Switch 2 Buyers: Hold On to Your Original Switch—the Resale Is Not Worth It

There’s every reason prospective Nintendo Switch 2 buyers may want to lower the cost of the upcoming $450 handheld console when preorders go live on April 24. But before you get excited by supposed trade-in deals, you should know you may not get much money from your console unless it’s in absolute pristine condition. Plus, there are a few really good reasons you may want to hold onto your console, especially if you want to save yourself from buying near-$100 Switch 2 Joy-Cons.

GameStop’s Switch 2 preorder push includes an enticing trade-in deal: $175 off a Switch 2 when you trade in a Switch OLED or $125 off for a regular Switch. Nintendo’s hybrid console still sells for $300 and $350 MSRP, respectively. Trade in a Switch Lite ($200 MSRP) and GameStop will give you $100 off a Switch 2. Naturally, there are a fair few caveats.

To get the full trade-in value for both the Switch and Switch OLED, you’ll need to have everything that came in the original box: the TV dock, Joy-Cons (with wrist straps), Joy-Con Grip, power cord, and original HDMI cable.

If you have all that, then you need to make sure your handheld is still in pristine condition to get the full value. GameStop confirmed to Gizmodo over email that any kind of Joy-Con stick drift, a problem that has plagued the handheld since launch, will mean you’ll get far less trade-in value for the console. If you ever upgraded the sticks on your Switch to non-factory standard, you won’t be able to trade it in. Additionally, if you’ve owned your Switch for close to eight years, there could be other blemishes that diminish the price you can get off the Switch 2.

And if you’re planning to resell your old Switch on eBay after the Switch 2 launch, don’t expect to get much more than GameStop’s trade in, especially if you don’t plan to sell any of your precious physical game cards. Perhaps a GameStop employee won’t find anything wrong with your Switch, or maybe the shop could take pity on you and grant you the full trade-in value even with a wonky stick. Either way, there are several economical reasons you might want to stick with your original Switch.

If you already spent close to $500 on a console after shipping costs and tax, we don’t anticipate you’ll want to pay a boatload for controllers, especially when first-party games are set to cost $70, $80, or even $90. After Nintendo raised prices for several of its accessories last week, a pair of Joy-Con 2 controllers now cost $95. Joy-Cons are still some of the best for quick and dirty local multiplayer in games like the upcoming Mario Kart World. Nintendo has confirmed that original Switch Pro controllers and Joy-Cons will connect with Switch 2, though they won’t attach to the new console because they don’t use magnets. And while the Joy-Con 2 have new mouse controls, which sounds great for games that might require more precision like first-person shooters, we also don’t expect too many games to support the feature, at least at launch.

The Switch 2 also isn’t compatible with the microSD cards used for the original Switch. The Switch 2 only works with microSD Express cards to expand the paltry 256GB internal storage, and those are pricier than the regular non-Express memory cards. If you own any digital Switch games, it might just be better to keep your console around until we have a Switch 2 in hand to confirm the transfer process. Nintendo has said players can swap game progress from original Switch to Switch 2 versions of games. However, store pages for Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom note the games may not support cloud saves.

Finally, even though the Switch 2 is compatible with original Switch games, there’s a possibility they may not run perfectly. Nintendo has been open about which titles are fully compatible and which may experience issues, but in an official Q&A, Nintendo Switch 2 director Takuhiro Dohta confirmed the console is using some amount of emulation for the sake of backwards compatibility. Specifically, it’s “somewhere in between a software emulator and hardware compatibility.” This means the Switch 2 is rendering some parts of the original Switch hardware as software. Nintendo still has to test the vast majority of the many original Switch titles in earnest to know if there are any issues. Some notable games like Doom: Eternal have “start-up issues” on Switch 2. If you want to make sure your entire library of games remain playable, you’re better off keeping your Switch on hand.

It’s a bummer, I know. Gaming is getting more expensive every year, and Nintendo has set a new bar with one of its most expensive devices yet. Perhaps it’s a reminder you don’t actually need the new Nintendo hotness on release. Give it a little time and determine if you’re really in the right place to buy a new $450 console. Though with tariffs and economic meltdown on the horizon, maybe you shouldn’t wait too long.