How do you buy your games?

Download? New from the store? Used from Gamestop or similar?

There were several years went by where I didn't play games at all, probably not since... 2005 or so. This October I started getting back into playing games, and I discover, you can download them instantly online from things like Steam! And when I got my new PS3 I found the PS Store has the same manner of purchase available.

So now I'm curious, how do you all like to buy your games? If I could I'd buy 100% online/game networks and just download- giving up the discount of used games is worth it for not having to worry about taking care of a disk for years! I find myself disappointed when I have to go to the store to get games now.

I order off of e-bay. I used to just get carts but now I often make an effort to get the manual as well, depending on the game. I also download games from the 3DS's eShop. I wanted to use the Wii store but I found it incredibly hard to access. I'm hoping they work whatever magic they did for the 3DS on the Wii U.

I get my games on eBay, GameStop, Wii Shop Channel, PSN, Xbox store, App Store, Best Buy, and Walmart.

Amazon.

I buy my games in store new or used at places like Grainger Games, Tesco, Adsa and sometimes from CEX or GAME.

I don't really download games since I like to own a physical copy.

In-store or online, lately I've been doing alot of online shopping I've been getting crazy good deals.

Usually the used section of the local shop. I don't buy bleeding edge hardware so I usually don't buy new releases.

Tried the online thing and it works ok. Downloads make me nervous though, but I guess they have records you paid for a title should you need to reinstall.

Same here. I prefer physical copies that are as complete as my disposable income allows. eBay is my default starting point, but I also purchase from http://www.gamebaz.com/, which is based in Japan. Shipping is high, but you get to tap into listings from Japanese collectors.

That said, there are a lot of tools on eBay/Amazon U.S. who think they can get away listing a semi-rare or even a common game for like thousands of dollars. Fuuuuu-huck them.

I generally get my games from two sources:

The first is the non-franchise/independent game store in the neighboring town that opened up back in 2008. I became attracted to the store as they sell retro stuff (I'm just not into many modern games for some reason) and the customer service is excellent - they know me by name. A sizable portion of my collection came from there and the owner doesn't gouge on the prices - I can typically get a game for less than it runs for on eBay. As you'd expect it's nice not to have to go online for everything. The only bad thing is I have so many games now that it's hard for them to get something in that I don't already have.

Because of that I've switched over to buying things from merchants on amazon. I would buy things on eBay but PayPal has pretty much nerfed my account. They want me to send them a scan of my license, Social Security Card and a bill to validate my account before I can add money to it via my bank account. I refuse to send them this information (it just seems shady and completely unnecessary just to buy some old video games) so I just dropped them and use my debit card on amazon. The only bad thing about amazon is there are no pictures and you really need to scan through the small descriptions to find the kind of copy you're looking for.

Still, as a collector I'm really picky about condition. I only collect black labels and if the game is disc based it needs to be complete. Also, I'm all about the hard copy... I don't really care for downloads.

Amazon if there is a physical component cause i feel its safer hunting than other options. MMOs and indie just need paypal.

Sometimes in store or on Steam if I find a good deal but mainly on the Internet (Amazon, eBay, Zavvi...). I'm not really into these downloadable games/contents.