When Dave Bishop purchased a $32 computer game called Sleeping Gods Lie, he was excited to get home and begin playing it. But after five minutes, he thought he had wasted his money.
He figured that many people were in the same boat, buying software that ended up sitting on a shelf somewhere.
“I thought, `If only there were someplace I could take the game and trade it in,”‘ he said.
The result is the Software Exchange, a year-old business in Schaumburg that finds a temporary home for all of those practically new disks. At the Software Exchange, customers can turn in their old disks for cash or trade value.
The shelves of the 900-square-foot store are filled with computer games, productivity software, screen savers and a variety of other programs.
Prices for the used software range from $2.95 to $295, and each package is sold at 60 percent of the market value, says Bishop, a 37-year-old Hanover Park resident who owns the business with his brother, Robert.
The store offers some new software as well.
From such games as Terminator Rampage and Star Wars Rebel Assault to such word-processing programs as Microsoft Word for Windows, Software Exchange covers every need or want.
Most computer users trade in software they needed only temporarily, says Dave Bishop.
“Once you learn to type, you would never use Mavis Beacon Typing again,” he explains. “Now, you want to get rid of it. That’s what we’re here for.”
To start the business, which has expanded into additional stores in Morton Grove and Downers Grove, the Bishop brothers had to be sure they were abiding by copyright laws stating that software cannot be shared.
“Whoever sells software has to sign a release,” Bishop says. “Then the new (owner) sends that release form to the company and transfers the rights.”
So far, there are few stores that sell used software, but that will change over the next few months as the Bishops begin franchising.
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Software Exchange, 652 S. Roselle Rd., Schaumburg, is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, to 6 p.m. Fridays, and to 5 p.m Saturdays and Sundays. Call 894-SWAP.
