Glyde – Site Review
Glyde is an online portal which sells pre-owned (used) or NEW video games, music, books and DVDs. As far as I know, the things for sale on the site are entirely user submitted. Glyde only acts as a middle man to make the transaction possible. It is sort of like ebay without the whole bidding process. I had recently purchased an item on the site and I thought it would be a good idea to post a review for others curious about the service.
Glyde follows the minimalistic design made popular by Google. There is a big search box in the middle of the page (hard to miss 
). It also comes up with suggestions as you keep typing. This is really quick if you are looking for something specific. However, if you want to browse through categories, you would have to click on all items at the bottom. There is also an option to click through daily deals on top of the site. There is no way to sort the games in alphabetical order or in terms of popularity or even by price. You can only filter them through categories and consoles. Again, let me be clear here: if you are looking for something specific, glyde automatically gives you the cheapest price of that product in different condition categories (New, Excelling, Good, Disc only).
If you are looking to sell your products, then all you do is enter the name of the product and pick one of the options (if your game is multi-platform). Glyde automatically picks a suitable price for you. You can increase or decrease the price to your liking. It also tells you how many people have priced the item lower than that. Considering the fact that there are many people trying to sell the same thing, it might be a good idea to price it lower than the prescribed price. Glyde will also ask you to pick the condition of the game. I am not sure about the payment procedure and such. I think the general idea is that your money gets deposit into your account once you request for it or you could use that money to buy other games on the site. I think the commission is 10% on sale price (again please read the FAQs on site for detailed information).
Coming to my experience with Glyde, I have purchased two games from the site and received one of them. I was a little worried about the purchase because unlike ebay there was no option contact the seller for pictures or get assurances about the condition of the item. There was no feedback score either. So, there was really no way of knowing if the seller’s interpretation of Excellent is same as mine. Also the shipping was painfully slow. For some reason, Glyde decided that they would mail the envelope (ala Netflix style) to the seller with the buyer’s address on it. And the seller would stick his game in that envelop and drop it in the mailbox. This means that there is twice as much shipping time involved compared to ebay. Essentially, most games take about two weeks to arrive. There is no expedited option for shipping either. If you are looking to get something quick, this is not the place to go. This is one of the major gripes I have with the service. I do not understand why Glyde does not just allow the seller to print the mailing receipt and stick it on a “Glyde prescribed envelope”. The bubble wrap media mail envelopes are like $2 or less and are available at every USPS store. I have to say, I did not like the waiting but the game I received allayed all my fears. The game was in great condition. It was “Like New” just as it should be 
. It made me go and buy another game .
I am not sure if I got lucky but my next purchase would tell. If you don’t mind the waiting time, Glyde is a great service to try. They have tons of games for all the current generation and the previous generation consoles as well as the current gen handhelds. You will definitely find a great price on that game you have been looking for. Make sure you search for Glyde coupons online before you click Buy Now. You could easily save $3 by using on these coupon codes: KOTAKU, UGO, HIATI. You could also follow them on Twitter (@Glyde) to get more deals and coupon codes. Glyde is a good service like ebay’s half.com if you are looking to buy something quickly. Just look at both sites and buy it from the cheaper place.
Pros:
- Clean simplistic interface
- One click buying.
- Automatically finds the cheapest price for the product in each condition category.
- Easy-mode selling. (no need to package or buy shipping supplies)
- Get better trade-in values for your used games (better than gamestop).
Cons:
- Long shipping times (2 weeks)
- No option for expedited shipping.
- Credibility: No way to trust the seller.
- No pictures of the product before purchase (Just the stock picture).
- No feedback option.
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Just a few questions I would like to buy a game from this site, so first question does it really take 2 weeks or is it (sometimes) less? And my second question is were the games you bought really in the state they said they would be?
Yes that is the approximate time frame when I bought the games. I bought about 3-4 games after that. They were in excellent condition. They had no scratches and everything was in “Like New” condition. It was only missing the shrink wrap. I recommend you to pick the “Excellent” condition when you buy the games. It might be worth the extra dollar or two.
