Florida may be the sunshine state, but when it rains, it really rains.
Just near my house you can get the full experience of fording a river like you are a jungle explorer if it rains for more than a day. My little car can’t ford those rivers, so sometimes I just stay home, think dry thoughts and distract myself from how ugly it is outside. A great way to do this is by playing video games.
Call me old-fashioned, but when I was growing up, if the sun was shining, I was outside enjoying the day, but if it rained, I was inside collecting the “Tri-Force” or racing karts driven by plumbers and dinosaurs. I play video games whenever I want now. The only problem is how darn expensive this hobby has gotten. I was at Wal-Mart the other day, and they wanted $70 for a new release. I’m not sure who would think that is a reasonable price but I’d imagine he or she is not a college student.
A long time ago, a high school friend introduced me to a great place to get video games — the glorious and informative Internet. There are all kinds of places online where you can get the most for your buck. Auctions, classifieds and streaming are some great examples of how you can never leave your house to get a game.
Applications like Steam let you buy games, download them and play them right on your computer. If you’ve never used Steam, it’s an online store where you can buy a large variety of games and then play them almost instantly, but you never actually get a physical copy of the game.
I prefer going to a store to get my games. I like the physical copy, more stuff to lose. Not to drop a plug here, but GameStop is a pretty good choice when it comes to buying and selling games. The stores in Broward operate like a pawn shop and, literally, have you fingerprint sign your transactions, which can be a little weird, but saving $12.99 is all worth it.
There are other choices of used video games, but I prefer GameStop. The membership program they use enables you to save a small percentage on some purchases and gives you more on your trade.
Cool little tip about GameStop: they have a seven day return policy that allows you to return used games in exchange for other used games of the same value. Bought a game and hated it? Just trade it in for a new one. Don’t like that one either? Trade it again. Basically, GameStop won’t give you your money back, but at least you don’t get stuck with something you don’t like.
The best advice I can give someone who wants to play video games for cheap is to buy an older system. An old Nintendo or Sega can be found for less than $50, and there is still tons of great fun to be had with it just as if it was a new system.
Playing the waiting game is really the best way to purchase video games today. So, consider that before you fork over $60 to play this year’s “Madden.” Paying full price is for chumps.
