Alienware Will Give You $200 For Your Gaming Console
Alienware has a cool trade-in program to make transitioning into PC gaming easy.
Alienware wants your business and is even willing to take those silly used game consoles off your hands if that means the purchase of a new PC gaming rig. The company has launched a trade-in program that allows just that: trading in those devices for cash. What's the catch? You need to purchase an Alienware system first.
For starters, customers begin by finding out how much the device is actually worth. The company "Trade Up Portal" page even accepts Alienware desktops with an Intel Core processor minimum, and a long list of Alienware notebooks like the M11x R1 and the M11x R2. Consoles include the Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 and both versions of the PlayStation 3. Sorry, tablets do not appear to be part of the trade-in program.
According to the site, Alienware will provide $200 for a working Nintendo Wii, $200 for the "fat" PlayStation 3 with a 60 GB minimum, $200 for the "slim" PlayStation 3 with a 120 GB minimum, $200 for the "super slim" PlayStation 3 with a 500 GB minimum, and $200 for the Xbox 360 with a 250 GB minimum.
After determining how much will be given back, customers then purchase their Alienware PC like the X51 for a starting price of $699 USD. After that, visit the "Trade Up Portal" to provide a copy of the recent Alienware purchase invoice and bank information. Then print the shipping label and instructions to return the old device absolutely free with prepaid shipping.
"Once your trade in has arrived and been processed and verified, you'll receive cash via bank transfer for your system's value within 40 days. Create a Trade Up Account to track your trade in. It's that easy," the company states.
The company is taking hints from Microsoft, which is accepting used devices in return for cash back once a customer purchases a Surface 2 or Surface Pro 2 tablet. However, in Alienware's case, the company is looking to pull gamers away from the typical console bubble and give PC gaming a chance for relatively the same amount of cash after the device rebate is wired.
That said, buy a system now, and the money for that used system or console will be stuffed back into your bank account just in time for the holidays!
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Really? I wouldn't trade in my M17x R3 for anything but an M17x R4 or R5
Fixed. - G
Let's say you were getting a $200 discount on an alienware desktop(NOT trading your console in, just a straight up discount), you would STILL be overpaying by a crapload. The fact that they want you to give up your gaming console, then pay $700+ for marginally better specs is a joke.
Why not just craigslist it or ebay it for much more than 200? Sheesh.. =(
GL getting 200 out of your wii.
the $700 x51 is only a gaming PC if you consider playing farmville to be gaming, or if you consider yourself to b a retro gamer and don't plan to ever go to anything harder to run than half life 2.
it is also not a standard form factor so upgrading will be difficult, especially since it comes with a 240 watt power supply, so even if you manage to get a high end GPU that is still low profile, it would would likely not run.
their $700 system is the equivalent to building yourself a $350-400 PC, whats more crazy, at $1100 all you get is a lower mid range gaming PC with a GTX 760
Really, the minimum configuration is $1000. Get the $850 option so you can configure graphics, and then step up from the GTX 645 to a blazing demon 760 for an additional $150. God help you if you want an SSD to go along with that pokey old 7200RPM spinner... that's only offered as an upgrade on the i7 models!
Really, bargains like this remind me why I build. Not to mention the fact that I can't stand the cheap OEM grade boards.
Why not just craigslist it or ebay it for much more than 200? Sheesh.. =(
Check out your local Craigslist sometime or even Ebay itself. Good luck trying to sell any last gen console by itself for $200+. A lot of people are trying to offload their old consoles for the new releases next month.