GameStop Expands Trade-Ins Beyond iPads Based on Customer Demand

In an interview with Polygon, GameStop’s Sean Cleland noted that the retailer (known more for selling videos games than gadgets) gathers metrics from consumers to make a decision on what consumer electronics it will allow to be traded-in.

According to Cleland, in addition to monitoring traffic on its own website, its partnership with BuyMyTronics allows it to examine whether a particular music player, tablet, laptop, gaming system or mobile phone is worth reselling at its stores.

The company initially began its trade-in program in 2011 when it started offering its customers the option to trade-in Apple’s iPhone. Since then GameStop has expanding this offer to include other Apple products like the iPod Touch, iPod classic and the iPad. These devices are then sold to other users for rates adjusted for its used value.

Read: GameStop Start Selling iOS Devices in Store When The iPhone 5 Launches

In recent years it’s also branched out into accepting trade-ins of Android tablets, including Asus’s Nexus S and Transformer Prime. Acer’s Iconia series can also be traded-in. The Transformer Prime, Toshiba Excite 10 and Acer Iconia A200 can all be purchased with free games preloaded at no additional charge. The company also began excepting Samsung’s mobile devices as well.

All devices are wiped back to factory settings and shipped off to a factory for fixes. If a hardware problem is detected, GameStop’s users get the added bonus of knowing that any device the retailer has sold them has been looked at by experts. Users trading-in these devices can do so regardless of what generation the device is, as long as it’s in working condition. Even if a device is broken, the retailer will make an offer to purchase the device, though it will do so at a lower price had the device not been damaged.

A factory fresh 16GB iPad mini with Wi-Fi sells for $329 Apple’s online store, while a Premium Refurbished 16GB iPad mini goes for $304.99 from GameStop.

GameStop has offered these same trade-in options to its traditional gamer customer base for years. In the past, users have been able to pick up refurbished trade-ins of the last three generations of gaming consoles including the original Xbox, Xbox 360, Playstation, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Wii U and the Nintendo GameCube. Users can also purchase pe-owned video games at discounted rates as well.