If you’re like Nicole and I, odds are good you have a veritable mountain of games piling up in your basement or living room.  However, unless you’re independently wealthy, game expenses can pile up exponentially between new releases, downloadable content, controllers, and accessories.  Because like you, I don’t like the idea of taking out a second mortgage to fulfill my habit, I’ve turned to some areas besides my local Gamestop.  Below I’ll go over 4 places I’ve found to gather up some cheap games.

1. Flea Markets

Sure you’ll have to deal with the occasional guy who sells sex toys and guns all in one convenient location, but there are also some incredible finds to be had if you know where to look.   Another benefit of shopping here for your gaming fix is that you have more negotiating power and more often than not, the sellers of these games aren’t wholly aware of how much everything they have is worth.  Point in case, I once found a brand new copy of Final Fantasy III for SNES for 10 bucks.  Sure it’s the gamer’s equivalent of dumpster diving, but that doesn’t change the fact that every now and then you can find some incredible items.  Plus, there’s always the satisfaction of finding that one rare old game that nobody else seems to have.

2. Garage Sales

This kind of goes arm-in-arm with flea markets, but often those selling are parents whose kids have gone off to college and they’re just trying to offload all of their old junk.  However, when I say ‘junk’ what I really mean is typically pristine games sold dirt cheap.  One of my buddies made off with a Sega Dreamcast with over 30 games for a mere $2- one of which was the ever elusive Marvel vs. Capcom 2, which is selling for $450 by itself on Amazon new.  Also, be sure to hit up ritzy neighborhoods as people with more money than sense typically don’t care to sell off hardware/software for cheap as they just don’t want the junk around any longer.  This isn’t hard for Nicole and I as we live in a carefully constructed network of old refrigerator boxes and have learned to simply follow the combined smell of smug and italian leather to find our warez.

3. Mom and Pop Shops

If you’re looking for a good deal, usually you want to steer clear of any big name chains.  The reason for this is they’ve already established a solid customer base and they know you’ll pay whatever they say and they don’t need to bargain with you because there are a kajillion Final Fantasy fanboys right behind you that would give their middle nut for that fancy new collector’s edition.  However, if you check online for locally owned game shops you’ll often find friendlier staff, a better selection of older games, and usually more of a willingness to negotiate as it’s already hard enough to compete with the likes of Best Buy and Gamestop.  One in particular I enjoy is Play N Trade.  You can hit their website here – http://playntrade.com.

4. CheapAssGamer.com

I consider this to be one of the grand daddy’s of gaming deals.  They have an excellent forum with plenty of links to outrageous deals everywhere from store liquidations to coupon downloads for larger stores. You can also follow them on twitter allowing you to periodically recieve updates with deals revealing cheap games online. I’ve found all kinds of deals here and it’s not uncommon for workers at stores like Gamestop and Best Buy to post used deals in advance to sales ads that come out from those stores allowing you to get a jump on all the forthcoming deals from larger stores.

This was originally meant to be 5 places to find cheap games, but I could only think of these as the places I regularly find good deals.  Where else have you been able to find cheap games?

No related posts.