Amazon trades gift cards for used video games

In these budget-minded times, companies aplenty have begun offering cash or trade-ins in exchange for unwanted electronics, gift cards and gold. Now, from none other than Amazon, comes a program to offer gift cards in exchange for second-hand video games. To be eligible, games must be in good condition and include the original manual, cover art and case. Amazon’s Video Game Trade-In site lists a wide variety of games it will accept, along with their trade-in values. For Wii, for example, “Marvel Ultimate Alliance” is valued at USD 6, “Winter Sports the Ultimate Challenge” brings in USD 6.50 and “Super Paper Mario” is valued at USD 15.50. On Xbox 360, on the other hand, “Call of Duty: World at War” brings in USD 24.25. For shipments valued at USD 10 or more, Amazon even gives consumers a way to ship them for free. Upon receipt, Amazon deposits an Amazon.com Gift Card into the consumer’s account. The games, meanwhile, are ultimately purchased by a third-party merchant. While trade-in prices might not be as high as a seller can get on eBay, there’s no denying that Amazon’s service is the more convenient option. Until economic conditions begin to improve, consumers will continue to seek out recession-busting strategies to make their hard-won dollars, euros and yen go further. Help them do that, and you just may be able to do some recession-busting yourself! 😉 Spotted by: Bjorn Verbrugghe