Financial Benefits of Video Games???

I'm having a hard time getting DS interested in financial matters. Oh, he's interested in money, namely how much can he make and what can he buy for himself, but not shopping for sales or saving up past his next purchase. So while DD has her budget made out for each allowance and asks me for coupons and weighs her purchases carefully, DS doesn't look much past what he plans to buy next.

We've known for a long time that there are stores that will buy used video games. Gamestop is who we have here. DS would go sell his games and take the cash unless there was a new game coming out that he wanted to reserve; then he would take store credit, which is 10% more than taking cash. I have tried to encourage store credit because in the world of video games, one store's price is not much different from another. Even Wal-Mart is only a few cents different (ie, $29.97 vs $29.99). But he liked the idea of cash in his pocket, and I figured it was a way for him to learn, even though he wasn't necessarily learning as I would like! haha

Anyhow, about a month ago, DS told me he had more games to sell, so we stopped by Gamestop. He found several used games to buy and decided to take store credit. The sales fellow told him that because he was trading in 3 games, they had a promotion where he got an extra $10. Then, because he was taking store credit, he got the extra 10%. Then, if he wanted, he could buy an 18-month rewards-type membership for $15. This card would give him another 10% on his trade-ins, and because of his transaction already, the card would be a net cost of only $6. It also comes with a gaming magazine, so DS said okay. THEN, he told DS that if he brings in the cases for the games, he'll get an extra 50-cents per game.

When we walked out of the store that day, DS had paid $6 total for the membership and 3 used games. In the 4 weeks since then, we have been back several times, and DS has traded in enough that he has purchased 2 new games and many used games, all on store credit, and still has over $14 in store credit left! It was as if all of a sudden, the blinders went off, and cha-ching! He saw savings adding up.

Way back, when DS got his first little Gameboy, I knew he would start to learn about saving for games, because I wasn't going to buy him a game every time he wanted one! I didn't realize video games would introduce him to the power of maximizing your savings and rolling over rewards and store credit. Another life skill earned!