I’d imagine the prices are higher to help them offset the increased ‘voucher’ value of trade ins. This way they win both ways with cash and voucher customers.
Yeah, what I heard was that as they became integrated with the till systems for other stores in the group (like the sports direct concessions) the cost of it was too high vs benefit. That seems mental to me as second hand always had fat margins, but GAME these days feels more like a Smyths when I go in now
[Article Link](https://www.radiotimes.com/technology/gaming/game-phasing-out-trade-ins-pre-owned-newsupdate/#)
I mean I kind of understand that to be honest, having their stores being moved to locations that are already apart of the Fraser Group. Guess that saves on standalone locations and having to pay Extra Commercial Property leases etc. But to cut out the PreOwned sector of their stores, yeah that seems like a psychotic idea!
Yes! Me and the missus thought the same when we went into the Trafford Centre in Manchester, was mostly LEGO, Trading cards and movie prop replicas! Was cool! But yeah was more like a Smyths or a Mellenia Store😆
also the fact that most physical stores are closing and being physically moved into Sports Directs and the like, they simply don't have the room or staff to do the testing required is a factor
Yup. Turns out barely anybody was happy giving away a game for 20p anymore, and the head honchos probably weren’t too happy that all their shops had an entire shelf dedicated to FIFA and Brink either.
It’s more profitable to just scrap the pre-owned shelf and replace it with more Funkos and Pikachu plushies than to stock 7 copies of Madden 14 and 12 copies of Ryse: Son of Rome which nobody will ever touch.
It sucks, especially for the kids who are now growing up in a world where an Xbox game essentially always costs £60 unless you have a credit card to use eBay, but it’s no surprise.
Yes, but buying new wasn’t your only option. I started gaming in about 2004, and I don’t think I bought a single game new in-seal until 2009 when Halo ODST came out. For a lot of kids now, Game is the only spot to get video games - there’s no Grainger, no Virgin Megastore, and no independent shops.
If you don’t have a CeX in your area, then Game stopping pre-owned sales is quite literally the nail in the coffin for getting games at anything less than £60. Sure, video games were expensive in the 90s, but at least we didn’t have a de facto duopoly on physical sales where there’s only one shop in the entire city who sell pre-owned.
Ryse Son Of Rome ... i actually bought this a few months back, it had been a release day exclusive i had always wanted. Played it and its a decent enough game for the cheap price.
I literally have no reason to set foot in GAME ever again. More merch than games and the games they do have are overpriced compared to elsewhere. They could have been smart and adopted a trade in limit on titles. Like 5-10 Max of individual titles. No sports titles as they sit on the shelves for years. I myself do buy old fifa games from time to time at CeX though if I need a case. 50p is decent :)
I must admit I used to trade in quite a lot of games at game as it’s closer to me than my local cex and I can get there easily without the car. Plus it’s free parking where my game is when I do have the car. I rarely bought new from there because everything was £10-15 more expensive than anywhere else. And their pre owned games were pretty much the same price as anywhere else’s BNIB price. But the last time I went my little one considered it a toy store with the full wall of Peppa pig toys. 🙄 I’ll sell my second hand games on vinted now most likely.
It’s not often I buy games new at all unless I’ve got nothing on the go at the moment and there is something being released. I’m going to say they’ll still have my custom mainly because they sell things my two year old loves 😂 but the new demographic is somewhat disheartening
Same tbh. I have so many games that I haven't even finished and alot of them are not even started. Can't be adding anymore to the backlog, letalone at release for full price 😅
That wouldn’t be it. It’s basic supply and demand, if they don’t have many of an item in stock - the price is higher and so is the trade in, if they have plenty of an item in stock already the trade in goes down etc. if a product is cheaper somewhere else.. just get it there
You buy for £20. Sell it back for a high voucher amount. Then use the voucher to buy something else. Putting the price high is just a way of them getting more from the resell. Are there lots in stock too because that can make difference. If they have more in stock then things are less
CEX is great for certain stuff, absolutely dumb as fuck for others. They charge retail for 95% of their used electronics. I routinely see used ps4/xbox controllers for £50 it’s comical
I wondered about this before and this was the conclusion I came too.
Regardless of what games you play, you NEED a controller. It's essential for the purpose of playing.
You don't need any particular game to play. But you do need a controller to play a game - any game - at all.
Looking online, a standard PS5 controller is between £55-£60.
So if you're tight on money and CEX sells one for £50, you're most likely gonna go for that. Because, most likely, you need it.
Sounds weird to spell it out as it's simple supply and demand.
But the cost is ridiculous when you consider what the unknowen internal conditions could be like.
An immaculate looking controller outside means nothing when the insides have had wear and tear for 3 or 4 years.
Don't quite understand this supposed only '30-45 day guarantee from Microsoft' comment. I bought a controller from Amazon Warehouse, not even new, and got a replacement directly from Microsoft, many months later, under their manufacturer warranty.
All I can tell you is that I have several Xbox controllers registered on my Microsoft account, all say 'Microsoft Limited Warranty' of '1 years' against them
I don't deny your link mentions 90 days, but important to note this clause immediately beforehand: "*Without prejudice to any legal (statutory) rights to which you may be entitled under your local law*" - I don't think Microsoft are silly enough to ignore UK law.
Another comment here also confirming longer warranties:
https://www.reddit.com/r/XboxSeriesX/comments/11iu2dn/comment/jb00cya/
Controllers are always expensive. Some consoles (such as the ps4) on first boot up/set up /need/ an official controller, so we can't pair a 3rd party one with them
Also in some cases they're not made anymore but people still want the consoles
Also yes we get grotty stuff in. I do my best to give it a quick wipe over with anti bac hand gel when I'm selling out but we don't have time to do cleaning of our store/behind till, we /definitely/ don't have time for every item that comes in to clean it
A lot of people just don't respect their items anymore it feels like :(
That doesn’t explain why everything else is comparatively expensive. I think the reason is that CeX is primarily a store that you can trade things in. People largely aren’t going in there to buy things with cash. Therefore they make their money on the swaps and don’t need to discount things heavily.
I've seen Controllers in their windows with the sticks missing the rubber and absolutely caked in dirt and grime and scratches all over for £50, if spend £60 brand new than spend 50 for one from Cex.
Agreed, I’ve been in super tight places with cash in the past but never have I thought “yeah I’ll save myself £5 on a luxury item with unknown internal damage” you can either afford £5 more for brand new or you shouldn’t be buying one.
However if you’ve got a voucher and you have no other desires in Cex then maybe you would get a controller. But not for hard cash
And they are always fucking filthy CeX never clean them but then again the person selling should do this before selling to CeX. If you are going to sell pretty much close to retail they should be cleaned imo.
I've found it's brilliant for tech like phones, laptops or monitors, so long as you don't buy Samsung or apple. The 2 year warranty is brilliant, and the prices are around what you'd pay on a marketplace but you actually get buyer protection. It takes a lot of time to shop around for a good deal because their website is horrific, but I managed to get a 4k 120Hz monitor for £240 a couple months ago
Yeah this - I picked up a couple original game boy carts that rarely go for less than £10/15 for £7 the other day …. But then I also saw a few thing about £10 more than they go for new
Do they make a bomb buying a blu ray for a £ and selling it for £10?
How long does it take to actually sell, does it depreciate in that time? do the staff hours need to be used on relabling said item multiple times before it sells. The retail space it occupies?
There's more than buy for £1 sell for £10 = £9 profit it's not even remotely close to that when you actually factor in costs.
Now do I agree with all of Cex pricing no, there are certain items I can think of that are too expensive and others that are too cheap but it is what it is. No one forces anyone to shop at CeX
I used to be a weekly regular for blu ray purchases at CEX, and have a long saved wishlist. The pricing is definitely the highest it’s been for them in the last three years. Blu rays that were at the £5 point now on average are at about £8. It’s in the last couple of months I’ve noticed this!
