Amazon trade-in values lag behind GameStop

post from Joystiq on 16 April 2009 10:00:00 PM. © Joystiq

According to a quick and dirty sampling done by What They Play, it looks like Amazon now offers significantly less than GameStop does for many used games. The study was conducted by looking up several popular titles for each major platform and comparing the trade-in values offered by GameStop, Amazon and Game Crazy. For many Wii and PS3 games, Amazon seems to offer much less than GameStop, while it curiously offers more for Xbox 360 games. Amazon trade-ins do have a few advantages over GameStop trades; one being that trade-in credit can be used to purchase anything on Amazon and not just games. Another advantage is that Amazon excepts trade-ins for many more platforms, going so far as to even accept NES titles.

Perhaps the biggest lesson of the study is that Game Crazy seems to offer more for used games than either GameStop or Amazon. Left 4 Dead is one of the more extreme examples, with Game Crazy offering $27.25, while Amazon and GameStop offer $20 and $17, respectively. Game Crazy isn't as big as GameStop and doesn't have as many stores, but it might be worth seeing if there's one near you.