Mooch announced a new peer-to-peer video game trading service today that will give gamers another option when it comes to trading in video games.
While I signed up for the free beta today, I obviously haven’t tried it yet, but I still wanted to share what information I could gleen off of the Web site.
It sounds like you can just list the games you have, and the games you want, and use the system to search for trades with other members. Once a deal is arranged you simply mail each other the game.
To balance trades, they’ve implemented a point system. Points can be traded straight up for games if you can find a trade, or traded alongside of games to make that Call of Duty/Wii Carnival Games trade fair.
Mooch assigns every game point values, and searches for trades for you based on the games and number of points you have. If you use the Mooch postage system it will guarantee your trade. Meaning if the other guy doesn’t send you your game, Mooch will credit your account the point-value of said game PLUS 20 points so you end up better off and can try the trade again. There’s also some sort of rating system that’s probably similar to Ebay so you can avoid traders with poor histories.
The company announced free beta memberships today as an attempt to build up their trading program. After that membership will be at least $20 per year. I signed up, so we’ll see how this works. I generally don’t like to trade my games, but I might be more willing to do so if I get another game out of the deal and not a $7 in store credit.
PRESS RELEASE:
ATLANTA, March 17, 2009 — Today Mooch, LLC announced the launch of a new peer-to-peer video game trading site. After two years of development, Mooch is now offering a limited number of free accounts during the beta at http://www.mooch.com. By facilitating every aspect of the peer-to-peer trading process, Mooch gives video game players an affordable and easy way to trade the used games sitting on their shelves for ones they want to play.
Instead of exchanging used titles at retail stores for a fraction of the original price, Mooch subscribers can enter a list of the games they have as well as the games they want, and Mooch’s patent-pending trading engine goes to work. Each step of the trading process is intelligently automated, including finding potential trades, balancing each trade, and even allowing users to print postage directly from the site.
“There are plenty of gamers, including myself, tired of trading in our used games at retail stores for next to nothing,” said Jonathan Balser, CEO of Mooch, LLC. “So we built Mooch to take all the hassle out of trading games with other gamers. We’re providing a service that a lot of people really need, particularly given the economic pressure many of us are feeling right now.”
A limited number of free accounts will be available during the beta period. Following the free beta, membership to Mooch will require an annual subscription fee of $19.99.
About Mooch, LLC
Founded in 2006, Mooch, LLC is dedicated to giving video game players the easiest, most affordable, and most effective way to exchange used video game software. Mooch was founded by former advertising agency owners Jonathan Balser and Mike Bevil. The site is built upon an advanced, custom trading engine, which utilizes patent-pending value generation technology. Mooch is a privately owned company in Atlanta, GA.
Tags: trading games, video games
Cornfed Gamer 
March 17, 2009 at 12:50 pm |
I just tried proposing a trade, so we’ll see how this works. Update: If you run out of the points they use to balance trades they’ll charge you $15 for 100 more. Plus you have to pay to mail the game, which I imagine will cost $3-$5. So there is some cost involved, but probably less than Gamestop. If you’re constantly trading bad/old games for new ones you will quickly lose points and need to purchase more. For example, if someone accepts my Gears of War for Halo Wars trade I’m out 91 of my 100 free points. I would have to trade a newer game for an older one to get those back…
March 17, 2009 at 12:55 pm |
So lets estimate here. If I pay $4 to ship my game, and used $15 worth of mooch points, I’m essentially trading a game and paying $20 for another used game.
If I did the same thing at Gamestop: They said they would buy back Gears of War for $8 and sell me a used copy of Halo Wars for $55, putting the cost at $47. So wow, I guess it can be worth it.
March 19, 2009 at 12:52 pm |
Hello,
I’m Jonathan, the guy that created Mooch. I’m glad you’re giving it a try, thank you. I think your assessment is a pretty good one. (The postage is actually $3.10, so good guess.)
I wanted to point out that you really only have to trade one good, newer game for a slightly older (or less popular) title to “restock” your account with points. You can always buy more points, but you don’t have to. It’s pretty easy to find someone willing to trade their older game (+points) to get a newer one. And unless there’s a killer online component, I find myself killing most new games in about 8-15 hours. So I have plenty of new titles to trade.
Anyway, I hope you and anyone who discovers Mooch enjoys using it so we can all trade our games and get a lot more gaming for a lot less money. Cheers!
March 19, 2009 at 3:53 pm |
Thanks for stopping by Jonathan. I wish you luck in your venture and hope to be making some killer trades in the near future. Still no takers on my Gears 4 Halo Wars 😦 But I figured that might still be a long shot.
March 19, 2009 at 10:26 pm |
Don’t forget to check your Accept Offers page as well as making offers to others. 😉