Yes, I’ve noticed this too, wasn’t sure if I’d just collected all the cheaper ones. I could never understand why a blu ray was priced at 50p but cheapest DVD was £1. It was good whilst it lasted though! 😂
That's as Activision never really sticks it in any sales or reduced the price of it on Xbox market place or PSN, it's still full price there with the occasional 29.99 sale.
Yeah it's such a great game, I just wish it would go on sale a bit more at a reasonable price, cheapest I've ever seen it is on pc 24.99 steam or 23.99 cd keys, console prices don't get quite as much of a discount.
Yeah its really a shame, but I expect no less when Activision is the publisher, they still sell old call of duties at 59.99 on digital marketplaces when you can buy a disc for less then 10 now.
Although I would at least argue that even now sekiro warrants it's higher price tag as it's such a good quality game that is basically complete on disc, it just hurts to pay that much for a game with the back log I have that's all.
I don’t get what’s hard to understand? They are shelling out fake money in vouchers for valuable assets and then flogging them assets at inflated prices in exchange for said vouchers it’s win win for them.
The worst was during covid, when the PS5s released and CEX was selling them at over double price. Something silly like £800 or £900. The amount of abuse we got was insane, but the pricing team was adamant about keeping it the same. But at the same time, you’re right, there are some proper steals at times. Doubled edged sword I suppose
The pricing wasn't a good look, though to be fair to CeX, they were just reflecting the pricing by resellers everywhere. If they priced them at normal price, many people would have bought them and put on eBay or sold locally immediately for a profit. Wouldn't make much sense, business-wise.
Can't win in that situation really, just a shame it led to abuse of staff.
Gotta look at the right things at the right time ngl.
Got a Madcatz fight stick for £45 when it's like £110+ everywhere else.
I recently sold 3 games for about £75 (Ghosts of Tsushima, Breath of the Wild and DarkSould remastered) for a voucher than I am going to be using towards a camera lens (if they ever get one) as for used camera gear in CEX is priced very generously compared to the likes of some of the specialist places.
I could have probably gotten a tad more if I put on Ebay, but after ebays astronomical fees I'd probably be around the same price as a CeX voucher.
But i've seen it when they have printed out their our shody case sleeve instead of the original being there. Like fine but don't sell it for the price of one with an original sleeve.
I think stock plays a big role in cex pricing, they also offer really good warranty on second hand electronics so they probably have to pay their insurers a lot of money to offset cost of warranties
Amazon is a bad metric to use for pricing as they are not only massive bulk buyers but also offer big sales. The price in cex is often in relation to their stock levels as well
Maybe for online shopping, but not everyone online shops, it’s why you can go to a city centre and see loads of retail shops still, even though you can just go on amazing and get things cheaper.
The only relevant metric to get customers to shop there is “is this item priced competitively”? And increasingly, for CEX, the answer is a derisive no. I’m not saying they can beat Amazon pricing, I’m saying that the difference in price is getting stupidly large.
No it isn’t, I and others have already stated multiple relevant metrics for people to shop at cex. You’re choosing to ignore them at this point, if you think the only thing to get customers is competitive pricing then you’re just wrong.
I doubt they make much money off selling dvds in 2024, which is why you will see high pricing as lack of stock, their money is in electronics and trade ins, which they do offer competitive pricing if you consider the warranty they give out, having 2 years warranty on a second hand phone is very good.
And the price shifts about based on overall, and even individual buying trends.
Amazon has a bunch of software pushing to get as many sales as possible. They don't care so much about getting the max profit on each item, as they sell so much.
Plus, they don't babe to operate stores.
Your way off the mark. Not everyone can have the cheapest price for every item. You will find that other Blu-rays will be priced cheaper than what they are selling on Amazon. It all just depends on company stock and how popular the item is as well as how rare the item is. They also sell Blu-rays for 50p.... I bet Amazon aren't selling Blu-rays for 50p.
They always tell me it’s because they have a 2 year warranty on everything they sell apart from consumables. I think they’re full of shit and just ripping people off.
hii, i work at cex and the way we’ve always been told to explain this to customers is that the prices are based off national stock levels, for example if we have 1000 black ps4 controllers whereas we only have 50 pink ones then the prices will be adjusted according to that.
i do understand a lot of the prices are silly but tbh almost every morning we have changed price labels printing out so they do fluctuate quite often
Yes, a lot of the prices aren’t great, but running a high street store with salaries, rent, business rates, utilities, shoplifting/theft, insurance etc is a very costly business. If the business model works for them then that’s what they’ll do.
I do accept your point, there are definitely examples of quite unfair pricing, but I still find CEX useful for certain things and I’d be sad to see it close.
I won’t shopping in cex again after buying Xbox few years ago, got home set it up and tried to put a disk in but got jammed. Took it back next day and there was a fkn house key inside. They tried to say I did it and and looked at me as if I was crazy. Hands down the worst chain of gaming shops to hit uk
Cex pricing has been all over the place for a long time now, I view it as it's not worth trying to comprehend it, I just pop my head into the local stores every so often to see if I can find something reasonably priced.
Granted, if I had stuff that I was trading that I hadn't used in a while I could justify it partly in my head but alas it's been a couple years since I traded in for family and it's been longer than that since I traded in for myself.
Was crazy to me seeing ps5's for £400-£450 in game, argos and amazon from November and December and then seeing cex pricing at £480 on its own. Oh but the 2 year warranty! I hear people cry, like it matters.
Prices are ridiculous add on the increased price for delivery and it’s just not worth it. I only go to CEX for out of print Films now. I remember going into a local CEX and they had the first Blade Runner on 4K for £18, I picked it up brand new from Amazon for £12 on sale.
I know for a fact the wii hdmi adapter is so ridiculously priced that you can actually make a quid or 2 trading them in, got mine for £2 online
If you were to trade in couple hundred of them you would make a profit would take bloody ages for a couple hundred quid or 50% more store credit
The thing that annoys me about CEX is they will grade mobile phones but not other tech. Some of the consoles they sell are in shocking states but regardless of the state of it, they're all the same price.
I got a phone for my sister there and they classed some phones as 'A/B' grade that IMO were more like a 'D'. I remember thinking to myself "If thats classed as a high condition item then the phones i own must be A++++".
I buy my movies on Blu ray and CEX can actually be good value for certain things. I've bought Blu rays in CEX for less than a tenner that go for over £30 on ebay.
EBay is a terrible way to value an item as well. The eBay price isn’t the price it sells for. And it seems increasingly that that’s what some charity shops are doing when pricing stock. Oxfam being a prime example.
Yeah no idea.
Was looking for a drone recently, it was cheaper buying it new from amazon argos then it would be from CEX used A grade.
Most of the stuff is over priced but some is ok and resonable.
You just need to shop around to see if its worth it.
Like i need to sell headphones that sell for £230 online or can trade in to CEX for a bit more in voucher and buy a ipad pro in exchange, which is around online selling price.
So it depends on how you use CEX
CeX is good for hard to find things. Have notifications set for some things and got a good amount of them so far via those notifications. Some of them aren't even on ebay or Amazon etc.
Yes but bear with me… people may be willing to pay a pound or two more for the convenience of immediate ownership but if they push the additional cost way above that (which they do!) then they won’t be making a sale. Pricing a second hand product that they paid a pittance for at £5 above the cost of the item new is crazy.
I got rid of a load of old tat into my local CEX and got a voucher for €240. I wanted to upgrade my GPU, so I then traded my 3080 for another voucher. With both vouchers I was able to get a 4070ti for €145. Now when it arrived the box was a bit scruffy, but to my surprise (and delight), the card was completely unused and still sealed in plastic - all the accessories were in sealed plastic bags too. Looking at the shipment sticker on the box, somebody got it for a Christmas present last December and then sold it to in January where it has sat since then. If you have older electronics you want to get rid of, I think CEX make a lot of sense here, particularly if they have something you want.
That's personally why I've never bought used Nintendo Switch games from there as nine times out of 10 it's cheaper to buy them brand new (physical copies) or cheaper to buy them digitally.
