Ultra-rare Nintendo game lands on eBay

[Shawn Knight]

One of the rarest Nintendo games ever has found its way to eBay and is expected to bring a significant amount of money for its lucky owner. It’s called Nintendo World Championships and if you haven’t heard of it before, there are a couple of good reasons why.

Only 116 game cartridges were ever manufactured, designed for a video game competition that would play out across multiple cities and states in 1990. Of the 116 copies, 90 were of the official grey cartridge seen on most NES games while the other 26 were golden (think The Legend of Zelda).

These limited-edition carts were given away in a separate contest held by Nintendo Power magazine while the 90 original grey carts were handed out to the semi-finalists of the original competition.

The relic up for auction on eBay is of the grey variety and worse more, the original label (with the identifying number) has been torn. In its absence, someone mistakenly wrote “Mario” on the cartridge but rest assured, it’s the real thing according to the seller.

Even in its “poor” condition, the game is expected to garner quite a bit of money. As of writing, the cart has a current bid of $7,100. As Chris Scullion, games editor for Computer and Video Games, points out, it’s like finding the rarest Ferrari but with a scratch. You’d still buy it, he said, as they are considered the Holy Grail among Nintendo collectors.

The auction is set to end on January 25.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/55441-ultra-rare-nintendo-game-lands-on-ebay.html

 

[oldikes]

If I were a collector I would never spend such money on something in that condition...
thats not getting a ferrari with a scratch, thats getting a ferrari thats been in a terrible wreck, repaired, and given tires off of a prius...

 

[GhostRyder]

If I were a collector I would never spend such money on something in that condition...
thats not getting a ferrari with a scratch, thats getting a ferrari thats been in a terrible wreck, repaired, and given tires off of a prius...

Im kinda the same way in this case, the label having a bit taken off is one thing but the whole label on this is ruined. I collect classic game consoles and games especially in the NES era but I just could not justify the price (Which is already at 11k on ebay when I looked). These Nintendo World Championship grey cartridges were handed out to the winners and got passed around doing different means throughout the years. My guess is that this one was probably one of the handed out cartridges and it got handled by a young kid who ripped the label off which sadly knocked a huge chunk off its value.

But then again, which only a little over a hundred of these in existence, even in this case people will pay boat loads of money to add it to their collection since these rarely enter back into the market except once every 5-10 years.

 

[VitalyT]

It's like selling the last fart of prince Charles

 

[cliffordcooley]

Price is up to 14.1K.

Edit:
I'm not a collector but if I was, why should the condition of such a rare object matter? Think about it; no matter what the condition, you would be lucky to even have it. Now if you actually had a choice of conditioning, I would understand wanting better quality.

 

[oldikes]

Price is up to 14.1K.

Edit:
I'm not a collector but if I was, why should the condition of such a rare object matter? Think about it; no matter what the condition, you would be lucky to even have it. Now if you actually had a choice of conditioning, I would understand wanting better quality.

I guess the way I would phrase my original post to respond to this one is that I would rather pay 10k more for it in 5 years than buy a crappy one now.

 

[Raoul Duke]

Does rare = value? I sincerely don't understand why anyone would pay a nickel for this except perhaps a museum showing old technology. I guess I don't understand the 'collector' mindset. But it is your money.......so do with it what you will.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Thats assuming you will have this opportunity again.

except perhaps a museum showing old technology.

That is basically what a collector is. Someone with show and tell in mind. Except for personal gratification of collecting for personal interest. In any case I think I can safely say, neither of us would have personal interest in old tech.

 

[oldikes]

Thats assuming you will have this opportunity again.

Its a risk id be willing to take.

 

[Acespaces]

Its now at 20 grand and still rising.

 

[rvnwlfdroid]

Did a Google search. Withing 30 seconds found a site to download the ROM. Woot Woot, Now I can put the current price of $22,000 towards a new car.

 

[rvnwlfdroid]

I'm more of a digital collector. Takes up less space.

 

[cliffordcooley]

I'm more of a digital collector. Takes up less space.

lol - Seeing as every NES ROM and Emulator can be stored on a single small capacity MicroSD chip.

From my own NES ROM collection:

• 4 NES Emulators = 5 MB
• 900 NES ROM's = 200 MB

I hardly ever do anything with the collection, but I do have them in my digital inventory.

Edit:
When they decide to sell rights to own these ROM's, I might actually decide not to be a Pirate. Especially when one doesn't have or want the completely outdated console.

Can I Download a Nintendo ROM from the Internet if I Already Own the Authentic Game?

There is a good deal of misinformation on the Internet regarding the backup/archival copy exception. It is not a "second copy" rule and is often mistakenly cited for the proposition that if you have one lawful copy of a copyrighted work, you are entitled to have a second copy of the copyrighted work even if that second copy is an infringing copy. The backup/archival copy exception is a very narrow limitation relating to a copy being made by the rightful owner of an authentic game to ensure he or she has one in the event of damage or destruction of the authentic. Therefore, whether you have an authentic game or not, or whether you have possession of a Nintendo ROM for a limited amount of time, I.e. 24 hours, it is illegal to download and play a Nintendo ROM from the Internet.

If they were worried about pirating, they would open the door for sales.

.

 

[Acespaces]

In the last 18 hours of the bid it seems its a bid war between two people right, steadily rising and its now at 41 grand

 

[money]

Meanwhile in africa...

 

[fimbles]

 

[cliffordcooley]

Can't believe the value is bumping 100K.

It is a prehistoric game in my mind, not worth the gold value used to create the cartridge. It would probably cost you that value to extract the gold.

 

[VitalyT]

Perversion of the digital era at its finest... Take a dime-worth cartridge, a dime-worth game, put one into the other and suddenly it is worth a million? I don't think so... Some people simply have 100 times more money than imagination...

 

[cliffordcooley]

In this case 500000 times more!
100K / (10cents + 10cents)

 

[VitalyT]

On another note, you can't put a price on human sentimentality, and that's all it is.

 

[cliffordcooley]

And to think I'm contemplating spending $3 on a Pentium D for a Celeron D upgrade. lol

 

[cliffordcooley]

Sold for 99.9K!

 

[GhostRyder]

Sold for 99.9K!

I know right, it broke all the previous records thats for sure. Though now I can safely say I will not be buying one of those games anytime soon at that price especially in that condition.

 

[captaincranky]

What an absolute joy it must be, to have more money than brains....

 

[fimbles]

They seem to be creeping out of the woodwork now....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NES-Nintend...7503?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item4619ce8c7f

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NES-Nintend...3194?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item417bfe629a

Bet the guy who bought the first overpriced one with the crappy label is annoyed