Reevaluating Point Prices for Low Value Games

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WarioGonnaWin Posted: 02-09-2010 12:16 PM

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I have enjoyed Goozex's recent 50% giftcard promotion; I think it has introduced some liquidity into the system for certain games.  I know I bought some points to grab games that I wanted but that had been on hold for a while.  I don't know the impact in the long term, but, for higher priced games, I think the immediate effect has been more trading.

However, my major gripe is the effect that this has had on low priced games (i.e. 100 or 150 points).  By offering points for 50% off, it is now painfully clear that it is simply not worth it to send a 100 or 150 point game.  You generally spend between $2 - $3 bucks on sending a game and it's a hassle to go to the post office to ship it.  Why would anyone consider this a worthwhile proposition when 100 points is now shown to be the equivalent of $2.50?  I know I have a handful of 100 to 150 point games that I will not be sending.  I can understand when these are low request games, but a these include games that have significant backlogs.  At least in these cases, Goozex needs to do a better job of factoring shipping cost into the point price of games.  Otherwise, these low value games will simply continue to be removed from the system.

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Kenny007 replied on 02-09-2010 12:32 PM

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Why would a sale in points cause sellers not to send 100 pointers?  On average (domestic US trades mind you) a title costs about $2.20 (with DC) to ship.  That's still netting you ~ $5 in points.  What was that game earning you on the shelf?  If anything, the sale will provide more people INTERESTED in your old titles.

Granted, you're not the first to start a thread on "Are 100ers worth shipping?" and that's a choice you're able to make by simply not listing them, but I surely won't be the last to suggest that yes, they are indeed worth trading.  They move old titles out of your house, help pay for new ones, or at the very least, pad your trading totals allowing for more trades at once.

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WarioGonnaWin replied on 02-09-2010 12:40 PM

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Sorry if this was already brought up.  I was just thinking in terms of point prices when people know that there will be periods when 50% off promotions will be run.  If I thought of 100 points being permanently worth $5 then it could certainly be worth sending the game.  However, now that I know that I will be able to pick up 100 points for $2.50, I will definitely not be sending 100 point games.  For this reason, I think that, at least for games that are being requested, the minimum should be higher than 100 points.  No one is benefitting from such a low price when these games are taken off the market and the queue just keeps going up (i.e. Lego Star Wars Wii).

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batmania15 replied on 02-09-2010 12:41 PM

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WarioGonnaWin:

Sorry if this was already brought up.  I was just thinking in terms of point prices when people know that there will be periods when 50% off promotions will be run.  If I thought of 100 points being permanently worth $5 then it could certainly be worth sending the game.  However, now that I know that I will be able to pick up 100 points for $2.50, I will definitely not be sending 100 point games.  For this reason, I think that, at least for games that are being requested, the minimum should be higher than 100 points.  No one is benefitting from such a low price when these games are taken off the market and the queue just keeps going up (i.e. Lego Star Wars Wii).

Your number one problem is that you are thinking points = money.  

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ghostworld replied on 02-09-2010 12:47 PM

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WarioGonnaWin:

Sorry if this was already brought up.  I was just thinking in terms of point prices when people know that there will be periods when 50% off promotions will be run.  If I thought of 100 points being permanently worth $5 then it could certainly be worth sending the game.  However, now that I know that I will be able to pick up 100 points for $2.50, I will definitely not be sending 100 point games.  For this reason, I think that, at least for games that are being requested, the minimum should be higher than 100 points.  No one is benefitting from such a low price when these games are taken off the market and the queue just keeps going up (i.e. Lego Star Wars Wii).

it is rare that goozex has 50% off promos.  its not something they do every other month.  and the promo has allowed me to be able to grab a plethora of 100 pointers over the past few weeks which i'm very happy about.  I'm glad not all goozers think like you do.

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WarioGonnaWin replied on 02-09-2010 12:48 PM

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Well, points cost money and postage costs money so, yes, I do think that points = money.

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batmania15 replied on 02-09-2010 12:50 PM

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WarioGonnaWin:

Well, points cost money and postage costs money so, yes, I do think that points = money.

Can you buy a loaf of bread with your points or even buy a bus ticket.  If not than I will have to disagree, points do not equal money.

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WarioGonnaWin replied on 02-09-2010 12:55 PM

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Fine, points are a proxy for money, just like tokens at an arcade are a proxy for money.  You can't spend them for anything, but that does not mean that you are oblivious to their monetary equivalent.

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tietherope replied on 02-09-2010 1:02 PM

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No matter what someone paid for the points you are still getting the same amount of points for
your games and you are still able to use them to get the same items you would have previously.

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batmania15 replied on 02-09-2010 1:04 PM

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WarioGonnaWin:

Fine, points are a proxy for money, just like tokens at an arcade are a proxy for money.  You can't spend them for anything, but that does not mean that you are oblivious to their monetary equivalent.