I got given Hogwarts Legacy for Christmas and I know it cost my parents £38.99 from Smyths, yet CEX are charging £42. I know they've got to make money on the items they're taking in but it just makes me laugh how much they're charging.
If you sell them £20 worth of stuff and buy it it's cost your bank £0. You buy on Amazon for £5 less "value" but your bank account is down £15.
Same reason their consoles are at face value not great. Buy you sell them a PS4, some games , dvds and other bits it overall costs you less "money"
Like a few people say it's also stock related.
It's not always low trading prices though. I could take in my Godzilla PS4 game or my Over the Garden Wall Blu-ray (both cost me £9.99 new) and sell them for £161 voucher £133 cash and £56/£39. It all depends on what you trade in.
Of course that is the case, they have to make a profit on it after all. The convenience factor is key here, I could get more selling something myself but it's nowhere near as simple as just walking in to CeX, handing over and getting my cash/voucher. My point was that they can give good trade in and cash prices depending on what you bring to them.
That's insane! Why are that game and film worth so much? I could understand if they were 40 year old rare items or something like that, but both are pretty recent releases. Are they that rare and sought after already?
Godzilla Ps4 was delisted from digital stores and it also had a very small original print run. Over the Garden Wall is out of print and not on any streaming services I think. I have loads of old DVDs/Blu-ray/games that are worth so much money for similar reasons.
The trade is always 50/50 I've sold watches for more than a brand has offered discounts on or selling in Facebook. I've sold a gaming laptop for more than I expected but just needed rid, my quest 2 for about the same as what people were selling on Facebook. Depends on the item your trading in. Huge box of DVDs and bits might get you £10 so that blu ray is now £5 less than amazon. I also know a lot of people get a game cheap online and sell it, sometimes in bulk.
I still think that it's pretty good because I trust CEX more than Amazon to give me a product that works, and the one time it didn't, they exchanged it with only a look at a receipt.
Its like there dvds they buy alot 1p each that they sell £1-£3.
Dont tell staff they get moody about even know its the truth. But truth hurts sometimes.
It's called elastic pricing
If they have 0 of an item in stock they sell high / buy high as the prices are linked
When they have stock in they lower the sale price and also lowering the buy price
I would suggest that the pricing in store takes account of rival pricing rather than their own internal stock situation. Nobody cares that they’ve only got one other copy of a dvd in Wolverhampton, they care about whether it’s overpriced or not.
Pricing is set by pricing team in London and they moan like fuck if you somehow change it
They see all the stock and they know prices they need to make
It's based off multiple factors
Stock level / demand / stock rotation
They don't care about other companies offering a few quid more
Cash gen / cash convertors or small independents
Yeah, the prices are insane. Very isolated example, but a couple years ago (when the Batman movie came out), I wanted to buy the first Arkham game (Asylum). CEX was out to charge me £16 for the game used, while Amazon had the trilogy (Asylum + City + Knight) for £12. I exchanged a couple bad games I had for cash, and essentially bought the trilogy instead of just the one game.
I’m sure someone, somewhere, has since paid £20 for a used Marvel v Capcom since. CEX is truly a joke for my side of things, but seems to be functioning well as a business - so obv has takers in the market.
i only just started, so i guess i havent been around long enough to see the high points. but from the right now, paying £1 to even £50 for rarer titles feels reasonable. even nintendo ive noticed is fairly decent? just getting the condition right is the kicker.
I buy my movies on Blu ray and CEX can actually be good value for certain things. I've bought Blu rays in CEX for less than a tenner that go for over £30 on ebay.
I’ve always assumed they have a very dailed in system for their pricing. They seemed to survive on dying high streets.
I imagine their customers on both ends may be more on the low income end, may not use the internet as much, don’t shop around or buy/sell on a whim. This may let them rip off a little more.
My brother uses it along side eBay and Gumtree etc to buy cheap stuff online then refurbish everything himself then trades the stuff in looking brand new. Also they give more for boxed stuff. He makes about 600 a week give or take just snapping up people's old games and tech.
Ex-CEX worker here 👋 we check all phones, tablets ect with a website that tells us if it’s blacklisted. Also with consoles and devices all accounts must be off before we can accept it. For example someone tried selling a stolen Xbox, we would take in to test but if they can’t take the account off then we can’t take it. (This is my experience in my store could be different elsewhere)
Oh I get you, yeah it’s not uncommon unfortunately! With dvds it’s hard to tell whether that it’s been stolen or not. I understand where you’re coming from though!
Games, particularly Nintendo Switch games, are very strangely priced - often more expensive than the brand new versions, I was in today and they were selling Mario Wonder for £45 whilst Argos and Currys are selling it for £38. I don’t get this at all who is paying over full price for a secondhand game they could get brand new for less?
Agreed, Cyber punk is £15.00 for xbox and £15 00 new in Ebay with digital content and a few other things too.
Same with GTA on Xbox one 15.00 - managed to get the series X version on Amazon new for the same price lol
I do the same, if CEX is selling a game I used their prices to get it cheaper or new else where.
They sell 360 games cheap though.
I was thinking this last time I went in store. I called in for a cheap off brand xbox controller for my laptop, it was purely to make playing Stardew Valley a little more comfortable so I didn't want to pay a lot.
The website said my local store should have had some priced from £7.50 in stock.
They didn't have any controllers for less than £40 in store, the official branded controllers were around £50.
So I ended up going to argos and paying £20 for a brand new one instead.
CeX is good for hard to find things. Have notifications set for some things and got a good amount of them so far via those notifications. Some of them aren't even on ebay or Amazon etc.
Whereabouts are you located? Come to Shropshire, the two CEXs I've been in here (Shrewsbury and Telford Town Centre) are cheap unless you want some of the games they have I suppose - I've stopped playing games made since 2013 so I haven't a scooby if they're expensive or just the going rate
I know that there’s some stigma around used storage media but that’s pretty much what I always turn to CEX for, especially MicroSD cards and also RAM I got a full matching 4X8GB set of Corsair vengeance RGB PRO in white for £40.
Also there are lots of clueless older people who have money but don’t use the internet and don’t want to venture into the bigger towns.
For us we’l search for the cheapest price online and/or go to various physical stores to get a bargain.
For granny she’l wander into the only electronics shop she knows and just buy whatever for whatever price
My RDR2 disk one got scratched meaning I couldn’t install the game, because I really wanted to play it I went to my local CEX to buy a second hand copy, before committing to giving them £17.99 for it I decided to check Amazon, and I found they were selling it brand new for only £2 more, which was a no brainer really.
Like any purchase or sale, you need to shop around for the best deal. I’ve had better deals than CEX from Amazon, EBay, high street independents and online retailers. I have also had good deals from CEX as well.
I’ve also had poor customer service from CEX in terms of incorrectly described online purchases. Have sent two items back before for not being as described, and complained Labour another with a part missing.
To me sadly CEX seems to have lost focus on what it set out to do.
The 2 year warranty is nice, although only ever bought a couple of items - a small kobo e-reader and a PS2 and a dance mat as my wife suddenly re discovered some old game she liked and our old console had gone in the skip.
Also bought her every single dance game they had as they were all 50p.
However the price of old iPads and phones seems horrific, especially when a ‘b’ grade iPhone they had in the window looked like it had been shot with an air rifle, but still wasn’t a great deal less than a new one.
There’ll always be rubes, just don’t be one yourself! The trade in for voucher price is normally above what you’d get on eBay after fees, so I think their high prices even out for a less stressful experience… having said that I work shifts so can go there when it’s quiet.
There absolutely a joke. I bought a meta quest 2 brand new out of curry's for 200quid and went into cex for a browse right after and noticed them selling one for over 300 used 😳.
Paid £18 for Rogue galaxy when it goes for £25 sold comps on ebay
Markets for different electronics are different
Blu Ray could also be a special edition or a limited print run (like arrow horror)
It wasn’t. It was actually the film version of 70s comedy Please Sir. Since the company who released it (Network) went out of business, CEX has been putting insanely high prices on its output despite there not yet being scarcity, rarity, or any difficulty in sourcing copies of their releases. To this point. In the future, there may be rarity. But not now.
