GameStop, as many a gamer know, are the masters of extortion. They’re experts in taking your games from you faster than you can say “good value,” deposit a couple of measly bucks in your hand and tell you to “have a nice day” in half that time. Next thing you know, you’re outside the shop, minus the game, and wondering why your game is now on display at 16 times the value you were told it was worth.
Capitalism in action! Hurray! If you’ve ever thought that your old games could be doing something a little more beneficial than feeding the GameStop machine, there is something now. Read all about it after the jump! We here at SG hate trade-in ripoffs. You might know that we love charities too, and doing stuff to help people. This is where Donate Games comes in. Donate Games is a not-for-profit organization set up to help people suffering from so-called “orphan diseases”; diseases that affect only a tiny portion of the world’s population (less than half a percent, or around 3 million people: not that much in retrospect). Because these diseases are less common than more well-known ones such as cancer, AIDS and so on, they don’t receive much in the way of research and treatment.
Donate Games is one of many charities aiming to change how people view orphan diseases (and, in a rather timely fashion, the last day of February is Rare Disease Day) and it’s also helping you benefit from trade-ins in a far better way than you ever could from GameStop.
It works like this: instead of going to GameStop and trading in your games, you donate them to DG. In return, they’ll send you a tax credit receipt so you can claim some cash back, and they promise it’ll be equal to (or better than) the money GameStop would give you for your game. DG will then sell the games they receive in their online store and use the profits to help those suffering from orphan diseases and to improve research.
You get dosh off of your taxes (so I’m presuming it’s US only for the time being) and get to help people who might otherwise be all but ignored. What’s more you’ll be able to buy used games at far cheaper prices than you ever would if you went to Gamestop! Hurray! How can you say no?
DonateGames.org [via GP]
Popularity: 1% [?]
I think I might start using this
That’s actually really touching, thanks for sharing this Yamster.
I’m totally gonna round up all my old Wii and 360 games and give them to these guys
I’ll look for games to buy from this site, but as I’m a little too young to be paying taxes, I’ll keep selling my used games to Gamestop, for whatever they give me.
While I’m all for charity, I am also all for truth in journalism.
GS/EB are not ‘extortionists’. Extortion is forced.
They are not “ripoff artists”. Ripoff implies one party is not fully aware of the extent of the transaction. At any time the seller can decline to sell his items for the value EB is willing to pay.
I know, hating on EB is the low hanging fruit, and I’m all for getting the best bang for your gaming buck, but there’s better ways to make a point than slandering a company.
Virtually every other common item for resale fetches much less as trade in to a vendor than it cost to buy.
That said, I’m fully behind voluntarily supporting the charity of your choice, and I’ll check out DonateGames.org, however, I’ll also need to check out their numbers to see how much money is in ‘adminstrative’ and ‘advertisting’ costs and how much goes to support the cause (I do that with all charities I consider supporting, I was solicited by one where less than 5% of the money they got went to the actual cause.)
Oooh I heard about this two days ago and you got to it first!! Rats!! Good article though.
@dtcarson: I realise that the concept of a free market means that some liberties can be and are taken when it comes to buying and selling. And I’m also well aware of the ‘administration’ fees many charities levy when it comes to spending the money they have raised.
But it’s still a noble cause.
(Nyah nyah, Jax!)
@CAPTCHA: How am I meant to type this?! http://is.gd/lvEp
their ripping you off