Why So Expensive? Back in 1994, the exercise equipment company Life Fitness released the Exertainment System. EXERTAINMENT MOUNTAIN BIKE RALLY & SPEED RACER COMBO CART With more than 700 titles for the SNES fan to collect, there are bound to be a few that demand a high price. SUPER NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEMĪlthough not quite as ubiquitous as the NES, the SNES was still a very popular game console. As far as anyone knows, it’s the only copy of the game in existence. Hendricks, turned around and sold it on eBay for $20,100. Shortly after, the buyer of the cart, collector J.J. Part of that $50,000 was the Campus Challenge cartridge, which went for $14,000. By the time he resold everything, he’d made 50 times that. This garage sale is legendary among retrogamers, as Rob bought all kinds of NES Holy Grails for only $1,000. 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 2006.
Like the World Championships, players had six minutes to play for high scores in demo versions of three games: Super Mario Bros. Why So Expensive? In the early 1990s, Nintendo held competitions on college campuses and at popular Spring Break destinations. Only 26 gold games were produced, so they’re especially hard to find and command a higher price today the last one to sell on eBay went for $26,677. A gold version was sent out to those who won a promotional contest in the pages of Nintendo Power magazine. 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.Īt 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 90 of these cartridges were distributed. Why So Expensive? In 1990, Nintendo held a 30-city gaming tournament to find the best player in the world. 1990 NINTENDO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (GRAY AND GOLD EDITIONS) The same game repackaged by Nintendo, World Class Track Meet, generally sells for about $5 on eBay. When his eBay auction ended, the game sold for an amazing $41,300.Įarlier this year, another sealed copy of Stadium Events sold on eBay for $35,100, meaning the game has lost a little bit of its value, but not much. His game became only the second known sealed copy in existence. It was still sealed because he’d meant to return it. He had purchased the game in 1987, but could never find the fitness mat to go with it. Empty Stadium Events boxes have been known to sell for $10,000 alone.Īfter hearing of the success of this eBay seller, a man in Kansas dug up a factory-sealed copy of the game that he was just about to donate to Goodwill. 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. She put them up on eBay without high expectations and was amazed to see the bids steadily climb up to $13,105. Stadium Events made headlines in 2010 with two high-profile eBay sales: A North Carolina woman was cleaning out her garage and found an old Nintendo and a handful of games, including Stadium Events. Of those 200, collectors believe that only about 20 complete copies of the game exist today, making them a real rarity. To avoid consumer confusion, Nintendo pulled all copies of Stadium Events from shelves and had them destroyed, but not before approximately 200 carts had already been sold. Nintendo bought the rights to the game and the mat in 1988 and re-released them as WorldClass Track Meet and the Power Pad controller. Why So Expensive? Stadium Events was released by Bandai in 1987 as one of the few games available in 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. 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.
NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM (NES)īack in the day, everyone had a Nintendo. 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 pièce de résistance. 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.