The Ultimate Goozex Guide is your one stop shop for learning all the finer points of trading online using the current most popular method, Goozex. The UGG is a 4-part series. For anyone just discovering it, you will find links to the other parts of the series in the introductory and closing paragraphs, as well as in the side-bar to the right which contains an archive of all my major articles.

Welcome back for the fourth and final edition of the guide. For all of you that missed part of it, I suggest you go back and read up. Blogs are a short lived medium, after all. Previous entries include articles covering Efficiency Tips and Money Savers. For those of you who don't know what Goozex yet, you can start at the beginning. This time we're going to go over a set of tips that make Goozex more useful to the collectors among us. Goozex will never be a perfect one-stop shot for collectors looking to get their games in the best condition possible, but it can be a useful tool and there are ways to make it moreso.

User Communication
Simply communicating with other members is a great way to avoid getting a game in bad shape. Very few users actually choose to ship their game in less than 3 days, and though not everyone will respond it helps you more often than it doesn't. Here's a recent example of my own where I sent a PM after getting a match:

Hi, I'd like to know about the condition of Project Justice for the Dreamcast. I'm a big fan of this game and a collector, so I really want a game in like-new condition. If the game's not in the kind of condition I'm asking, I would really appreciate if you rejected me. I would put my request on hold immediately and let you get to somebody else. Sorry for the trouble, and thanks a lot for reading.

Hello, after receiving your last message I have decided not to trade because I don't think the game is fit for a collector. It plays well, but it is not in new condition. The manual has some crayola marks on it because of my nephew. Sorry.

Use and observe user feedback
Communicating with other users is a useful way to prevent yourself from waiting in line for a long time, only to get stuck with a game in poor condition. A step you can take even before that is simply observing the feedback information of the people you match up with. Every single trade potentially has comments left by the game's requester, and I very much so recommend that you check out the general trends. A lot of people leave a simple thank you, and you can skip those, but if you notice a lot of negatives, neutrals, or comments on games being in bad shape then you have a sign to do what you can to cancel immediately. Of course you should be courteous as you run for the hills, but regardless. Likewise, you should make sure to leave accurate feedback yourself to help other people. Always make a note if a game came in like-new or new condition. That's the kind of feedback you would personally be looking for.

Use Goozex to flip lesser collectibles
Aside from buying low and selling high on Goozex, there's another type of flipping that should be of particular interest to collectors. Really, it's just flipping your games in poor condition at the same price as a regular game. Every game on Goozex is set at a fixed price. It doesn't matter if it's just disc only, it doesn't matter if there are any cosmetic defects. Being a collector your idea of poor is probably most peoples' idea of pretty good, which is exactly why nobody will mind if you use Goozex as a recycling bin.

If you have a game in genuinely bad condition, I simply recommend that you initiate communications with the other user to warn them. Chances are they won't mind since most people don't care about collecting, and you won't risk an unhappy trader. Of course you would most likely want to do this after you've found another copy of the game in better condition. Perhaps you would be looking to do this after getting a replacement copy from Goozex itself even.

Observe price trends to your benefit
This is sort of a common rule among collectors, but keep your eye on older titles that for any particular reason might be of renewed interest to the general public. Typically this means sequels. A good recent example is that upon the announcement of The Last Guardian, online prices for Ico have shot up. The supply of the game will probably dry off as demand increases, and so will the game's price. If you took my advice last time and installed the price charts plug-in, you already have access to charts that will alarm you of such things. Now in this particular case Ico behaves strangely with the plug-in and doesn't work, so I'll just
show you this example myself.

Now, the reason I'm bringing this up is that Goozex rarely accommodates for these kinds of sudden price-spikes, and even if it does the price can only change at about 50 points a week. Point is, while a game is becoming increasingly more expensive everywhere else, it will still be possible to get a fairly cheap copy on Goozex. Whether you keep it or flip it for a profit after is your own business. Just keep in mind that if you're going to do this sort of thing that you should already have general collectible games on your hold list; simply for the sake of advancing in the line and jumping on an opportunity should it arise.

Using GameStop to your advantage
Technically this isn't a Goozex tip, but I'm assuming you will be using games from Goozex in this example. As stated in my GameStop Shopping Tips--which surely you can find for yourself by now--GameStop has a pretty lucrative used return policy. 7 days, any reason. Should you actually find a game in exceptional condition while on the hunt, you should just go ahead and pick it up. Swap the contents of your game with the better GameStop copy and then return it. So long as you bring back the original case there really isn't any reason for them to be suspicious, and even then it's not like people don't don't take off stickers themselves. You really should keep in mind that straight cash returns are viewed as a financial loss by the company, so they take a hit for you whenever you do this. I very much so recommend that as a courtesy you take the return as store credit or just buy something else while you're there.
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Sending back messed up games
Finally we have a last resort; sending shit back. I don't recommend you do this often, but when you waited in line for a game for months on end and got something you didn't want you shouldn't be helpless. If you've been following the guide, you've already sent the person a message asking them about the condition of the game and they haven't responded. You'll need to do something more drastic to get their attention in this case. The way the feedback system has changed makes this considerably easier. Leave negative feedback with a comment stating that you're sorry, but you'd like to send the game back. Goozex now gives them 3 days to respond or dispute, so in that time you will be able to get in contact with them and work something out.

Should everything work out smoothly, they'll have their game back and the trade will be effectively canceled. You will be debited back your points, and you will be placed back in your original position in line. Keep your request on hold to allow the other user to put their game back on offer, then try again later. Chances are your next chance will come soon. Absolutely always use delivery confirmation when returning a game. You want to be able to prove that you returned it.

That's it, folks!
Well, you've done it. You've read the entire Ultimate Goozex Guide. For all you people that only read some of them: you're a doody head. You've learned all that I can teach you. Fly away little Goozex birdies, fly away! As I watch you from the horizon, my ninja scarf fluttering in the wind atop the cliffs over the sea, I think to myself only one thing: The Goozex mascot is fucking retarded. Literally. It looks mentally disabled. What the fuck?

Leave a comment, ya mooches.