GameStop to increase trade values by 20% in stores located near Wal-Mart.

It seems like the battle for your used games is about to heat up this summer. It has been confirmed by GameStop that they are launching a new trading program for stores that are close enough to a Wal-Mart, or deemed by corporate, to offer an extra 20% of trade in credit.

The new program is called “Never Walk a Trade” but having experience working at a GameStop I can tell you this is nothing new and I believe it won’t provide anything significant for the consumers. GameStop makes most of its business from trade in credit; you are offered either half to a(n) quarter of the game’s original sale price. This value depreciates rapidly over time, especially if they are receiving a huge amount of a particular game. What you won’t hear from an employee when you are trading your games in is, that depending at the area where the GameStop is located they have a tier trading system. If corporate believes a store is in a location where competition is fierce those GameStop store will offer more trade in credit, as opposed to a store that’s located in an area where the competition for used games is low. So already the store near a Wal-Mart will see an increase in trade in credit.

What I assume is going to happen is that GameStop is going to lower the overall trade in value of games in areas near Wal-Mart and let the 20% bonus bring the game up to the original value of the trade in credit and maybe add a dollar too five dollars more. I would also assume that if any specials are already running for your trade ins they probably won’t include the extra 20%, but its most likely going to be one or the other. You will be able to use your reward card to get an extra 10%, but you’re not going to see an overall rise in trade in credit.

GameStop states that the “Never Walk a Trade” will include many features, but in reality they’re just giving store management the ability to increase your credit, if it’s not competing with other special the stores are already running.