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Trading Video Games: WTF is a Goozex?

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There Will Be Games

Goozex Dinosaur or something.In earlier posts, I have tried to find a "BoardGameGeek" for my video game collection. That has met with some success , and while soliciting candidates, "Goozex " was mentioned to me a couple of times. As a database, it's not so hot. What it does do, however, is provide a pretty painless place to trade video games.

I say "pretty painless" because most places that facilitate video game trading are either (1) Screwing you, (2) Have a small audience, or (3) Both. The "Screwing you" camp consists largely of brick-and-mortar establishments like GameStop. They will take your games for pennies on the pound and then immediately sell it for pound on the pound. You played that game already, so you don't care; but if you ever buy used video games from them--you should know that you are eating a big markup there. The store spends nothing but shelf-space and the practice is incredibly lucrative. The "Small audience" camp is other online forums or things like Craigslist.org that won't end up screwing you over on value, but may take forever to find someone willing to take that game off your hands for that other game that you want. If you aren't looking to trade Madden '08 for Halo 2, your audience may be shockingly small at any one site.

So, by providing a service that minimizes the expense associated with B&M trading and proving a pool of Games Out and Games In for trading, Goozex has hit a nice middle ground. Here's how it works:

You make a list of games you are willing to trade away. You can decide to trade away the complete kit (game + manual + box), just the game + manual, or just the game.

You make another list of games that you want, and whether or not you'll accept just the game, the game + manual, or only the complete kit.

Every game has associated queues of Requests and Offers and you get lumped into them as you set up your lists. If a lot of people are trying to trade away a certain game, you'll have a wait a while to trade it away. For example, 88 other people will be asked to trade away their Disgaea for PS2 before me. Similarly, 59 people will have BoomBlox sent to them before I get a crack at it.

Here's the rub: Goozex decides what a game is worth, and games that trade as complete kits are not worth more points than just the game media on its own. So, you might think your minty fresh Wii control Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 with all the manuals and handouts and shit is worth 500 points, but Goozex disagrees and that's that--you trade it away, you get 350 points. End of story. Game valuation does trend downward. I got two notices that a requested game became "cheaper" in 50 point increments before I received it. There's no exposed algorithm, but the site clams it's a mix of demand, resale market value, and age. Because folks can Request top be sent only the complete package--there is a slight queue bonus for you if that's what you offer. If 80 people want a game, but 20 of them want only the complete package--someone offering only the game disc is going to get passed over every so often even if at the top of the Offer queue.

Here's rub #2. Unless you part with games and/or $$$, you won't be getting any games back. To receive games you have requested, you must meet these conditions:

  1. You are at the top of the Request queue for that game.
  2. Your account has sufficient points in it (from trading games away or paying $5 for 100 points.)
  3. You have at least one trade token (gotten from trading away games and paying $1, you get one for joining the site, three for getting positive feedback on your trade, one if you talk someone else into joining using a referral link, or you can pay $5 for 5 tokens.)


Shipping games is a snap. Goozex provides a service for USPS Priority mailing labels with delivery confirmation or even printable envelopes (pre-marked folds on the paper help you contruct it). They are hooked up to PayPal and a credit card service to handle the ~$3 mailing label charges too, and process gift cards and points purchases.

Here's my testimonial:

I signed up, got some envelopes at Target (about $0.60 each) used the Goozex USPS labels with shipping confirmation ($3 each) and shipped off the following complete kits:

  • Wii Play (game only) for Wii - 100 pts
  • LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga for Wii - 350 pts
  • New Super Mario Bros. for DS - 450 pts
  • Mercury Meltdown Revolution for Wii - 250 pts
  • Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Wii- 700 pts


So I'm out $18 and five games, but I accrued 1850 points (their current value is 1800 pts--Goozex keeps track of how much you got and how much the games are now). I've received:

  • Grim Grimoire for PS2 (media only) - 350 pts
  • Battalion Wars 2 for Wii (complete kit--in shrink no less) - 450 pts
  • Opoona for Wii (complete kit) - 500 pts
  • Super Puzzle Fighter II for GBA (media only) - 250 pts


Four games back at a cost of 1550 pts (current value is the same, but one's gone up, another down).

This is the experience you can have without buying anything directly from Goozex or whoring your referral link and praying for trade tokens to be reaped. We can compare this to GameStop and its ilk where I would have gotten about $56 in credit and not been able to find any of the games I wanted, and if I could, would have been able to get two of them. We can also compare it to eBay, which is a pretty rough place for sellers now. I'd expect to clear about $78 and pay about $7.50 in fees. The games I've received are about $45 + shipping ( so, about $65 or so).  The games I want aren't exactly widely available though--Grim Grimoire has had one auction in the last 60 days. 

On the whole, I'm happy. The available game pool totally outstrips my neighborhood B&M establishments. At the same time, I know someone's getting and enjoying my traded-in games and the facilitator, Goozex, makes about $1 per trade for making it happen. So, if you have games you don't want, and don't live near a place like Luna Games , give it a shot. And get there using my referral link so I can't get more stuff.

One last thing: My Referral Link .

There Will Be Games
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