As the United States’ economic crisis penetrates the Australian economy, second-hand games are increasingly considered a viable and sensible option.

“There are two main reasons for this. One, second-hand games that are no longer played are traded in to offset the cost of new release titles. And, two, second-hand games are simply a good economic choice in the current climate,” said Mark Langford, Gametraders’ managing director.

Gametraders is the only gaming store to sell all gaming formats ever manufactured, devoting more shelf space to a bigger range of second-hand games as well as second-hand consoles and accessories.

These include all old cartridge games and consoles such as Sega Master System, Sega Megadrive; all old Nintendo cartridges such as NES, Super Nintendo and N64; Atari and Commodore 64; old PC games in boxes; Sony Playstation One; and Dreamcast, through to Playstation 2, Nintendo DS and newer versions.

“We’re also seeing second-hand games traded to offset the cost of another second-hand game,” said Langford. “If a new release game can’t be afforded, there are scores of second-hand games to choose from.”

Gametraders now has 46 stores, with another opening in WA at the end of this month, and an average growth rate of 70 per cent over the past three years.