In case you somehow thought it was a joke, and we don’t blame you if you did, but GameStop and its “Trade Anything Day” promotional event is a real thing, and it took place on Saturday.
GameStop later clarified the promo to let people know that no matter what the item was, everyone would be receiving a flat $5 in trade-in credit. In other words, trading in 10 rocks wasn’t going to magically get you a Nintendo Switch 2. But imagine if it did?
The promo drew ire from fans and employees alike, seemingly going viral overnight due to its extensive list of “Dos” and “Do Nots” that somehow allowed the trade-in of taxidermy. In the lead-up to the event, employees, understandably, began fearing the worst.
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However, now that the event has largely come and gone, we can officially say it went as well as you’d expect. Which means no one traded in taxidermy, but people did try passing off a ton of junk.
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Over on GameStop’s subreddit, employees and gamers shared the kinds of things that managed to get traded at their store. At one employee’s store, there was a phone cord, a map from Skyrim, a board game and what appears to be a birdhouse.
Elsewhere, someone traded in a Kinect, a baseball figure and what appears to be an unused Jujutsu Kaisen figure. Another picture in the thread features a Switch Lite buried among a mound of clothes, though it’s unclear whether the console actually is functioning.
In a separate post, someone noted that they were going to attempt to trade in two cans of the Pokemon x Campbell Soup collab, only for the employees to reportedly scoff at their items.
The intention of the event seemed to be built around people donating things they’d otherwise have no use for, such as clothes that don’t fit, board games, old video games, along with pantry necessities that could all be donated to charity.
Unfortunately, when you tell people they can trade in anything and also have employees that would rather do anything but make a pit-stop at the local charity center, you get that combo, along with all the junk we’ve seen.
Of course, this was supposed to be a one-time trade, get your $5 and leave kind of event, but that didn’t stop enterprising “entrepreneurs” from sharing their escapades of going to several different GameStop stores to claim $5 in credit across Reddit and social media.
In the case of the cutest trade-in, a child, accompanied by their parents, traded in a hand-made Among Us x GameStop piece of artwork. Hopefully, that $5 can help get them whatever is on their holiday wishlist.
Finally, someone tried to trade their “friend” named Bobby, a leaf with a marker-made face. Unfortunately, GameStop did not accept the leaf, and really, if they’re your “friend,” then why would you try and trade them in for a measly $5. Aren’t friends worth more than that?
All this to say, for many who probably work at GameStop, it was probably another day in the life.
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