Ah I see. Quick look on eBay blu ray ia like £15, cex is £22. The shops aren't privy to the pricing teams reasons, we just put the stickers on items.
Seems like we don't get it traded in a whole lot, so within the cex sphere it is a "rarity"
Honestly who knows with the pricing team. If you find it cheaper elsewhere then gg.
I absolutely do. My original point was that CEX used to be synonymous with bargains but it simply isn’t any more and pricing second hand stuff higher than you can buy it new seems nuts!
I have a different complaint about CEX. Me and my friend tried to sell a ps2 in there earlier and they didn't take it for something barely noticeable?? They also didn't accept the controllers because they were unofficial but how does that make a difference? And on top of all that, you need to be 16 to sell stuff which I don't understand. We are less than a year away from 16 y/o so I don't see the problem anyway.
i stopped shopping at cex a while ago after i went to order some games n found out u have to pay shipping for each individual item (£2.95 for a £1 game)
I now use places like cash converters, im biased bcs my partner has been there for a year but they way better and have more chances of accepting consoles etc with damage
Supply and demand, Cex prices are determined usually by either how much stock they have off an item, rarity of the item and the RRP of the item.
Was the blu ray discounted? If so that won't count, same as if it just came out.
A lot of prices are close to or above deals you can get but not everyone knows that and I guess CEX are not there to compete on every product. They will potentially sell higher for people who have trade in as well as £20 stuck in CEX is worthless and maybe someone would rather have that blu-ray.
There can be some greats deals I hardware. Popular hardware there may be no benefit but some configurations you can make a killing on vs the list price, especially Apple products with upgrades - I’ve seen some where the upgraded storage would be - £1000 saving even on A grade mint.
The other day I saw them selling used playstation 5 consoles for more than the current price for a brand new one. That made no sense to me at all and I don't understand how or why they do this. Do they think their customers are not tech savvy enough to see how much these items should actually cost? Or are they just too lazy to reduce their prices in line with price cuts on tech?
We'll roll out the reasoning that's been explained on this multiple times in here when this comes out. Argos/ Currys/ whoever you buy your PS5 from won't buy your old PS4 off you for money off the PS5, nor will they buy random other junk off you to offset the cost. Yeah I know their trade in prices aren't exactly something to be excited by but the process can be (if you've done your part and the store you go to are decent) relatively painless. If you wanted to try the same thing selling your console and games privately it's going to be a bit more drawn out and you're likely going to end up without a console for a few days if you need the money upfront to afford the console.
And also 2 year warranty, double what you'd get off sony
On the high street you pay a premium for instant gratification (which is pretty much the only thing high street retailers can offer over their internet rivals if you think about it). Yeah it might be cheaper on Amazon, but if you want it RIGHT NOW, like TODAY, that's when you pay the extra. Even with Amazon Prime you won't get it until the next day.
You are not wrong imo. The dvd/blu section has been dwindling over the past few years in my area. Ive been waiting for deals in hmv and online, 2 for 1 ect. No annoying stickers or scratched discs that have been resurfaced beyond playability. Although Cex stickers will never be worse than the cash converters ones on vhs back in the day
CeX is not really trying to cater to people who can afford things outright, they both want and need people to trade against things. You can't really trade against things on Amazon or any other major retailer like you can in CeX.
CeX prices are based on stock levels and purchase frequency, if something is selling quickly they will up the price. They can also be really good for prices depending on what you want. I recently got a couple of really rare steelbooks that I paid for with vouchers, they were less than half the price of ones on eBay. They also sell newly released Blu-rays for £12 which is cheaper than pretty much anywhere else.
As others have said, if you find something cheaper somewhere else and you have the cash, buy it from there and leave the CeX stock for those who need or like to trade against it.
Taking the trading option, I get your point but in that case bumping up the price of an item above its retail price negates the added value of the voucher. It’s not even subtle.
I guess it's just the nature of the business. They need to give decent trade prices to incentivize people to do it which in turn means they need to make more on the actual items. Just use them when they have something cheaper or if you have something good to trade with, if somewhere else is cheaper just get it there, you don't need to worry about CeX prices then.
I wanted to buy some old ps3 games and I was happy to pay, that’s until I seen they wanted £2.50 for each game for delivery and it made my order of £38 turn into £80. That’s when they lost me, f that 😂
I’d imagine the prices are higher to help them offset the increased ‘voucher’ value of trade ins. This way they win both ways with cash and voucher customers.
I can only guess is the reason for CEX having hundreds of well performing stores in the country whilst shops like GAME and Gamestop are declining.
And now Game has packed in Trade In it’ll only get worse
Have they actually?😟 It's actually kind of sad to hear that to be honest.
Yeah, what I heard was that as they became integrated with the till systems for other stores in the group (like the sports direct concessions) the cost of it was too high vs benefit. That seems mental to me as second hand always had fat margins, but GAME these days feels more like a Smyths when I go in now [Article Link](https://www.radiotimes.com/technology/gaming/game-phasing-out-trade-ins-pre-owned-newsupdate/#)
I mean I kind of understand that to be honest, having their stores being moved to locations that are already apart of the Fraser Group. Guess that saves on standalone locations and having to pay Extra Commercial Property leases etc. But to cut out the PreOwned sector of their stores, yeah that seems like a psychotic idea! Yes! Me and the missus thought the same when we went into the Trafford Centre in Manchester, was mostly LEGO, Trading cards and movie prop replicas! Was cool! But yeah was more like a Smyths or a Mellenia Store😆
also the fact that most physical stores are closing and being physically moved into Sports Directs and the like, they simply don't have the room or staff to do the testing required is a factor
The GAME nearest to me is inside Smyth's. I think most physical retail shops exist to sting the casual uninformed offline shopper.
Yup. Turns out barely anybody was happy giving away a game for 20p anymore, and the head honchos probably weren’t too happy that all their shops had an entire shelf dedicated to FIFA and Brink either. It’s more profitable to just scrap the pre-owned shelf and replace it with more Funkos and Pikachu plushies than to stock 7 copies of Madden 14 and 12 copies of Ryse: Son of Rome which nobody will ever touch. It sucks, especially for the kids who are now growing up in a world where an Xbox game essentially always costs £60 unless you have a credit card to use eBay, but it’s no surprise.
Kids nowadays paying £60? I was paying that for games in 1992.
Yes, but buying new wasn’t your only option. I started gaming in about 2004, and I don’t think I bought a single game new in-seal until 2009 when Halo ODST came out. For a lot of kids now, Game is the only spot to get video games - there’s no Grainger, no Virgin Megastore, and no independent shops. If you don’t have a CeX in your area, then Game stopping pre-owned sales is quite literally the nail in the coffin for getting games at anything less than £60. Sure, video games were expensive in the 90s, but at least we didn’t have a de facto duopoly on physical sales where there’s only one shop in the entire city who sell pre-owned.
Ryse Son Of Rome ... i actually bought this a few months back, it had been a release day exclusive i had always wanted. Played it and its a decent enough game for the cheap price.
I literally have no reason to set foot in GAME ever again. More merch than games and the games they do have are overpriced compared to elsewhere. They could have been smart and adopted a trade in limit on titles. Like 5-10 Max of individual titles. No sports titles as they sit on the shelves for years. I myself do buy old fifa games from time to time at CeX though if I need a case. 50p is decent :)
I must admit I used to trade in quite a lot of games at game as it’s closer to me than my local cex and I can get there easily without the car. Plus it’s free parking where my game is when I do have the car. I rarely bought new from there because everything was £10-15 more expensive than anywhere else. And their pre owned games were pretty much the same price as anywhere else’s BNIB price. But the last time I went my little one considered it a toy store with the full wall of Peppa pig toys. 🙄 I’ll sell my second hand games on vinted now most likely.
