A start-up charitable foundation is seeking your used games.
Donate Games is focusing its efforts on orphan diseases - debilitating, often fatal, but frequently overlooked because they affect only a small slice (less than .05%) of the global population.
How can used games help? A press release explains that Donate Games will re-sell the games it takes in:
Are you tired of trading in your used games at retail stores for pennies on the dollar? Are you looking for a new site to purchase used games at low prices? Do you want to help change the lives of people around the world?...
Donate Games is a new charity dedicated to funding research for orphan diseases and supporting those affected by them through the donation and resale of used video games. In addition to raising funds for research on these rare disorders, Donate Games will promote awareness and provide advisory services to the general public.
Donate Games was created by Jim Carol, described as a veteran of the IT industry, and his wife Cynthia. In 2006 their son was diagnosed with Philadelphia Chromosome, a rare form of leukemia. Although their son's disease is now in remission, the Carols were moved by the suffering they saw:
We were lucky. Treatments and community support really made a difference for [our son]. But, we met others at the treatment centers that had little hope, suffering from even rarer life-threatening conditions, without research funding, effective treatments or support networks. By launching Donate Games and connecting with the vibrant gaming community so near and dear to my own professional background, now we can help them, too.
The organization is currently accepting game donations but has not yet begun to re-sell. Penny Arcade's Child's Play and publisher Electronic Arts are listed as partner organizations.
Comments
Re: Used Games Will Help New Charity Fight Rare Diseases
Definitely seems worth it. Considering the pittance you typically get at Gamestop for anything but the newest and rarest games, donating it to charity is easily a better option.
Re: Used Games Will Help New Charity Fight Rare Diseases
Yeah, selling back a used game = very little money. Giving a used game to charity, while it technically gives you even less money, makes giving it up actually worth something.
Re: Used Games Will Help New Charity Fight Rare Diseases
Well, there's always the potential tax write off, heh.
Re: Used Games Will Help New Charity Fight Rare Diseases
I got $27 for a game in crappy condition from them. I don't know what they were smoking, and I don't care to find out. But when I bring in games in great condition, they want to offer me like 1/4 of what I paid for it.
- Stand back! I have an opinion, and I'm not afraid to use it.
Re: Used Games Will Help New Charity Fight Rare Diseases
Frankly this is very different then gamestop. One it's not going to profit anyone, it's going to charity. Two they seem to want to generally not screw over the people donating. Three they aren't buying new copies to sell so their second hand sales are less likely to be along the same lines as gamestop (Don't buy it new, buy this used copy for $5 less!!!)
Finally, maybe EA is partnering with them because while they de represent used game sales they are a more positive face of it and EA might be hoping they really take off and hurt gamestops market.
Re: Used Games Will Help New Charity Fight Rare Diseases
More likely.. no company in their right mind would actually argue against a charity doing something like this... if they were approached and asked to be a partner in it, their choices were Yes or No. Saying No would have been very bad press.
"We never paid any heed to the ancient prophecies... Like fools we clung to the old hatreds, and fought as we had for generations"
Re: Used Games Will Help New Charity Fight Rare Diseases
What a second? Electronic Arts are supporting this? What the hell? After all their swipes at the used game market?
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I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.
Re: Used Games Will Help New Charity Fight Rare Diseases
Perhaps they just don't like the way that Gamestop does business; a charity doing this to fight diseases and a company that gets all it's revenue from screwing everyone else in the industry are two entirely different entities with two different rulesets.
Gamestop is well known for giving absolute shit for what you trade in; the most you will EVER get at gamestop is about a quarter of the stuff's original worth.
They take your used games, give you $20 at most for them, and then sell them 2 dollars off new price, and do the same to consoles. I once traded in a game, and they resold it for SIXTEEN TIMES what I got for it.
Gamestop is a despicable upscale pawnshop that hurts developer, publisher, and consumer. The only reason they're even slightly put up with is because of consumer rights and first sale.
I think that EA is fine with used games being resold to fight diseases; I think that they'd rather the revenue goes to fighting diseases than fattening the pockets of a company that hurts everyone else in the business.
When digital distribution takes a true hold, then Gamestop's screwing of everyone else in the game industry will finally come to an end.
Re: Used Games Will Help New Charity Fight Rare Diseases
Quote FTW. Gamestop has some really nasty business practices. I bought a game (For 17 dollars), tried to sell it back to them a day later and they offered me 1 cent. I told them I think I can get more enjoyment by throwing the disc around than selling it back to them (The game was Jeremy McGrath Supercross World if anyone is interested). A charity is much better because than they are not reaping in the profits.
www.katamaridemocracy.com http://twitter.com/PushDustIn
Re: Used Games Will Help New Charity Fight Rare Diseases
I wouldn't be surprised if EA is thinking that they can claim these on their taxes as a Loss/Donation
~Weatherlight~
Re: Your Used Games Will Help New Charity Target Rare Diseases
Ooooh, lets see the industry whine about this one.
---You are likely to be eaten by a Grue.