The gravy days of pre-owned resellers is no more as countless buy sell trade outfits count their losses in the wake of the nation’s tightening recession.

Once upon a time customers were happy to walk into a GameStop and accept a couple of bucks for a quick trade in. Not any more.

Recession hit customers are now paying closer attention to the true value of their trade-ins, and seeking local buyers on Craigslist who’ll pay much more.

Outfits like GameStop, who earn more of their revenue from pre-owned trade-ins than anything else, have seen their pre-owned markets deteriorate as more customers move away. One store manager in Palo Alto said “It’s hard to tell a local customers who needs to sell his games collection that we can offer him 30 bucks when he could sell them the same day on Craigslist for over $100…

“Cutting margins hasn’t really helped. Buyers on Craigslist are willing to pay much more than we can… when customers had money in their pockets, they wouldn’t think twice about trading in 5 games for a new one. Now they need the money and are prepared to look elsewhere for a better offer…” Located primarily in trouble hit suburban Malls, GameStop’s suffering is exacerbated as customers choose the internet over a costly car journey. Enticements such as no tax & free shipping make Spun, Secondspin & soon to be launched trade 2 save, more appealing than ever for customers wanting to get a fair trade for their stuff.

Traditionally, buy sell trade stores have done well in times of recession, however, with store overheads and staffing costs, stores need to make a significant margin of between 50-90% on trade-ins.

Online retailers like SecondSpin and Spun offer the same trade-in service online, but with margins of 50% or more for even the very latest games, they still don’t come close to competing with the direct selling power customers have on Craigslist.

“In a tightening market, pre-owned resellers are going to have to slash their margins or go out of business” says Denis Ramirez, CTO at trade 2 save “… but it’s easier said than done… with stores to run and staff to pay there’s just no tangible way to compete… they’re losing their market the same way Blockbusters lost out to Netflix… only specialist online retailers [with no store overheads]… will attract customers by paying more for trade-ins”

Trade 2 save (www.trade2save.com) - launching at the end of the year - will buy and sell games, movies, computing, electronics and music online only. With no store overhead, trade 2 save will offer customers up to 80% of the resale value of their trade-ins. Combining this with conveniences like free shipping and a warranty is the only way buy sell trade merchants can hope to compete in a new economic environment.