someone traded a box of broken PlayStations and Xboxes for $10,690 — here's the real math

GameStop store credit for a pile of dead consoles sounds like a scam until you actually run the numbers against eBay. Aliteq Nadia Rahman · Deals Editor

A GameStop customer traded a pile of broken PS4s, Xbox 360s, Series X|S consoles, Game Boys, an NES, a PSP and a Sega Game Gear for $10,690 in store credit.

Critics online argued the same haul could have fetched far more piece-by-piece on eBay, while others said the whole lot was worthless junk — both takes skip the actual math.

GameStop's trade-in program still accounts for roughly 45% of the physical used-game market even as company-wide revenue fell 4.6% year-over-year to $3.81 billion.

The real answer depends on what Josh actually wanted: cash and speed, or the best possible price after weeks of listing, shipping, and buyer disputes.

If you actually want cash and have the patience for it, list working units individually — you'll usually do better than store credit, the same way a headline discount on an RTX 5090 prebuilt rarely…

Should you trade in a pile of broken consoles at GameStop?

I don't think Josh got fleeced, and I think the 'he left six figures on the table' crowd is running eBay math for working consoles against a pile of broken ones. Grading, testing, photographing,…

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