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iPad Need some out of the box thinking (gamestop trade in)

chilady1

chilady1

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 29, 2011
108
60
Northeast
I can get $250 for my iPad 2 from GameStop (confirmed). I have seen many people talk about GameStop being a rip - but based on some research I have done on other trade-in type places (Gazelle, NextWorth, etc) - this is pretty good.

Here's the problem: the $250 would come in the form of GameStop credit or I can do $200 in cash. To optimize the most $$$, I want to go with the credit, however, how can I take that and convert to something else to use to purchase the iPad Air.

GameStop will let you purchase Amazon gift cards (currently the iPad Air on Amazon is selling for $649 which is $50 higher than Apple). iTunes gift cards are of no use since you can't purchase Apple Hardware with iTunes gift cards.

Any suggestions from some of the extremely smart folks on this forum? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I did the Gamestop deal and bought the Amazon gift cards. I ended up buying my Air from Apple, but my family and I will have no problem spending the money at Amazon over the year. Or you could wait a bit for Amazon to start selling the Air themselves...
 
historically i've found ebay to be the easiest way to get the most money for my apple stuff. Every time I've upgraded I ebayed my old unit and was very satisfied with how much I got.
 
GBR said:
historically i've found ebay to be the easiest way to get the most money for my apple stuff. Every time I've upgraded I ebayed my old unit and was very satisfied with how much I got.
Click to expand...

Thought about that GBR but once you take away the fees that eBay charges and those charged by PayPal, you net a much smaller amount. I did think of that first but there is a flood of iPad2s on eBay. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
chilady1 said:
I can get $250 for my iPad 2 from GameStop (confirmed). I have seen many people talk about GameStop being a rip - but based on some research I have done on other trade-in type places (Gazelle, NextWorth, etc) - this is pretty good.

Here's the problem: the $250 would come in the form of GameStop credit or I can do $200 in cash. To optimize the most $$$, I want to go with the credit, however, how can I take that and convert to something else to use to purchase the iPad Air.

GameStop will let you purchase Amazon gift cards (currently the iPad Air on Amazon is selling for $649 which is $50 higher than Apple). iTunes gift cards are of no use since you can't purchase Apple Hardware with iTunes gift cards.

Any suggestions from some of the extremely smart folks on this forum? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

I just took the cash from gamestop for my ipad 3. And applied that towards my (prior) Air purchase from Apple. If you want freedom, choose cash. If you want to be restricted to gamestop or amazon retailers, choose the extra $50.00. Frankly, my complete freedom to use the cash wherever I want is worth the (relatively) little bit less money from GameStop.

There is a value to convenience, efficiency and pure cash. GameStop may not pay the most for your device, but it is quick and easy and painless. Heck, they even gave me $4.00 for an old iPod shuffle I hadn't used in years.
 
I just got $325 for my perfect condition iPad 2 32gb wifi. 30% additional if buying a used item. I'm buying a ps4 and have the cash saved up. So it works out.
 
chilady1 said:
fees that eBay charges and those charged by PayPal, you net a much smaller amount.
Click to expand...

This is true. People that do not sell on eBay do not realize the high fees that are involved. eBay takes 10% off the top of what you sell, and PayPal takes about 3% (both of these percentages are taken FROM THE FULL AMOUNT INCLUDING SHIPPING). Also, remember that PayPal is owned by eBay :).

So say you sell an iPad for $250. eBay right away brings it down to $225 (ouch). Then PayPal brings it down to $217.50. And then I hope you did not offer free shipping, because you will still have to pay for that as well. When you take all of this into account, Gazelle and similar options are not that bad of a deal.

After you factor in your time and effort, it usually isn't worth it.

Don't even get me started on Craigslist. Who knows who you will meet on there.
 
I traded my iPad Mini 16gb WiFi to Gamestop and got $247. Very simple trade in. And trade-in credit doesn't get taxed when you use it at Gamestop so it's like a $266 gamestop gift card.

Now I have a ton of credit in case I get the kids a game system or worst-case I'll buy a bunch of $50 Amazon gift cards from there.
 
