A Still-Sealed NES Game From 1987 Is Expected To Fetch $10,000 At Auction
Here I thought that staged reality shows were the only places that people stumbled upon treasures, but sometimes it happens that way in real life as well. That is how it went for Scott Amos, an Arizona man who found an unopened Kid Icarus game cartridge for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) while cleaning out his mother's attic. The find could fetch him over $10,000 at auction.
A series of events led to what will be a big payday. First off, it was Mother's Day, and Scott's mom had asked him to grab some boxes of his childhood belongings that she still had stored in the attic. As any good son would do, he obliged the request while visiting his mother at his childhood home. That is when he found the game, still sealed, along with the original J.C. Penny's receipt.
According to what he told the Reno Gazette Journal, nobody remembers actually buying the game, though the receipt reveals it was purchased on December 8, 1988. That suggests it was probably intended to be a Christmas gift.
"All the family has been trying to come up with a hypothesis," Amos said. "(My mom) thinks she put it there and never got it back out, and then it ended up in the attic."
Scott initially figured it might be worth a couple hundred bucks. He quickly found out, however, just how rare of a find this was. According to Heritage Auctions, where the game is currently listed, it is believed there are fewer than 10 factory-sealed copies of Kid Icarus for the NES. That makes it a rare and highly desirable collector's item.
The auction house also says it knows about a private sale of one of the unopened games that went for $12,000. At present, the highest bid on Scott's copy is more modest (but still impressive) $5,750, or $6,900 with what is called a "Buyer's Premium," a mandatory fee that the buyer has to pay. The next minimum bid allowed would be $6,000, or $7,200 with the BP fee attached.
Now if you will excuse me, I'm off to clean every relative's attic that I can.
Thumbnail/Top Image Source: Heritage Auctions
