Why Amazon's Game Trade-In Program Won't Work
Amazon wants your used games, it's ready to pay your shipping costs, and you'll get an Amazon gift card back in the bargain. All you have to do is identify which of your games are worth $10 or more (to Amazon), pack them up and send them off, and Amazon handles the rest. What's more, the company's even willing to pay you a buck or two on top of GameStop's buy prices for the exact same games.
Sound like a sweet deal?
It's not. And here's why, to concur with GameStop's Dan DeMatteo, Amazon's initial salvo in the burgeoning war between video game publishers and retailers has "zero chance" of success.
In a word? Instantaneity, which Amazon's process by definition lacks. Used game customers want cash or product in hand and the ability to compress and control the transaction. Amazon's process protracts the transaction, adds tedious intermediary steps, and removes a critical sense of immediacy from the equation.
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