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The YouTuber would simply pick up the cheapest game in the store, often just 99 cents, and add it to the trade-in with their Switch 2, which has a value of ~$380. With the two combined, the 25% bonus would come into effect and upgrade the total trade-in value to $472.50 for a Switch 2 that's otherwise worth $415.99 brand new. "In short, our system briefly valued the pre-owned trade more than the new retail cost of the console itself, creating a narrow window where customers could repeat this transaction over and over again to amass infinite trade credit," GameStop stated.
You could keep repeating this by selling GameStop your Switch 2 and buying a new one, pocketing the difference. In fact, the whole experiment started with RJCmedia picking up a used Switch 2 for $415 at the same store where he first tried the loophole. In front of his eyes, the the $385 trade-in value of that first Switch 2 went up to $445.91 after adding Nightshade for the PS2 worth $26.59 on the same till.
Some stores even allowed RJCmedia to buy back his own Switch 2 that he just traded in, and since that would now count as a pre-owned item, it would cost the YouTuber less and allow him to activate the 25% bonus at the next store without even buying that additional game. You can start to see how this exploit can compound store credit exponentially.
At the end, RJCmedia walked away with $150 in extra store credit, a brand-new Switch 2, and a bunch of games he kept picking up along the way. So, across two days, his haul was actually worth close to $600 since he got to keep a Switch 2 and still have the store credit on top. Throughout the video, the YouTuber made it clear how insane this loophole was and that there's no way GameStop would ever allow it again.
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/console-gaming/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/console-gaming/gamestop-patches-infinite-money-glitch-for-the-nintendo-switch-2-crafty-youtuber-trades-usd415-console-in-for-usd472-multiple-times#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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