From some shady seller on ebay who might put a copy of Fisting Firemen 9 in the case instead? Yeah I think I'll pass. Too much effort and risk involved. I've gotten burned on used Amazon and Ebay movies and games before. They send you something so scratched it doesn't play. Or if it's a movie, they take out the actual movie and just send you the extras disc no one cares about. And it's so little money usually, it's not even worth the effort of fighting them on it. I've had such bad experiences, I no longer buy second hand discs. And like supersonic said, at a store, used copies are only $5 less than new.
On average I play less per game on PC thanks to the seasonal Steam Sales and decent deals that pop up here and there. Also, the prices of PC games tend to drop faster. However, on average, I tend to pay $30 to $50 on PS3 games through internet deals. I bought Max Payne 3 on PC for $30 in a sale on Steam. Very nice deal. However, I just did a quick search and found Max Payne 3 on sale for $32 on PS3 and 360 on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0022TNO7S/ref=amb_link_364778042_2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-6&pf_rd_r=93DB22CA3DA04BF8A03D&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1392007662&pf_rd_i=409566 You can good pretty decent prices on console games as well. It just takes a bit more prowling the interwebz for deals. This is the website I usually use to spot discounts on console games: http://gamerdeals.net/ I've probably saved thousands over the years on console games shopping this way.
@aks True, but you also tend to buy games right after they come out. If you don't care about that, you can usually load up during the Steam holiday sale with enough games to keep you occupied for a year for the cost of one or two console games. I bought a dozen games one year for $60, and none of them were crap. Most of them were AAA games that were six months to a year old. Not if you read the comments and stick to trusted uploaders.
I thought we were talking about Steam. What do torrents have to do with anything? Steam is cheaper, safer, and more convenient than dealing with ebay. That's not even debatable. Ebay is the internet's flea market. Sometimes you can find good deals, but you can also get burned.
Another thing I will say in favor of Valve/Steam and their sales is that I've probably cut my game torrenting down by about 90%. No point really when you can get real copies of games so cheap.
Torrents were used as a "pro" for PC's, in that you could "try before you buy" (with no mention of pitfalls), but then EBay suddenly becomes scary/shady for cmdrmonkey when it turns out that console games sold on EBay are actually cheaper most of the time than Steam. I think that's highly I-R-O-N-I-C.
This thread now belongs in the dumpster. You started comparing used vs. new, when Steam should be compared with Amazon or another e-tailer. Now torrents are being introduced to make used game on ebay seem less risky. I've had good experiences with ebay, but you can't compare that price to Steam. Those people are selling used games for whatever they can get, not trying to turn a profit. They are slightly more motivated then a person that does a Gamestop trade-in. At that point, you should just camp outside a GameStop. When you see someone coming to trade in games, outmaneuver GS by offering $6. Or maybe just form-tackle them and runaway with the game. That would save you the most money.
Alterego took a big dump on this thread. His arguments don't even make logical sense. What's up with him lately. First he makes homophobic remarks in another thread, and now this.
No, I originally said that you could buy a console game NEW and then sell it to recoup part of your money (the closer you sell to launch, the more you get for it), AND THEN went on to point out that you could also buy games USED on EBay that were either just as cheap or cheaper than a Steam SALE...sales which usually don't happen when the game is NEW (i.e., at launch). You can't really claim a game is NEW six months down the road during a Steam sale, which appears to be the argument being used now. cmdrmonkey brought up the "shady/risky" angle as an attempt at discrediting EBay when it turned out resale prices generally matched Steam sales.
You know very well everyone is talking pre-owned vs original owner, not new in terms of time lapsed from the release date. If you went and tried to buy a console game used (non-ebay/craigslist) you would pay ~ $5 below the factory sealed unit. Of course, you could get a fantastic deal on Ebay, but it's not a guarantee anymore than a Steam sale is. In an apple to apple comparison, PC games have a $10 price advantage on their console counterparts.
Asian father needs to read the thread starter, which included price of games as an advantage for PC's due to Steam...and yet Steam doesn't really beat the resale market for disc based games.
And you know very well that what you're buying is the code that runs the game. With Steam, the code is downloaded to your HDD. With a resale, you get the code on a disc. NO DIFFERENCE. It's not like a used car or a house.
Except with Steam there's no chance of getting ripped off by a shady seller. You also get to download and play the game right away instead of waiting a week or more for it to come in the mail. Even if we can't agree on the pricing, certainly we can agree that steam is safer and more convenient than buying console games second hand on ebay?
I'll agree with convenience in some ways, but not others. For example, it's not actually more convenient to wait for a Steam sale for a game like Skyrim. The odds are in favor of getting a heavily discounted console copy much sooner through EBay.