Referring back to an article on Glyde.com I wrote in March, I’d like to update you on my experience with this website and how it has been successful for me, and more importantly, how it can be successful for you. Since March, I have seen this site grow significantly from the alpha stage to beta stage. Glyde went from about a dozen Xbox 360 games when I first tested this site out, to over 170 Xbox 360 games currently listed for sale by other gamers. No doubt their used game inventory will expand even further for all consoles, including the PS3, Wii and even hand held games for the PSP and DS
I want to share with you my personal experience using Glyde, but first, here is a list of reasons to use Glyde.com to buy and sell used games. If this list doesn’t convince you to use Glyde, maybe my story below will. This list is in no particular order.
1. It’s not GameStop! No more accepting incredibly low trade-in credit and then seeing that same game for sale on the shelf for twice the amount they paid you for it.
2. You are selling your game directly to fellow gamers, much like yourself. No corporate markups here. Glyde charges a 10% fee from your sale and a small shipping cost for the mailer they send you to ship out to the buyer, which is totally worth it.
3. No need to use Craigslist or similar sites anymore to schedule a ‘meetup’ in order to sell your game to a random stranger at some random public parking lot. Why go through the hassle? Why bother taking and editing photos of your game for your ‘for sale’ ad? Glyde does it for you.
4. Get more value out of your used games. You can choose to sell your game at the market price Glyde recommends, or change the amount you want to charge for it. You are in control.
5. Find games at a lower cost than retail chain stores. Again, you’re buying and selling gamer to gamer. No “middle man” markup for corporate profits. There are many deals to be found.
6. Have your profits mailed to you by check, have your profits directly deposited into your bank account, or just use the credit to buy other games listed for sale, from other Glyde users.
7. No up-front fees to use Glyde. It’s free to sign up so if you have some games in your collection collecting dust, why not list them for sale and give gamers a chance to play a game you obviously aren’t going to play ever again?
8. Customer service, customer service, customer service. There are some really cool guys I have communicated with over at Glyde. Feel free to send them an email with any comments, complaints or suggestions on improving their site. They will listen to you! (Unlike the guy behind the GameStop counter who chooses to answer the phone over and over again instead of dealing with the line of customers in front of him.)
Now onto the actual numbers. You’re asking yourself, “is this worth it? I need to see actual examples from a Glyde user”, right? If the list above did not convince you, here are the games I have sold on Glyde and my overall profits from each sale. Every game I have listed on Glyde.com, I have sold. Some took a few months in the beginning, some took a few weeks, some have only taken a couple of days. Either way, I found that this site works for me. I don’t get that guilty feeling you get when trading in your games. You know that feeling I’m talking about. It’s like, only $5 credit for this game? Man! Well, alright.. it’s $5 off the new game I really want. I’ll save money whenever I can. And so you do it anyway. I say, no more my friends.
Left 4 Dead: Sold for $25.50. After the 10% fee of $2.55 and the $1.25 mailer, my profit was $21.70. I originally bought the game for $50 so I almost got half of my money back.
F.E.A.R. 2: Sold for $10.00. After the 10% fee of $1.00 and the $1.25 mailer, my profit was $7.75. Don’t know if this was a good deal or not, but the game wasn’t in demand like L4D was, so I took what I could get.
Fallout 3: Sold for $20.25. After the 10% fee of $2.02 and the $1.25 mailer, my profit was $16.98. I was done with the game and never wanted to play it again. I think someone got a good deal on this one and I was happy to sell it to them.
Mario Kart Wii: Sold for $35.00. After the 10% fee of $3.50 and the $1.75 mailer (bigger package due to inclusion of the Wii wheel= more cost for mailer), my profit was $29.75. Not a bad deal as I was able to take that money and put it towards Wii Sports Resort instead, which is getting more playtime than Mario Kart did.
Call of Duty 4: Sold for $23.75. After the 10% fee of $2.37 and the $1.25 mailer, my profit was $20.13. This was the last game I sold, and that was just this week. Why keep COD4 around when Modern Warfare 2 is right around the corner? Once a sequel comes out, I’m the type of gamer that does not go back to the game before. It’s time to move on.
Finally, the one game I have purchased on Glyde surprisingly made me money. Here is how:
I purchased Assassin’s Creed during a Glyde promotion for $17.56 including shipping costs. (Buyer pays shipping) At the time Glyde was offering a $10 credit when purchasing games, so in the end, I only paid $7.56 for Assassin’s Creed, and sure enough, a $10 credit was deposited into my Glyde account. Played the game, enjoyed it, and then decided to re-sell the same game on Glyde for more than I originally paid for it.
Re-sold Assassin’s Creed for $16.00 and after the 10% fee of $1.60 and the $1.25 mailer, my profit was $13.15. So in the end, due to Glyde’s promotion, I ended up getting paid more than $5 to play an awesome next gen game. And the cool thing about Glyde is, they do these kinds of promotions all the time. Take advantage while you can! Follow them on Facebook. Follow them on Twitter. Oh hell, while you’re at it, follow me on Twitter as well. Glyde.com is still a new site so they want your business, but they won’t be making money, if you’re not making money first. It’s a win-win situation if you ask me.
I encourage you to at least try Glyde out to see if it works for you. It has for me and I will continue to use it when selling my used games. The only negative I can see someone arguing is the amount of time it takes for a buyer to receive their game. (Glyde sends the seller the mailer which takes a couple of days, then the seller sends the game to the buyer, which takes a couple of more depending on when the seller drops it off) But you’re most likely getting a good deal so patience will go a long way. Besides that, Glyde is also a great place to find used DVD’s, CD’s and even books. What’s a book you ask? I don’t know, but you can buy and sell them too. Check the site out for yourself, it’s most definitely worthy of your time.
The Gamer Report 
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