By Rob Bricken in
Nerdery, Video Games
Tuesday, Apr. 13 2010 @ 11:17AM
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Um. I like Atari games. More than most, since I still have my Atari 2600 and about 150 games for it, and I still dust it off and plug it in once in a while. But, I think it's worth noting, THIS SHIT IS CRAZY (from Retro Thing):
he excitement today comes from an auction for Atari 2600's "Air Raid", a baby blue cartridge with a strange T-shaped handle on it. The cart is rare enough on its own, but this is the first known instance of finding the box as well - for a long time collectors questioned whether there had ever been a box! You probably never heard of "Air Raid" (for a long time no one knew that that game was even called "Air Raid" for sure, since it's not on the cart itself anywhere) as it came out near the end of the 2600's reign. As more and more companies tried to cash in on the videogame craze, they did so with crappier and crappier games. These often forgettable games sold in small numbers hence their rarity.Someone won the bidding on Saturday, paying $31,600 for the game. Again, SOMEONE PAID $31,600 FOR AN ATARI GAME. Huh. I think the game handle is pretty cool, actually. $31,600 cool? No. I think of myself as a pretty obsessive collector, but this boggles me. Does this person have $31,600 to blow? If not, what are they forgoing to buy an Atari game? Furthermore, at what point does "being a passionate collector" turn into "I have a mental illness"? I'm not sure, but paying more for a fucking Atari than one would for a luxury car would seem to be crossing that line.
41 comments
Comments
Lithroe said:
I dunno, that is a really fantastic handle. Such a striking box as well.
Sam replied to Lithroe:
Umm... you guys are missing the point here its a RARE game which means that if you spent $31,600 for in 10 to 20 years he could get double..possibly TRIPLE what he paid for it..
J.Cat said:
$31.600 for a atari game that might not be good? No thank.
Black Llama said:
Wow, now he has something to whip out at the bar to impress the ladies. Let's see, used Ferrari or Atari game......
Selaphiel said:
I'm willing to bet the guy already had the game and spent that much just to get the box.
fishsticks replied to Selaphiel:
you are correct.
Asat replied to Selaphiel:
And the sad, sad thing is that according to that label on the box, someone picked this thing up at a thrift store. I suspect a profit somewhere in the order of ONE MILLION PERCENT. Try to feel good about your chosen career now.
Calab replied to Asat:
Hrm...
A couple buys a suitcase from a thrift shop and find it full of money. They end up charged for theft.
Someone finds a video game in a thrift shop and tosses it up on eBay, knowing full well what the value of the game could be. They get to keep their cash.
...REALLY FAIR FOLKS!
Dan said:
Geez, I remember playing Air Raid at a friend's house way back in the day and he bought it from the store and had the box. It's so hard to know what type of stuff you should hold onto when you're a kid.
CutmanMike said:
The only thing that can top this is Swordquest: Airworld, surely.
Kris said:
Got in on the ground floor of the dotcom boom, made millions, and got out before the crash, obviously.
The great thing about nerds getting a crapton of money is that we also know to invest it in secure bonds and live off the interest, as opposed to people who buy six houses and world vacations.
Or at least, that's my explainable.
Rational Moderate said:
Well, in fairness to collector's this particular video game has always garnered a hefty price, but until now I don't think anyone was sure that this was ever actually sold in stores or even had a box. For any one trying to get a complete set of Atari games, this is the one of the ones to get. This really is an incredible find for atari collectors.
Rattrap007 said:
I'm gonna laugh long and hard if this game is ported to Xbox's Game Room. Then I can play the game for $3..
ZeroCorpse said:
I'm pretty sure it's abandonware, and I *know* the ROM is out there on the Internet if anyone wants to try it out.
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So really, the dude paid $31,600 for a dollop of silicon on a tiny board, encased in a weird plastic mold, and packaged in a poorly-decorated box. The game itself is available basically for free; It's the packaging he purchased.
