How much of a cheapskate are you when it comes to games?

Everyone knows games are expensive in Australia. RRP is $100-$120. Although most retailers sell them $70-$80. The following intricate scam lasted for years from 2009-2012 and spanned multiple stores and made a lot of money in the thousands.

  • We have a store called JB Hi-Fi and they had a deal that let you trade in 3 games for a brand new one. There was a long exclusion list but I was easily able to find games as low as $5 although mainly spent $10-$15 on each game. So I spend $20-$40 buying 3 old games to trade for a new game worth $80+.

  • We have EB Games and their trade in prices for AAA games like COD were amazing during this time ($80-$90 store credit). They also had an Edge card that gave 15% extra when you trade in. During holiday times they offer 30% for trade ins. So that game from JB I bought for $20-$40 I was able to trade for upwards $120 in store credit.

The scam gets even better.

  • I returned a preordered game that I had purchased using mostly store credit and $5 cash. The cashier gave me back all in cash because the receipt said the payment was cash because that was the 2nd receipt I used to payoff the preorder. All you had to do was just sign a receipt to get your money back. I had to have friends return my games because some of the workers knew my face and knew what I was doing.

  • Rinse and repeat.

I remember getting $130 for Black Ops 1. I did that at least 5 times. The last game that had a high trade in price was Mass Effect 3. JB Hi-Fi have now changed their deal to 2 new-ish games for 1 new game. They have an inclusion list instead of an exclusion list. EB Games soon changed their return policy. You have to sign up for a member's card to return games now so they know who and how much games someone is returning.

tl;dr

  • Buy 3 cheap games
  • Trade 3 games for newly released game at JB Hi-Fi
  • Trade new game for upwards of $120+ in store credit at EB Games
  • Preorder game using mostly store credit
  • Pay off preorder using cash
  • Return game for cash.
/r/Games Thread