Steven Boyd Everybody Wins In Computer Game And Software Trading Business

Steven Boyd had a small glimpse of the future when he was just 9 years old.

He remembers setting up a trading station for comic books when he lived on the island of Guam. Other youngsters would take a look at his wares, and trade their comics for ones they hadn’t read yet.

“I don’t know if there’s such a thing as destiny, but if there is I was destined to be in business,” says Boyd, 36, from beneath a black baseball cap.

While he has switched media, he’s still in the title-swapping business. In 1993, he opened a small video-game store, Trade-A-Game, at 9496 E. Sprague. Customers could buy used Nintendo, Sega or 3D0 games or trade-in their old ones.

Young vid-fans loved it. The idea went over so well that Boyd has since opened two other stores, one at 6813 N. Division, and another at 1610 N. Fourth in Coeur d’Alene.

“I wanted to establish a small store first, get a customer base, then expand,” Boyd says, gesturing wide at his North Side store’s inventory.

That store is 2,200 square feet, about twice as large as the first. He stocks about 4,000 games there. The total inventory of his three operations is in the ballpark of 11,000 cartridges and CD-ROMs.

And, he says he did it all without borrowing a single dime, quarter or token.

“I started this debt free, because if you start in the hole, you have to dig yourself back out,” he says.

He cut corners everywhere. When he first started out, his Valley store was kept warm by a kerosene heater. He didn’t even have a telephone.

His conservative approach came from years of entrepreneurship. Although he has worked in department stores and for a shoe store chain, he prefers flying solo.

He swapped comics at 9. At 12, he was a sales representative for a company selling fold-up bicycles. At 15, he worked in a small general store, learning the “old-world approach” of doing business from the store’s owner.

Then his military family moved from Guam to Oak Harbor, Wash. As a high school sophomore, he started his own lawn care business, with other students working for him.

When he came up with the Trade-A-Game concept, he had enough experience to be pretty sure it would earn him a high score in the end.

Boyd thought up the idea when he noticed how his family lost and gained gaming interests fast. He was in the microwave repair business at the time, using used parts to fix the ovens.

“I’m so heavily into recycling, and that’s why I liked microwave repair,” Boyd says. “I started thinking that there had to be a way to recycle these games.”

Boyd didn’t know it at the time, but other similar stores were beginning to pop up across the country. Fortunately for him, his was the first in the Spokane area.

Others here are now using the concept, too. Die-Hard Game Club opened at the North Division “Y” last September. That national chain licenses its name to local owners.

Kim Connors, the manager of the Die-Hard store here, says game swapping is still fairly new everywhere.

“It didn’t really hit until a couple years ago,” she says.

Established stores with other spins are also starting to offer some game-swapping. The Great Escape, located at Argonne Village in the Valley, has sold and traded computer software since 1989. This year, owner Dave Fisk began carrying cartridges for the 3D0 game system as well.

While he isn’t the only game in town anymore, Boyd thinks his business will continue to win points as long as he’s careful. He says he has to watch game machine vendors such as Sega, Nintendo and now Sony battle it out for supremacy, making sure he doesn’t stock a lot of titles that run on a doomed platform.

He’s also always looking for little ways to improve his stores. At his Division spot, he plans to add an espresso bar for waiting parents.

Boyd says the most important strategy of all, though, is soliciting customer feedback - then actually listening to it. He says his trade system was designed by asking patrons what they thought was fair.

“If it works out so both of us can win, it’s fair,” Boyd says.

Trade-A-Game places titles in one of four categories, depending on a cartridge’s type and age. A customer can trade a game of their own for any title in its same category for $10. If they want to trade for a cartridge in a higher category, Boyd adds $10 for each level increase.

It’s a system that took time and patience to develop, but that’s OK, Boyd says. He says huge profits can wait, because he already has what he really wants.

No boss, save the customer.

“I’ve always done things myself,” he says, his voice rising to a treble crescendo.

“You don’t have to work for the other guy, you don’t have to be subservient and you don’t have to be in debt up to your neck.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo