GameStop is preparing a test program to take back classic games, systems, and accessories, according to a report published at IGN.
The pilot program will allow customers to trade in their gaming gear dating all the way back to the NES era to GameStop, who will in turn send the equipment to their refurbishing center for quality assurance testing.
In an interesting twist, the retro games and consoles will not actually be physically available in stores. Instead, GameStop plans to offer the merchandise on their website or their in-store kiosks.
As of right now, GameStop’s retro buyback program is only scheduled to run in about 250 New York City and Birmingham area stores, however if the test proves successful, GameStop has plans to expand the buyback program nation-wide later in the year.
Are you willing to rely on GameStop for your retro gaming needs? Let us know in the comments section below.
Source: IGN
This will be interesting to see how it plays out. Gamestop isn’t going to be interested in hoarding these to build up artificial demand. They are a business that is going to treat these like any other commodity. The only way for them to make money is to move product. If something isn’t moving at the current price they will lower it just to get rid of it. Wasting warehouse space costs money.
At the very least online only sales will help give a more accurate sense of what is actually out there on a national level as opposed to depending on individual local shops individual sellers on ebay.
Basically I agree with Cubist. This has the potential to be both awesome and terrible…
Hope this makes it to my store in Henderson. Still a huge PS2 customer base here, and it’s not because of the love of retro gaming. Just the pricing lol.
This is annoying and not good folks! My big fear here is that Game Stop will end up “setting the market” on these retro game prices. Which is bad bc they could easily overcharge. So for us buyers and collectors, it’s bad. But for sellers, it’s good bc now u can get more for your old games by price matching with Game Stop.
I agree, it all depends. When GameStop was near getting rid of all these things, the prices were incredible compared to retro shops and ebayers, but I think that might be the market they’re after, since they’re coming back, not going out. Here’s hoping they lower the prices with their power instead of raise. Here’s hoping for reasonably priced Earthbound carts.
Yeah, kind of a bummer that it’s not in store, but I understand why. The space in there is limited as is with just current gen stuff. Can you imagine them having to cram in stuff going back to the NES??? Actually..that would be awesome lol!
This is way cool! Except for the bit about them being online only…I dunno, maybe that’ll be cool too, we’ll have to see how fair their pricing is. I sure as hell hope that, even if its a success, they won’t run smaller used chains out of existence. I have a feeling that with all their power they might be able to offer just a little more cash as well as the trade credit towards newer games and systems.
Then again, there are some pretty staunch lines between modern gamers and retro gamers. I guess we’ll just have to see! This could be totally awesome or a total disaster!