Rare NES Game Sells for $41,300 on eBay

[Phillyman]

Some of you may be aware that an auction on eBay several weeks ago saw an old NES bundled with some random games sell for a staggering $13,105 USD (approx. £8,744 GBP). That's because one of the games was a copy of Stadium Events; a track and field sports title from Bandai.

What's so special about Stadium Events, you may ask? Released across Japan, North America, and Europe between 1986 and 1988 it was one of the first titles that utilised The Family Fun Fitness mat as the primary control method. Production copies were limited before Nintendo stepped in and bought the American rights, renaming it World Class Track Meet and bundling it with the Power Pad, which makes the pre-rebranded game one of the rarest across all platforms.

A few days ago, a new listing has sold for over three times the amount compared to the previous auction. Yep, it was Stadium Events again. The auction only lasted 10 days but that was more than enough to gather the attention of collectors. The seller had listed the item with a start price of $0.99 USD but amazingly, it took just twenty three minutes for the bids to reach four-figure numbers. Eight hours into the auction and the bids had reached five-figure numbers. When the auction ended last week, the bid that won the item was a massive $41,300 USD (approx. £27,545 GBP). What makes this an even bigger seller than the console bundle has undoubtedly got to be the fact that it's still factory-sealed and relatively "new".

So what's the lesson here? Do a quick search on the Internet before selling off old video game junk. You might be in possession of a game that people are willing for pay crazy money for.

http://retro.nintendolife.com/news/2010/03...sd41300_on_ebay

Just insane!

[Thor]

[Mister Zero]

This damn lady I buy games from at the local flea market got word of this and wants to raise her NES game prices now, even though she has nothing special. >.<

This is crazy, I wonder if they actually paid or not.

[Schloss Ritter]

Reminds me of how I long ago dumbly traded in all my SNES, NES, and GameBoy systems and games for a new PS2 and a couple new games. It wasn't a big collection but most of the SNES and GB games went with the full box contents. Also among it was Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana (no box or manual), Final Fantasy III (no manual), and Earthbound (fully intact). Since this was before the price dip when emulation became common, I could have made as much on just those four as the whole collection had I bothered to put them up on eBay...

Funny thing also: I later found some missing boxes and manuals (including both for CT and Secret of Mana) packed away separately from the other stuff I sold off. I'm still wondering how much I could get for them without the carts.

[Mister Zero]

You could probably make a good few bucks on the manuals alone. People like to have complete games when they collect.

Schloss, your name always makes me want to replay Gabriel Knight.

[Schloss Ritter]

Yeah, last I checked, the CT box alone was something like $10 on a good day; now I just have to work on getting scans of the actual items. There's also the fact that I've hardly ever used eBay, so my rating is only 5. I'm not sure if I'll get decent offers with a low rating like that. Anyway, here's exactly what I have so maybe someone can help me figure out the value (remember the carts are already gone):

[sNES] Chrono Trigger box (slight crushing caused small creases on front), with manual and all other inserts, even the box spacer and original cart baggie.

[sNES] Secret of Mana box (almost new condition), with manual, inserts, spacer, and baggie.

[Game Boy] Game Genie Box, with inserts (some code stickers missing, and mini-codebook went with hardware) and spacer.

[Game Boy] The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening box (slight creases), with manual and Nintendo Power ad, spacer, baggie.

[Game Boy] The Castlevania Adventure box and manual (bad crease on one side, slight crease on front, slight tear on bottom flap, no spacer).

I was unsure on whether to put them up as a bundle (likely to get more for some separately), but I'm thinking the only way to get rid of the last one is to at least throw the Game Boy ones together.

Yep, Gabriel Knight was my favorite series when I chose this nick back in the days before GK3 came out.

[MagikMilk]

It's mine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[phil]

That's crazy!

What did "ROB" even do? From what I can make it it picked up some discs? Only cost £200 for that lot when released. Madness...

[Schloss Ritter]

ROB allowed Nintendo to market the NES in the US as a toy, because no electronics department would stock and sell video game consoles after Atari and co crashed the market a couple years earlier. Even then, Nintendo was hard pressed to get their foot in the door anywhere. Without ROB, the western market may have never reinvigorated the console industry, and we'd all still be just playing games on computers... not that there haven't been awesome PC games in the meantime.

[phil]

ROB allowed Nintendo to market the NES in the US as a toy, because no electronics department would stock and sell video game consoles after Atari and co crashed the market a couple years earlier. Even then, Nintendo was hard pressed to get their foot in the door anywhere. Without ROB, the western market may have never reinvigorated the console industry, and we'd all still be just playing games on computers... not that there haven't been awesome PC games in the meantime.

That's really interesting! Thanks for filling me in. You learn something new every day

[Data]

That's cool when someone comes out of the woodwork and sells a factory sealed NES Deluxe Set.

For the zapper and the R.O.B. to operate correctly you need a CRT Television. The New flat screens won't give the right kind of flash.

I, like many kids in the late eighties after seeing Space Camp, wanted a robot. My parents bought me the Robbie Junior from Radio Shack pictured to the right in the picture. He had two wheels underneath and a ball bearing in the middle front to make 360 turns. When the bumper in front was pressed he would say "Oops, excuse me" or after a while, "Get Outta My Way!". If he sat in one place too long he would dance a jig and say, "come on let's play". He has a tray that sat on his hands and you could use the control to direct him to the kitchen.

The button on his head would activate two different modes of play. One made him play a game of, "Catch Me!" and the other mode was just a more docile Robbie. When you pressed each of his arms he would say different things like, "Hi my names Robbie Junior".

[Schloss Ritter]

Yeah, there's been a few good books on the history of video games published in the past decade that I've read, and I've also done a bit of looking up stuff online since then. Seeing how things like technology developed in history has always been intriguing to me. Guess that's why I watch so much of the History Channel when I get a chance, heh.