How to make extra money for video games

We all have wanted to buy a new game but don't have much extra money that month, trust me we have all been there. But there are ways other than just working hard at your job to earn some extra money to buy yourself a new game. These are just some of my preferred methods of making some extra cash flow for that little gaming treat. Last week I brought you my tips for saving money when buying games, but here are ideas to get some cold, hard cash towards your new games.

Mobile Phone Apps

Nearly all of us have a Smartphone now in one form or another. As such we all know about mobile apps but did you know that there are mobile apps that can earn you money?

There are a range of different apps out there that you can use, each with their own things to do. These range from apps like Task 360, where some jobs will include you having to go find a street that has issues with Satnavs and take photos of its street sign and describe its road. BeMyEye & Ipoll are similar but you have to enter stores and take photos of what it wants you to do and answer a few questions about the store. Tengi is a chat app in which you are entered into a prize draw each week when you are using the app, the more you use it and introduce people to it the more tickets and chances of winning you get.

Surveys

There are plenty of survey websites are out there and although can be quite boring to do, they will earn you money or things like an Amazon gift cards. All you need is an email and PayPal account. Each site has a differing way of doing things and differing minimum payouts.

If you have the Ipoll app then you can also log in to the Ipoll site in which you can answer surveys for money, each survey on the site will tell you how much you will earn. Minimum payout is £35 via PayPal, but they give you the option of redeeming earlier for gift cards for places like Prezzo or iTunes.

Prolific Academic is perhaps my most favorite survey site. When you start and fill in the forms, you will only receive surveys that you can actually do, so you will not be screened out of any partway through, which is relieves so much annoyance. Minimum payout is £5 via PayPal, but to avoid PayPal fees then wait until you have £20.

Mintvine is a survey site in which you earn points for the surveys that you do. Some surveys will even give you some points if you have been screened out as an apology for screening you out. There is also a poll each day in which you can earn an extra few points for only picking an answer. Once you reach 1000 points you can redeem for a gift card.

Onepoll is a survey site that that offer short surveys for money value, as the surveys are so short you will not get much for each one. As such this one can take you a while until you reach the £40 minimum payout but there are often several a day and with being so short you can breeze though them. Onepoll also have a refer a friend scheme in which you can refer up to 10 friends for bonus money to be added to your account.

Website Testing

There are many websites that offer money rewards for visiting, using and providing feedback on websites that are currently or in development. These can range from any amount of website but all will have their own instructions on what you need to do and what they will expect.

Whatusersdo is currently my favourite web testing site due to how easy it is to set up an account and getting started. All you will need is a microphone so that you can record your impressions and thoughts of a website. You can earn up to £8 for each website that you test which are paid out monthly on the previous months earnings via PayPal.

Selling your old games

Something some of us can't bear to do, especially myself as I have held onto games from the SEGA Megadrive II era! But in the end I realized that I just wasn't playing a lot of these older games, some of which hadn't been played in over 15 years! As such I used a variety of ways in which to sell my old games and unused consoles which came to a total of over £100!

There are multiple ways you can sell your old games most of which you most likely have already done or currently do. But always do your research first into which one will provide you with the best price for your game. This can become a little time consuming but at the end of the day you don't want to sell to a highstreet store a game for 40p that will sell online for £30 because of it having a following or it being a rare game. For example I had a copy of Stubbs the Zombie, which CEX (at the time) buys for £2, trades for £4 but sells for £22, I listed mine on eBay and received £27 after fees and postage.

High street stores like GAME and CEX will give you money for games that you bring in. The amount that they offer you will depend on the title and it's age. Usually the older the game the less you will get for it. Some stores will even have benefits for trading in or selling with them via loyalty cards that they have in place. Personally this way is last resort for myself, simply due to how little they can end up giving you, especially when you see what they will try to sell it for. They are useful though for building reward points or for getting in-store credit to use on other games you want to have.

Amazon and eBay are two of the better places to sell your games as you can ask the price that you want for it but also with eBay you can put it up for auction. This can sometimes get you a lot more than you first expected, especially if the game is an out of production classic, has a cult following or is a newer game that everyone wants to try and get for cheaper. The only issues with eBay will be the fees, eBay will take a percentage of each item that sells (which must be paid manually each month), if you have done the postage via eBay another percentage will also be taken and PayPal will also automatically take a percentage. The percentage is usually around 10% but they will have regular promotions which they will either eBay message you or you have to manually check the bottom of the bottom of your All Selling page to opt in for.

Websites such as Zapper, Ziffit & Music magpie will buy your game (they will also buy books, CDs, DVDs). All you have to do is type in the bar-code of the game or scan it in using your phone's camera and they will say if they are accepting it and offer you a price for it. A few of these apps also have web pages for those that do not wish to use their phone or can't get the apps.

The only issues with these companies is that you need to earn a minimum amount before you are able to post it to them, this is usually around £10. Personally from when I have used them they offer better prices than CEX, and when they don't it isn't off by much so it is easier to take a small loss and increase the amount of items for sending off to hit that minimum amount. These companies will also provide postage so there is nothing except for ink and packaging to fork out for.

I hope you have enjoyed my money making tips for buying video games. If you have any tips please let me know them by leaving a comment below – after all, I always want to boost my funds for a new game.