Xbox Is Asking Inactive Owners to Sell Their Consoles to Best Buy

What happened

Microsoft is reportedly emailing Xbox Series X|S owners who haven't used their consoles in a while, nudging them to trade the consoles in at Best Buy. The email, first shared by Nintendeal on X, opens with "Haven't played on your console in a while?" and tells owners who have moved to other platforms they can get "up to $375 back." Per Gizmodo, Xbox has confirmed the email is genuine. The $375 applies to a Series X in good condition with its cables and controller, while a Series S apparently tops out at $200; payment comes as a Best Buy eGift Card, and the campaign seems limited to the US for now. This appears to be the trade-in program Microsoft promised in June, when it announced another round of price hikes and said traded-in consoles would be resold at lower prices; those hikes pushed the 1 TB Series X with a disc drive to $799.99 and the 512 GB Series S to $499.99. Circana data later showed US Xbox hardware sales hit an all-time low through August. New units are reportedly scarce in mainland Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and South America, and GTA 6's November launch is expected to drain shelves even further. The source does not state a specific cause beyond linking the program to the June price hikes and the previously promised trade-in program. Owners should note that used Series X consoles have recently sold for over $500 on eBay, so Best Buy's offer is more about convenience than value.

Impact and signal

Affected components and suppliers

Source and time

Source: TechPowerUp · 10/20/2026 · View original source