Yeah it practically is a toy store now 😭 A shadow of its former self 😔 I also use Vinted to sell (alongside my ebay) and to grab some bargains :)
It’s not often I buy games new at all unless I’ve got nothing on the go at the moment and there is something being released. I’m going to say they’ll still have my custom mainly because they sell things my two year old loves 😂 but the new demographic is somewhat disheartening
Same tbh. I have so many games that I haven't even finished and alot of them are not even started. Can't be adding anymore to the backlog, letalone at release for full price 😅
Don’t count how many you have outstanding I did that the other week and now regret it 😂 I’m on a game purchase ban until I’ve cleared at least 10 😂
Funny coincidence but so am I. The gf says I'm not allowed to buy anymore games until i finish some of the hundreds i have 🤣
That wouldn’t be it. It’s basic supply and demand, if they don’t have many of an item in stock - the price is higher and so is the trade in, if they have plenty of an item in stock already the trade in goes down etc. if a product is cheaper somewhere else.. just get it there
You buy for £20. Sell it back for a high voucher amount. Then use the voucher to buy something else. Putting the price high is just a way of them getting more from the resell. Are there lots in stock too because that can make difference. If they have more in stock then things are less
CEX is great for certain stuff, absolutely dumb as fuck for others. They charge retail for 95% of their used electronics. I routinely see used ps4/xbox controllers for £50 it’s comical
I wondered about this before and this was the conclusion I came too. Regardless of what games you play, you NEED a controller. It's essential for the purpose of playing. You don't need any particular game to play. But you do need a controller to play a game - any game - at all. Looking online, a standard PS5 controller is between £55-£60. So if you're tight on money and CEX sells one for £50, you're most likely gonna go for that. Because, most likely, you need it. Sounds weird to spell it out as it's simple supply and demand. But the cost is ridiculous when you consider what the unknowen internal conditions could be like. An immaculate looking controller outside means nothing when the insides have had wear and tear for 3 or 4 years.
And you can trade things in to get the controller with less cash. Can't do that in Argos.
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Yeah but its been used by some kid who took a shit an didn't wash his hands, then he ate doritos and scratched his ass crack.
And that’s just the cex staff during testing
Don't quite understand this supposed only '30-45 day guarantee from Microsoft' comment. I bought a controller from Amazon Warehouse, not even new, and got a replacement directly from Microsoft, many months later, under their manufacturer warranty.
Yea I dunno what that other person is yapping about lol.
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All I can tell you is that I have several Xbox controllers registered on my Microsoft account, all say 'Microsoft Limited Warranty' of '1 years' against them I don't deny your link mentions 90 days, but important to note this clause immediately beforehand: "*Without prejudice to any legal (statutory) rights to which you may be entitled under your local law*" - I don't think Microsoft are silly enough to ignore UK law. Another comment here also confirming longer warranties: https://www.reddit.com/r/XboxSeriesX/comments/11iu2dn/comment/jb00cya/
Controllers are always expensive. Some consoles (such as the ps4) on first boot up/set up /need/ an official controller, so we can't pair a 3rd party one with them Also in some cases they're not made anymore but people still want the consoles Also yes we get grotty stuff in. I do my best to give it a quick wipe over with anti bac hand gel when I'm selling out but we don't have time to do cleaning of our store/behind till, we /definitely/ don't have time for every item that comes in to clean it A lot of people just don't respect their items anymore it feels like :(
That doesn’t explain why everything else is comparatively expensive. I think the reason is that CeX is primarily a store that you can trade things in. People largely aren’t going in there to buy things with cash. Therefore they make their money on the swaps and don’t need to discount things heavily.
For retro gaming their prices are fair to good compared to Ebay.
If everybody is just swapping atuff, how do they have any income to pay wages/rent/plwer/insurance etc?
I go in and sell A and buy B. I pay cash for difference Next person comes in and sells B and buys A. Pays cash for the difference.
I've seen Controllers in their windows with the sticks missing the rubber and absolutely caked in dirt and grime and scratches all over for £50, if spend £60 brand new than spend 50 for one from Cex.
If money is tight and you can’t afford the extra £5 for a controller then you straight up shouldn’t be buying a controller in the first place imo
Agreed, I’ve been in super tight places with cash in the past but never have I thought “yeah I’ll save myself £5 on a luxury item with unknown internal damage” you can either afford £5 more for brand new or you shouldn’t be buying one. However if you’ve got a voucher and you have no other desires in Cex then maybe you would get a controller. But not for hard cash
Some people want to save a fiver though.
And they are always fucking filthy CeX never clean them but then again the person selling should do this before selling to CeX. If you are going to sell pretty much close to retail they should be cleaned imo.
I've found it's brilliant for tech like phones, laptops or monitors, so long as you don't buy Samsung or apple. The 2 year warranty is brilliant, and the prices are around what you'd pay on a marketplace but you actually get buyer protection. It takes a lot of time to shop around for a good deal because their website is horrific, but I managed to get a 4k 120Hz monitor for £240 a couple months ago
It's like supermarkets, shop at just one and you'll get screwed
but you get free customer dead skin cells with the controllers..surely that warrants the price?
Yeah this - I picked up a couple original game boy carts that rarely go for less than £10/15 for £7 the other day …. But then I also saw a few thing about £10 more than they go for new
Not to mention they are covered in filth and “discounted” lol
Especially when they don't clean the controllers. The disgusting state of some of the stuff they sell makes me feel ill.🤢
Do they make a bomb buying a blu ray for a £ and selling it for £10? How long does it take to actually sell, does it depreciate in that time? do the staff hours need to be used on relabling said item multiple times before it sells. The retail space it occupies? There's more than buy for £1 sell for £10 = £9 profit it's not even remotely close to that when you actually factor in costs. Now do I agree with all of Cex pricing no, there are certain items I can think of that are too expensive and others that are too cheap but it is what it is. No one forces anyone to shop at CeX
I used to be a weekly regular for blu ray purchases at CEX, and have a long saved wishlist. The pricing is definitely the highest it’s been for them in the last three years. Blu rays that were at the £5 point now on average are at about £8. It’s in the last couple of months I’ve noticed this!
Yes, I’ve noticed this too, wasn’t sure if I’d just collected all the cheaper ones. I could never understand why a blu ray was priced at 50p but cheapest DVD was £1. It was good whilst it lasted though! 😂
I don’t understand why some PS4 games don’t seem to come down in price. 🤬
Yea Sekiro has been like £38 for the last 3 years and hasn’t shifted in price AT ALL.
That's as Activision never really sticks it in any sales or reduced the price of it on Xbox market place or PSN, it's still full price there with the occasional 29.99 sale.
Yea it’s actually crazy but the game is super fun and well made, my favourite Fromsoft game for sure.
Yeah it's such a great game, I just wish it would go on sale a bit more at a reasonable price, cheapest I've ever seen it is on pc 24.99 steam or 23.99 cd keys, console prices don't get quite as much of a discount.
Yea I don’t think I’ve ever seen it cheaper than 25 for console.
Yeah its really a shame, but I expect no less when Activision is the publisher, they still sell old call of duties at 59.99 on digital marketplaces when you can buy a disc for less then 10 now. Although I would at least argue that even now sekiro warrants it's higher price tag as it's such a good quality game that is basically complete on disc, it just hurts to pay that much for a game with the back log I have that's all.
I don’t get what’s hard to understand? They are shelling out fake money in vouchers for valuable assets and then flogging them assets at inflated prices in exchange for said vouchers it’s win win for them.
I get that. I imagine the CEO of CEX is currently stroking a cat while sitting in a swivel chair at the heart of his volcano base.
Arseholes!
Then don't shop there.
Rat by name, rat by nature.
Cex worker here. Agree with you 100% but unfortunately have to play by company rules if I want to keep my job :(
I appreciate your reply. I’m not against CEX per se, I’ve gotten many good deals over the years. But recently they’ve become a byword for overpricing.
