Ideal for Buyers (CeX (Computer Exchange))

Member Name: wastingtime

Product:	CeX (Computer Exchange)
Date:	12/11/09 (73 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap second hand goods, plenty of choice

Disadvantages: Can sometimes be hard to find the product your after

I came across this store while looking for something cheap and cheerful to do on a weekend. Gone are the days where I can justify going to the pub and blowing a whole heap of money, gone are the days where going to the cinema and spending £6.50 per ticket, then food, and walking away £30 down are acceptable.

Instead recently I have been going down to CEX about twice a week and scowering through things that I can pick up on the cheap. I love watching movies but we also have a Playstation 3 and Nitendo Wii in the flat, so having a 'quick' look around will normally take me in the region of an hour.

Now this review is based on the Leeds shop, and I'm going to be honest from the very beginning, there are fundamental parts of this shops workings that I have had no dealings with, I will come to this further down the line.

So what is CEX, well, it is effectively a swap shop, now there are many different forms of shops likes these, some of them specialist and some of them not particularly cost effective, for instance you can go to a whole host of dark and dingy music CD exchange shops and some of them are specialist in the genre that they aim to, you could also go to a computer equivalent such as gamestation although I have never found this as cost effective as I would wish.

Now, I have never sold anything to CEX, various reasons for this, the first being that I have picked up some okay things for a pittance and I don't like the idea of paying for something new and then getting a stupidly small amount of money for it when I come to pass it on. The second being that I enjoy having a large collection of DVD's, Blu-Rays and games and wouldn't want to all of a sudden have a massive gaping whole in my living room store cupboard.

Cex also does exchanges on mobile phones and laptops, this isn't something I have ever done either, my mobile is updated regularly enough due to the fact it is a contract phone and when I come to upgrade my laptop it will probably be from a local computer technician who I can trust to do any necessary repairs. Due to these two facts this will unfortunately on be a partial review on what the store has to offer.

So anyway, the Leeds store is set up with games for all consoles on the ground floor, mobile phones and laptops can also be found here. Now games are one of the most aggravating things to me, I love playing them but I could not possibly justify paying £40-£50 for a brand new game apart from something special, any Grand Theft Auto for instance. I normally wait a few months before I invest in these things by this time virtually all my friends have completed the game in question - but ho hum I still get my enjoyment out of it. Over recent weeks I have picked up two Playstation three games and paid £24 for the pair. I'm not going to get into what games they were but I have had great fun playing them none the less.

Downstairs in the basement you have DVD's that are on all the walls, these are all alphabatised, then you have box sets, childrens, sport and international, something for everyone. Each time I go I spend at least thirty minutes going around looking at each letter and picking up the movies that I fancy, it maybe that I am only looking for something for that night, or it might be that I buy six or seven. The last time I bought six dvd's here it cost me £18, that is on average £3 a DVD. It can be amazing how some films hold their value, for instance the real classics rarely get traded in so therefore cost more - so what you find is even though a film may be released twenty years earlier it might still be more expensive than something released six months ago - I mean how many people want every Danny Dyer film as a reminder in their collection.

In the middle of this basement level you have all the music CD's, now I rarely buy these anymore but have had a gander through from time to time, sorted in exactly the same high detail as the movies you can pick up music from any genre and prices once again range from as low as £1 to £10 for a new release.

Now CEX is not going to be for everyone, I love owning the boxes for all the movies, games and CD's I own and don't mind too much if they are a little bit tatty, but I realise that some people like their belongings to be new and only theirs, but for price alone this is something I can put up with.

Please note that I have only written this review from a buyers perspective, I appreciate that I have never sold anything to CEX, but at the same time I have never had to return anything faulty either (although a couple of movies I have bought have made me think twice), but in general I would suggest that CEX is worth a look for anyone wanting to cut a few pounds out of their personal spend.

Summary: Worth half an hours of anyones day