Video Game Sells for Big Money At Auction

Growing up I played my fair share of video games. I started on the Atari system with poorly made versions of Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Defender along with games made specially for the system with names like Pitfall, River Raid, and Seaquest. At the time they were the height of technology and indoor activity. Sure, the arcade games looked absolutely nothing like what we got at home, but the basic premise was there. As technology moved forward we got new systems and Nintendo was the biggest name of them all. They spawned characters that even non-gamers know the biggest of which is Mario. Originally the hero of Donkey Kong, Nintendo built a game and story line around him that became bigger than their own brand name. Just like other toys some people bought them to play with as they were intended. There are rare occasions that a game with with a huge following is found unopened and collectors of nostalgia come out of the woodwork to possess pieces of the past. Like Empire Strikes Back many found Super Mario Bros. 2 to be better than the original and coveted it as the game that changed a lot the genre’s landscape. So when am auction house handling an estate sale for a deceased individual discovered a sealed version of the game while looking at all the opened games they knew they had a big seller on their hands. They got the collector’s item rated and the company gave them a “near mint condition” status on the game. I can only imagine their excitement when you consider a sealed copy of the 1996 game Super Mario 64 set a world record in July when it was auctioned for $1.56 million. The auction came just two days after the previous record was set by a copy of The Legend of Zelda, which fetched $870,000. According to reports a businessman in Florida snagged this prize for $88,550 which seems like a steal in comparison. I know people will say, “Why would you pay that for a game you will never open?” I guess the answer to that is if you have the money to do something like that then who are we to question why?

You can click this link for more info on video games that have been auctioned off CNN.com.