$40,000 Video Game
Rare Nintendo Game Nets $40,000 At Auction
Ever hear video games were a waste of time and money? Or that it teaches bad habits? Well, for a “Dave”, his procrastination turned into a $40,000 windfall. According to a Yahoo article, the Kansas native read an article on how a rare Nintendo game called Stadium Events had sold at auction for $13,000. He checked his basement, where he had stored 185 Nintendo games for the last 20+ years, and to his astonishment, he had a copy.
Rare = Valuable
What made Stadium Events, a track & field game, so rare? To play the game you had to have a floor pad controller. Nintendo bought the rights to the floor pad, and recalled all known issues of Stadium Events. It is estimated that a mere 200 cartridges remain that were not recalled, one of which Dave from Kansas had in his basement!
Better Condition = Higher Value
Dave purchased his copy of Stadium Events for $29.99, but never opened up the game because they didn’t have the floor pad controller. His delay in returning the game may have temporarily cost him $30, but netted him $40,000 in a recent eBay auction. He received over three times the value of the previous auction for the same game because his was never opened – the shrink wrap had not even been removed! Who says procrastination doesn’t pay?!?
Take a look at this video to see what top-of-the-line gaming USED to look like!
Collectibles and Video Games
As a kid, I would collect baseball and basketball cards. Now I don’t have much of a collection of anything, although I am a sucker for any SPURS memorabilia!
I loved all sports video games. I remember playing Bases Loaded on my friend David’s Nintendo, and Joe Montana Football on my Sega Genesis. Good times!
What about you? What do you collect and why? Do you have a favorite video game from the past?
I’m a comic book reader but that’s why I’ll never own a book worth reselling – mint condition requires the books never to have been read, even if the whole comic collector boom hadn’t ruined it for collectors back in the 90s.
Revanche, I guess you have to buy 2 copies if each comic, right? 1 to read, 1 to store unopened!
This makes me wish that I kept more things like this from childhood. So, interesting…and profitable.
When I was a kid, I had a Beckett Monthly magazine, which of course had the listed values of most baseball cards dating back to the 1950s. I remember one time my dad saw the sample Mickey Mantle 1952 Topps card in the book, which at the time it was worth about $7,000 I think. When my dad told me he remembers having that card, and putting it and others in his bicycle tire spokes to make an “engine” sound — I was floored! Even if he HAD kept the cards, the bicycle treatment pretty much destroyed the value of the card since it would be scuffed and bent up.
Makes me wonder what I’ve thrown away or neglected that will come back to bite me!
Collections… no, not me. Just a few hundred baseball/basketball cards, about 80 clocks, beenie babies (the wife’s fault) and by far the most expensive is a collection of tools. Everything but the tools is slowly but surely going on eBay!
As for video games, nothing sucked me in more than tetris.
I have some baseball and basketball cards stored at my parents house I am hoping will net me some cash to retire on! Hah. I always wonder at the things I have accidentally kept- I may actually have something valuable in my attic and I have no idea that I do! I love how random economics work. Who buys a $40,000 game! Thanks for the fun post
Sounds like quite a collection of.. collections! Here’s to hoping your stuff sells on eBay; otherwise we might see you next on an episode of “Hoarders” LOL!
And Tetris – did you ever play Super Tetris on the Nintendo 64? It was awesome & definitely took many hours of sleep in college. Greatness!
That’s about all I have is a few baseball & basketball cards at my parents house. I love the term “random economics” though – I may have to add it to my personal finance vernacular!
That reminds me….I need to dig up some Spurs stuff for you. I’ve got some. It’s just packed up somewhere. You get first dibs when its discovered.
Nice! I’m sure my wife I even happier than I am
I’ve always wondered if old “electronics stuff” will have value in the future. I understand why old records have value, but what about things like cassette tapes, BETA recorders or VHS movies? I guess it’s always a “Somebody else’s trash is someone else’s treasure” kind of thing.
It’s so hard to predict these things! Basically it comes down to the random items that ends up a rarity for some reason (in this case, a recall). Here’s hoping a little luck is on your side – that or some solid financial practices. Hopefully you’re not counting on vintage toys to pay for your retirement
@Jason
If you wanted to make money on it 20 years later, sure! But then again, it was a gamble that *everyone* was taking so preteen me decided it was better to have more books to enjoy than half the number, with the other half taking up storage space.
Boy does that bring back some memories. If only I had kept all my cartridges.
I think most people end up collecting things by accident. It makes one wonder how much money some of these chronic hoarders have locked up in all the crap they’ve got stashed in their homes. I’ll bet some of them could be millionaires and not even know it.
All the Best,
Len
Len Penzo dot Com
Anyone see the irony with Wii Fit??
How easily something slated to “revolutionize” an industry can quickly become forgotten…then picked up years down the road, dusted off, and re-marketed.
$40k??? I still have some cartridges! Anyone want to write me a check for a few grand?
Len, I agree on the “accidental collector”. Those hoarders would be rich if they had something that was actually in good condition – what’s the going rate for an original Superman comic with rat bite marks all over it?!?
Thanx for the comment, Len.
Yeeeaahhhh, I seem to have misplaced my checkbook. I’ll have to get back to you. Don’t call me, I’ll call you.
I’m gonna go in my basement to take a peek at what games I have left! That’s a lot of coin for a game!