Circuit City enters used video game market

Although consumer electronics retailer Circuit City Stores, Inc. (NYSE: CC) is teetering on the brink of a buyout or doomed to failure, at least some areas of it appear promising. This time around, the company has announced that it will get involved with the used video game industry. You heard that right.

Instead of focusing efforts on trying to improve its retail competitive position and somehow out-maneuver competitor Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY), Circuit City will position itself as a sort of flea market. It's true that the used video game industry is chalked up at a $1.5 billion-a-year industry, that's a niche currently being filled by game specialty retailers like GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) and eBay. But this move is a sign that Circuit City is willing to do something -- anything -- to revitalize any product category that it can.

If Circuit City can really make this effort stick, then it may succeed in actually getting more shoppers in the doors. But video game buyers and traders are a fickle lot and will instantly sense if the retailer's pricing, availability and breadth of titles are going to give the competition a run for the used-video-game money, or if this is just another ploy to improve traffic numbers (as some of these customers will invariably shop for more than video games).