Gamestop is pretty well known for their broad trade-in program. They used to just take video games and consoles, but they have expanded into other electronics categories through the years. Items like smart phones, headphones, and even smart watches can now be traded in for cash or in-credit.
This leaves the question, does Gamestop buy external hard drives? Gamestop used to accept trade ins for 1, 2, 3, and 4 GB portable hard drives. Currently on their website, Gamestop is not offering trade values even if you can find external hard drives on their website.
Although Gamestop is currently not taking external hard drives as a valid form of trade-in, there are many other third party platforms on which you can sell or trade in your external hard drive. Selling your external hard drive on a marketplace other than Gamestop will also ensure that you get the most money out of your hard drive.
Where Is the Best Place to Sell External Hard Drives?
There are a lot of platforms that you can sell your external hard drive on, but here is a list of a few of the most common market places to get the most money in the least amount of time:
eBay
eBay is one of the largest e-commerce platforms in the world. They millions of customers every month performing millions of searches per day. Listing and selling your item on eBay is not complicated. Simply create a free or paid account and list your item for sale.
You will need to take pictures, create a description, and set a price for your hard drive. The best way to price your hard drive is by pricing it for what other people are already paying for the item. To check on the sold item prices, search for your exact model of hard drive.
Once you have searched for your exact model, click on the filter and filter it by sold and completed listings. This will show you a list of items with heir prices and sell date. if you price your item similar to these, you will be able to sell your hard drive within a short time frame.
Offer-Up
Offer-Up is a great local marketplace to sell your items. The big advantage with selling locally is that you will not have to ship your item, nor will you have any fees associated with the sale. This means that you can potentially get the most money out of your hard drive.
Offer-Up has been around for sometime and is mobile friendly. Simply take a picture of your item, write a short description, set the price with or without offers, and list it. Potential buyers will be able to message you through the app if they want to offer you or ask for a meetup.
Mercari
Mercari is one of the new platforms available, but it has been taking the United States by storm. It originated in Japan as their version of an online flea market. Once it came to the states, it started off slow, but is now considered to have a big population which means it is a great platform to sell and buy on.
Mercari was designed as a mobile first platform which means that it is extremely easy to list and buy on. It’s almost too easy. You can search for an item like yours, and select the list one like this feature in order to have a lot of the features pre selected. Just take your own photo, write a short description, set the price, and list it.
Once your item is purchased, Mercari will give you a shipping label that was preselected during the listing process. You will print out this label, package your item, and ship it to your customer. You will be paid once your buyer rates their experience with you, or 3 days after they have officially received their item.
How Much Can I Sell My External Hard Drive For?
There are quite a few factors to take into account when it comes to pricing a hard drive. The two main factors are the brand and price. Seagate is one of the most popular portable external hard drives used for gamers so this is what we will be referring to.
The following hard drives and prices were taken from the eBay search results filtered by sold and completed listing for both new and used hard drives. These prices can change at any time which means you should always manually search yourself before pricing your item.
| Portable External Hard Drive | Price |
| Seagate Portable 1TB | New: 40$ Used: 25$ |
| Seagate Portable 2TB | New: 80$ Used: 40$ |
| Seagate Portable 3TB | New: 90$ Used: 50$ |
| Seagate Portable 4TB | New: 90$ Used: 65$ |
Final Thoughts
Gamestop’s trade-in program started with just video games and consoles, but has slowly evolved into a lot more than that. From phones, watches, and tablets, they accept a wide array of electronics. However, Gamestop is not currently accepting external hard drives as a valid form for trade-in credit or cash.
In the past, Gamestop has accepted external hard drives for the Playstation and Xbox. This can change at anytime and it is recommended that you manually check their website or ask a store employee if they are accepting hard drives again for trade-in.
The best way to get rid of your external hard drive is to sell it on an e-commerce platform like eBay or Offer-Up. Selling on a platform like these will help you get the most value out of your item rather than if you were to trade it in to Gamestop. Gamestop has been known to pay very little in terms of store credit and an even lower amount in cash for eligible items.