Ok then.  So that 100 point game you have sitting on your shelf collecting dust does that have more of a monetary equivalent to you than 100 points does.  If not then I would say it's worth it to trade.

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WarioGonnaWin replied on 02-09-2010 1:08 PM

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I understand the logic and am not disagreeing with you.  I am just saying that people are obviously holding onto 100 point games and part of the problem is that people see a promotion where 100 points can be bought for the equivalent of $2.50.  Instead of trading those 100 games, they buy 1000 points for $25 and we all lose because those 100 point games are taken off the market.  Therefore, if there are a bunch of people requesting a 100 point game, shouldn't the price go up?

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batmania15 replied on 02-09-2010 1:10 PM

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WarioGonnaWin:

I understand the logic and am not disagreeing with you.  I am just saying that people are obviously holding onto 100 point games and part of the problem is that people see a promotion where 100 points can be bought for the equivalent of $2.50.  Instead of trading those 100 games, they buy 1000 points for $25 and we all lose because those 100 point games are taken off the market.  Therefore, if there are a bunch of people requesting a 100 point game, shouldn't the price go up?

Or you could look at it this way and for that 1000 points which cost them $25 they can now get 10 games at 100 points.  So 10 games for 25 bucks sounds like a decent deal as well.

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ghostworld replied on 02-09-2010 1:16 PM

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WarioGonnaWin:

I am just saying that people are obviously holding onto 100 point games and part of the problem is that people see a promotion where 100 points can be bought for the equivalent of $2.50

What are you basing this on?? Like I said I just picked up a bunch of 100 point games.  And I've sent out a ton of 100 point dvds as well.  And I'm happy to get my 100 points for things that just collect dust otherwise. 

I think you are arguing just for the sake of arguing.  If you dont' want to trade 100 pointers then dont, just don't complain about it.

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supermawill replied on 02-09-2010 1:26 PM

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There's the seller's mentality I was expecting when the 50% promotion came about. Now people with high value games as well as low value games don't feel like its worth sending out games, causing even fewer games to be put in the system, while more and more points are put in. I think the only people who are actually willing to trade out games while this promo is going on are those people who do not want to spend actual money (such as myself, haha).

An example of this was an individual who decided to sell his copy of Modern Warfare 2 for $35 in order to buy a 1000pt + 5 trade token gift card, because this way it not only nets him the 1000pts he wanted, but also gives him 5 trade tokens and some cash. Thus adding points into the system as well as taking a game out.

Now someone finally speaks up about how its not worth it to send cheap games and wants Goozex to raise the price of lower games. I am so glad this promotion is only for half a month, any longer and there would probably be inflation on everything.

If you make games that are valued at 100 to 200, what's stopping someone who's trading a 1000pt game to demand 2000pts? Or even a 200pt game is raised to 300, what's stopping a 500pt game to be 750pts?

Simply, don't ask Goozex to raise the price of a game simply because you feel like it's not worth sending, if you don't feel like sending it, don't send it. You can think of points as the value of a dollar, print more and the value of a dollar decreases (of course not if there is a need to print more with funds to back the dollar, in Goozex's case, more members and games), but you also have to think of the value of a dollar as the value of the games. If the value of a lower end game goes up only because now points aren't worth as much, then the value of the dollar is going to decrease.

This all means, if you want you game to be worth more, expect every other game to be worth more too. This also means expect the points to be worth less, so if Goozex were to increase the value of lower games significantly this would screw over anyone who had a lot of points before the promotion, subsequently decreasing the value of there points directly based on the ratio of increase of "point value".

But luckily this promo ends soon, hopefully it didn't run long enough to really change anything significantly. And those people who didn't feel like sending there lower point games, start sending them again a month or two from now.

But I do agree with you about the low point games with high request and low demand. For the most part Goozex changes prices due to demand, but there are some games that I guess Goozex deems too old and simply doesn't increase their point value even if they have a high request for them. But I also see why Goozex can't just change to price all too quickly, since if they do, an individual who requested the game at a lower point value, may end up getting stuck for it at a higher point value than they wanted previously (thus the 50pt maximum point change per week, this also protects sellers who do not want to trade low).

Goozex ain't perfect, but it's the best there is. Any major change in the system is a big risk for failure. Best to leave things as it is.

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WarioGonnaWin replied on 02-09-2010 1:34 PM

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Wow, I guess I sound like I am just a complainer.  I actually want to give people more points because there are certain games that I want that have big backlogs and don't move from 100 or 150 points.  I suppose I could be wrong about peoples' motivation, but I would guess if some of these had their points raised, they would go on the market and then I could get the games I want.  I'm not saying this just to be difficult.  I am simply saying that I think that between promotions and postage, there should be something done to start to get people to trade these low value games so that I can get a piece of them!