game is and the severity of the issue, we may still be able to take it in, but our offer would be severely reduced depending on how bad it is. If we determine we wouldn’t be able to fix said item, we would not be able to purchase that item.
In short—the less we have to do to get something ready for the sales floor, the more we can offer, and the faster we can sell the item helps boost that payout.
I’m sure we all know, but we take our time putting out new arrivals. Games and consoles rarely go to the sales floor same day, and depending on volume, sometimes not even within the same week. This is because we test and clean all of our merchandise before it is available for purchase, and what that looks like varies between consoles. A PS2 disc may just need one light resurfacing job before it’s ready for the sales floor, while a 3DS cart may need to be run through a cart fixer program due to corruption of the NAND chip.
We evaluate each disc and do our best to make it look “new” for our customers without compromising the integrity of the disc. We have a premium resurfacer that can fix almost any game on any console, and it has saved countless discs for us and our customers. After we resurface the disc, we always test it to the best of our ability. For some consoles like PS1, PS2, PS3, Saturn, and a few others, we have a computer program that allows us to scan discs for read errors. We use this in conjunction with testing and resurfacing as needed to ensure we provide our customers with working games.
As far as cartridge games go, it’s a similar process. We make sure to clean the pins and test the games, but we also check the batteries on any older games that had these. Games like Pokémon, Chrono Trigger, Legend of Zelda Oracle of Seasons/Ages all had save batteries and often they need replacing. For more modern cartridges or games that didn’t utilize a save battery, we still make sure the game fully loads, and we have a “cart fixer” program for 3DS games. It’s becoming more common for 3DS games to fail, so we’ve begun to verify each cartridge for full functionality beyond testing the game like we normally do. Processes like scanning discs or verifying cartridges can extend the amount of time processing new inventory takes us.
We similarly have a lot of checks for consoles, including test cartridges and programs that run checks on every function of the consoles. We will recap Xbox consoles, change screens on DS and 3DS consoles, restore PS2 and GameCube’s ability to read games, and so on. Even if a console appears to have zero issues at time of intake, we always double check all functionality on every console before it goes to the sales floor.
We want to be able to have near perfect assurance our games and consoles have 100% functionality. We’re always looking for more ways to verify games and consoles work because there’s nothing worse than buying a new game or console and getting home to find it doesn’t work. While we still have some games that sneak past our testing, we try to go above and beyond for our customers when this does happen.
Beyond just verifying our games and consoles work, we also clean everything in detail. We don’t put out games with the cases covered in other store’s stickers or slathered in barbeque sauce, and we open up every console to make sure the consoles are dust and pest free. While we can’t always get an item to look “new” we always get as close to that standard as possible. If a game case is damaged, we replace it with a new one. We make sure to include all necessary cables and controllers with all our consoles.
So, after we go through all that testing and cleaning, we then have to actually sell the items. Some games and consoles have a very quick turn around time. We could sell a Def Jam Fight for NY every day of the week, while we might have to wait a little longer to sell import games or niche console games like 3DO, CDi, etc. Our offer for Def Jam would then be a lot better than it would be for a stack of 3DO games. We love getting in niche and rare items, but there are less buyers for Game Gear games compared to Game Boy games.
Because we are a brick-and-mortar business, we have a lot of expenses as well. Rent, employees, supplies for repairs, supplies for the resurfacer, general supplies for the store, cleaning supplies, replacement cases, irreparable defective items—it all adds up. Due to this, the longer an item will take for us to recover what we spent on it or the higher the risk is that the item won’t work, the “weaker” the offer will be in most cases.
We can’t pay out 100% of what an item is worth, as we’d be out of business by next week, but we also don’t restrict ourselves to any number% as an offer. Our offers are unique to each trade in and we do our best to offer strongly while taking into consideration everything listed above.
We’ve been able to grow our store to where it is today because our customers trust us with their games and consoles, and we try to maintain that trust by ensuring the quality of our work is second to none. We’re never upset if someone declines an offer we make, and similarly we’re never offended if someone negotiates with us during the trade in process. We want to be as fair as we can with our customers and we’re always happy to divulge about why we offer what we do.
