On the flip side, GameStop has grown into a $3.2 billion company by riding the Buy-It-Forward Express.  Their business model is dependent upon gamers bringing in their old video games and exchanging them for credit towards another game.  GameStop can then resell the exchanged games (which they just obtained at a steep discount) to other games.  But this is not a new concept.  For decades, people have been trading in their cars and driving away in new ones.

What makes the concept of “buying it forward” a new concept is that the market for used goods is much more liquid than it once was and that consumers can now factor in the ‘salvage’ value of their items into their purchasing decisions–must like a car’s resell value.  Car buyers consider future resell value when making a purchasing decision.  Companies like BMW have built up stellar reputation, largely because of how well BMW cars retain their value.

There has long been an established secondary market for cars, but secondary markets have recently begun opening for a wide range of other products, such as strollers and video games.  As the secondary market begins to stabilize and market prices begin to settle into a groove, many consumers will begin to factor the resell value into their buying decisions.  For instance, video game buyers may buy a game with the expectation of reselling/trading it in for a certain percentage.  Certain genres or game publishers may be known to have lower resell values, and this could negatively impact their sales.  Throw in the fact that this also means a discount to second hand buyers, and many consumers may make the decision to wait and buy a used copy at a large discount.

This is currently just speculation based upon my anecdotal evidence, but the concept of buying it forward is one that I plan on exploring in great detail over the coming months.