GameStop’s ‘Trade Anything Day’ Got Pretty Weird. Who Didn’t See That Coming?

GameStop, the once mighty brick-and-mortar video game retailer, just pulled off a silly marketing stunt that is both desperate and a tiny bit funny. It was called “Trade Anything Day,” and a whole lot of people took it as a challenge.

The premise of the day was simple: bring almost anything into a store and you will get some credit for it. GameStop shared the highlights of the list of swapped items with IGN. Over 80,000 items came through stores, according to the company.

The things people attempted to trade in were, predictably, silly: a taxidermied bobcat. A taxidermied goose. A speed limit sign, a miniature Jesus figurine. All the usual suspects.

GameStop’s ‘Trade Anything Day’ Was Weird As Heck

They also traded in Air Jordans, VHS tapes of Friends, and a painting of a dog with Snoop Dogg hair. On social media, people brag about the items they were able to trade in for credit, including McDonald’s Grinchmas socks, a replica Declaration of Independence, and at least one person who claimed they tried (and failed) to trade in a real living dog.

Let’s find that person and arrest them immediately.

Anyway, the goose and bobcat drew the most attention, as weird-o taxidermy stuff is a go-to “lol random” weird-o item in any context, even in its own world of taxidermy. If nothing else, Trade Anything Day succeeded in its mission of reminding everyone that GameStop is barely clinging to life and only has vapid headline-grabbing stunts keeping it afloat.

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