PS2 Trade at EBGames

[BigDogDad]

For those interested, EBGames (aka EBX & Electronics Boutique) is offering a trade in deal towards the purchase of a new PS2 (slim model, not refurbished).

The deal is you trade in your old working PS2, power cable, rca cable and one controller for a $70 credit. Additionally you can trade in 3 games for another $10 credit per game. Under this deal, make sure you get the FULL $10 credit for each game and not whatever the normal credit would have been.

Some titles are excluded (ie old sports games with years of 2000, 2001, 2002... ) The threes games I traded (2 Star Wars titles and one Nickelodeon game) would normally have been a total of an $8 credit, with this deal I got a total of a $30 credit.

In the end you walk away with a brand new PS2 for $50. A great deal if, like me, you had one of the original PS2's that was starting to suffer from "disc read errors".

See their website for more info and for when this deal expires.

[mgorbsk]

Hmmmm..... I would do that in a heart beat, but I'm and XBOXer. Do you know if the unit has to be working or if they even check.

[BigDogDad]

Originally posted by mgorbsk
Hmmmm..... I would do that in a heart beat, but I'm and XBOXer. Do you know if the unit has to be working or if they even check.

I have an XBOX also... no sense limiting yourself to just one system!

It is supposed to be a working system but when I traded mine in all the guy did was power it up.

[Bill Balmer]

I would run over there right now if I could find this offer! I've looked on the EB web site and can't find it. Can you post a link?

Thanks!

[BigDogDad]

Originally posted by Bill Balmer
I would run over there right now if I could find this offer! I've looked on the EB web site and can't find it. Can you post a link?

Thanks!

Should have done that the first time, sorry!

Here is the link...

http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/ads/shops/instoretradein/

and here is the deal...

April VOM: PS2 HW and 3 PS2 games - $100 trade-in value Active: Now - 5/1/2005
Trade-in a working PO-PS2 SYSTEM ALL or PREPLAYED PS2 MINI and 3 pre-played PS2 games and receive $100.00 in trade-in credit. System trade-in value is $70 and each game value is $10. Game boxes and instructions are required. May not be combined with any other offer or discount. See sales associate for complete details. Customer may be responsible for sales tax. Game/system must be in working condition. Some titles are excluded from trade. Customer may be responsible for sales tax.

Note: The deal says you get a credit but not exactly that you have to use that credit for a new PS2. Looks to me that you should be able to buy whatever you want with it then. Good luck.

[Bill Balmer]

UPDATE:

I just got back from EB Games where I tried to take advantage of this deal. I called first and verified everything. I brought 8 games, just in case some of what I wanted tot trade didn't meet their criteria. But they won't take back my original PS2 because the warranty sticker on the back of the case has been removed. The unit is well out of warranty, so when the lens needed cleaning I didn't think twice about removing the sticker, but now they tell me that without the sticker, they would have to take it in as a broken unit and they could only give me $20 for it even though it works perfectly.

I'm pretty ticked off about this because none of the releases describing the offer say that the unit has to be in warranty or that the sticker must be intact. They just say it must be a working unit.

I purchased a PS2 when it was first introduced and I have owned two different units. These things get dirty inside due to the flow-through cooling system. When they get dirty inside they fail. When the lens gets dirty, IT fails. The only way to clean either the electonics or the lens is to open the case, which voids the warranty, and apparently makes your unit virtually worthless.

It seems to me that a PS2 that has never been opened has not been cared for as well as one that has.

Of course, EB is passing the buck to Sony on this one and telling me that Sony will not buy the unit back from them without the sticker, so it's hard to know who I should rail at.

I have to say that Sony's customer service has always been very good, so maybe I'll talk to them about it and see if they'll give me credit toward a new unit direct...

[BigDogDad]

Originally posted by Bill Balmer
UPDATE:
I just got back from EB Games where I tried to take advantage of this deal. I called first and verified everything. I brought 8 games, just in case some of what I wanted tot trade didn't meet their criteria. But they won't take back my original PS2 because the warranty sticker on the back of the case has been removed. ..

Sorry to hear that, sounds like TOTAL BS to me. When I brought my PS2 in all the guy did was hook up the power cable and see that it powered up. That was it. I also didn't have the warranty sticker on my PS2. Removed it a long time ago to clear out the dust and clean the lens... friggin disc read errors!

The deal says nothing about warranty stickers. Maybe the head geek kid at that EB Games already has enough PS2's to fill his supply?

I never asked myself what they intended on doing with them, but I'm surprised Sony is actually buying them back. I always thought they just resold them there on their own. They always advertise used PS2's for $20 or $30 below the price of a new one, so where else do they get them from?

Is there another EB Games you can try? If the lack of a sticker is mentioned tell them that you had it serviced by Sony and that was the way they returned it to you.

I really think that guy is just jerking you around.

Good luck.

[Bill Balmer]

I thought the same thing. I actually took it to two different EB Games stores before my last post - I just didn't want to sound TOO rabid! With both of them, the first thing they did when they took it out of the bag was flip it over and look for that damn sticker. They both gave me the same story, but the second place offered me $5 more than the first ($25 vs. $20 - I paid $350 for the thing when it came out!)

Would it be paranoid of me to wonder if the guy at the first store called other local stores and told them to check for the sticker? Yeah, it probably would.

[BigDogDad]

For $25 you may as well just keep it.

Sorry the deal didn't work out for you. I'm guessing that maybe your local EB Games stores might have gotten burnt a few times on people who ended up damaging their PS2's when they opened them... mod chips, scratched laser lens...

[dtdc_pilot]

BigDogDad - Thanks for the info... Just came back from PA for other reasons and brought the PS2 and a few games to trade up at an EBGAME store there. I had no problems with the console (although he did look at the bottom of the console for the sticker). No luck on the games though
- too old or not worth it for them. I'd settled for the $70 trade in and had to throw in the extra $$$ for the new console. Can't complain - traded a noisy console with intermittent read problems for a new, sleek, thin console.

Really appreciated the information!

[BigDogDad]

Originally posted by dtdc_pilot
BigDogDad - Thanks for the info... Just came back from PA for other reasons and brought the PS2 and a few games to trade up at an EBGAME store there. I had no problems with the console (although he did look at the bottom of the console for the sticker). No luck on the games though
- too old or not worth it for them. I'd settled for the $70 trade in and had to throw in the extra $$$ for the new console. Can't complain - traded a noisy console with intermittent read problems for a new, sleek, thin console.

Really appreciated the information!

Glad it worked out for you!