Deadbeat Bidder Backs Out Of $129k PS4 Auction, Good Guy Sony Still Donates Full Amount To Charity

When Sony decided to auction off the very first of a limited run of special 20th Anniversary PlayStation 4 consoles, it received a lot of attention, along with a bunch of bids. The highest came in at a little more than 15 million yen, or around $129,000 in U.S. currency. Well, it turns out the winning bidder may have been a bit overzealous -- for reasons unknown, the bidder backed out of the deal.

The unfortunate thing about backing out of the deal is that the proceeds were to be donated to the Save the Children Japan charity, and $129,000 could go a long way. Fortunately, it still will, as Sony has agreed to hold onto the console and donate the winning bid amount to charity all the same. So in essence, Sony bought its own console.

Rather than run another auction, Sony is going to keep the console this time around and put it on display at its Ginza Showroom in Tokyo starting February 21, 2015. Visitors will be able to see the coveted 00001/12300 badge that made this particular system so valuable to begin with.

Sony only made 12,300 20th Anniversary PS4 consoles, with that number paying homage to the original PlayStation's December 3rd launch date back in 1994. The 20th Anniversary units were all manufactured in the same gray color scheme as the original with PS circle-cross-square-triangle symbols splattered all over the chassis.

While the higher numbers aren't quite as valuable as the very first one, the 20th Anniversary systems can be found on eBay selling for $1,200 to $1,300, give or take a few hundred dollars.