Argos trials trade-in at 27 stores

As predicted by MCV last week, Argos has begun to trial a pre-owned games service across select stores.

The trial will run in 27 of its 735 stores, predominantly in the North-East of England at locations including Durham, Gateshead and Newcastle.

Customers will be able to buy pre-owned titles from the home retail giant and sell used games in exchange for in-store credit, as opposed to cash.

Argos is currently accepting select games for the PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and DS, with offers ranging from 7 for Big Beach Sports to 26 for used copies of Modern Warfare 2.

The chain says it will not accept more than one copy of each title per customer, import games or those in poor condition without a box and instruction booklet.

Sellers will receive a voucher, which can be used against purchases in any Argos store. These expire after three years and cannot be used by customers online.

Consumers will be able to check trade-in values before heading to the store, and use Argos’ check and reserve service to potentially pay for their next purchase up-front.

This follows news that Tesco and Asda have also begun trialing pre-owend games.

Similarly to these retailers, Argos could alter its pre-owned plans at any times.

A spokesperson for Argos told MCV: We have no firm plans regarding the length of the trial and no future roll out decision will be taken until the trial is concluded.”

Pre-owned sales have long been hailed as a cornerstone of specialist games retail and is a key differentiator between games retailers and generalists.

In 2008, HMV boosted its games offering by selling pre-owned software.