How to sell used video games for cash: Top 8 ways

Owning physical copies of video games remains a hobby for millions of people around the world, but where do you go once you no longer need them? You go to one of our top platforms for selling used video games, of course.

The easiest way to flip a used video game copy is to sell it to a friend or a family member, but you’ll run out of those sooner or later, and that’s where reselling platforms come in. You shouldn’t trust just anyone promising to pay you for your games, but you can trust the following top eight marketplaces, because we’ve done the research, and they’re all legit.

1) Amazon

Amazon offers two ways to sell your used video games—trading them in or shipping them on the open market. The Amazon Trade-In program is straightforward. There’s a list of games they accept, and if your items are on that list, you can sell them to Amazon for a more or less set price. Prices can fluctuate based on Amazon’s quality assessment, but if you’re thorough in your item description, you shouldn’t worry about that. You only get paid in Amazon Gift Cards, which may be an insurmountable issue for some.

You could get a much higher price trying to sell to an independent buyer through Amazon’s front page, but that comes with its own drawbacks. You must pay Amazon a dollar per sale or $40 per month if you plan on selling more than 40 games in 30 days. That’s still lower than most competitors. The real challenge would be getting your items to sell because Amazon has a trust system, which could be a hurdle early on. If you get over it, though, the profits will likely be higher than they would be in any other marketplace.

2) Decluttr

Decluttr is the best dedicated tech reselling platform around. As such, it has a streamlined, user-friendly procedure for trading in your used video games. You can either type in the barcode on the site or scan it with the free mobile application. Decluttr will return an immediate evaluation of your item, and you can choose whether to proceed from there.

If you go through with the sale, you’ll enjoy free shipping and payment as early as a day after the shipment is complete. Decluttr’s service doesn’t have any notable drawbacks, the only potential blemish being the exclusion of PC games altogether from the platform, but that’s common practice these days.

3) Swappa

Swappa has a wide range of products you can sell, though your video games must fit within their preset database. Listing an item for sale is free, but the actual transaction isn’t, as you and the buyer are taxed three percent of the sale’s total cost. You also have to cover shipping expenses, so you can potentially lose a few bucks of profit on your purchase.

To make up for these minor taxes, Swappa unconventionally pays you after the package is sent, not after it’s received. You can theoretically receive payment for your video game within 24 hours of listing it if it sells within a few hours, and you ship it immediately after. This unique approach has made Swappa a viable platform despite requiring minor investments to sell items.

4) eBay

To be clear from the start, eBay’s primary advantage over other platforms is its wide market reach. After all, you can’t sell anything if no one’s there to see what you’re selling. The service itself could be better or worse than what you’ve seen so far depending on how hands-on you want to be with transactions.

There’s more manual work on eBay. You have to fill in all the information about your items yourself, you also have to interact directly with buyers, unlike the automated systems we’ve gone through up until now. There are limits on how many items you can sell and a variable 10-15 percent fee on completed transactions. You also handle shipping fees, though you can adjust how much, if any of it is paid by you, and how much by the buyer.

The transaction limit wouldn’t come into play unless you have hundreds of video games to sell, but everything else must be considered before selling on eBay. You’ll probably sell your items fast, but you also need to be prepared for the manual proceedings and relatively high fees.

5) Gameflip

Gameflip is a marketplace for physical and digital copies of video games and even in-game items, which makes it incredibly versatile. It doesn’t charge you anything for listing items and offers you the option to charge the buyer the shipping fees. It’s more streamlined than eBay, retaining the general structure without as much interaction with potential buyers.

You pay 10-12 percent of your transaction’s worth as a service fee upon completion, which is one of two cons to Gameflip. The other is the speed of payment, which can take up to three or four days after the buyer has confirmed receipt. Gameflip states this system is in place for additional protection of both parties, which is the best reason you can come up with, but it doesn’t change the fact it’s a rather slow transaction pace.

6) OfferUp

OfferUp is an open marketplace where you can sell anything, including used video games. Listing an item for sale is easy, though you’ll have to fill in everything from the item’s title to its (your) location manually. Some of these categories are mandatory, so getting to that Sent button can take more than just a few minutes.

Filling out the full form has its perks. You have the option to set the price in stone or leave it open to negotiations. You can also avoid most buyer interactions by setting your offers to auto-accept the first buyer who matches your conditions. The flexibility offered by OfferUp is its best asset, but that comes at a price.

OfferUp is completely free to use if you opt for in-person delivery. However, shipping could get steep, because you get taxed with a 13 percent service fee, excluding shipping costs. The buyer would usually handle any shipping fees, but that 13 percent is all yours to cover as a seller.

7) The Old School Game Vault

The Old School Game Vault is a wonder for anyone with a large collection of old video games and is more or less useless for everyone else. All you have to do to sell your games at The Old School Game Vault is find the games in their database and add them to your cart, then finish the steps to complete the transaction. There are no service or shipping fees, and you know upfront exactly how much you’ll get paid.

All this would be great if not for a couple of major restrictions. The Old School Game Vault lives up to its name and doesn’t accept games beyond the sixth console generation. You must also accumulate a package of games that exceeds $100 in total value, or your sale won’t go through, so you’re basically locked out of selling singular titles or ones released in the last 15 years.

8) GameStop

GameStop trade-ins are sometimes memed on for the poor value they present, but like with many other things in life, people might be willing to give up some money for convenience. All you have to do to sell your used video game at GameStop is to find one of their stores and trade it in for cash or store credit. If you happen to live near a store, you could have the money in your pocket minutes after you decide to sell.

You likely won’t get as great a monetary deal as you would at some of our other recommendations, but if you have video games to get rid of, GameStop is by far the quickest way to do it. You can find out how much you will receive for your game in GameStop’s trade-in list. As with most marketplaces, they do not accept any PC games.

Key tips before you sell your games

One general tip you should always abide by is to only sell your games on platforms with a proven record. All of our suggestions meet that criteria, and transactions should be as smooth as if conducted in person, but if you want to go another route, only do so on marketplaces with enough positive reviews to back up their reputation.

Adjust your video games’ price in accordance with any service and shipping fees. That way, you won’t be unpleasantly surprised by lower profit margins than expected. You should also compare prices of recently sold similar items if possible, to avoid underselling or sitting on an item for long due to unreasonable pricing.

You’d want to fill in as much information about your item as a platform allows. It would help buyers find your games more easily and would spare you answering frequent basic questions about details you could have listed on the item info.

Don’t panic if a shipment or a payment is taking a bit longer to go through. If you’re working with a legitimate platform, you’ll get yours eventually. To guarantee everything is right on your end, always confirm the games you’re selling still function properly and have them in the best condition possible before sending them out.

Key Takeaways

There are plenty of trustworthy platforms where you can sell used video games. What’s more, you can do it your way. You can do everything manually or rely on the platform to do the work for you. You can even walk to a store and hand in your game for an immediate payout. Most online marketplaces require a service fee that’s within reasonable limits in exchange for a secure transaction. Remember, your bank balance will be higher if you sell your old games than if you don’t, regardless of the service fee.

FAQ

Is it legal to sell used video games?

Yes, selling used video games is perfectly legal, as long as the copies themselves have been legally acquired in the first place.

Can you get scammed when selling used video games?

There’s always the possibility of a scam occurring in any transaction, which is why using a marketplace with a proven background is so important. The likelihood of you getting scammed is reduced to near zero when relying on the services of a respectable platform.

Do you pay taxes when selling your used video games?

You only pay taxes on profit, not income. As long as you can prove you didn’t make a profit on reselling your video game collection, you won’t have to pay taxes. Having proof of purchase would help a long way with that.