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I ordered Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs for Xbox 360 for my sons birthday. After 20 days passed I still do not have the game. I looked everywhere for a contact number and they do not have one, so the only way to contact them is through email. I contacted through email and let them know they charged me for shipping and this item was for my sons birthday and that I wanted my money back. They gave me the run around for a few days and placed blame on a seller that me as a customer had no way of contacting or rating at all. They finally told me they were going to give me a refund and talk to the seller to find out what happened. As of right now I don’t have my money and my son will not get the gift he asked for for his birthday. Me personally I will never buy from the site again because I don’t see a need to use a “Middle Man” to purchase something from a seller. There are PLENTY of sites that allow you to rate them, give you contact info, and allow you to deal with the seller directly.
@Jason: I kinda agree. I haven’t bought anything from Glyde in a while. Especially since the prices have sky rocketed in comparison to some other sites. The experience is entirely dependent on the seller and there is no way of predicting that. Glyde says they have an internal system to control this but if the buyer is affected, it screws up the ecosystem.
Yes! The delivery time does take quite some time. I ordered a game on June 30th and I am still waiting for it.
@Bee: Give it a couple of weeks. Also we had a long weekend, so expect more delays.
Ok , I have bought a game from this site & it only took a week for my game to arrive & everything was perfect . Now I am a seller on the site now this is my first time selling on the site & I have so 11 games total all in the same week . I have a choice of withdrawing the 2 games i made a sell on (as i wait for the others one to be approved from the consumer) it’s just i haven’t withdrawn yet b/c there is a $2 processing fee just to get a check ( and i would like to keep all of my earned money ) & the whole withdrawing it in my account i just dont trust yet . But to answer questions Buying games on the site with EXCELLENT condition always turn out well & if the seller sends the game out in time you’ll have it in a week or 4 days depends on the day glyde sends the package to the seller . I am a seller & I’m selling GODFATHER 2 in excellent condition just incase anyone wants it .
@TelltheTruth: That is great information. I think most people try to get the cheapest version of the game and complain about the quality. I did pick “Excellent” condition because I love having the manuals.
It’s also nice to hear the seller’s side of the story. I heard some bad stories from sellers too. People who complain that the game was in bad shape to get money back. I hope you had better luck
I think a lot of the wait time depends on how ‘on the ball’ the seller is. I’ve been selling with Glyde for a while and the envelope they send to the seller usually gets there within 3-4 days. It’s up to the seller to stick it in the mail in a timely manner. I would like to see a rating system of some kind attached with sellers, but if you notice when you’re buying an item it doesn’t have any seller information and you can’t really look up sellers. I think this minimalistic design helps keep the overhead low and saves the buyers and sellers money in the long run, so I’m okay with it.
I think the issue most people have with Glyde is that they claim they’ve an internal system that tracks and rates the sellers. How hard is it to put a simple “Seller Rating” under the price of the item?
I haven’t visited Glyde or bought from them in a long time. I am cheap and paying $4 is criminal when I know I can get free shipping on places like Amazon. It usually works out a few dollars cheaper in most cases when buying from other sites.
[...] I’ve done a very detailed review of Glyde before. It has its advantages but you cannot get free shipping, you do not know the exact [...]
I do not recommend glyde.com. The first time I ordered the seller rescinded the sell, because of that I lost the time sensitive coupon code. They held the pre-authorized funds on my credit card for 10 days, which prevented me from buying a replacement during that time. Then the second purchase was “flagged” for verification in which they asked for extensive personal information via email, which I reluctantly supplied, then rather than calling me (which they stated they would do if there was a problem) they simply cancelled the order and suspended my account. I have been jerked around by this company now for 4 weeks and I could have purchased something flawlessly from a known seller.
That really sucks. I haven’t used Glyde in a long time. I recently wanted to buy something from them because of a coupon on their twitter account but decided against it because I wasn’t saving much after the shipping. Try e-bay next time. What game were you trying to buy by the way?
DO NOT BUY HERE!!!! I have tryed to buy the tron dvd twice, and they failed to deliver both time after two weeks each time they cancled the sale.. So there is a month of my time that was wasted SO DO NOT BUY AT GLYDE.com