Online retailer, Amazon.com, has entered the pre-owned games market with the beta launch of their latest service.
Amazon already allows users to sell their games through the site, but this new service is the first time the company take an active role in the transaction. Under the new system, users will send their games to Amazon and receive a gift card for a predetermined amount.
The trade-in value varies from game to game and from platform to platform. Amazon offers $33 for the Playstation 3 version of Street Fighter IV, but only $9 for Far Cry 2. Trading-in the Playstation 3 version of Fallout 3 will get you $25.50, while the Xbox 360 version will get you $21 only.
Analyst Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Markets researched Amazon's prices and found out that Amazon offers trade-in value of around 10% higher than its competitor, GameStop, and sells the used games for around 20% lower than it.
Still, Sebastian warns, "GameStop still offers a unique in-store value proposition for core gamers, and believe that its pre-owned business should continue to thrive. In addition, the Amazon initiative does not appear to include hardware or accessories, which is a meaningful portion of GameStop's used business."
