With the state of the economy and what I imagine will be the coming inflation, I thought it would be good to put up a reminder of how some of us could be a little more frugal in 2009.
Price matching - Forget GameStop on this one. To my recollection GameStop has never price matched anything. But if you happen to find a good deal at Target, or Fry's and you have the advertisement handy Best Buy will match that offer. There are also some stores that match and take an additional 10% off.
Price adjusting - Once again forget the local game chains on this one. Most major retailers allow customers to get a price adjustment if they lower the price of the game after you bought it. But to receive the price adjustment you have to have the receipt. This also helps if you're fairly polite with the clerk, and I know how hard that can be. But especially now, when games will likely see $10-20 price cuts do to clearances, price adjusting is key.
Clearance games - The other way to purchase games on the cheap is buying games that are getting clearanced. This requires more in depth research and traveling to stores often.
CAG/FW/SD - There are three websites that really do well on finding discounts on games. Cheapassgamer.com, FatWallet.com, and SlickDeals.net are good resources for gamers who would like to be a little more frugal with their purchases. And if possible please try to post deals as well, this is the only way these webs end up being successful.
Gamefly - Gamefly and other rental sources can save you a ton of cash a year. For example, I have the three game plan which nearly runs me $30/mo; which ends up being almost $360 a year. If I end up renting 6 games that I would've otherwise bought I've paid that subscription off for the year.
Trading - There are also trading webs out there like Goozex. Personally I have never tried these but from what I've read on the web they can work to your benefit.
Swapping - Swap with friends, this is still something I do fairly regularly. Sometimes friends lend me games that I wouldn't normally play, and I do likewise. I have found that when friends lend me games that I've never heard of or wouldn't normally play, I've generally had lot of fun.
Granted this is not the end all be all on how to be cheap while buying games. I put this guideline up to help those who were unaware of how to save, or just don't take advantage of ways to save some greenbacks.
