"Anger From 1 Ripoff + 2 MBAs = a Game Plan," says the Washington Post, summarizing how Goozex came to be. From this profile and the site itself, here are the fast facts about this game-exchange web site.

  • The name: Goozex (Sounds risky to pronounce, like "Slartibartfast")
  • The deal: Users pay a buck per trade to swap video games with other users.
  • It's like: Lala with CDs or Peerflix with DVDs.
  • The deal, detailed: Users get "points" for their games, so trading a good game for a lame one leaves you with some credit. No one has to trade Katamari Damacy for Daikatana.
  • The backstory: Founder Jon Dugan was pissed when his local game store paid him about two bucks each for his used games, then resold them for up to $33. So he teamed up with some college friends to give gamers a better option.
  • The look: Classic gray-and-green three-column layout with an intuitive list of game platforms on the front page.
  • Gimmick: First trade's free for military users, who are known as heavy gamers.
  • Will it survive: It's easy to get people to sign up for free accounts, and not too hard to get them to part with a dollar. It's harder to steal or rent videogames than music or movies. This is the killer market for online exchanges.

Anger From 1 Ripoff + 2 MBAs = a Game Plan [Washington Post]