Love of Games

Where do gamers go?

The choices you have as a gamer are:

1. Buy (Online, Ebay, used, Gamestop..)
2. Rent (Gamefly, smash hit…)
3. Trade (Goozex, Switchplanet..)

Renting in the past at your brick and mortar rental place can easily set you back more then $5-$7 every week like Smash hit. Many places like Gamefly charge a monthly service fee. Renting is a solution but you spend more time with games than movies. Much more time is needed for videogames than movies. Most movies range from 1.5 hours to epics of 6 hours. Where most videogames you could get a excellent feel for a game in 3 hours but most sports games and long role playing games could be played for more then 70 hours.

This is where Goozex Game Trading steps in. Goozex allows the gamer to keep the game as long as you want but have the selection to sell it too. There is only a $1 transaction fee if you request a game on their network. So in the end you can trade in your older games and erect up Goozex credit until you get enough for a newer title and just pay the $1 transaction fee. A shipping and handling is handled by sender and the buyer only pays . There is no monthly connection so you can stop at anytime or go at a slower pace. This is ideal in the sense that you could play the game until you are really sick of it then send it in for credit. No rush as you play and ship at your own pace. Plus you OWN the game. From then on the game is yours, not a rental.

The network is peer to peer in that you can only request games and send games to other members. There is no single central warehouse and the pricing of the credits of the system are in points (100pts = $5). The pricing of the game is determined by market demand, relief date, initial cost of the game, and a couple other factors. Most xbox 360 titles will go for 800-1000 pts which translates to $40-$50. This isn’t terrible for a used game. You could doubtless save a small bit of money if you bought it at a used gaming store but then you would have to pay tax and really go to the store. Goozex gives you free shipping to you with no tax charge. You also have an selection to buy credits if you want but I wouldn’t recommend that unless you have no games to send in or nothing of yours is being requested. Price fluctuations occur and you can see the points swings. I’ve had a couple games I requested and I can see that price increase/decrease. It doesn’t happen that much but some games change +/- 200pts depending on market demand.

So why use Goozex as a replacement for of a used videogame store or an auction site with games like Ebay? You just need $1 to pay for the transaction fee. Most people don’t like to continually shell out more money for a game and then feel like the games they bought are depreciating at a very quick rate. Promotion your game for cash somewhere will not give you that much. Promotion it to a store they will mark your game up to make money. Promotion online is tiresome. Goozex at least you get to trade in games you are done with and still get some value out of it as it will lead to other games you really want. There might be more difficulty in sending older sports titles as those don’t have much demand once their season is up like trying to sending in EA sports Madden 2005 will be a hard game to sell to someone on the network. Older games on ebay are a hassle to sell. On Goozex you will be able to list it and it will just stay there without having to pay insertion fees.

Each videogame is packed with information like reviews from Gamepro, some tips/trick, game description, and some even have instructions. I like being able to see the supply and demand of each game. This will let you know if you have a game people want or if you can possibly get a game on the network. Goozex determines who gets the game by matching up users. There is a waiting list that is generated and when you add a game you will see in what place you are waiting for that game. You get a excellent feel to when you will get a game. You need to make a list for want and haves for your games. They will show you your place in line per game. Fantastic place to erect your wishlist. Building a large list ensures some games will continue to come to you. I requested Crackdown and I was like 60 people back. I got this game in 14 days. Just because you’re really deep in line doesn’t mean you won’t get the game soon. Newer games do get pushed out in the system honestly quickly. You have many options to what you want to trade in terms of instructions, case or just game. Some people tend to not keep cases or instructions. The value of the game doesn’t go down as the credits don’t reflect what is included. This is because the user requesting the game can have the selection to request only full packaged games, games with instructions, or just the game itself. I have not had a problem with getting full post as I’ve gotten over 49 games and I’ve sent out 54 in under 2 being of being there.

Why NOT to use

For this site to be a perfect 5 star site I want to see:

1. More users (will there ever be enough?)
2. More retro gaming console support (nes, snes, saturn….)
3. Sure isn’t free but man it’s 4 quarters. I’m a member of another site that has no transaction fees yet still protects the members.
4. Video game trailers for each game
5. More user interaction like user reviews and tournaments…)

All the above are small tweaks to the system that is already very functional. The main reason someone would NOT want to use this system is time and money. If you have money why wouldn’t you just buy the game new down the street? Why wait? Saving money and the community are the main draws to the system. Save money and also connect with other gamers. If you wanted to save money but are impatient then this sits is NOT for you. Most new relief games takes on average of 1-2 months. Why? You are placed in a waiting line. The order of the Que determines when you get the new game, but more importantly is how many are available? Most will eventually get bored of their new game and will send them out as “have” games. That could be more time than one might want to wait. Say you want to play a game that takes a long time to beat. Some people like myself take a long time with games. More well loved games of course like Madden will hit the system quicker but that is also a terrible thing. You don’t want to hold a game too long or it will lose it’s value. Trading for early on might be for 1000 points but in a couple months with the market being saturated it could be 500 points in no time losing half of it’s value. Not entirely the fault of the system but some games just won’t go depending on your timing.

Current Goozex Real-time Transaction on the Network as of Mar 11, 2009 = 4793