Expired Mail-In Rebate Coupons Found In Millions Of Unopened Brink Cases

As retail outlets finally start to eliminate old inventory of Xbox 360 games that never sold, millions of dumpster-diving gamers are finding mail-in rebate coupons in the previously unopened cases of the first person shooter Brink. The coupons found so far range anywhere from $5 to $100, but there are rumors of several $1000 coupons floating around. One of the most popular locations for the discoveries in a small GameStop in Tallahassee Florida.
“They’ve been sitting on the shelf so long collecting dust,” GameStop employee Ryan Woods told us, “so we figured it was time to get rid of them to make some space. We didn’t think there was actually anything of value in those case or else we would have actually promoted the game.”

Ryan and his beard-sporting colleagues were all mistaken, as it turns out Bethesda stuffed nearly all Brink cases with mail-in rebates worth upwards of thousands of dollars. As one anonymous Bethesda engineer told us, “We thought we would sell so many copies of Brink that we would have too much money to know what to do with,” he said as he began to sob softly, “and we thought it would build up some excitement. Who doesn’t love free money? But no one bought it. If even one of those coupons had been redeemed we would have been in the red for that game.”

News of the rebates quickly spread as gamers everywhere flocked to local trashcans and the back corners of used game stores to pick up copies of Brink. One New Jersey Best Buy location claimed that their sales for brink rose 400% after a flood of a dozen customers quickly purchased the remaining copies the store hadn't thrown out, hoping to find an unexpired coupon in the otherwise worthless case. So far they all appear to be expired.

During our investigation, we actually managed to track down someone who bought Brink when the coupons were still active, but never opened the case to reveal it. Currently still living with his parents in their Vermont home, Jeffrey Pierson claims to have bought one copy for his collection last year. The self-described professional game collector told us “I honestly thought it was Blinx: The Time Sweeper. That game is awesome.”