GameStop’s Trade Anything Day Comes With Some Asterisks

If you grew up in the cartridge era of video games, you know how pricey they could be. It wasn't uncommon to pay nearly $100 after taxes on the newest titles. And the lowered cost of $49.99 per CD was welcomed by U.S. consumers (barring special editions) once the PlayStation/Sega Saturn era changed the gaming landscape.

These days, new titles regularly cost around $59.99, and these price tags can persist for certain titles (here's looking at you, Nintendo) long after their release dates.

And although GameStop gets a lot of flak for its cluttered stores and shockingly low trade-in values, the retailer still has a devoted gamer fanbase for its used buying/selling Pro Member promotions.

To highlight this facet of its business, the company has a Trade Anything Day, but what are its rules?

In what seems like a bid to help get folks inside of its stores, the company is offering a Trade Anything Day that allows folks to bring in whatever they want for store credit. And it isn't just limited to games. Patrons can bring (pretty much) anything into one of its participating locations, even "taxidermied animals."

Folks who do so won't be presented with cash, but rather, store credit, which can then be applied to any purchases that are made in the store. Whatever folks are bringing into the store for a trade-in must fit inside a 20"x20"x20" box. So don't drag an old garage couch into the mall to try and save some money on that copy of Donkey Kong Bananza.

According to the information provided by GameStop on its site, customers will receive $5 in trade credit for their items. However, if they bring in the standard video game and tech-related products for trade-in, those trades will be processed as usual.

If you're thinking of getting rid of some used bedroom apparatuses, or trying to foist an alleged murder weapon, there are some rules as to what can't be used for store credit on GameStop's trade-in promotion.

They are:

• Hazardous waste, material, chemicals, or liquids
• Weapons, ammunition
• Dead or alive animals, but taxidermied ones are OK
• Tobacco, drugs, pharmaceuticals, alcohol
• Anything containing lithium-ion batteries

The list goes on:

• Any explicit or adult-themed material.
• Computers, but some MacBooks GameStop will take are accepted
• Document scanners, 3D printers, paper printers, label printers, digital picture frames
• Cable/satellite receivers, MP3 players, VCRs, DVD players, DVRs, digital converter boxes
• Gift cards
• Foreign or domestic currency
• Anything that resembles a human body part

Additionally, GameStop workers can decide whether or not something is considered acceptable as a trade-in item, too. So don't flip out if your oil painting of Steve Buscemi applying lipstick to his face from Billy Madison is rejected for in-store credit.

Trade Anything Day is slated to take place on Dec. 6, 2025, at participating GameStop locations. It's probably a good idea to call ahead and find out if your local store is planning on taking anything, unless you're the kind of person who likes to create hullabaloo for online clout on your preferred social media platform of choice.

It's not hard to imagine there's going to be a lot of people doing that in the few weeks before Christmas. Are you planning on heading into GameStop during its Trade Anything promotion? If so, what do you plan on bringing into the store? Or are you just going to hang out near the bins filled with last year's Madden games to see what kinda wonky stuff people try to trade in for credit?