Game Cartridge
Buying Rare Retro Video Games Online
What's the most you've ever paid for a Video Game? $60.00? $80.00? How about $20,000? For most video game collectors, the Internet has made filling that one last empty space on the shelf a reality - with a second mortgage or bank loan, of course. What should you look for when shopping for rare video games online? How can you be a watchdog for incredible deals on the holy grails of video games. There are about 10 video games that regularly top the $2,000 mark at auction. Oddly enough, the rarest game of all, the gold 1990 Nintendo World Championships cartridge, has sold on eBay several times. This guide will help you identify the games that are the coveted addition to any collector's shelf and how to look out for the unsuspecting parental cleanouts that will bring tears to their child.
The Best Video Game Deal of All Time
A casual video game shopper came across a private listing of a few Nintendo games in a local newspaper one day while looking for an apartment. Apparently, the parent of a child that had since died was cleaning out their closet and listing their possessions in a local classifieds newspaper. A listing of 10 Game Cartridges included some unremarkable titles such as Duck Hunt and Battletoads as well as a listing for a gold cartridge that had no label. Thinking that the game must be the popular Legend of Zelda, the buyer contacted the seller and shelled out the $40.00 required for the sale.
When the buyer pushed the game into their Nintendo System, they were surprised to not find the Legend of Zelda at all. Instead, they found three Mini Games of Super Mario Brothers, Rad Racer and Tetris. After doing some research, they found that this was the Holy Grail of video games - worth as much as $10,000, even without the label. Of the only 24 ever created of this game, only 12 have ever surfaced officially. The remainder, like this one, remain in private collections or are buried in the garages of long forgotten video game collections. In 2007, another accidental sale of this game as part of a lot from a father whose son had died in Iraq brought a listing all the way up to $21,400 before it sold on Myebid.com.
Rare Retro Video Games You Might Find
While it is unlikely that you will ever put your hands on a Gold 1990 Nintendo World Championships cartridge, there are some much more moderately priced games that you might be able to locate online. Although some have even less confirmed copies, they can be grabbed up for a few thousand dollars on eBay or Craigslist.
Air Raid - Made for the Atari 2600, Air Raid is distinguished by its blue color and "T" shaped handle designed to make it easier to insert and remove the game. Listed around $3,000, this rare video game is much like a Space Invaders clone with the exception that your ship is actually above the buildings that you are protecting.
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1990 World Championship - This gray cartridge is much easier to find than its Gold counterpart. With 90 copies produced, it is typically valued at around $5,000. However, some copies have been sold for as little as $1,200.
Star Wars Ewok Adventure - Good luck finding this one as there is only a single copy. This game for the Atari 2600 was never actually released. Parker Brothers considered the controls to be nearly impossible to master in this game and decided not to produce it. The last time it sold was for $1,680.
Atlantis 2 - A screenshot competition was held with the original 1982 Atlantis players were asked to submit pictures of their best scores. The top scorers received a much harder version of the game called Atlantis 2. This game can be tricky to buy online. The only difference between the original and this Rare Game was a small white sticker noting the difference. While the original game can be bought for about $3.00, Atlantis 2 can fetch up to $6,000. If you find it at a garage sale for a buck, consider picking it up. However, be very careful when picking this one up online. You might find yourself with a pretty disappointing purchase.
Buying Rare Video Games Online
One of the first rules for buying video games online is to know your purchase. Do as much research as possible about the video game before searching for it. This will help you determine whether or not the game you are searching for can be fraudulently reproduced or altered without you knowing about it. For example, a video game label can be easily copied and applied to a different game. Are there any distinguishing characteristics of the game that would be harder to reproduce? Make sure you have a way to verify the seller and can obtain a certificate of authenticity or can complain if the game is not original.
Look at smaller web sites or general sales sites for rare games, not sites that specialize in video game sales. If a web site specializes in selling video games, you will be very unlikely to find a good deal on a rare video game there. However, if you are willing to pay the full price for a rare game, you can begin your search at a larger web site. On eBay, you have to be very careful when determining whether or not you've found a gem or a scam.
If the seller has it set at a Buy It Now for a very low price but there are 30 auctions available for the same item from the same seller, there is a good chance that they have fraudulent copies. A low auction of a rare game with a low reserve likely means that they have no clue what they have. Sometimes these games are inadvertently included in larger lots - causing many buyers to miss them - rather than being listed alone. In your hunt for rare video games online, read every single lot listing to try to find them. You may get lucky.
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Classic Game Room - MAGNAVOX ODYSSEY 2 CARTRIDGES with HANDLES review
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