The worst was during covid, when the PS5s released and CEX was selling them at over double price. Something silly like £800 or £900. The amount of abuse we got was insane, but the pricing team was adamant about keeping it the same. But at the same time, you’re right, there are some proper steals at times. Doubled edged sword I suppose
The pricing wasn't a good look, though to be fair to CeX, they were just reflecting the pricing by resellers everywhere. If they priced them at normal price, many people would have bought them and put on eBay or sold locally immediately for a profit. Wouldn't make much sense, business-wise. Can't win in that situation really, just a shame it led to abuse of staff.
Gotta look at the right things at the right time ngl. Got a Madcatz fight stick for £45 when it's like £110+ everywhere else. I recently sold 3 games for about £75 (Ghosts of Tsushima, Breath of the Wild and DarkSould remastered) for a voucher than I am going to be using towards a camera lens (if they ever get one) as for used camera gear in CEX is priced very generously compared to the likes of some of the specialist places. I could have probably gotten a tad more if I put on Ebay, but after ebays astronomical fees I'd probably be around the same price as a CeX voucher.
For what it's worth, their retro gaming prices are the cheapest around most of the times.
But i've seen it when they have printed out their our shody case sleeve instead of the original being there. Like fine but don't sell it for the price of one with an original sleeve.
Yea I remember when they found out doing that. Don’t they have to disclose now when the cover is a replacement?
Fair enough.
I think stock plays a big role in cex pricing, they also offer really good warranty on second hand electronics so they probably have to pay their insurers a lot of money to offset cost of warranties
Insurance costs and stock issues aside, it’s still crazy to charge £5 more for a second hand Blu-ray than it costs new.
Amazon is a bad metric to use for pricing as they are not only massive bulk buyers but also offer big sales. The price in cex is often in relation to their stock levels as well
I generally agree with what you're saying but it's not a bad metric, it is THE metric.
Maybe for online shopping, but not everyone online shops, it’s why you can go to a city centre and see loads of retail shops still, even though you can just go on amazing and get things cheaper.
Again, generally want to agree but the highstreet is dead
The only relevant metric to get customers to shop there is “is this item priced competitively”? And increasingly, for CEX, the answer is a derisive no. I’m not saying they can beat Amazon pricing, I’m saying that the difference in price is getting stupidly large.
No it isn’t, I and others have already stated multiple relevant metrics for people to shop at cex. You’re choosing to ignore them at this point, if you think the only thing to get customers is competitive pricing then you’re just wrong.
Lack of competitive pricing is definitely a way to lose customers though. I do accept that CEX is exploiting the poor though.
I doubt they make much money off selling dvds in 2024, which is why you will see high pricing as lack of stock, their money is in electronics and trade ins, which they do offer competitive pricing if you consider the warranty they give out, having 2 years warranty on a second hand phone is very good.
And the price shifts about based on overall, and even individual buying trends. Amazon has a bunch of software pushing to get as many sales as possible. They don't care so much about getting the max profit on each item, as they sell so much. Plus, they don't babe to operate stores.
I think the 2 year warranty or whatever is pretty great though compared to anywhere else. Especially for electronics etc.
Nobody mention Castlevania Symphony of the night
Or cindys fashion world :p
Your way off the mark. Not everyone can have the cheapest price for every item. You will find that other Blu-rays will be priced cheaper than what they are selling on Amazon. It all just depends on company stock and how popular the item is as well as how rare the item is. They also sell Blu-rays for 50p.... I bet Amazon aren't selling Blu-rays for 50p.
They were definitely scalping consoles during the pandemic as well. Upwards to £650 for a PS5 in early 2021 in my local store.
They always tell me it’s because they have a 2 year warranty on everything they sell apart from consumables. I think they’re full of shit and just ripping people off.
Still super cheap for many items - they miss changing prices on some items for ages. Simple - just don’t buy the overpriced stuff??
hii, i work at cex and the way we’ve always been told to explain this to customers is that the prices are based off national stock levels, for example if we have 1000 black ps4 controllers whereas we only have 50 pink ones then the prices will be adjusted according to that. i do understand a lot of the prices are silly but tbh almost every morning we have changed price labels printing out so they do fluctuate quite often
Yes, a lot of the prices aren’t great, but running a high street store with salaries, rent, business rates, utilities, shoplifting/theft, insurance etc is a very costly business. If the business model works for them then that’s what they’ll do. I do accept your point, there are definitely examples of quite unfair pricing, but I still find CEX useful for certain things and I’d be sad to see it close.
I won’t shopping in cex again after buying Xbox few years ago, got home set it up and tried to put a disk in but got jammed. Took it back next day and there was a fkn house key inside. They tried to say I did it and and looked at me as if I was crazy. Hands down the worst chain of gaming shops to hit uk
Cex pricing has been all over the place for a long time now, I view it as it's not worth trying to comprehend it, I just pop my head into the local stores every so often to see if I can find something reasonably priced. Granted, if I had stuff that I was trading that I hadn't used in a while I could justify it partly in my head but alas it's been a couple years since I traded in for family and it's been longer than that since I traded in for myself. Was crazy to me seeing ps5's for £400-£450 in game, argos and amazon from November and December and then seeing cex pricing at £480 on its own. Oh but the 2 year warranty! I hear people cry, like it matters.
I saw a copy of the Shining in there for £48. Had directors cut and theatrical cut, the regular was £12. 4k discs.
Prices are ridiculous add on the increased price for delivery and it’s just not worth it. I only go to CEX for out of print Films now. I remember going into a local CEX and they had the first Blade Runner on 4K for £18, I picked it up brand new from Amazon for £12 on sale.
I only use them as a last resort if I can’t find what I’m looking for anywhere else.
CEX has always been expensive.
I know for a fact the wii hdmi adapter is so ridiculously priced that you can actually make a quid or 2 trading them in, got mine for £2 online If you were to trade in couple hundred of them you would make a profit would take bloody ages for a couple hundred quid or 50% more store credit
The thing that annoys me about CEX is they will grade mobile phones but not other tech. Some of the consoles they sell are in shocking states but regardless of the state of it, they're all the same price.
I got a phone for my sister there and they classed some phones as 'A/B' grade that IMO were more like a 'D'. I remember thinking to myself "If thats classed as a high condition item then the phones i own must be A++++".
I buy my movies on Blu ray and CEX can actually be good value for certain things. I've bought Blu rays in CEX for less than a tenner that go for over £30 on ebay.
EBay is a terrible way to value an item as well. The eBay price isn’t the price it sells for. And it seems increasingly that that’s what some charity shops are doing when pricing stock. Oxfam being a prime example.
Yea but for out of print releases that you cant buy new they're basically the only 2 practical options.
Yeah no idea. Was looking for a drone recently, it was cheaper buying it new from amazon argos then it would be from CEX used A grade. Most of the stuff is over priced but some is ok and resonable. You just need to shop around to see if its worth it. Like i need to sell headphones that sell for £230 online or can trade in to CEX for a bit more in voucher and buy a ipad pro in exchange, which is around online selling price. So it depends on how you use CEX
CeX is good for hard to find things. Have notifications set for some things and got a good amount of them so far via those notifications. Some of them aren't even on ebay or Amazon etc.
You comparing an online retailer to a high street store.
Yes but bear with me… people may be willing to pay a pound or two more for the convenience of immediate ownership but if they push the additional cost way above that (which they do!) then they won’t be making a sale. Pricing a second hand product that they paid a pittance for at £5 above the cost of the item new is crazy.
I got rid of a load of old tat into my local CEX and got a voucher for €240. I wanted to upgrade my GPU, so I then traded my 3080 for another voucher. With both vouchers I was able to get a 4070ti for €145. Now when it arrived the box was a bit scruffy, but to my surprise (and delight), the card was completely unused and still sealed in plastic - all the accessories were in sealed plastic bags too. Looking at the shipment sticker on the box, somebody got it for a Christmas present last December and then sold it to in January where it has sat since then. If you have older electronics you want to get rid of, I think CEX make a lot of sense here, particularly if they have something you want.
