I can’t find a ton of info about this game, but what I can is pretty interesting. Prior to 2006, this cart wasn’t confirmed to exist, but apparently had been sold once previously according to some second hand information.
That year, the folks at Atarimania acquired what was at the time, the only known existing cartridge of Gold Mine by Spectravideo.
Since the cart shell is custom-made and the label is professionally produced, the assumption is the game saw a very limited commercial release – possibly only in Australia.
It was alluded to originally that the first copies that tickled out from 2006 – 2007 were part of some massive warehouse find, but now that dosen’t seem to have been the case. Back in 2006 – 2007 at least two CIB copies sold, one for $811.37 and then another for $228.41 five months later. Recently, I can only find records of one that has sold, last December (2010) for $249.99.
Most if not all copies that exist are CIB, and the box is of high quality and made of a reflective material. It’s also big -about the same size as the box for Bounty Bob Strikes Back!.
There are a lot of extremely rare Atari 8-Bit carts out, such as a HAM radio utility cart and other specialist carts with very low production numbers. Even some Arabic and Hebrew carts also exist.
Auction here – currently $290.00 and ending today, with the reserve as of yet unmet.
