Now Argos enters pre-owned market

Argos has followed Tesco and Asda by buying and selling used games, MCV can reveal.

The catalogue retailer is inviting customers to trade-in Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and DS games in 27 of its 735 stores. However, the firm is only accepting select games. A full list of stores and games, as well as trade-in values, can be found on the Argos website.

Consumers who trade-in will receive an Argos gift voucher, which can be redeemed against anything in-store.

The initiative is currently at the trial stage.

"Argos can confirm it is trialling a trade-in service for video games in a few stores in the North East region commencing in March 2010," an Argos spokesperson told MCV.

"Customers participating in the trial will receive the trade-in value in Argos gift vouchers giving the customers the choice to purchase any of the 18,000-plus products we sell.

"We have no firm plans regarding the length of the trial and no future roll out decision will be taken until the trial is concluded."

The development follows last week’s news that supermarket giants are taking a look at the pre-owned market, with second-hand trials taking place in two Tesco outlets and one Asda store.

Pre-owned sales have long been hailed as a cornerstone of specialist games retail and is a key differentiators between dedicated games retailers and generalists.

In 2008, HMV boosted its games offering by selling pre-owned software.

The sector has always proved controversial – particularly with publishers who see pre-owned sales as a direct attack on their profit margins.