BonkOnTheHead
Senior Member
Guide to buying used games.
Trust me when I give this info out. It comes from years of experience from a nerd who collects games, movies, sports cards, comic books, etc. I have 18 systems and guessing somewhere around 600 or more games.
So many people buy used games without looking at the condition of the disc (I will explain later in the thread what to look for when buying). Don't let your money go to waste! There is a thing called "disc rot" that after a certain amount of years your disc will (if even a light scratch or blemish) possibly stop working. So this is my guide to buying and storing used games. Sega Saturn games are notorious for this. So definitely if buying Saturn games pay close attention.
Storing:
Don't lay your games, CDs, movies, or vinyl records flat. Even books or comic books for that matter (spine roll). What happens is gravity kicks in and your discs will bow. Stand the cases/books up straight.
Disc Rot:
"Disc rot is the tendency of CD or DVD or other optical discs to become unreadable because of physical or chemical deterioration. The causes of this effect vary from oxidation of the reflective layer, to physical scuffing and abrasion of disc surfaces or edges, including visible scratches, to other kinds of reactions with contaminants, to ultra-violet light damage and de-bonding of the adhesive used to adhere the layers of the disc together."
More on the subject: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_rot
When you go to a store they can't deny you to see what you're buying. Have manners and kindly ask them if you can see the discs saying "thank you", etc. If you have people behind you let them go ahead of you. Or if someone comes in the middle of the person getting the discs for you or middle of you looking at the quality tell the associate ahead of time that you will wait and let them serve the person or people behind you. If you're only buying 1-2 games don't worry about letting others ahead of you. This is mainly for people who buy 3 or more games in a visit. This goes a long way because they don't get anxious seeing a line build up and they will in turn be nicer to you and not mind pulling the games for you.
When you are looking at the game give the top a quick look to make sure there's no scratch in the label of the top of the disc. If there is the game will NOT work where that scratch is.
On the bottom of the disc you want to reflect the game using the light from different angles to see if you notice any scratches. When I'm buying if there's even a 1/16th of an inch hairline scratch I won't buy it. Some people might think you're weird, but trust me when I say a good amount of associates refuse to buy scratched stuff too.
Once you're home you want to bring the game(s) to a lamp (don't go blind) and reflect it off that light since it's closer than the light you're using from the ceiling of the store. Sometimes you'll notice something you didn't see when buying it. If I notice something I return it or go to another (for example Gamestop) location and exchange it for a copy they have of the same game that passes my "test".
I also won't buy a game if it's a generic box or doesn't come with the inserts, manual, etc. If you own a game and it doesn't have the advertisement or warning inserts that say Nintendo does then your game technically isn't "complete" from a collector standpoint. A lot of games don't come with manuals these days. So what you can do is look at an unboxing video on youtube prior to see what the game comes with.
Now some of you may say, "Why not just buy it new?". Gamestop for example does buy 2 get 1 free on pre owned a few times a year. You save a lot of money by waiting for these sales. You also build a huge library of games to play this way. Example: I bought a used Vita this weekend and paired it with a used game worth $54.99 USD. Then had my free game be another game worth $54.99. Of course I buy new too, but you save a lot of money this way.
With games that are carts all you have to do is make sure there's no sharpie (who wants sharpie on their game?)
on the cart/label and look at the gold connector thing on the bottom of the cart to make sure it wasn't chewed up. Carts are easy in that aspect because it takes not even 5 seconds to check. Old cart games like N64, GBA, DS, 3DS become harder to find with box, etc (good luck and buy the cart if you want it badly enough). Especially GBA, N64 and original DS.For new games if there's something in the new copy like a goodie or a download code that doesn't come in the used copy then I'll wait for a price drop/sale and then buy it new.
Side note for buying new: Since PS4 is coming to the end of it's life cycle a lot of stores aren't ordering multiple copies of certain new games. Games by Idea Factory, NIS America, etc. So a game could come out today and the store can literally have none for sale because the copies they do have were pre orders.
If anyone has any questions post and I'll reply when available.
