If your family operates anyway like my family does, video games are a big deal. My kids are always clamoring for the latest and greatest video games. These are the games that their friends keep telling them are the most fun. Unfortunately for them, the latest and greatest video games are also the most expensive. We simply can’t afford to buy them a new $50 or $60 game every time a new one is released.
Does this happen in your house, too? Do you cave in and buy them the latest must-have game, or do you stand your ground and protect your budget? In our house, we’ve found a way to try to do a little bit of both. It takes a little extra work and little patience from the kids, but we’ve developed a few tricks that allow the adults and the kids to live in harmony.
Purchase used games. Families all over the country experience the same phenomena. Children insist that a certain game is the game that they must have. However, once they’ve played the game once or twice, they realize that the game isn’t as much fun as they thought it was going to be. These games make their way to secondhand video game stores like Vintage Stock. These stores are the only place that we buy videogames now. We can get games discounted to almost 50% less than their normal retail price.
Purchase aftermarket accessories. I have to admit that we succumbed to temptation last year and bought our family a Wii. However, we did find a way to save on all of the little accessories that go along with playing with the Wii system. We bought aftermarket pieces like the steering wheels and charging stations for a fraction of the price of the ones that have the Nintendo logo on them. The kids don’t know the difference.
Preview games before buying. To avoid being the disappointed family I described in Tip #1, we preview a lot of our games before we buy them. How do we do that? Well, we rent them at places like Game Rush. Sure, it costs a few dollars. But I figure it’s better to spend a few bucks and find out that we don’t enjoy a game than it is to spend $40 on a game and then find out we don’t like it.
Visit eBay. I love scoring video games on eBay. Games, accessories, and even game systems are all over this popular auction-based website. I even found our Wii for a bargain price there.
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