In the market for a used portable game system? Nintendo is now willing to help you out directly, offering factory-refurbished portables through its website. The systems even come complete with the same one year warranty the company offers on new systems.
A refurbished Nintendo 3DS in Aqua Blue or Midnight Purple will run you $129.99 without a game, $40 less than the $169.99 MSRP for a new system. Nintendo is also offering the older DSi XL in either Metallic Rose or Midnight Blue for $99, $30 less than the new MSRP.
Buying direct from the console maker is a pretty good deal here. A refurbished used 3DS from Gamestop runs for $159.99, $30 more than buying direct from Nintendo. A refurbished DSi XL costs $10 less when buying from Nintendo than from Gamestop. You can find "refurbished" 3DS and DSi XL systems listed for less on sites like eBay, but the actual quality of those used products is anyone's guess. And neither of those options comes with Nintendo's standard year-long warranty.
The new refurbished sales program could be seen as a bit of an aggressive move by Nintendo to undercut one of the main profit drivers for Gamestop, which resells used hardware and software at gross profit margins of nearly 50 percent. Gamestop's 5,000-plus stores are also one of the leading outlets for new video game sales in North America, which makes most console makers and publishers wary to cross the retailer (note how Gamestop recently tried to warn Microsoft against blocking used game sales on its next Xbox).
But Nintendo's latest financial report showed game sales from the company's digital eShop more than doubling in the last fiscal year, to more than 16 billion yen (about $163 million). This could suggest that Nintendo may feel less beholden to the brick-and-mortar business model going forward, and freer to compete directly with Gamestop when it comes to used hardware.
It's not clear where Nintendo is getting the used systems it's reselling as refurbished, but it's likely they come from broken systems that are sent in for repair and have to be replaced outright. Nintendo certifies that each refurbished system is "cleaned, tested, and inspected to meet Nintendo’s high standards," with only minor cosmetic blemishes.
Nintendo's new program follows in the footsteps of Apple, which has been offering factory refurbished versions of its products for years, though some of the deals on used products are better than others.
reader comments
26