Toys R Us Begins Nationwide Trade-in Program
Toys R Us began testing back in March a video game trade-in program in a few select markets across the country. It appears that they liked what they saw because the retailer has said that today they will begin accepting used games from the Atari 2600 on up to the newest releases nationwide.
Toys R Us is trying to do something new and quite interesting that no other retailer does: They are allowing any game to be traded in, no matter its age or make. You could bring any game you have for any system (currently about 25 different systems) as long as you have the original game in the original packaging. When you exchange your games you will be given store credit to be used at Toys R Us and Babies R Us stores, along with the affiliated online outlets.
Bill Lee, Vice President, Divisional Merchandise Manager, Toys R Us U.S., put out the following statement about the program:
"The video game trade-in program is another way we're providing customers with additional value when they visit our stores. This program is designed to make the exchange process completely hassle-free for customers by accepting games from even the oldest systems, including the original Atari 2600 and 32-bit Sega Genesis."
This move is a smart way to bring in customers. There really isn’t anywhere in this day and age that you can go and trade in old-school games other than a specialty shop (which are very hard to find) or Ebay. Many of us still have games from years ago lying around the house that are doing nothing but collecting dust; why not get a few bucks for them and possibly buy a brand new game to play, or anything else that they have for sale? Yup, the credit you get does not have to be used to get more video games. You can use it for whatever the store carries, from stuffed animals to a new baby crib. Whatever you want – not that bad of a deal, wouldn’t you agree?
The only thing that I find a little odd and perhaps a missed chance to make even more money is that Toys R Us isn’t going to be reselling the used games back to their customers in their stores. The games are going to be collected by a third party company that will then resell the games to various retailers across the country. It sure would have been nice to be able to go in to the store and pick up a few of my old favorites and replay them. Oh well, perhaps this will change as time goes on. Fingers crossed.
Well, it looks like I need to start digging through all my stuff to find my old collection of dust-covered games.
Till next time, keep on gaming!!
Labels: Games, New, This Week, Toys R Us
This entry was posted by James Dumas, on Tuesday, September 15, 2009. You can
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