Target, in an ongoing partnership with online electronics trade-in company NextWorth, today announced an expansion to its in-store trade-in service.
As of now, the Mobile centers of 1,490 Target stores across the country (find one near you) are accepting trade-ins on video games, DVDs, Blu-rays and electronics, including calculators, iPods, iPads, iPhones, cellphones, GPS systems, cameras and Nintendo DS systems.
When you take something in to exchange, your product will be evaluated and given a value based on condition and model, and the determined value will immediately be added to a prepaid gift card for future Target purchases. In this instance, Target is trying to drum up back-to-school sales by prompting parents to trade games and other electronic distractions in to get their kids geared up for the coming school year.
“The expansion of Target’s Electronics Trade-in service comes at a time when parents are really looking to save on back-to-school purchases,” said Nik Nayar, vice president of Merchandising, Target. “Our service is budget-friendly and it gets Target’s guests involved with reducing e-waste.”
“Offering electronic trade-ins at Target makes it simple for more people to get money out of their used electronics – immediately and conveniently,” said Dave Chen, CEO at NextWorth. “The in-store trade-in service, paired with NextWorth’s existing online program, provides a full-service solution for electronics recycling to meet anyone’s needs.”
If you don’t feel like lugging a bunch of stuff into the nearest Target store, NextWorth offers online trade-ins for your choice of cash (check or Paypal), gift card or charitable donation, with free and insured UPS shipping on whatever you have to send in.
Poking around on NextWorth for a few sample quotes, the trade-in values seem reasonable, but for video games in particular prices are in many instances well below what you can get from a dedicated game retailer such as eStarland or GameStop.
But I suppose if you have some old games and electronics hanging around collecting dust that you don’t want to exchange for more games and electronics, this is a good way to scrape together a few extra bucks, as opposed to going through the trouble of running a garage sale or something.
Does anyone out there have any experience trading in at Target and/or NextWorth? If so, how was the service? Did you get ‘fair’ value for your items?
Matt Litten is the full-time editor and owner of VGBlogger.com. He is responsible for maintaining the day to day operation of the site, editing all staff content before it is published, and contributing regular news, reviews, previews and other articles.
Matt landed his first gig in the video game review business writing for the now-defunct website BonusStage.com. After the sad and untimely close of BonusStage, the former staff went on to found VGBlogger.com. After a short stint as US Site Manager for AceGamez, Matt assumed full ownership over VGBlogger, and to this day he is dedicated to making it one of the top video game blogs in all the blogosphere.
Matt is a fair-minded reviewer and lover of games of all platforms and types, big or small, hyped or niche, big-budget or indie. But that doesn't mean he will let poor games slide without a good thrashing when necessary! 
