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Play-N-Trade, good franchise?? Good question.

I DO NOT know about Play-N-Trade, However you can contact SCORE. SCORE is FREE
and they can help you succeed.

Guessing that Play-N-Trade is a fitness center. Do you have an Accountant?? Lawyer??

We currently own a hair salon. A recent opportunity has came our way to
buy a much bigger salon
For this we are looking into a 24 hour access fitness
center.

Good luck, LUCKIEST

Hello Sako7STW,

I'm also looking at opening a Play N Trade franchise and have been reviewing there UFOC. I have for you little inside of this opportunity but can share some insight on the gaming industry. Although the theory of a decline in demand for brick and mortar video game retailers. You should look at the current state of the gaming technology available and the two major markets who participate in them. You have the casual gamer market and the hardcore gamer market. Each of these markets are both increasing in size particularly the casual gamers due to innovative technology such as the Nintendo Wii. You can do your own research and you will see that this industry is growing in size every year, its a billion dollar industry. The theory that downloadable or delivered entertainment does give retailers a challenge to offer innovative and new in demand services. As a casual gamer and friend of many hardcore gamers Play n Trade offers a new twist to video game retailing. A service that stands out is that they offer video game console repair which no other major competitor is currently offering. I assure you am I in any way in contract or a franchisee of Play n Trade, this is my personal opinion and market research that I have done on my own.

Good luck,

ZetaMonkey

The following are the reasons why I feel a PNT would do good here. My son is 10 and I see him and his friends just go crazy for gaming. We ourselves just bought a Wii. In my marketplace, the only competition is Walmart as far as physical locations. I see the point in the online stuff for those that are HARDCORE gamers but from what I see, the technology of online gaming is complex and somewhat expensive. Most kids wouldnt even begin to know how to use something that complex nor do they have the attention span to stay that focused. For the middle person on gaming, the online rental places dont make as much sense as games get monotinus so they switch games before beating them but want to come back to them to beat them later. I myself do this. For this type of person, owning the game makes far more sense. As I have gotten older my time spent gaming has dropped dramaticaly but I still love it. Wyoming is 10 years in the past when it comes to technology that the rest of the world uses so i think thats an advantage for me. Also I feel an advatage is there has not been a store like this in the area yet so i am sure the used industry would go nuts, especially at first.

Wow, ZetaMonkey, thanks for the compliment.

You ask a great question, and I don't know the answer. I have one client that handles video game distribution and merchandising (big stores), so I know what they're thinking/planning, but they didn't ask me if I thought it was a good strategy. Consequently, I haven't analyzed it enough to know. So everything I'm about to write is just "thinking out loud" -- it's not advice or anything I really KNOW about for sure . . .

For a small store or franchise, as we both mentioned, the classic and used game market is where highly successful existing stores are currently standing out. That seems like one opportunity to gain a more sustainable foothold.

It seems like another opportunity is boomers and seniors. Everything about the "typical" video game store screams youth, from the aesthetics to the employees. A small store that targeted (or at least included) boomers and seniors might open up whole new world. For instance, my dad (age 80, but active and healthy) lives in a retirement village that only has about a dozen residents this time of year, yet a couple of thousand "winter Texan" residents. (In fact, that two-county area is home for more than 100,000 retirees who live there six months or less each year.) Somebody from a local store (or perhaps it will be a new entrepreneur) could probably take a few Wii Fit set-ups to the Community Centers in each of those villages during the next peak season, hold free demos and "training" sessions for the residents (soft sell), offer to help with installation and set-up, and move product like mad. I really believe that seniors would buy and use them, plus they have grandkids who come down for visits and want something to do -- so there's another selling point for the accessories, and a feeder for in-store game sales (because those communities will be among the last served by technology that enables digital distribution).

Again, I'm just brainstorming here (presumably, the execs at Play-n-Trade are, too).

I thought of buying play-n-trade as well... I'm really into games and know what's coming out and read about them and video game sales are rising so why not own one?... Only problem with play-n-trade when I spoke to the owner was that they were limited when new games come out.

for example: I was trying to look for a game for the Wii and I coudn't find it anywhere. so, I remembered that i wanted to open play-n-trade and was a bit mad because there was ONE play-n-trade in San Jose, CA where we have population well over 1million. So, I call them and so how i spoke to the owner and he told me that they were suppose to receive 12 copies yet they only received 2 on the game that I wanted and was sold out quick and on new games and consoles(Wii) they are on the bottom of the list to receive them. Funny how they only got 2 copies when the population is over 1 million.

Meaning: Right now they are a relatively new franchise and with high demand on games and Wii console distributors will sell more to well known companies such as eb games, gamestop, bestbuy and etc. Unless, your a private owner and have invested in video games for awhile but usually they get them straight from japan and make tons of profit from imported games and don't depend on USA version.

My thoughts: I believe with paly-n-trade you will make decent money even with a great location because when you have a great location your lease will be high. But, once play-n-trade is more well known your investment might be worth it. Far as I know play-n-trade is the only franchise for video games and only has one real competion which is gamestop or eb games (it's like sprint and nextel). I had backed out after the owner telling me they never recieve the amount of games there suppose to... how are you suppose to make projected profit when your really limited? They held tournaments to make extra cash but for this biz for now i think you have to get into having more fun running it with ok cash flow (one of those biz). But, that was 2007 they might of changed... on the side note, there website homepage changed 3 or 4 times since last year...I don't know if that's a good thing but they seem like they are trying to improve much as they can.

If anyone does buy one please inform us. I would really like to see what I have missed out or have not.

Thanks!