Very Rare (and Very Expensive) Video Games. If you’ve ever collected baseball cards, comic books, stamps, or those limited edition commemorative plates, you understand the concept of the “Holy Grail” item. It’s that last, hard- to- find, incredibly rare, usually expensive piece that you must have before you can officially say your collection is “complete.” If you’re a collector of vintage home video game cartridges (or “carts”), sometimes that can mean paying a pretty penny for the pi. Due to the console’s popularity, there are a large number of collectors willing to pay the equivalent of a new car for some of the system’s very rare carts. Did you know that over 25 million Americans do not have a checking account? Pawn Shops/Brokers provide a community driven opportunity to provide a short – term loan. Get breaking news and the latest headlines on business, entertainment, politics, world news, tech, sports, videos and much more from AOL. CFL on TSN audiences up 14% for yesterday’s dramatic Eastern and Western Semi-Finals. Greg is the producer and creator of USAWatchdog.com. The site’s slogan is “analyzing the news to give you a clear picture of what’s really going on.” The site.But here's what was going on back then: a stadium revolution. In the five-season period from 1995-99, eight new NFL stadiums swung open their doors. STADIUM EVENTSPrice Range: $2,6. Why So Expensive? Stadium Events was released by Bandai in 1. America that was made for the company’s Family Fun Fitness mat—a soft, plastic controller you walked, ran, and jumped on to make the game characters move. Nintendo bought the rights to the game and the mat in 1. World. Class Track Meet and the Power Pad controller. To avoid consumer confusion, Nintendo pulled all copies of Stadium Events from shelves and had them destroyed, but not before approximately 2. Of those 2. 00, collectors believe that only about 2. Stadium Events made headlines in 2. Bay sales: A North Carolina woman was cleaning out her garage and found an old Nintendo and a handful of games, including Stadium Events. She put them up on e.
Bay without high expectations and was amazed to see the bids steadily climb up to $1. While the game itself is valuable, the winning bidder was most interested in the cardboard box in which it came; since most kids threw the box away after tearing open a new game, intact boxes for any title are really hard to come by, but especially so for Stadium Events. Empty Stadium Events boxes have been known to sell for $1. After hearing of the success of this e. Bay seller, a man in Kansas dug up a factory- sealed copy of the game that he was just about to donate to Goodwill. He had purchased the game in 1. It was still sealed because he’d meant to return it. His game became only the second known sealed copy in existence. When his e. Bay auction ended, the game sold for an amazing $4. Earlier this year, another sealed copy of Stadium Eventssold on e. Bay for $3. 5,1. 00, meaning the game has lost a little bit of its value, but not much. The same game repackaged by Nintendo, World Class Track Meet, generally sells for about $5 on e. Bay. 2. 1. 99. 0 NINTENDO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (GRAY AND GOLD EDITIONS)Price Range: Gray: $8,5. Gold: $2. 6,6. 77. Why So Expensive? In 1. 99. 0, Nintendo held a 3. Players had to get the best score in demo versions of three games—Super Mario Bros., Rad Racer, and Tetris—all within a six- minute time limit. At the end of each city’s tournament, the winners of each of three age groups were given special gray Championship cartridges exactly like those used in the competition, meaning only 9. A gold version was sent out to those who won a promotional contest in the pages of Nintendo Power magazine. Only 2. 6 gold games were produced, so they’re especially hard to find and command a higher price today; the last one to sell on e. Bay went for $2. 6,6. NINTENDO CAMPUS CHALLENGEPrice Range: $1. Why So Expensive? In the early 1. 99. Nintendo held competitions on college campuses and at popular Spring Break destinations. Like the World Championships, players had six minutes to play for high scores in demo versions of three games: Super Mario Bros. Mario. Most copies of the game were destroyed after the competition tour ended, but one Nintendo employee kept his cart and sold it to Rob Walters at a garage sale in 2. This garage sale is legendary among retrogamers, as Rob bought all kinds of NES Holy Grails for only $1,0. By the time he resold everything, he’d made 5. Part of that $5. 0,0. Campus Challenge cartridge, which went for $1. Shortly after, the buyer of the cart, collector J. J. Hendricks, turned around and sold it on e. Bay for $2. 0,1. 00. As far as anyone knows, it’s the only copy of the game in existence. SUPER NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEMAlthough not quite as ubiquitous as the NES, the SNES was still a very popular game console. With more than 7. SNES fan to collect, there are bound to be a few that demand a high price. EXERTAINMENT MOUNTAIN BIKE RALLY & SPEED RACER COMBO CARTPrice Range: $1,5. Why So Expensive? Back in 1. 99. 