How Does Video Game Donation Pickup Work in St. Louis?

Give My Books Network sends a Local Pick-Up Partner to your address to collect donated video games and media at no cost. A Local Pick-Up Partner is the locally owned family business that does the collecting, not a national carrier.

You pack the games yourself, ahead of time. The partner does not bring boxes. Set your box on the covered front porch by 8 AM, the way most of Southampton sets out anything it wants collected, and the partner takes it from there. Schedule, set out, done.

Which Video Games and Consoles Can Be Donated?

Give My Books Network accepts video games from nearly every era, along with the consoles, controllers, and cables that came with them. Cartridges and discs both work.

• Cartridge games — the shoebox of NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, and Game Boy titles.
• Disc games — PlayStation, Xbox, GameCube, Wii, and everything after.
• Consoles and hardware — controllers, power adapters, memory cards, cables.
• Guides and magazines — strategy guides, walkthroughs, old print issues.
• The rest of that closet — board games, puzzles, DVDs, CDs, VHS tapes, vinyl, and books.

What does not work is anything mold-damaged, water-swollen, or cracked past use. A case with a scuff is fine. A disc snapped in half is not, and no amount of sorting fixes it.

What Happens to Donated Games After a St. Louis Pickup?

Local Pick-Up Partners sort every St. Louis pickup offsite, then send it two directions: many items are redistributed to readers and organizations, and some are resold.

Redistribution runs through the Give ME Books program, which fills requests from schools, libraries, community centers, after-school tutoring programs, and senior centers. Resale is the other half, and it is not a secret. Reselling part of what a partner collects pays for the vehicle, the fuel, and the hours spent sorting, which is why none of it is charged to you. the American Library Association's book donation guidance explains why collection programs need a resale side at all. Items that find no second life may eventually be recycled, as a last resort rather than a default.

Packing Games and Consoles for a St. Louis Porch

Pack video games into a small, sturdy box rather than a big one, because discs and cartridges get heavy far faster than paperbacks do.

Keep every container light enough for one person to carry alone. Split the heavy ones. Then cover the top. A summer downpour or an ice-storm weekend will finish a bare cardboard box sitting on an open step, so lay a lid or a plastic bag across it. If your porch is not covered, the garage off the alley works, and nearly every block here has one.

Why So Many St. Louis Games Are Still in the Basement

Nearly every brick house in St. Louis has a full basement, and that is where the consoles went when the kids grew up and moved on.

Here is the honest part. St. Louis basements are damp, and a wet summer does real harm down there. Paper sleeves curl, cardboard softens, manuals mildew. Discs and cartridges usually come through it better than books do, which is why a bin from a house off Chippewa Street is often still worth passing forward even when it smells like a basement. Bring it up, open it in daylight, and decide.

What Does Video Game Pickup Cost in St. Louis?

Video game donation pickup through Give My Books Network is free in St. Louis, with no pickup fee, no per-box charge, and no minimum. One shoebox of cartridges from a flat in Lindenwood Park is a real pickup. So is a whole gaming closet.

One honest limit. Give My Books Network and its Local Pick-Up Partners are locally owned family businesses, not 501(c)(3) nonprofits, so there is no tax-deduction receipt. If a receipt is what you need, a registered nonprofit is the right destination, and we would say so plainly.