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This sort of thing is why I sold much of my game collection. I used to have every console that was ever available in North America, and then one day I realized I didn't actually get enjoyment out of them... I just kept them around to say I had them. What the hell good is that?
Asat replied to ZeroCorpse:
Your nerd license, sir. Hand it over and please leave the building.
How dare you come here and describe a healthy relationship to inanimate objects. Just where do you think you are?
sprig replied to ZeroCorpse:
we have reprints of detective comics #27 and action comics #1 but the originals continue to sell for millions year after year. its the rarity of the object that's the fetish not the content of the media. If you can part with the object it never ment that much to you anyway.
fishbulb said:
Crazy. But not the highest price paid for a video game.
Stadium Events for NES sold in February of his year for $41,300.00
Lewen replied to fishbulb:
from the Mentalfloss article...
The reason they guy still had it was because it was a crap game and no one would ever trade for it.
ha who's laughing now.
Tonberry2k said:
The other side of this story was at Mental_floss. They did an article on rare games and one of their readers realized he had one of them. He put it on ebay and... there you go.
SpaceMonkeyX said:
Thanks for mentioning my articles at mental_floss, fishbulb and Tonberry2k!
Here's the whole story of how this guy found out he had one of the holy grails of video games:
Jonathan Cohen said:
The buyer is a legit buyer on Atariage.com. The last few minutes of the auction it was between two Atariage members. The winner of the auction, Wonder007 (on Atariage), is planning to open an Atari museum in the future with this item as one of the major highlights. The guy is not crazy, according to members he is fully loaded.
MeowSkywalker said:
I'm just gonna put this out there... the cost of the parts and manhours it would take to create a counterfit cartridge and box for this game or Stadium Events is probably noticeably less than 31,000 dollars.
Not a trick you could pull off several times. But still.
Matt said:
AFAIK, it's not even a proper game. Instead it's some pirate hackjob.
oneweekonline said:
tuesday morning is a retail store that sells other retailers discontinued items.
And being they started in 1974 it's prolly ligit.
demoncat said:
the winner must really be a fan of the system to pay that much for the grand daddy and first video game system . talk about nostalgia to the max
Deacon Blues said:
Do people really think he bought this just to play it?
Thomas Simpson said:
Didn't Hasbro buy the whole company for about that? ;-)
Souf said:
Please don't take any bias while writing the title.
--Thanks
Brian said:
Stop judging him. People spend an extra 31k for a place to shit and a place to sleep every day. At least his money isn't going to vanity.
torrent search said:
people spend an extra 31k every day on vanity. get off his ass. At least it isn't on that.
bob said:
ROB, as crazy as this sounds, people collect things dude!! Its wrong to judge this person in your post. People pay stupid money for all kinds of things. AS posted above: Baseball cards, coins, books, paintings, etc. Just because you don't understand the value and interest of a certain rare video game, it gives you no right to post your naive judgment call on the collector in question. In fairness. Thats all Im sayin.
Swenka said:
I don't think you all realize how collecting something this valuable can be seen as positive. Imagine, being able to say you own 1 or a handful of objects. Amazing.
Matt said:
For lots of peoples 31k is not that much, unfortunately im not one of them :(
Atari Fan said:
Lots of collectors collect stuff that makes no sense to many people. If they guy can afford it, good for him! If he can't, well it's none of my business anyway :)
Jenik said:
More money than brains? I think I could find a better way to spend that money!
RaWNESS said:
Not surprised, check this NES game out.
Grifter said:
So if nobody has ever seen the box.... I'd say if you can fake a painting or a bottle of wine then a video game box with no known original to compare it against should be a walk in the park!
cheater said:
Hope that game still works after all these years
NewYorkOntario said:
Swordquest Waterworld is more common than this game. It's actually the rarest game for the 2600. I would have paid that much for it if I wasn't broke. Maybe If i had won the lottery.
Also, the seller could've gone up to 50,000 and someone probably would've bought it.
And the game is worth about 10,000, so he got ripped off.