The gamestop values are strange. Trade in a popular game and they take advantage of you. I'd only be able to get $200 out of my iPad 2 if I sold it on craigslist and it'd be frustrating. Hopefully I can find a ps4 in a reasonable time frame.
 
chilady1 said:
I can get $250 for my iPad 2 from GameStop (confirmed). I have seen many people talk about GameStop being a rip - but based on some research I have done on other trade-in type places (Gazelle, NextWorth, etc) - this is pretty good.

Here's the problem: the $250 would come in the form of GameStop credit or I can do $200 in cash. To optimize the most $$$, I want to go with the credit, however, how can I take that and convert to something else to use to purchase the iPad Air.

GameStop will let you purchase Amazon gift cards (currently the iPad Air on Amazon is selling for $649 which is $50 higher than Apple). iTunes gift cards are of no use since you can't purchase Apple Hardware with iTunes gift cards.

Any suggestions from some of the extremely smart folks on this forum? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...


Just traded my ipad mini 32gb yesterday to gamestop check gamestop online and it was $191.00 cash or $252.00 gamestop credit. When I got to gamestop store they gave me an extra 30% on the trade in so I got $327.00 on a gamestop credit that I used to buy my ps4. Might be better with the store credit.
 
I was able to get $500 for my LTE 64gb iPad Mini trade in at GameStop. Bought DS a couple of games and got $400 in Amazon GC.

Thanks for the idea.
 
chilady1 said:
Here's the problem: the $250 would come in the form of GameStop credit or I can do $200 in cash. To optimize the most $$$, I want to go with the credit, however, how can I take that and convert to something else to use to purchase the iPad Air.
Click to expand...

I know you can't do this now, but I got $370 for my iPad 3 32 gb wifi and bought two ipad 1 16gb wifi for $199 each and then traded them into Target for 2 $200 gift cards that went towards the Air purchase. A little work, but it wasn't moving on CL for $300 so it was the next best option. I literally used the iPads as currency exchange between GameStop and Target.

That target deal was really good.
 
Question to those of you who used Gamestop to "sell" your iPads for store credit & then purchased Amazon gift cards. How were able to do that?

My local Gamestop said I would need to apply the store credit towards the purchase of a game system (Xbox, PS3), & it would not apply towards a gift card.

Btw, I have a 2 week old "brand new" "refurb" iPad mini (1st gen) from Apple. It was a replacement & a few days later, I received the iPad mini/retina.

Thanks!
 
I did as others stated above. Got nearly $350 for my 64gb iPad 2 wifi after the 30% bonus for buying a $0.99 game (Too Human-Ha!). By far the best deal I'd seen anywhere. I too debated between cash and credit but the credit payout being $130 more made it worthwhile.

As they prepared to ring up my store credit, I stopped then and asked if I could just use it all now on a bunch of gifttcards. They said yeah go for it, use it on whatever. So I just picked up a stack of amazon cards, they rung me up and I walked out. So either not being able to do that is a very new policy, or your local GS was just being *******s. Either go to another or ask to speak with the manager. (The manager of my store was the one who rung me up for my trade in).
 
PrincessV said:
Question to those of you who used Gamestop to "sell" your iPads for store credit & then purchased Amazon gift cards. How were able to do that?

My local Gamestop said I would need to apply the store credit towards the purchase of a game system (Xbox, PS3), & it would not apply towards a gift card.

Btw, I have a 2 week old "brand new" "refurb" iPad mini (1st gen) from Apple. It was a replacement & a few days later, I received the iPad mini/retina.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

GameStop promotions change weekly (worked there for 5 years). When I traded mine in (first weekend in November) they had a promotion that would give you an extra 30% if you bought ANY used item.

I bought a $1.99 DS game and that added 30% to the trade amount. I then used the rest of the credit to buy $450 in Amazon gift cards.

To the OP, I went with the same strategy as others. I bought the Air from Apple and I am using the Amazon cards to buy stuff for our baby's room.
 
I haven't been to a GameStop in quite a while, other than Amazon and iTunes, does GameStop carry any other gift cards?
 
As long as you buy one of the qualified products, you get 30%. You don't have to spend the entire trade in. Somebody mentioned above that there are Shell gas gift cards and there are also Starbucks cards.
 
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