CEX Stores (UK)

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I wondered whether any UK members use these stores and what you think of them.

For those not in the know, these are a nationwide chain of shops where you can buy and sell secondhand items like dvds, computer games, laptops and accessories, phones, tablets, etc. I first 'discovered' them about 20 years ago, and found them to be not very well run (if you tried to sell them an item, they would sometimes have run out of cash and be unable to pay you, or you could take an empty box to the counter and they wouldn't be able to find the dvd or game that went with it). but the goods were usually great value, and they offered attractive trade-in prices.

These days I find it's the other way round. Shops are much better run, but the goods are often overpriced, and their buying prices are stingy. I took a number of dvds in a few weeks ago, and got offered one penny each (£0.01) for most of them!

I bought a refurbished Dell laptop once and it kept going wrong. It put me off buying any expensive electronics secondhand. It happened on eBay too ages ago with a phone, and I never got my money back.

So yeh, buying that sort of thing from a highstreet shop doesn't fill me with confidence either. And I agree, I'd rather pay a little more for something brand new than an expensive secondhand model.

CEX's laptops are pretty expensive. I bought an 'A' graded Asus laptop from there, didn't use it very much and decided to sell it back to them. Discovered that they'd changed the grading criteria, only items which still had their original box could now be 'A' graded (how many people keep the original box? I've never seen a single boxed secondhand laptop.) So I was told it was a 'B' grade item and was valued accordingly....

Ive bought second hand phones from them, what I've found is that I nearly always return the first item within days for various reasons.

From there you can negotiate for a better phone at a similar price... return a B phone, get an A phone for just a few quid extra type of thing.
That's been my experience, aren't Cex part of that 'we buy anything.com' company?

Not sure about whether the company is part of a wider group or is independent (though I do know that some of their stores are franchised), but their website address is 'webuy.com', for what that's worth. I take it from your reply, Amity, that they operate in Ireland as well?

^
Yes there are regional stores here, I've bought from UK stores too, ye have wider selections.

There isn't one close to me but the last time I used one was to get my daughter an xbox 360 a few years back - a good deal.