While there are several video games which have broke the $10,000,00 mark, the record to date has been $21,00.00 for a NES Campus Challange Cart. Tonight, that record has been destoryed.
A factory sealed Stadium Events cartridge for the Origional Nintendo NES has sold for a whopping.
How? WHY?
Well, that’s a bit of a story.
Most of you probally already know the history of the game, but assuming this article gets picked up elsewhere, here’s a bit of background info without getting into too much detail.
The game itself features an Olympic-style Track and Field competition, with events such as the 100m dash, 110m hurdles, long jump, and triple jump. Esentially a random crappy sports game, but one that worked with the company’s Family Fun Fitness Mat (think an early Dance Mat-esque Accessory).
Nintendo liked the conecpt so much, they bought the rights. The Family Fun Fitness Mat became the Power Pad. Stadium Events was recalled and distributed under an entirely different title, World Class Track Meet.
There’s a ton of controversy surronding the game as well. Just read some of the flaming that happens when the game is brought up on forums, or even in our previous posts here. Some say only 2000 copies are believed to have been produced. It was once rumored to be initially released only at Woolworth’s department stores in the Northern region of the US as a test market for Bandai. Most collectors agree that the later theory is now completely destroyed.
Earlier this month an eBay auction of a NES console along with a complete copy of the game ended up selling for a staggering $13,105.00. With such a huge value, and a seller who fluked into having the game, the auction garnered a ton of publicity. It was featured on just about every video game related news site in existince, and even garnered publicity on mainstream news media.
Since then, the crazies have come out of the woodwork. Craigslist is full of pople looking for the “Stadium Events game I had as a kid” and eBay has tons of uneducated buyers paying rediculous ammounts for the significantly more comment PAL version of the game. A few real copies have surfaced, but this sealed copy definately takes the cake.
How rare is it though? We’re looking at estimates of 6-7 boxed and 3 sealed copies. One of the sealed copies was originally sold for $800.00 and then again at $3200.00 or somewhere around there – which everyone thought was crazy at the time.
There is also one that was supposedly at Bandai HQ in the US that was sealed. A few people said they had a display case with all their NES titles and that FF pad sealed, but no one knows what happend to it when they moved to wherever their new HQ is.
So there you have it. US $41,300.00 for an old video game. Which is sealed and you can’t play.
More Stadium Events On eBay:
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