GameStop's Holiday Trade-In Promo and 360 Bundle Joint Announce

Moving on to the other half of today's special announcements by GameStop, there is the matter of the newest version of the annual console and game kit buying program in which local GameStop stores encourage gamers to haul their old kit and consoles down to the store to trade them in for store credit (as opposed to cash, the idea being that the gamer gets a much better deal by going for store credit, and then they can take their shiny new GameStop Rewards card upon which their trade-in value has been credited and using that, pick out some games to take home and play for a win-win-win situation!

The trade-in program is fairly complicated in that it will be obvious that some deals are good, while others... Not so much. In fact a major reason for our coverage of this event is to help you plan out which kit you might want to trade-in at your local GameStop in order to take advatange of the double-value on trade-ins, and which kit you will want to throw up on eBay instead... With all of that in mind we thought we would run down the tastier aspects of the deals just to save you all some time and help in the planning and strategy process, so away we go!

For a limited time (basically from now through 21 October 2012) GameStop is offering gamers a bonus that equals DOUBLE the in-store credit value for any used console that their customers bring to their local store to trade in.

It is imoprtant to note that this bonus applies ONLY to in-store credit, and NOT to trade-ins for cash; so if you want to sell your old kit expect to only get half as much as you would have received if you had traded it for store credit. We are just saying...

According to the fine print on this deal, the "Double In-Store Credit Offer" is not good on cash trades, as we noted above. In addition to that, the hardware that you trade in must be in full working condition to be eligible for this offer, and naturally any damage in the form of dents, dings, cracks, scratches, and the like will significantly impact the valuation of your kit -- and while some defective items may still be eligible for trade, it will be at a considerably lesser value. Just so we are clear on that, past experience with GameStop suggests that when your kit has serious scratches on the screen that impact the play area for game play, that is generally considered to qualify as a defective item.

At the time that you present your kit for trade you should be sure that all of the necessary components -- cables, chargers, that sort of thing -- are present. You should also be aware that this deal cannot be combined with any other offers, so if your local GameStop is presently offering a local deal like a $40 bonus for trading in your DSi on a new 3DS you cannot combine that with the Double Value offer to get the extra bit -- that just will not fly with GameStop...

Finally if you really pay attention to the fine print you will notice that all of the trade-ins for this promotion are subject to the approval of the local store manager, so it would be a really good idea to not get them angry at you. Just saying. GameStop has declared that the Double Trade-In offer is valid only toward items normally accepted in trade -- and they will not entertain trade-ins from dealers -- so showing up with thirty Nintendo DSi's and a box of GameCubes might not obtain the desired results, but it would be really funny to see the look on the managers face if you do, so if you are planning something like that and you live in New England, please let us know so we can go with you and take pictures.

The following trade-in values are for your kit in absolutely pristine condition -- expect the values to be drastically lower if you previously used your device as a target for skeet shooting, dropped it a lot, or otherwise abused it in highly visible ways...