Games Review

I have too many games. This may sound like a good problem to have, but in my house, games are a little like that one episode of old-school Star Trek where those cute Tribble thingies fill up every corner of the Enterprise. I've got more games than I can store. If someone walked into my office without knowing me, they would think they just entered the home of some decrepit old lady who hasn't thrown out a newspaper since 1927.

Now, maybe this isn't a problem with which you can empathize. But if you're reading Drake's Flames, there's a very good chance you can understand this next problem: I want new games. I want to review games that I can't get from publishers. I want to play stuff my kids might like. I want to try all the hot new games that the cool kids are talking about, but that I can't play because they're published by some Japanese company who can't even read my emails.

But I recently discovered a solution to both problems, one I didn't even know was out there. It turns out, Noble Knight Games (the sponsors for this site) don't just sell like, everything. They also buy everything. You can send them a list of games you wish would disappear, and they'll tell you what they'll pay for them. Then you send the games and get store credit, which you can then use to buy more games. You can also get cash, which is great if you need food rather than games.

I have been meaning to discuss this option for a couple weeks, but before I just said, 'hey, Noble Knight will buy your games,' I wanted to try it for myself. So I picked out a half-dozen games that I wished were not in my house any more, and emailed away to see what they would give me for them.

I did have a concern when I sent in my list. Not every game I was selling was worth a pile of warm spit. I was a little worried that they would weed through the garbage, make me an offer on the ones they wanted, and leave me stuck with a copy of that ridiculous Pirates board game with the plastic map that would never lay flat. But no, they replied back with what I thought was a reasonably generous offer, and gave me a quote on every game I offered them. Even the really crappy ones.

Now, I like getting money for things I didn't buy, so I was generally inclined to accept whatever figure they offered. But I wanted to see how they measured up to just selling my crap on eBay, so I compared all the prices and was surprised to find out that they were actually fairly competitive. Sure, you might make a few more bucks on eBay, but only a few. After all, these are used games, and eBay prices on used stuff are crappy.

I've tried the eBay route before, and I can tell you this - it's a gigantic pain in the ass that is not remotely worth the effort. Just the part where you build the listings is a headache. Add in the parts where you collect money from total strangers, box up every game separately, print multiple shipping labels, and cart the whole shebang to the post office, and you'll wish you had just decided to throw them away. Especially when half the games I sold on eBay went for less than two bucks.

Compare that to Noble Knight. Once I said I liked the quote, they sent me FedEx shipping labels. I boxed up the games, slapped the labels on the box, and took them to Office Max, where they went on their way without me buying so much as a postage stamp. Yep, on top of sending all the games to one place and not having to bankrupt my checking account for online postage labels, I shipped the games away for free.

One week later, Noble Knight contacted me to let me know that they had unpacked the games, and that my account was credited. This was obviously easier than selling them individually, but it was also potentially more profitable. In fact, it was so painless, I'm about to sell another dozen games (which reminds me - send in your review suggestions now, because I'm going to buy a whole bunch of review copies).

The cool thing about having store credit at Noble Knight Games is that on top of having an incredible selection, they have an absolutely jaw-dropping amount of old stuff. Looking for an out-of-print copy of Neuroshima Hex? No problem. Want a couple books to round out your Legions of Steel collection? They've got 'em. Their selection impresses me on a very regular basis, which would explain why I've spent so much money in their store.

I should obviously point out that Noble Knight Games is the sponsor for Drake's Flames, and they do provide me with lots of review copies just for mentioning them now and then. But I can tell you this - I've done a lot of online game buying in my day, and I've never had better customer service or more honest dealings. If I didn't care for Noble Knight as a shop, I wouldn't promote them, even if they shipped me crates of games every week.

Of course, if they did ship me crates of games, that would just exacerbate the first problem. So it's probably just as well.

If you have games you don't play, and would like to get some new games, cruise over to Noble Knight Games and they'll hook you right up:
http://www.nobleknight.com/#