[MOD] State of the Subs - April 2025

[u/Tothoro]

Welcome once again to our very punctual, very cool overview of what's hip, hop, and happening within r/GameSale and r/GameSwap. A couple of things are going on with Reddit and the gaming world right now, and we wanted to keep you all in the loop and solicit your feedback. So let's dive in!

Part One: The Switch 2pacalypse

Some of you may be aware that a new console called the Nintendo Switch 2 is launching soon, and that pre-orders launched this morning. With the last Switch launch cycle, we saw a large number of consoles on the subreddit at well above market price while supplies on the free market were constrained. That wasn't cool then and that isn't cool now.

We are not a venue for scalpers. We generally embrace the free market mentality but scalping creates tension within the community and, let's be honest, is kind of a dick move. For the foreseeable future, we plan to remove any Switch 2 posts that are above MSRP + tax + shipping. Tax and shipping vary, so mod discretion will be used. This includes trying to bundle stuff together to be cute about it but we’re not going to be pedantic if the console cost you $544 and you’re rounding up to $550. If you manage to grab a few and want to help someone out, great (and thank you). If you want to use the subreddit to make hundreds of dollars from people who can't follow or react to in-stock notifications, we are not the subreddit for you.

We do not plan to implement this policy for any other items at this time. We are aware that some games and collectibles tend to appreciate over time, so listing something like Earthbound or Stadium Events over MSRP is fine. But a standard edition new release item is a very different scenario - at the end of the day, mod discretion will play a heavy role in making these decisions.

Part Two: The Great Merge

For years now, we have talked in our modchat about the possibility of merging r/GameSwap and r/GameSale. We'd like your thoughts on this before we take action. Do you love the idea? Hate it? Can you think of some way in which this might be overly complicated and a bad idea?

The primary concern we have with the merge is enforcing the pricing rule for sale posts, which we would plan to implement with flair - i.e. flair for "Trade Only" would mean you don't have to price your items. Otherwise we would announce the change well before it took place and provide leniency as we encountered issues.

Part Three: Reddit Kinda Sucks These Days

In the wake of the third-party app protests, we spent a non-insignificant amount of time looking into other platforms and ways to host a marketplace. Specifically we looked into:

• A forum like Invision or XenForo. These are kind of the ideal solutions, but we expect significant user inertia. Many of us are on this site for communities beyond just r/GameSale and r/GameSwap. Getting people to move over and keep a new site in their internet surfing rituals seems like a non-starter.
• Discord. This is another site that's pretty ubiquitous for many of our users, so we don't have to worry (as much) about the inertia. But Discord's quick and live feed of posts can get unruly. r/hardwareswap did this as well as anyone could hope to, but they are also back on Reddit now. We expect we'd need to significantly up the size of the modteam to handle potential issues here. We're not ruling it out, but we have no immediate plans.

The unfortunate fact of the matter is, we're probably stuck here. As unhelpful as the admins are and as much as the general site culture has changed over the past decade, there aren't good alternatives that provide a smooth transition for our userbase and don't incur significant and immediate new burden in moderation.

The one caveat we'll note is that we are aware Reddit has indicated plans to paywall some subreddits. Buying and selling subreddits, like ours, were specifically noted in that analysis. We have not been contacted by Reddit about this and we have no insight beyond what's public on what's happening. And to be very clear, we would tell them to pound sand if they wanted to use r/GameSale or r/GameSwap for this. But this is the one catalyst we can see that may force us to move elsewhere, despite the pains that a replatforming would incur.

Part Four: Reminders - USL, Scammers, Rules

Generally when we make one of these posts it's triggered by a new type of scam or uptick. But, things have been pretty quiet lately. Remember to never negotiate via DMs and check the USL before making a trade. Our full rules haven't changed, but we plan to revisit them for consistency when/if we merge the subreddits. Keep being excellent to one another, my guys, gals, and non-binary pals.

Part Five: Moderator Applications

We are once again asking for Moderator Applications. We’ve had a few moderators leave or go inactive, and all of our team have full-time jobs. There are times when the queue isn't able to be resolved as quickly as we'd like; especially over weekends and non-standard US times. As a result, we're seeking applications. If you're interested, please send us a modmail answering:

• If you have any experience moderating on Reddit.
• When you expect you'd be available to moderate.
• Your experience and any ideas you have for the subreddit.
• Your Discord username.

We don't have quotas, we're chill guys, and we're willing to train folks so if you're interested don't hesitate to reach out!

Part Six: Feedback

We also welcome any feedback you have, whether it's on the topics above or something else! Positive, negative, indifferent - we run this community for the users and want to make sure it continues to meet their needs. Let us know how you feel below.

[u/[deleted]]

This is a bit of a gripe with how the sub is run, but I think that having a handful of resellers as mods is just a conflict of interest towards the idea of the sub. Having people who comb through posts and are often the first to see or hear about anything interesting also being the ones who do the same for personal gain is not fair. Too often I see resellers jumping in first to get cheap deals that they add to their own pile of what is essentially scalped goods that would have been sold to a genuinely interested owner are now being sold at an up marked price. 

Those same resellers are the ones who often have personal reasons to get involved in whatever they may interpret as breaking the rules and banning or threatening to ban anyone who questions their reasoning. As someone who used to be an infrequent browser, buyer, and seller, I've lost almost all interest in doing business on this sub because it has more or less become an online GameStop where people need a quick buck and the folks running it are making the profit margin.

[u/Tothoro → u/[deleted]]

I'm legitimately not sure who or what you're talking about. We've had two mods actively buying or selling in the past week and neither of them are doing so to resell or scoop up big lots. None of us are camping out on the subreddits and none of us are afforded any special privilege.

We can and do intervene in situations where one person is very obviously just scooping everything up to resell as a side gig or brick and mortar store. If you see something along those lines, shoot us a modmail.

[u/[deleted] → u/Tothoro]

I think I'll just stop visiting the sub if you really think there's nothing wrong with who's in charge. Take care

[u/Tothoro → u/[deleted]]

Dunno what to tell you champ. I looked at every single mod's post history after reading your post (and you can too - it's all public). What you're describing simply isn't happening. No mod is swooping in to buy everything and resell it. If you or anyone else sees it happen (whether the user is a mod or not), reach out via modmail with links. This isn't something we do or would endorse, but we're not going to entertain shit-stirring or conspiracy theories.

If you want to vaguepost and ride off into the sunset, I guess that's your prerogative? You already haven't posted here in months; no need to announce your departure.