Gamestop Trade In: 7 Ways to Increase Your GameStop Trade-In Value

And, when another console comes out you don’t have to feel so guilty about casting your current and perfectly usable console aside for a shiny new one.

Below, we’ll let you know how Gamestop Trade In works and how you can get more money from your games.

What is Gamestop Trade In?

It’s basically a program where you can bring in your old stuff and get credit for it, sort of like Amazon Trade In program.

You can then use your credit to buy stuff that you actually want.

So you might have Red Dead Redemption but you want Red Dead Redemption 2.

Just take Red Dead Redemption into Gamestop and trade it for credit. Then you can use that credit to buy the second installment in the series.

That’s how it works in a nutshell.

Below, we’ll review Gamestop Trade In, go into a little more detail about the program and give you a few tips to earn more credit as well.

How Gamestop Trade In Works

The program is pretty simple.

Here’s a step by step guide to how it works:

1. Bring Your Stuff to Gamestop

First, you need to bring your unwanted stuff to your closest Gamestop store.

Wondering, “where can I find a Gamestop near me?”

Well just visit this page and you’ll be able to find your nearest store.

Once you’ve located your store, gather up your unwanted stuff and bring it in.

What can you trade in Gamestop?

You can bring in lots of different game related and tech items, including:

• Games: Whether it’s Minecraft or Gears of War or games for the PlayStation 3 or the Xbox 360, you can trade pretty much any game at Gamestop.
• Gaming consoles: You can trade in a whole host of consoles from the Nintendo Switch to the Xbox One.
• Phones and Tablets: The program’s not just for games and consoles. You can trade in other devices – whether it’s your old iPhone or Samsung.
• Accessories: Tech accessories can also be traded for credit.

2. Get Your Stuff Appraised

At the store, an employee will give you a quote for your stuff. It’s important in the case of things like phones and other devices that you charge them before bringing them to the store.

Also, make sure you take any cords, power chargers, and any other related accessories with you for the stuff you plan to trade.

3. Get Cash or Trade Credit

If you like the quote you get, you can accept it. You can get cash and credit.

While cash is useful because you can spend it anywhere, credit is generally the better choice. This is because credit offers tend to have a higher value than cash ones do.

How much money can you get?

Well, this depends on what it is that you are trading and what condition your stuff is in.

Obviously, newer games and consoles tend to bring in more cash.

Handily enough, there’s a tool on the Gamestop website that you can use to determine the value of the stuff you want to trade.

This is a good starting point as it saves you going into the store and wasting your time with stuff that doesn’t have much value.

I had a look at some estimates from Gamestop for games, consoles, and devices just to give you some examples of what you could get:

• Grand Theft Auto 5: Customers get $8 Trade Credit Value and $6.40 cash value.
• 500GB Xbox One Console with Original Controller: Customers get $70 trade credit value and $56 cash value.
• Red Dead Redemption 2 for PlayStation 4: Customers get $10 in trade credit and $8 in cash.
• Wii System with Remote Plus for Nintendo Wii: Customers get $20 in trade credit and $16 cash value.
• Call of Duty WWII PlayStation 4: Customers can get $1.50 trade in credit and $1.20 in cash.

Gamestop also features a list of specific trade in offers on its website.

These are great because you can actually get an idea of the type of cash or credit that you could get.

At the time of writing, here are a few examples of the offers that were available:

• Get $250 toward the purchase of a switch when you trade a PS4 Pro or Xbox One X.
• 20% extra credit when you trade toward Mario Maker 2.
• Get up to $500 trade credit for your smartphone.

Tips for Getting More Gamestop Credit or Cash

Now that you know how Gamestop Trade In works, we’re going to give you some tips on how to get the most money out of your stuff.

After all, you want to make sure that you get the best deal for everything that you trade.

Here are our top tips for making more money on trade-ins.

1. Become a Member of the PowerUp Rewards Program

Being a member of PowerUp Rewards is a must do!

You can join the rewards program here.

When you sign up, you are a Player Member.

And you get benefits, like:

• 10 points for every dollar that you spend on all new games, accessories, consoles, collectibles, and tech.
• 10 points for every dollar that you spend on pre-owned games, accessories, consoles, and tech.
• And you can also get extra points for taking surveys and watching videos.

So this means that you’re getting extra points to spend on future purchases at the store.

Great right?

But it gets better if you become a Pro Member.

2. Become a Pro Member

This is our biggest tip if you have a lot of stuff to sell and plan to trade with Gamestop often.

Pro members of the PowerUp Rewards program actually get more money on trade-ins.

Pro members tend to get higher trade credit value and cash value than regular members do.

For example as a regular member, you’d get $8 in trade in credit and $6.40 in cash for GTA 5 for Xbox One, as we mentioned above.

But if you’re a pro member you would get $8.80 in credit and $7.04 in cash.

