GameStop Now Accepting Old Gift Cards As Part Of New Exchange Program

A common gift that people give to one another that’s perfect for most occasions — Christmas, birthdays, graduation, etc. — are gift cards. They’ve available at nearly every retailer, some can double as debit cards, and best of all, they’re convenient. However, there sometimes comes that point when a gift card doesn’t have much left on it after being used once or twice, with the amount left behind cursed to be abandoned in wallets and purses without much purpose. What can a person spend $3.36 on, anyway?

Enter GameStop, one of the leading video game retailers to go to when it comes to trade-ins and buying used games. The company has announced a partnership with Cardpool, and is launching a new platform as part of GameStop Exchange that will give people a new way to rid of old gift cards.

The process, as explained on GameStop’s gift card exchange website, is fairly simple. People select which gift card they’re offering up, fill out the information related to both the card number and the pin number, evaluate the provided offer, then accept it if it’s to their liking. Accepted offers are issued in the form of an eGift card from GameStop, which, of course, can only be used to buy products from them, be it online or in a physical store.

The program supports a vast amount of retailer gift cards, including Barnes & Noble, Old Navy, and Starbucks, so interested consumers shouldn’t have any problem finding their card of choice.

In a statement via MarketWatch, Jon Haes, senior director of pre-owned merchandising at GameStop, praised the new expansion, which is sure to see at least a small increase in gift card uses at GameStop, despite the increasing popularity of buying things digitally.

“We’ve always provided the best value through our trade-in and pre-owned offerings, and the success of our original gift card exchange offering has proven that.

This is the logical ‘next step’ in revolutionizing the way major retailers offer prepaid gifting exchange while providing customers even more ways to access immediate value both in their retail stores and online.”

Cardpool states that used gift cards are sold directly to them, and afterwards they’ll be sold through them. Presumably, this means that someone out there could get a used card, use it a couple of times, then find themselves exchanging the card with GameStop, like a closed loop. While it may be an unlikely scenario to occur regularly, it is a bit humorous to think about.

It’d be interesting to know how many times a single gift card has been in possession by Cardpool.

[Image via GameStop]