A few common tricks used by small national and many local game stores:

Cash vs. Store Credit: Let's say you'll get either $15 in cash or $20 in store credit for trading in a one-week old PlayStation game, which would be a foolish deal on your part. How much does the store sell used PlayStation games for? $40 cash or $45 credit. Yes, this actually happens with some regularity in the real world.

There are two major problems here: The store is scamming you by giving you less cash than store credit to begin with, which leads you to think that the store credit is a better deal. But when you go to use your store credit for the first time, you get charged more for a game than you would if you were buying it with cash. You can't win. You'll have to give the store two used games and maybe some cash just to get one game back. Another big problem here: You get $15 in cash for a game that the store will turn around and sell to someone else at a $25 profit. You'd be a lot wiser to find someplace that either pays you more for your game or charges you less for their used games, and even better off if you can sell the game yourself without letting someone else make a $25 profit by re-selling the game you sold them.

Inflated price tags: Many small stores (rarely national chains) put either random or inflated price tags on games, hoping that someone will want the game enough to buy regardless of the price. Never hesitate to call a price into question; most small stores will be willing to negotiate the price of a $20-40 game downwards a few dollars, if not more depending on your ability to demonstrate a knowledge of better prices elsewhere.

The bulk trade game: A surprising number of small game vendors play a beautiful little negotiations game where you'll bring a bag full of used games in for trade and they'll examine the bag, tell you it's mostly worthless (regardless of content, though sometimes they're being honest), and then offer you $1-3 per game. Never give in to this sort of negotiating tactic: Make sure you produce your games one at a time, write down the individual prices on paper, and indicate a willingness to walk away and check someplace else if their numbers aren't good enough. Never accept the first offer they make you: If you have a bag full of games, try to squeeze another $10 from them - they're going to low-ball you with their first number, so be prepared to hear something unacceptable.

Of course, there are positive aspects to used game shops: Buying used games for cash is clearly a better value than buying a new game for cash, considering that use of the game in no way diminishes its quality and that the money you save by waiting can be spent on another game later. Used game stores are the only places you'll find certain games that slip through the cracks, such as Breath of Fire II for the SNES, Crusaders of Centi for the Genesis, the later Dragon Warrior games for the NES, and Phantasy Star for the Sega Master System, to name a few prominent examples. All of these RPGs were produced in the declining periods of their respective systems, and all in limited quantities, so you'll hardly be able to find these in most retail stores nowadays. Also, used game stores often get hosed on dying game systems, meaning that you'll likely find Sega-CD, 32X, Jaguar, 3DO, and TurboGrafx equipment getting unloaded at low prices. (The real businesses to get hurt by dead systems are Post-Primary stores such as those mentioned earlier in this article, and when Panzer Dragoon gets closed out at a retail store for $15, Secondary stores will rush in and buy up those games to re-sell at a markup.)

Though 32-bit game systems are gaining popularity, 8- and 16-bit games continue to drive brisk sales in Secondary Market game stores: Many families still enjoy purchasing older and less advanced games and don't want to spend $50 per title. Most NES games sell for prices between $3 and $15, with a small number of rare titles selling for higher prices; SNES and Genesis games are sold for between $5 and $30, with only a few awful games at the low end and a handful of excellent games commanding $30 and higher bounties. PlayStation, Saturn, and N64 games are routinely available used within a week of release, sold at prices $10-15 lower than original retail.