GAMING can be an expensive hobby, but deal hunter David Jago has revealed a secret way of buying the latest releases for up to 60% less.
David, 34, who works at the University of Portsmouth, trades in his unwanted games at retailers like CEX and Magic Magpie for new ones instead.
Here’s how thrifty gamer David saves himself a wedge buying games
David has saved hundreds through his dealing hunting skills
With the latest video game releases costing up to a whopping £80, David’s lesser-known trick saves him £300 a year.
He also saves an extra couple of hundred pounds by using other thrifty money saving tricks.
For example, sniffing out glitches on games being sold online to save £100 a year on average.
Glitches are when a pricing error has occurred and an item is being sold for less than it should be – they’re hard to spot but can mean mega bargains if you do.
He also uses browser extensions, which scour the web for discount codes to apply at the online checkout.
David has spent years perfecting his glitch hunting skills, and runs an Instagram page dedicated to the deals he’s spotted.
He is dubbed the Price Glitch King, and it’s not just games he saves money on – he’s bagged bargains on everything from high-end TVs to crates of Pepsi too
A “good year” can see David make £1,000 from reselling cheap goods – but he says a lot of the time he’ll pass them on as gifts.
He’s made the use of his money-saving ways to enjoy his hobby for less and SE picked his brains for his top tips, so you can too.
Trade in unwanted games – save £300
David often trades in unwanted games for vouchers at CEX, Cash Converters and MoneyMagpie and uses those to buy the ones he really wants.
He looks on websites like Hotukdeals and LatestDeals to buy games on sale – usually spending between £5 and £10 per game.
He then looks on CEX, Cash Converters and MoneyMagpie to see how much he can get for the games (either in vouchers or cash).
He recently saved £26 by trading in Disney Adventures for a Lego Star Wars game.
“Amazon reduced Disneyland Adventures on Xbox One to £1.49 – and when I checked online, CEX was offering to swap them for £6 of vouchers to spend in its stores.
“I bought nine of the games, which cost me £13.41 and traded them in to get nine £6 vouchers – totalling £54.
“I then spent £45 of my vouchers to buy a Star Wars game that I actually wanted.
“The Star Wars game was £40 in Tesco at the time, so I effectively got a £40 for £13.41 – saving me £26.59.”
You don’t have to spend CEX vouchers immediately as they have a 1,000 year expiry date, although experts such as Martin Lewis recommend not hanging on to store vouchers for too long in case the shop disappears.
David follows the same process when using MusicMagpie and Cash Converters – but instead of trading in games for vouchers, he gets cash.
He focuses on games because he’s an enthusiast, but said the same strategy could work on old gadgets too.
Glitches on games – £100s
Spotting a glitch can be a great way of nabbing pricey items for rock bottom prices.
David once bagged an Xbox console for a fraction of the price at Tesco after a big pricing error back in 2017.
“When the Xbox 1 was first released, it was on sale for £200.
“But I got one for £45 from Tesco because of a price glitch – and it included a game too.”
But be warned – shops don’t always have to honour an incorrect price.
If you haven’t bought the item yet, the store doesn’t have to sell it to you at the error price.
If you buy online, the company can cancel the order once it realises a pricing error if it was a genuine mistake that it thinks you should have noticed.
The same applies if you see an item advertised for lower than the price on the tag.
You can, however, ask if the shop will honour the price – you might have more success if you ask politely and don’t buy too many.
We previously spoke to one glitch hunter who has successfully negotiated discounts this way to save hundreds of pounds.
Using price comparison tools – save £100
David also uses price comparison tool Honey to get the best deals on games, and saves around £100 a year this way.
Honey is a browser extension that scans the web for codes you can apply to get money off your shopping – and there’s an app too.
Once you’ve installed the extension onto your computer, a small “H” icon will appear on the tool bar, which will turn orange when it’s found a deal.
When you’re at the online checkout paying, it will pop up to tell you if discount codes are available.
When you hit “apply discounts” it will run all of the deals through your order to see if a code will get you money off.
There are similar browser extensions that could help you save cash too.
Alertr helps you track deals at hundreds of retailers including John Lewis and Boots – you can use it to track when the items you want have dropped in price.
Sign up to newsletters – save £100
You can get exclusive deals and offers when you sign up to retailers’ newsletters.
It’s a trick shops use to get you to spend more at their stores.
But it can help you save money on hauls you were already planning to get.
“You can get free delivery and discounts of up to 25% sometimes – although this varies from retailer to retailer.
“I sign up to newsletters from gaming shops like Game as well as Smyths, Very, Simply Games, Argos and 365games.”
“I’d say in free deliveries alone I’ve saved at least £100.”