Buying, renting, trading in. How do you go about it all?

Okay, I can't edit my post, but I forgot to say the reason I like buying them and keeping them is that I like returning to older games. As an example, I just played through the majority of Republic Commando as it just became backward compatible, so I'm glad I still have the disc. If I rented or traded them in, it's not as easy to do that.

As someone who wants to play anything I can get my hands on, I have no problems with trading in old games to get new stuff. While this does result in my wishing I had a old game I want to play on occasion, for the most part, I don't really mind getting rid of stuff. There are just too many games I want to play at some point to be worried about stuff I've already finished.

I also don't mind renting games or using Gamestop's 7-day used return policy to play through stuff and get my money back afterwards, especially as someone who rarely has money to spend on new games.

I replay games a lot, so I never trade games in or sell them. I did that I was a kid trying to scratch together enough money to buy games, but I always ended up regretting it. I sold almost my entire Gamecube library at one point (I think it was to buy an Xbox? I can't quite remember), and have since gone back and bought all of them back again. I'll never sell a game again.

I’ve always bought games and kept them forever. All my Wii and PS3 games are still on a shelf, but as I have started buying fewer games and moved to digital, I don’t have many uses for physical discs anymore. I don’t play any of my old games so they just sit on the shelf collecting dust.

I’m going to trade everything in for cash. I’ve got probably around 80 games with Wii + PS3 + DS so that should be a decent amount of bonus money plus the extra space will be nice.

I keep pretty much all of my games, since I find myself going back to older games when I'm in the mood. I'll only sell games when I know there's no chance of me going back.

If I want to sell something used I'll sometimes put it on eBay or Craigslist to get a decent price. I don't really have an attachment to the physical copy of a game after I've played through it.

I used to buy physical and trade a lot of stuff in. Best Buy was a dream for deals. For a while there in the 360 generation, you’d get a $10-20 gift card for preordering, 20% off the MSRP for being part of their loyalty program, and they’d still pricematch competitors for up to 45 or 90 days or something.

Gears of War 3, for example, was $60 down to $48 with a $20 gift card, so right off the bat, it’s basically costing me $28. Target had a sale within the 45-90 days where it was $45, so they gave me another $15 gift card to make up the MSRP difference. I’d wind up paying $13 for a lot of games.

I think I had an issue there with Resident Evil 6, where it was down to $30 at a local Kmart or something. They had an issue pricematching it to -$2.00.

It was insane and I’m pretty sure the store was doing it wrong.

I gave up on the deals to embrace digital games. I pay more, but they take up no room on my shelf, I share them with my kid’s consoles, and I don’t have to put any discs in. Also, no going to stores.

It’s more expensive, but I’d never go back.

The games I trade in are games that I generally didn't like too much. Anything less that a 4 star game to me will get traded in. 4 or 5 star games will get kept because I liked them so much I may want to play them again.

I resell games I know I’m not going back to in the near future. If I ever feel like playing one again, I’ll rebuy it on a deep discount. In the console space I only buy digital when something’s ridiculously cheap.

@ll_exile_ll: Same for me. When I was younger and couldn't come up with $60 as easily I would trade. I bought Mass Effect 1 like 3 times because of trading it back in college and then wanting to replay it.

Now I am lucky enough to have a job that pays well enough for me to buy the games I want so I have no desire/need to trade in games. On top of that I am buying almost exclusively digital now.

I've only ever traded in one game, and have never sold any games or consoles.

Never trade it in. When I buy a game I'm almost always 100% certain I will like it and never really had the urge or a reason to trade in stuff, so I keep everything. These days I'm also mostly digital (thank you insane PSN and steam sales) so that's also a factor. Having a nice collection is awesome. I would not hesitate to trade in some stuff if my financial situation suddenly became horrible though. That's an exception. Also never rent stuff, digital trials/demos are enough, and if a game doesn't have one, I can tell if I will like it or not, by reading/watching stuff about it. As mentioned above, I know my tastes extremely well and every game I buy I know I'll enjoy it. I'm very careful and deliberate with my purchases. Not once have I bought a game and disliked it or regretted it.

I had a really massive CD collection when I worked at this local music store when I lived in Colorado and eventually sold it all with no regrets so I thought I would feel a thing when I sold a bunch of my Xbox 360 games and I was wrong. It pains me to this day. So, I don’t trade in games anymore.

When I was a teen in the early 90s, I did some trade-ins and often regretted them. As a result, I tended to hold onto everything. That being said, I've done two relatively large trade-ins in the last 10 years, and it was mostly stuff I knew I was never going to play again (or in some other cases, had never played and knew I'd never play it).

These days I'm mostly digital with my new games purchases, but I also don't own a modern console system. The newest systems I own are the Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360, but I also have a relatively powerful gaming PC and 1000+ games on Steam. I could see myself selling off more of my older games collection (Atari, NES, SNES, Genesis, etc.) in the future.

I tend to keep most of my games, unless I'm well into the next generation and most of my favorite games have been remastered. Which is the case with most of my favorite games from last gen. So I just sold most of my PS3, Wii U and 360 games from last generation.

Buy and keep.

I've traded in games for a new game in the past and I've always regretted it. Not because I feel I didn't get my money's worth, but because I just like to keep the game on hand in case I ever return to it. And I often do return to games I've previously finished.

It’s so rare for me to go back to once finished games anymore that I don’t mind trading them in. But it’s fairly rare these days, if only because I have to mail them (for free) to the store I’m potentially buying something from, because the nearest Gamestop is an hour away from here. Most of my physical PS4 games are also fancy editions and I care about those enough to not sell them. I *also* make enough money these days that I technically don’t really have to bother with trading, but if I’m 100% sure that I won’t play something again, I might as well use it to get a small discount.

Renting games hasn’t been a thing over here since the PS2 days, unless we’re counting borrowing games from the library. I don’t think our local one has that big of a selection.

I used to rent and trade when I didn't have a job/early in my career when my pay wasn't great. Now that I'm more comfortable I just buy games and keep them. The funny thing is I probably spend less on games now than I did back then.

If I didn't play most things on PC I would rent more, but that's not an option. Origin Access and Game Pass feel like renting though. Anyone in the UK looking for a good online rental place, try Boomerang.

Rather than trading in I use ebay. Better value for a little more effort. Plus I enjoy the experience.

I used to buy mostly physical copies and trade them for other games when I finished. Now, I buy mostly digital games. I will occasionally go to Gamestop to buy a used game. Even then, I do not find myself trading in games as much as I used to do.

I just wait for everything to go on sale. Most games are sub $25 after a year. Much easier to buy low and keep it than deal with the whole trade in thing. When I am really done with a game I tend to give them away to friends and family.

no rentals here so i buy them, second hand games aren't that much cheaper than new so I always buy new (although not always day 1), I never trade them in because the stores don't give me a lot and I like to keep them for potential backwards compatibility or emulation in the future, or just replaying them in general.

for digital i wait for sales, no trading in so yeah, although there's steam refund which i rarely use.