https://www.gamespot.com/articles/how-to-trade-in-your-old-n...

So I swore I read this on NA, but I can't find the link anymore if I did.  If you want improved battery life you can trade in your Switch at Gamestop, get a $225 credit, then pony up the additional $75 to get the newer model Switch with extended battery life.  While not a bad deal at all, I question why they would do this in the first place?  Are the old model Switches more desireable in any way, like for mods or more durable or things like that, are the new models less prone to hacking?  I'm debating on doing this as I love extended battery life, but wanted to check if there are any negatives toward doing so.

Some stores may allow you to do system transfer in store, while others say you need to buy the Switch, system transfer at home, bring both back to the store, refund the new one, sell the old one and then rebuy the new one again.  Quite the long effort, but worth it?  Opinions?


Edit: Now only $200 instead of $225

I did this yesterday, the associate transferred the data in the store and I traded in PSX games that took advantage of the $5 extra bonus and I ended up paying $30 for a new switch. I did call another store and they said they wouldn't transfer the data, so call before you go. There are older switch models that are hackable but I have no interest in that. Doubled my battery life and got rid of two years of wear and tear for $30, yes please.

I've been scratching my head on the business side of this as well. Even if offering the traded in switch for $250 how does that cover the cost of giving me $225 for it??

Not a terrible idea but im fine with the switch i have. Had it for 1.5 years and everything is still fine. I play alot of docked mode so the battery life is fine.

I might have played my switch twice not docked. 
 

yes the original are easier to hack but I would be surprised if gamestop puts any value into that.

Do you have to trade in your joycons or just the switch tablet?

You need everything that came in the box - this include those lanyard things as well.

IIRC:
Switch
Joy Cons
Dock
Grip
Lanyards
Power
HDMI

v2 only comes with gray joy cons I think as well, no neon option. The new Switch comes with all that stuff anyways, so you aren't losing anything.

edit: Getting new Joy Cons is another reason to do this as well if you use them a lot. The controller drift is apparently a real thing, so if you are heavily using them, do this deal! 

Thanks for the info. Definitely NOT doing this trade in then. Not trading in my Mario Odyssey red joycons.

You don't have the ones that came with it? Or they were the ones that came with the Mario bundle?

Slightly tempting, but we all know there will be a Switch XL or something down the road.

This is a great deal for peeps that play a lot on the go or undocked, and/or have joy-con issues.

Mine has been bullet proof (knock on wood) since launch night. 99% docked with Pro controller lol.

Now if a dope ass Limited Edition console comes out and I can still upgrade for $75 we might be talkin!

Ive been on the fence about doing this as well. But I know its a great deal.....

I got the Mario Odyssey limited edition bundle that came with the red joycons. Not the neon pink ones that everyone has and calls red. The ones I have are much harder to find

So just the joycons are different? If so, id throw your extra pair in it...? 
 

I don't have an extra pair. I have the limited edition red ones that are very hard to find and not worth trading in for this.

This is what I have https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nintendo...

Mine ain't broke so I won't be looking to replace it

Let me know what you think of the new one. I’m pretty good friends with the mgr at my GameStop and he was telling me a lot of people are trying to get their old version back because of different reasons (but obviously that can’t happen)

No issues for me. Wouldn’t even know the consoles had been changed. I’ve played docked and handheld and the experience has been the same except for way better battery life. Not sure what people are experiencing. 

 

Maybe they forgot to transfer their game data over to the new system 
 

Well i just checked the trade in value and they updated last night. Looks like theyre only giving 175+25 now. that probably killed it for me. 

 

Still not bad, only $25 less than before. Plus if they are still doing the additional $5 on games that are worth over $2 on trade in, trade in some of you older stuff you'll never play and its pretty easy to pay nothing for the new Switch. You can look up trade values right on their site which makes it easy to target games of value. I had a bunch of PSX games I'll never play that had great trade value.

 

Yea ive got the credit to do it by far, just kind irks me that they pretty much nulled the +25 for the switch. 75 was visually a much better number than 100. Kind of a loophole in their "+25" to the console trade in thats supposed to be good till 9/20... With such a small difference in the 2 consoles im not sure i want to burn 100 of the credit. Rather just buy their high priced games with it lol

I was planning to go down to Gamestop today to ask a bit about it, see if there are any changes, any experiences doing it, etc. But knowing about the extra $25 now, kind of disappointing and may turn me away from it. It doesn't look too hard to just replace the battery yourself, if I can get the new extended life battery I'll just do it myself. Not as easy as the Wii U battery, but still very doable.

So I finally decided to do this, only a few days left to pick up on it if you haven't yet. It's only $200 now instead of $225. I picked up the blue/red joy cons and man are they nice. Way better looking than the pics. Slightly more neon-ish, totally worth it. I think the switch is a bit more matte colored than before, but otherwise it looks and feels the same. The new dock feels a bit different, like it's slightly harder to slide the switch in perfectly. When I first put it in the dock, it wasn't in just right to charge. I was updating games and etc for at least 2 hours continuous before I noticed and it didn't even drain the battery by half! I tried it again and then it sit just right. I even tried bumping it after it sit correctly and it still charged fine and didn't move. Just took a bit of getting used to. Maybe the launch dock was the same way and I just don't remember it. After some godo testing the last few days, I can say I'm very pleased with the upgrade and getting rid of a set of bad joy cons in the process. Normally I play Doom 3 at work and when I'm home my battery is about 55-60% after all my game time. When I played yesterday same amount of time with the extended life battery, same game as always, the battery was at 83%. So yeah, double the playing time at least. It's amazing. If you have the funds, I'd suggest doing the trade. I don't even have to bring my portable charger anymore to work because of it.

Why do they call the new "Switch "the "Switch "? Since it can't be docked it's therefore not a true "Switch "..That Fact alone killed it for me ..

I dunno, their predecesor's name (Wii U) made it sound like it was a Wii going to college or was meant for college students or something.  

Back to our regularly scheduled program...if and when I ever get around to taking the Switch plunge, I'd rather have a Switch Pro (we all know it's coming in some form).  I never did like using handhelds as handhelds (though with the (3)DS there's still no really good way to play those games on the TV, so in that case you don't have a choice) because (to paraphrase Kevin from Home Alone 2) I'm afraid if do, I might misplace it or wreck it or something (and seeing people with smashed spider web screens on their phones and once seeing a three year old bang around the tablet he was borrowing from his mom causing it to get the "black blob of death", it's not like my fear/concern is unfounded).  And worse of all, it might mean losing dozens of hours of game progress if you for whatever reason misplace or wreck the game cartridge!!  You can get another game cartridge but there's no buying back all that hard work!!!

Yeah I know this is making me sound like a total weirdo or something but I can't help it...I've never been anywhere near living high off the hog (or even so much as the middle of the hog!!) so all the more reason I feel especially compelled to treat the nice things I do get to have with R-E-S-P-E-C-T.