4, the exercise equipment company Life Fitness released the Exertainment System. As the cheesy name implies, it was a combination exercise bike and entertainment system with a TV screen built into the console. Now gym rats could watch regular cable television, Life Fitness exercise programs, or play games on the built- in Super Nintendo using specially designed controllers split between each handle of the bike. There were two games made specifically for the Exertainment System: Mountain Bike Rally, and Speed Racer, based on the popular Japanese cartoon. While Mountain Bike Rally was available as a standalone cartridge, Speed Racer was only available as part of a combo cartridge that also included Mountain Bike Rally. Gym owners could buy either of the cartridges with the Exertainment cycle, but they could be purchased through retail outlets as well. Of course the bikes were expensive and very few people had one in their homes, so the retail versions mostly went unsold. As the Exertainment cycles were replaced by newer equipment, most owners simply threw the cartridges away since they weren't compatible with a regular SNES. Naturally, this means they’re pretty hard to come by today. While a loose copy of the Mountain Bike Rally cartridge sells for about $2. But it’s the combo cartridge that is especially valuable with completist SNES collectors, bringing in over $1,5. SUPER COPAPrice Range: $4. Why So Expensive? The story of Super Copa is a bit confusing for collectors: The game was a South American version of the North American soccer game, Tony Meola’s Sidekicks Soccer. Released in the mid- 1. SNES. Although it was available in South America through a distributor named Playtronic, there is a second version of the game with different box and label artwork, that doesn’t include the Playtronic branding anywhere. This has led some to speculate it was also released in North America by a different company, American Softworks. Whether it was released here or not, the alternative version of the game is hard to find, so naturally collectors are clamoring for it—so much so that bootlegs from Brazil have started cluttering e. Bay, making buyers wary of spending too much on a loose cartridge. However, if the original box is part of the auction, the prices can go as high as $4. And, if the auction is a factory sealed copy in exceptional condition, it could fetch as much as $6,9. NINTENDO POWERFEST 1. Price Range: $1. 0,0. Why So Expensive? Much like the Nintendo Campus Challenge, 1. Nintendo Power. Fest was a traveling competition where the best SNES players across the U. S. Presents Major League. The person with the best score from each city was later invited to come to San Diego and compete at the Nintendo World Championships II. For the tour, 3. 3 specially designed cartridges were produced. At the end of the tour, the cartridges were returned to Nintendo and reused for parts. Well, most of them anyway. One cartridge was found by Rob Walters at that legendary garage sale, and was thought to be the only one in existence for many years. The cartridge eventually made its way into the hands of collector Rick Bruns, who participated in Power. Fest when he was a kid, making it all the way to the San Diego finals. Bruns paid $1. 0,0. Much to everyone’s surprise, another copy resurfaced in 2. In the early days of the competition, a home run in Ken Griffey, Jr. So Nintendo found that most players focused on the Mario games to rack up points, and neglected the baseball game. To convince players to take Griffey more seriously during the finals, they changed the score to one million points for a home run. Bruns had a one million- point copy of the cartridge, but the new one was a 1. The second Power. Fest cartridge was sold in January 2. J. J. Hendricks for $1. Hendricks turned around and put it on e. Bay in 2. 01. 3 and received bids up to $2. Unfortunately, the high bidder backed out, and when Hendricks tried again in 2. ATARI 2. 60. 0The wood- grained granddaddy of home video game systems still has a rabid fanbase. There were a lot of fly- by- night companies getting in on the video game craze, which means there are a lot of rare carts out there for fans to collect. AIR RAIDPrice Range: $3,0. Why So Expensive? For many years, Air Raid was an enigma for Atari fans. The game in the strange, blue case with the unusual “T- handle” design had appeared around 1. There were rumors that said it was the one and only game produced by a company called “Menavision” (or perhaps “Menovision”). In fact, collectors weren’t even sure if Air Raid was the correct title of the game because it’s not found anywhere on the cartridge. The mystery, as well as the fact there were only 1. Atari collectors. But all that changed in 2. Tanner Sandlin read a previous version of this article over on CNN. He recognized that signature blue, T- handle case on the cartridge, and dug through a few boxes in his garage, finding the thirteenth known copy of Air Raid—complete with box. By the time his e. Bay auction ended, Sandlin’s copy of Air Raid sold for an incredible $3. Another boxed copy of Air Raidwas found in 2. Harv Bennett, a former drug store manager whose store sold video games back in the 1. Bennett was given a copy of Air Raid by a salesman and had kept it among a small treasure trove of boxed Atari games in storage ever since. Much to Bennett’s surprise, when he opened the box, he found that he also had the instruction manual. The manual made Bennett’s the first “Complete In Box” (CIB) copy ever found. He put the game up on Game. Gavel. com, where it ended up selling for $3. RED SEA CROSSINGPrice Range: $1. Why So Expensive?
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