GameStop gives someone a historic $30,000 trade-in payout for an ultra-rare Pokémon card, then takes aim at the ‘trolls’ for some reason

GameStop’s been on a roll with bizarre trade-ins as of late. After announcing “Trade Anything Day,” an idea that sounds more like a sketch comedy bit than a real thing, it has awarded a record-setting payout of over $30,000 to a customer who handed in a “fully authenticated PSA 10 Holo Gengar.” It’s also really excited to use this moment in “GameStop history” to denounce its greatest enemy: digital distribution the trolls.

This all comes from a post on X where GameStop announced the historic trade, which it calls “the most valuable single trade-in ever recorded” at any GameStop location. It goes on to say “Furthermore, any trolls who publicly claim that GameStop trade-in values are bad are hereby factually and demonstrably incorrect. Any prior and ongoing objections to our trade values are now deemed without merit and factually invalid.”

It’s a benign jibe and a neat story, I suppose, especially for whoever decided to hold on to that Gengar. That said, the implicit argument against detractors doesn’t really follow; most people aren’t going to try to bring in anything more valuable than an old console, a used game, or a batch of dust-stained Amiibo. And as Polygon spotted in its story on this, Battlefield 6 is less than two months old and only gets you $27.50 in trade-in credit.

With most things, you’ll usually have more luck selling directly to somebody who wants it than to a storefront that may eventually be able to do it for you; a Pokémon card worth five figures is a definite exception to that, given how small the market for such a thing is. The real question is how one expects to spend that much credit at GameStop in a lifetime. By buying an even rarer Gengar, I suppose?

I’m probably reading too much into the tone of an X post from GameStop, which has historically revved up its irreverent humor whenever it’s gotten the chance.

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