With Red Dead Redemption 2 we mentioned above that regular members get $10 in trade credit value and $8 in cash value.

But Pro members get $11 in credit and $8.80 in cash.

Now that might not seem like much but if you had ten games like that you’d make quite a lot more as a Pro Member.

Also, being a Pro Member gets you even more benefits than being a Player member.

You earn more points, such as:

• 20 points for every dollar that you spend on all new games, accessories, consoles, collectibles, and tech.
• 20 points for every dollar that you spend on pre-owned games, accessories, consoles, and tech.
• 20 points per dollar traded.
• Get extra points for taking surveys and watching videos.

The only thing is that a Pro Membership costs $14.99 a year. But if you plan to trade in stuff often at Gamestop then it’s certainly worth the cost.

3. Keep Your Stuff in Good Condition

Gamestop isn’t going to take games that are scratched and don’t work. So if you plan to trade in games often make sure you keep them in great condition.

Don’t be lazy and put your games away when you take them out of the console – I’m bad for doing that! But if you make it a habit to put your games away and take good care of them then you’ll make more money!

4. Trade in at the Right Time

Unless you need quick cash you might want to consider waiting for the best time to sell your stuff.

Remember those offers we mentioned above?

Well, those can really boost the cash or credit that you get back for your stuff.

Imagine trading in your collection of old Xbox One games, only for this offer to appear the following week:

• Get $5 bonus trade credit on any Xbox One, PS4, and Nintendo Switch games

You’d be kicking yourself right?

If you had just waited an extra week, you’d have that $5 bonus trade credit right in your pocket!

So our advice would be to check those offers frequently because one might come up that is perfect for the stuff that you plan to trade in.

Also, you could wait years until your stuff is so old that it’s considered retro and people are willing to pay for it again!

5. Go for the Credit Rather than the Cash

You will need to go with credit rather than cash if you want to get the most money for your stuff.

This is because GS pays out more if you take credit.

If you are looking for quick cash then obviously credit might not be for you.

However…

6. If You Need Cash Consider Trading Credit for a Gift Card

There are some reports of people accepting credit for their stuff and then using that credit to buy a gift card from GS.

Now, GS doesn’t just offer GameStop gift cards. It also offers them for lots of different brands and retailers.

But, GS is now stricter on what gift cards their customers can purchase using credit.

Some people used to use their credit to get Amazon or Visa gift cards.

But it appears you can no longer do this.

There are still, however, plenty of gift cards that you can buy with credit. So have a browse of the list here to see what’s available.

If you want to get that value from your stuff by accepting credit but don’t want to buy anything at GS then exchanging your credit for a gift card for another brand is such a good idea.

You basically get free cash to spend.

7. Consider Selling the Gift Card Instead

If you really want cash from trading stuff at GS, then here’s how to do it:

• Step One: Trade in your old stuff for credit.
• Step Two: Use your credit to purchase a gift card.
• Step Three: Sell the gift card for cash.

You can actually sell gift cards online for cash.

This is such a great way to get money from your old games, consoles, and devices.

Yes, it’s a little longwinded. But you get the best of both worlds.

Not only do you get more money from GS because you took the trade credit offer, rather than the cash, but you still end up with cash in the end anyway.

A few places where you can sell unwanted gift cards include:

• Cardpool
• Raise
• Gift Card Granny

Now, it’s important to note that on these platforms, people are looking to buy discounted gift cards.

So if they want a $100 Applebee’s gift card, for example, then they will be looking for offers like, pay $98 for a $100 value card.

This means that if you have a gift card to sell you won’t get the full amount for it.

Even so, the amount you get back from the card in cash will probably be higher than the cash offer you receive from GS.

One of our main tips for doing this is to take a look at sites like Raise and Gift Card Granny to see which cards are in demand and seem to have the most value.

If you notice that cards for one retailer are selling for 50% off, then avoid that.

On the other hand, if you notice a card for another retailer tends to sell for just 2% off go with that.

Look to see which cards have the best market value and then use your GS trade credit to purchase that particular gift card.

Try Gamestop Alternatives

Gamestop trade-in isn’t your only option and place to for selling your old stuff.

It can be a good idea to check on other platforms, like Decluttr and Letgo, for example, to see if you could get a better deal for your stuff.

For example, if you have a copy of Call of Duty to sell check the price you’d get for trading or selling it on Gamestop and then compare it to prices offered by Decluttr and to list prices on platforms like eBay and Letgo.

You might find that you could get a better deal on other platforms.

Is Gamestop Trade In Worth It?

Yes, it 100% is!

As you can see, Gamestop Trade In is a great program for anyone who’s looking to make some cash out of their old games and consoles.

Now, it’s certainly not your only option as we mentioned above.

The program is so simple though that it’s definitely worth giving it a go.

And if you join the PowerUp Rewards program you’ll get even more benefits.

Let us know in the comments section below about your experiences with Gamestop Trade In.