SquareTrade Seller Blog

Game console sales stronger than ever. No signs of slow down.

With all the recent news about the iPhone, it’s easy for us to forget there are other interesting things happening in the world of consumer electronics. Something worth noting and paying attention to other than the iPhone, is how strong sales are, for video game consoles and video games. An article on Rueters reports that sales for the Nintendo Wii are stronger than ever, and retaining the top spot as the most popular video games console with 381,800 units sold, which is 13 percent more than the amount sold the previous month. The Microsoft Xbox and the Playstation 3 also shared similar success in sales growth, with sales jumps of 28% and 20% respectively. Overall, sales in June were up 35% over sales in May, which is substantial, considering the summer months are generally slow sales months for consumer electronics in general.

So did this trend carry over to eBay? The answer is a resounding “Yes!”.

Despite the number of overall eBay listings being down in Q2, (as reported by Ina Steiner earlier this week) the number of listings for Nintendo Wii’s have actually gone up month after month between May and July. Sell-through rates have remained steady during the listings spike, resulting in a huge jump in consoles particularly between June and July, when we saw an increase of nearly 4000 Nintendo Wii’s sold. In fact, even the average selling price has seen an increased from $336 to $342; which is no small feat for a console that has been on the market since December of 2006.

For those of us who appreciate graphs, here is a graphical representation of the Wii’s sales increases on eBay between 5/20 and 7/20.

    

With newer, better games on the horizon, and the beginning of holiday shopping season fast approaching, signs are clearly pointing to a very strong Q3 and Q4 for the video games console category. This is great news for sellers who are already seller video game consoles, but potentially even better news for sellers looking to jumpstart their slow summer sales. Our advice? Get you hands on as many of the newer consoles as possible, primarily the Nintendo Wii (which is selling well over the retail price of $250 on eBay), Microsoft Xbox, Playstation 2, Nintendo DS, and the Playstation 3, whose retail price has lowered to the point where consumers are starting to see it as a reasonable price to pay just for the Blu-Ray player functionality.

The next best thing to iPhone insurance

UPDATE:  9/25/08  -- SquareTrade for iPhone 3G

 Alright, so you got an iPhone 3G.  And you probably love it.  Either that, or you're still working on getting used to it and you'll love it in a couple of days.  But love it or kinda love it, the fact is, you just parted with a huge chunk of change for the little device. 

Take a look at it.  It's flawless and sleek and wonderful.... and fragile.  That's probably why AT&T has excluded it from insurance availability and AppleCare won't cover accidental damage.  And if you bought yours from Best Buy, they'll charge you a whopping $360 for two years of phone insurance.  That's probably more than you paid for the phone in the first place!!  So, we started thinking:  iPhone insurance, hmmmm....

We've put our heads together here at SquareTrade to come up with a plan that makes sense.  One that won't rip you off.  One that you can count on to be there in case that slippery sucker winds up face down on the sidewalk or in a puddle of coffee on your desk.  No $360 iPhone insurance for our customers, that's for sure! 

Here's what we put together:

Price:

$77 for two years of coverage -- that's only $3.20 a month!  Best Buy is charging nearly FIVE TIMES as much!  Woah.

What's Included:

-  Manufacturer defects and device failures are covered for two years.

-  Accidental damage from handling -- damage caused from dropping, cracked screen, spilling on the phone etc. -- all covered.

-  5-day Service Guarantee.  If we can't fix it by then, we'll pay you CASH for the full replacement value of your phone (which would amount to even more cash than you shelled out for your phone in the first place).

- Top-notch customer service and a hassle free claims process.  Check out our reviews on epinions, NexTag, and ResellerRatings for proof.  (Note:  We know most people despise the whole claims process and think it's a huge pain, so we've committed to never giving SquareTraders the run-around.  We work hard at giving the best customer service and that's why we're so proud of how much our customers love us.  Like, beaming, my-kid-made-the-honor-roll proud.)

-  Online warranty management.  You don't have to deal with a bunch of paperwork.  Just enroll online and you're done.  You can view your contract, make a claim, view history, etc. right from the SquareTrade Warranty Management Tool.  Nobody else offers that convenience. 

 

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And for those of you deciding on iPhone insurance or considering AppleCare vs. us, here are your options:

Option A: A SquareTrade CarePlan.

 

SquareTrade has been in business since 1999. Our warranties are financially backed by an A rated insurer and we’re the leading provider of extended warranties on eBay. We’ve even got an online management system for you to manage your warranty. Long story short, we know what we’re doing, and we’re good at it.

Updated 9/21/08:  Our new iPhone warranty with ADH plan is a great deal, starting at $77.  For a little more than AppleCare, you get two years of protection against drops, spills and other accidents from handling.  Our data shows that 80% of iPhone failures come from these types of accidents - they're slippery suckers, if you haven't noticed!  In addition, you get hardware coverage equivalent to that of the AppleCare warranty. If something does happen, we’ll either fix it, or pay you the full replacement price of the iPhone – All within 5 days. Guaranteed.

 

Option B: An AppleCare Warranty.

 

Apple offers an AppleCare Extended warranty. It basically extends their 1-year warranty for an additional year for $69. Simple, safe, but it won’t cover your accidental damages – and it is expensive.

Unfortunately, there aren’t any good solutions to protecting yourself from losing the iPhone. The best advice is to hang on to the phone, and be conscious of where it is at all times.