Thanks to collectors — and a renewed interest in the golden age of gaming — retro game consoles are on the rise. Which is why Gamestop has just announced their plans to buy and sell retro goods and consoles, like the NES, SNES, Sega Genesis and more.
For a while, it seemed like Gamestop — one of the largest companies that deals in new and used gaming goods — was going to get rid of their retro stock. It appears that’s no longer the case. Not long ago the company announced that it was opening up trades for those with Playstation 2 games and systems.
Starting April 25, the company will launch a pilot program that handles the purchase and resale of older consoles, games and related accessories. If you’ve ever wanted to get your hands on one of those badass Nintendo Power Gloves, now might be your chance!
What’s Going Down?
The pilot program will launch in two test markets first, and if there’s enough interest the company will expand the program nationwide. The test areas include New York City and Birmingham, Alabama, which encompass about 250 stores total. Don’t ask us why they chose Alabama, we have no idea.
Folks in the test regions can head to a local Gamestop to trade in or buy retro consoles and games. Sadly, even though GameStop will begin purchasing the goods starting April 25, it will be a couple months before the inventory makes it to store shelves.
Luckily, you won’t need to travel to NYC or Alabama to buy anything, because the company is going to sell it all through their online store.
Traded legacy goods will be sent to the company’s Refurbishment Operations Center (ROC), in Texas. Upon arrival everything will be inspected, tested, and repaired as necessary. Hopefully Gamestop will be able to clean-up some of those old systems and games that have collected dust all these years.
Gamestop has not announced how much they will offer for trades, nor how much they plan to resell games and consoles for. According to IGN, you will have the option to pick up a Gamestop warranty when you make a purchase.
Is This Good or Bad?
To be perfectly honest, it’s both good and bad. For retro collectors and those looking to purchase legacy gaming goods it means you’ll have another place to go — provided the program pans out.
It’s bad because there are a lot of mom and pop stores that make their living selling and trading this stuff. Thanks to the renewed interest in retro gaming, they’ve likely been seeing better profits and easier living. Just like what happened when Gamestop rolled into town the first time around, they’ll be stealing business that might have gone elsewhere. Maybe it’s all an illusion, but the little guy always seems to care more about their customers and products. You could always make the argument that this is the nature of the market, but we’ll save that for a different time.
For now, we’re going to wait and see what happens with this program before passing judgment. What do you think about it?
That interesting, buying our old dusty used consoles that probably are very broken or full of spiders? I admit I’m a collector and still have my Sega Saturn and I hope for it to be repaired and the thing is you might see those SAME sellers in there purchasing the goods they “traded.”
Argument is whose the target market? I’m a 22 y/o college student and I the other day Lyfted (I’m a Lyft driver) a fellow student about my age who had just purchased a Vinyl. Yes a Vinyl. Is this a new trend?
Luckily for me I’m a hoarder so selling a Vinyl would be easy but not everyone would be on board? Guess we’ll see how this pans out. Interesting find!
Thanks for the comment Netalya, and for reading!
Retro goods have been pretty popular lately even among the younger crowds. It also seems like a lot of folks who grew up around the “old” games are diving back in. I can’t offer any hard evidence or stats to support this, but it’s definitely a hot topic I see in the circles I frequent.
As for Gamestop, I think it’s obvious they’ll do just about anything to make a profit — good or bad. This just seems to be another move in that direction.