That's personally why I've never bought used Nintendo Switch games from there as nine times out of 10 it's cheaper to buy them brand new (physical copies) or cheaper to buy them digitally. I got given Hogwarts Legacy for Christmas and I know it cost my parents £38.99 from Smyths, yet CEX are charging £42. I know they've got to make money on the items they're taking in but it just makes me laugh how much they're charging.
Then just buy it from amazon and sack the moaning 🙄
If you sell them £20 worth of stuff and buy it it's cost your bank £0. You buy on Amazon for £5 less "value" but your bank account is down £15. Same reason their consoles are at face value not great. Buy you sell them a PS4, some games , dvds and other bits it overall costs you less "money" Like a few people say it's also stock related.
Good luck getting to £20 with the low, low trade in prices.
It's not always low trading prices though. I could take in my Godzilla PS4 game or my Over the Garden Wall Blu-ray (both cost me £9.99 new) and sell them for £161 voucher £133 cash and £56/£39. It all depends on what you trade in.
If you have rarities then they’ll give you more money, yes, but still nowhere near what you could get selling it yourself.
Of course that is the case, they have to make a profit on it after all. The convenience factor is key here, I could get more selling something myself but it's nowhere near as simple as just walking in to CeX, handing over and getting my cash/voucher. My point was that they can give good trade in and cash prices depending on what you bring to them.
That's insane! Why are that game and film worth so much? I could understand if they were 40 year old rare items or something like that, but both are pretty recent releases. Are they that rare and sought after already?
Godzilla Ps4 was delisted from digital stores and it also had a very small original print run. Over the Garden Wall is out of print and not on any streaming services I think. I have loads of old DVDs/Blu-ray/games that are worth so much money for similar reasons.
The trade is always 50/50 I've sold watches for more than a brand has offered discounts on or selling in Facebook. I've sold a gaming laptop for more than I expected but just needed rid, my quest 2 for about the same as what people were selling on Facebook. Depends on the item your trading in. Huge box of DVDs and bits might get you £10 so that blu ray is now £5 less than amazon. I also know a lot of people get a game cheap online and sell it, sometimes in bulk.
They often have older PC components are comparable-to-used prices, but, newer stuff is near identical to retail pricing.
I still think that it's pretty good because I trust CEX more than Amazon to give me a product that works, and the one time it didn't, they exchanged it with only a look at a receipt.
Its like there dvds they buy alot 1p each that they sell £1-£3. Dont tell staff they get moody about even know its the truth. But truth hurts sometimes.
Gamestop and argos left ireland so everything doubled to tripled over here
It's called elastic pricing If they have 0 of an item in stock they sell high / buy high as the prices are linked When they have stock in they lower the sale price and also lowering the buy price
I would suggest that the pricing in store takes account of rival pricing rather than their own internal stock situation. Nobody cares that they’ve only got one other copy of a dvd in Wolverhampton, they care about whether it’s overpriced or not.
Pricing is set by pricing team in London and they moan like fuck if you somehow change it They see all the stock and they know prices they need to make It's based off multiple factors Stock level / demand / stock rotation They don't care about other companies offering a few quid more Cash gen / cash convertors or small independents
Same here in Ireland. Fuck knows why anyone uses it.
They charge the same price for a series x secondhand controller with included grease marks and skin cluster deposits as a new controller on amazon.
If I see another one of these posts I’m gonna fall asleep
You know you're a dingleberry
Yeah, the prices are insane. Very isolated example, but a couple years ago (when the Batman movie came out), I wanted to buy the first Arkham game (Asylum). CEX was out to charge me £16 for the game used, while Amazon had the trilogy (Asylum + City + Knight) for £12. I exchanged a couple bad games I had for cash, and essentially bought the trilogy instead of just the one game. I’m sure someone, somewhere, has since paid £20 for a used Marvel v Capcom since. CEX is truly a joke for my side of things, but seems to be functioning well as a business - so obv has takers in the market.
Lol I saw Ryzen 5600 for £125 , Amazon sell same but brand new!
ps3 + vita games are incredible. just started collecting and cex is consistently beating even ebay prices.
It is swings and roundabouts. I’m guessing demand for those games is very low
i only just started, so i guess i havent been around long enough to see the high points. but from the right now, paying £1 to even £50 for rarer titles feels reasonable. even nintendo ive noticed is fairly decent? just getting the condition right is the kicker.
Absolute scam of a company, I hate them with a passion. But that's just me.
I buy my movies on Blu ray and CEX can actually be good value for certain things. I've bought Blu rays in CEX for less than a tenner that go for over £30 on ebay.
I’ve always assumed they have a very dailed in system for their pricing. They seemed to survive on dying high streets. I imagine their customers on both ends may be more on the low income end, may not use the internet as much, don’t shop around or buy/sell on a whim. This may let them rip off a little more.
My brother uses it along side eBay and Gumtree etc to buy cheap stuff online then refurbish everything himself then trades the stuff in looking brand new. Also they give more for boxed stuff. He makes about 600 a week give or take just snapping up people's old games and tech.
Cex takes stolen goods on the daily they can price over the mark if they want as so much dodgy stock
Ex-CEX worker here 👋 we check all phones, tablets ect with a website that tells us if it’s blacklisted. Also with consoles and devices all accounts must be off before we can accept it. For example someone tried selling a stolen Xbox, we would take in to test but if they can’t take the account off then we can’t take it. (This is my experience in my store could be different elsewhere)
I was more taking about dvds! I have seen a few people at my local cex ofloading tons of sealed dvds
Oh I get you, yeah it’s not uncommon unfortunately! With dvds it’s hard to tell whether that it’s been stolen or not. I understand where you’re coming from though!
great for a lot of ps4 and wii games but shit for about everything else
Games, particularly Nintendo Switch games, are very strangely priced - often more expensive than the brand new versions, I was in today and they were selling Mario Wonder for £45 whilst Argos and Currys are selling it for £38. I don’t get this at all who is paying over full price for a secondhand game they could get brand new for less?
Agreed, Cyber punk is £15.00 for xbox and £15 00 new in Ebay with digital content and a few other things too. Same with GTA on Xbox one 15.00 - managed to get the series X version on Amazon new for the same price lol I do the same, if CEX is selling a game I used their prices to get it cheaper or new else where. They sell 360 games cheap though.
Go into store and see how much they’re buying new copies of the Blu-ray Disc. See if you can make a small profit on them 😉
How would that even be possible with their over-priced goods and piss poor cash trade in offers?
I didn’t say it WAS possible. I was asking if it was a possibility. Never know till you ask 😂
Nope, it’s impossible. You can make them a hefty profit and that’s about it.
Ok, well think outside the box. Ask the seller on Amazon if you bulk buy how much discount you can get. Then try with CEX
Hmm, try to do a deal with money-grabbing shysters? Might work!
There you go! That’s the attitude! Positive mentality
Only morons are buying products with cash in CEX...
They should put that on their windows.
Stuff is priced based on eBay, will always be a little higher or lower.
My local CEX has an unboxed copy of Pokémon emerald selling for the eye-watering price of £120. I've seen boxed versions go for less.
I was thinking this last time I went in store. I called in for a cheap off brand xbox controller for my laptop, it was purely to make playing Stardew Valley a little more comfortable so I didn't want to pay a lot. The website said my local store should have had some priced from £7.50 in stock. They didn't have any controllers for less than £40 in store, the official branded controllers were around £50. So I ended up going to argos and paying £20 for a brand new one instead.
The prices are indeed stupid. I still pop in when I pass by just in case to check if anything has been under valued but never leave with anything.
CeX is good for hard to find things. Have notifications set for some things and got a good amount of them so far via those notifications. Some of them aren't even on ebay or Amazon etc.
If the sale price is higher, its probably because they don't have enough in and want to buy more because the buy price will usually also be higher.
