Gamestop is widely known for trading in your used games and consoles. Over the years their trade-in program has expanded to quite the broad range of electronics. If you check their website, you will see that they are now accepting a variety of used electronics from smart phones to tablets, and the list goes on.
Although we know Gamestop takes video games, how about retro video games? At this time Gamestop is still accepting retro games, but the selection is very limited. Before trading in your retro games, you will need to check their website for the most up to date trade-in values for your games as they are not accepting everything.
Most of the retro titles that Gamestop will give you money or credits for are all the big major titles as well as rare titles. Games like Super Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon will all be able to be traded in due to their popularity even still to this day.
How Much Does Gamestop Pay For Retro Games?
How much you get for your retro games solely depends on the title you are trading in. As an example, a game like Pokemon Stadium is sure to get you a decent amount as it is one off the best titles on the Nintendo 64 console.
Below we created a small list of games that Gamestop is accepting along with their respective trade-in prices. Remember, these prices can change at anytime and should only be used as a rough estimate of what your game will be worth.
| Retro Game | Trade-In Value | ||||
| Pokemon Stadium 2 – Nintendo 64 | Cash: 12.80$ Store Credit: 16$ | ||||
| Breath of Fire III – PlayStation | Cash: 7.20$ Store Credit: 9$ | ||||
| Marvel vs. Capcom 2 – Xbox | Cash: 12$ Store Credit: 15$ | ||||
| Pokemon Crystal Version – Game Boy Color | Cash: 8$ Store Credit: 10$ | ||||
Does Gamestop Give Cash for Retro Games?
Gamestop will indeed pay you out in cash or in-store credit. It is up to the discretion of the customer which payment method they would prefer. One caveat to keep in mind is that if you accept cash for your games, you will be paid substantially lower than if you were to get in-store credit.
This is to encourage customers to use their money or credits within Gamestop and is a smart business move on their part. If you opt in to receive Gamestop credits, you will be given a Gamestop gift card that can be used at any location. You can use these credits towards in store-items, as well as pre-released items.
How Does Gamestop Trade-In Work for Retro Games?
Trading in your retro video games to Gamestop is a fairly straight forward process. The first step to trading in your games is to first check out their website or talk with an employee to make sure the games you are wanting to trade-in are on their list.
If you have many big name titles like Zelda, Breath of Fire, Pokemon, and Super Mario, then you can expect that Gamestop will be offering you something for them as they are still in high demand even in today’s market.
Once you have decided what games to trade-in, Gamestop will give you a store-credit price and a cash value. For the most part, both of these prices will usually be way under the actual market value for your games. This is due to Gamestop reselling these games for a good amount of profit, which leads to our next question.
Is It Worth Selling Your Retro Games to Gamestop?
We highly feel that it is not worth it to sell your retro video games to Gamestop. Retro games are becoming more and more rare as time goes on which is causing prices to rise up drastically.
A good example of retro video games that have sky rocketed in price are the handheld Pokemon games. Pokemon Soulsilver is a great example. At this time, a complete copy of Pokemon Soulsilver is going for well over 100$ at this time. This is also for a used copy.
If you happen to have a brand new sealed copy of this game, you will be able to get well over 500$. At this time, Gamestop will only pay you 25$ for a copy of this game regardless if you have the box or not. So you can makwe your own assumption if you think it is worth it to sell to Gamestop.
We recommend using a third party platform like eBay to sell your retro games. You will be able to get the most money out of your games, however you will need to list your items for sale and ship them when they sell. It takes a little more work to sell the games yourself, but the reward is much greater than doing a trade-in.
Final Thoughts
Although Gamestop’s trade-in program will pay you cash or credit for your retro games, it may not not be in your best interest. Gamestop is only accepting a limited number of titles for each retro console. These games also tend to be the rarer and flagship titles like Super Mario and Pokemon.
If you do happen to have a game that they are accepting on their list, you will be presented with two different prices. A cash value or an in-store credit price for your game. These prices will most likely be way under market value which means you won’t get nearly as much money if you were to just sell these titles yourself. We recommend checking out price charting to see the current value of your retro games
We highly recommended against trading in your retro games to Gamestop and selling them by yourself instead. There are many platforms in which you can list your games on like eBay and Mercari. These marketplaces are great to get the most eyes and money out of your games. It will require a little more work because you will have to ship out your games, but in return you will get the full value of your item.