SwitchGames: One man’s trash is another man’s treasure

by Emily Balistrieri on March 12, 2009 at 1:24 am

What’s the value of a used game? From now on, it’s whatever someone is willing to trade you for it. SwitchGames is a new website with the power to change the way we handle our used game transactions — like we need an excuse to not get ripped off by GameStop! Yesterday I got a chance to talk with founder Jason Crawford about how the site works and the new features they’ll be rolling out soon.

I had poked around and registered for the service prior to meeting Jason, so I was already pretty addicted. When someone tells you, “It’s a site for trading used games,” it doesn’t seem that exciting, but after posting a couple of my games and seeing the types of matches their SwitchBot was coming up with, I was actually searching my collection for not just any games I didn’t really want, but also any games I could bear to tear off my shelves, just so I could have more assets to work with.

I asked him right away if they had plans to expand into DVDs, but he said, “”It was a very conscious decision to do it like we did it, which is keep it game focused,” citing the community focus, but also noting that their site runs on a system that could be applied to other communities, which could in turn be networked. “We think games are the biggest problem right now with what fans get for their buck, what they get for things that they own that are used.” I’d be totally down for SwitchDVDs, SwitchBooks, and SwitchTunes, in the future…

Back to the present, though. What we have is SwitchGames and it’s pretty awesome. The system already works, and it’s free at its core. Using the slick “Chevron” triangle button interface, you make a wishlist, show off what you have for trade, and the SwitchBot tells you if there are any perfect matches. Eventually you’ll also be able to import things like your Xbox Gamertag to your profile, as well as export your SwitchGames info to places like FaceBook.

As far as trading goes, I’ve found it’s best to be proactive. No sense being shy when there are items you want floating around. You can message members and see if anything you have appeals to them, and you’re allowed to have multiple offers out on one game — “You wanna be in a room and say, ‘Who wants this?’” Jason explained, as opposed to having your assets locked up. First come, first serve!

The initial safety measures are very basic: their effective anti-fraud tools (”Just because someone’s not paying for the service doesn’t mean we don’t care about the users that are using it for free, ’cause this is a community and we’re trying to take care of the community as well.”) and user feedback ratings, plus a series of badges that members earn for things like certain amounts of positive transactions, tenure, and helping out the site or users by, for example, reporting bugs. “You could, over time, build up all these badges and have a great reputation, and do tons of trades and never spend a dime on SwitchGames, and we’re totally cool with that; that’s totally fine.”

Of course, they’d rather you spend at least a couple dimes, and that’s where many of their upcoming features come in. First, you can buy yourself a verified member badge for $1.95. This validates your credit card, shipping address, and phone number and just makes you look more legit. There will also eventually be a plus membership badge, which essentially gives you a power seller (and soon you will actually be able to buy and sell on the site) status, with an extra set of tools and discounts on Safe Trades.

Safe trading is the biggest for-cash change. For $6.95 you are guaranteed a safe trade, and that includes postage as well. Instead of having to trade addresses as well as games, both parties use the automated packing label the site generates to send their games to a SwitchGames hub (currently in NY and CA, but due to sprout up countrywide a la Netflix). They check out the games and make sure you’re getting what you agreed on–including the manual if that’s what was promised.

Another handy thing is that once you agree to a trade, the site reminds you with an orange exclamation point that you have outstanding tasks to do, generally about mailing off your game. You can also see your trading partners to-do list, so you can tell if they’ve sent it off or not.

Speaking of which, I have someone sending me Gears of War, so I should get my trade in the mail. “I’m a user,” Jason told me, “I used to do all my transactions at GameStop before I created SwitchGames. Now I do them all on SwitchGames.”

It just makes so much sense.

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