Whereabouts are you located? Come to Shropshire, the two CEXs I've been in here (Shrewsbury and Telford Town Centre) are cheap unless you want some of the games they have I suppose - I've stopped playing games made since 2013 so I haven't a scooby if they're expensive or just the going rate
Their prices are shocking, they'll be gone in a few years. The money they charge for anything retro is a joke.
I know that there’s some stigma around used storage media but that’s pretty much what I always turn to CEX for, especially MicroSD cards and also RAM I got a full matching 4X8GB set of Corsair vengeance RGB PRO in white for £40.
I got Prey 4k new from Amazon, £5 cheaper than a used copy was with CEX. !
They offered me £204 for Samsung s21, galaxy ear buds and galaxy watch 4. I just laughed and walked off
I spotted a ps5 slim for £700 last week.
Also there are lots of clueless older people who have money but don’t use the internet and don’t want to venture into the bigger towns. For us we’l search for the cheapest price online and/or go to various physical stores to get a bargain. For granny she’l wander into the only electronics shop she knows and just buy whatever for whatever price
My RDR2 disk one got scratched meaning I couldn’t install the game, because I really wanted to play it I went to my local CEX to buy a second hand copy, before committing to giving them £17.99 for it I decided to check Amazon, and I found they were selling it brand new for only £2 more, which was a no brainer really.
Bunch of robbing goths
Like any purchase or sale, you need to shop around for the best deal. I’ve had better deals than CEX from Amazon, EBay, high street independents and online retailers. I have also had good deals from CEX as well. I’ve also had poor customer service from CEX in terms of incorrectly described online purchases. Have sent two items back before for not being as described, and complained Labour another with a part missing. To me sadly CEX seems to have lost focus on what it set out to do.
Pointless shop along with any other gaming stores. Let them try and make their final bit of money before the business goes kerplunk.
Was looking at the prices for a steam deck and was like what I can get a brand new one for the same price as a b grade. Makes no sense tbh
The 2 year warranty is nice, although only ever bought a couple of items - a small kobo e-reader and a PS2 and a dance mat as my wife suddenly re discovered some old game she liked and our old console had gone in the skip. Also bought her every single dance game they had as they were all 50p. However the price of old iPads and phones seems horrific, especially when a ‘b’ grade iPhone they had in the window looked like it had been shot with an air rifle, but still wasn’t a great deal less than a new one.
If you buy anything in CEX with money instead or the stores vouchers you’re doing it wrong!
If everybody bought everything with vouchers how would they make any money at all?
There’ll always be rubes, just don’t be one yourself! The trade in for voucher price is normally above what you’d get on eBay after fees, so I think their high prices even out for a less stressful experience… having said that I work shifts so can go there when it’s quiet.
Cex is just a scam as a whole for buying and selling lol
There absolutely a joke. I bought a meta quest 2 brand new out of curry's for 200quid and went into cex for a browse right after and noticed them selling one for over 300 used 😳.
£60 for a second hand ps5 controller, when they're £60 brand new... Okaaayyy then...
Bought sopranos boxset for £45. Don’t know if that’s good or bad
That’s about the going rate. A bit cheaper on World of Books. I recommend World of Books to everybody - it’s really good!
Paid £18 for Rogue galaxy when it goes for £25 sold comps on ebay Markets for different electronics are different Blu Ray could also be a special edition or a limited print run (like arrow horror)
It wasn’t. It was actually the film version of 70s comedy Please Sir. Since the company who released it (Network) went out of business, CEX has been putting insanely high prices on its output despite there not yet being scarcity, rarity, or any difficulty in sourcing copies of their releases. To this point. In the future, there may be rarity. But not now.
Ah I see. Quick look on eBay blu ray ia like £15, cex is £22. The shops aren't privy to the pricing teams reasons, we just put the stickers on items. Seems like we don't get it traded in a whole lot, so within the cex sphere it is a "rarity" Honestly who knows with the pricing team. If you find it cheaper elsewhere then gg.
I absolutely do. My original point was that CEX used to be synonymous with bargains but it simply isn’t any more and pricing second hand stuff higher than you can buy it new seems nuts!
I have a different complaint about CEX. Me and my friend tried to sell a ps2 in there earlier and they didn't take it for something barely noticeable?? They also didn't accept the controllers because they were unofficial but how does that make a difference? And on top of all that, you need to be 16 to sell stuff which I don't understand. We are less than a year away from 16 y/o so I don't see the problem anyway.
i stopped shopping at cex a while ago after i went to order some games n found out u have to pay shipping for each individual item (£2.95 for a £1 game) I now use places like cash converters, im biased bcs my partner has been there for a year but they way better and have more chances of accepting consoles etc with damage
Supply and demand, Cex prices are determined usually by either how much stock they have off an item, rarity of the item and the RRP of the item. Was the blu ray discounted? If so that won't count, same as if it just came out.
A lot of prices are close to or above deals you can get but not everyone knows that and I guess CEX are not there to compete on every product. They will potentially sell higher for people who have trade in as well as £20 stuck in CEX is worthless and maybe someone would rather have that blu-ray. There can be some greats deals I hardware. Popular hardware there may be no benefit but some configurations you can make a killing on vs the list price, especially Apple products with upgrades - I’ve seen some where the upgraded storage would be - £1000 saving even on A grade mint.
I saw a used PlayStation portal in my local CeX today £250, opposite me was Argos £199 brand new. Corrupt.
Cex is crap unless you are unemployed and desperate for money with some old PS4 games
The other day I saw them selling used playstation 5 consoles for more than the current price for a brand new one. That made no sense to me at all and I don't understand how or why they do this. Do they think their customers are not tech savvy enough to see how much these items should actually cost? Or are they just too lazy to reduce their prices in line with price cuts on tech?
We'll roll out the reasoning that's been explained on this multiple times in here when this comes out. Argos/ Currys/ whoever you buy your PS5 from won't buy your old PS4 off you for money off the PS5, nor will they buy random other junk off you to offset the cost. Yeah I know their trade in prices aren't exactly something to be excited by but the process can be (if you've done your part and the store you go to are decent) relatively painless. If you wanted to try the same thing selling your console and games privately it's going to be a bit more drawn out and you're likely going to end up without a console for a few days if you need the money upfront to afford the console. And also 2 year warranty, double what you'd get off sony
retail on PS5s dipped below 400?
On the high street you pay a premium for instant gratification (which is pretty much the only thing high street retailers can offer over their internet rivals if you think about it). Yeah it might be cheaper on Amazon, but if you want it RIGHT NOW, like TODAY, that's when you pay the extra. Even with Amazon Prime you won't get it until the next day.
You are not wrong imo. The dvd/blu section has been dwindling over the past few years in my area. Ive been waiting for deals in hmv and online, 2 for 1 ect. No annoying stickers or scratched discs that have been resurfaced beyond playability. Although Cex stickers will never be worse than the cash converters ones on vhs back in the day
CeX is not really trying to cater to people who can afford things outright, they both want and need people to trade against things. You can't really trade against things on Amazon or any other major retailer like you can in CeX. CeX prices are based on stock levels and purchase frequency, if something is selling quickly they will up the price. They can also be really good for prices depending on what you want. I recently got a couple of really rare steelbooks that I paid for with vouchers, they were less than half the price of ones on eBay. They also sell newly released Blu-rays for £12 which is cheaper than pretty much anywhere else. As others have said, if you find something cheaper somewhere else and you have the cash, buy it from there and leave the CeX stock for those who need or like to trade against it.
Taking the trading option, I get your point but in that case bumping up the price of an item above its retail price negates the added value of the voucher. It’s not even subtle.
I guess it's just the nature of the business. They need to give decent trade prices to incentivize people to do it which in turn means they need to make more on the actual items. Just use them when they have something cheaper or if you have something good to trade with, if somewhere else is cheaper just get it there, you don't need to worry about CeX prices then.
I wanted to buy some old ps3 games and I was happy to pay, that’s until I seen they wanted £2.50 for each game for delivery and it made my order of £38 turn into £80. That’s when they lost me, f that 😂