Why Switch 2's Are Ending Up Damaged Before They're Even Opened

The Nintendo Switch 2 has finally been released, but the universe is already poking holes — literally — in some people's plans to go home and enjoy their new consoles. To be specific, it's one GameStop in particular that's to blame for said holes. As you can see here in these since-deleted Reddit pics, store employees at a certain New York location thought it would be a great idea to staple receipts to the Switch 2 boxes — except that the staples went right through the box and punctured the console screen.

We get it — they were just trying to help customers keep track of those very important little slips of paper. These things are $450, after all — $150 more than the original Switch was when it first dropped back in 2017. It would be quite a nightmare to get home with your brand new Switch 2 and find out there's some sort of damage that forces you to bring it back to the store and request a replacement or a refund. And it would be even more of a nightmare to realize you lost your receipt, right? Unless it's the store and the receipt themselves that are responsible for the damage.

Needless to say, the original post — which was taken down due to the store's location and phone number being visible in one of the pictures — garnered plenty of reactions from flabbergasted Redditors. One of them wrote: "RIP to whoever's working that Gamestop tomorrow," while another chimed in to say that they, too, bought a Switch 2 from that same location and ended up with a damaged console. They wrote: "Me and my homie here (we never met before) were unfortunately at the same gamestop and this happened to me ... Think the entire preorder batch is completely f*****."

Another Redditor made a point to not just blame the store, but Nintendo as well. They wrote: "These are essentially unsellable now. That store is gonna take a huge loss, possibly tens of thousands of dollars. Would people even buy it used? And why did Nintendo package it so poorly? $150 price increase and you can't even get some protective cardboard or something for the screen?"

Nintendo could also have just packaged the Switch 2 with the screen facing down if it didn't want to drop any extra dough on better-safe-than-sorry padding. To be fair, the original Switch didn't come with any protective covering for the screen either — which you can plainly see if you watch unboxing videos from 2017. It seems the folks at Nintendo just assumed the box itself — along with the console's plastic sheath — would be enough to protect it from the usual scratches and blunders that can occur during shipment or in the stores.

As we all know, not much has been "business as usual" lately — especially for Nintendo. Leading up to the Switch 2's official release — which came years after fans originally thought it was going to drop — there was plenty of fear and speculation surrounding pre-orders, price, and every other aspect of the rollout thanks to President Trump's sweeping tariff plans.

Back on April 2nd of this year, Trump announced his tariffs only hours after Nintendo Direct streamed the official unveiling of the Switch 2. While numerous countries were affected by these tariffs, Japan was hit especially hard with a reciprocal tariff rate of 24% — which will take effect on July 9th unless they find a way to come to some sort of alternative agreement. 

Beyond that, Vietnam — which is where Nintendo moved much of the Switch production to back in 2019 — was initially slapped with a reciprocal rate of 46%. It's back down to 10% as of this writing, but Nintendo still has a lot to ponder and worry about over the next month. Only time will tell how this tariff situation will affect their business in the long run.