Search your closets and attics, gamers! You may have $10K stashed away and not know it!

[Snowboarder_Bo]

Unopened 1987 Nintendo video game could sell for $10,000!

The boxed game cartridge of Nintendo’s “Kid Icarus” was still in the bag with the receipt for $38.45 from J.C. Penney’s catalog department three decades earlier.

Scott Amos of Reno told the Reno Gazette Journal he initially thought it might be worth a couple hundred dollars.

But Valarie McLeckie, video game consignment director at Heritage Auctions, says it’s one of the hardest Nintendo titles to find in sealed condition. She says there are fewer than 10 in the hands of vintage game collectors.

“To find a sealed copy ‘in the wild,’ so to speak, not to mention one in such a nice condition and one with such transparent provenance, is both an unusual and rather historic occurrence,” she said. “We feel that the provenance will add a significant premium for serious collectors.”

I am more than a little curious about this, tho:

Wata Games, a video game grading service, gave Amos’ copy a rating of 8.0 on a 10-point scale.

It’s brand new, still sealed in plastic, with the original store receipt. What docked it 20% of its potential? :dubious:

[Atamasama]

Kid Icarus was one of the first games we had with our NES when I was a kid, with Castlevania and Rad Racer.

@Snowboarder_Bo

It’s brand new, still sealed in plastic, with the original store receipt. What docked it 20% of its potential? :dubious:

Something sealed in plastic could still be squished (denting the corners for example) or faded due to long sun exposure.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

@Atamasama

Kid Icarus was one of the first games we had with our NES when I was a kid, with Castlevania and Rad Racer.

Something sealed in plastic could still be squished (denting the corners for example) or faded due to long sun exposure.

The picture with the article shows at least 2 of the 8 corners, tho and they aren’t squished. And the article says the game was bagged for all these years:

The boxed game cartridge of Nintendo’s “Kid Icarus” was still in the bag with the receipt for $38.45 from J.C. Penney’s catalog department three decades earlier.

So no fading. What I can see looks like a brand new game box, with no obvious damage or marks.

[Pantastic]

Corners of the box don’t look perfect to me in the pic (though it’s hard to tell at that resolution), also there’s a sticker on the plastic wrap that obscures a lot of the front. I suspect that’s where the ‘not 100% perfect’ comes from.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

Yeah, maybe they dinged him for the JCPenney sticker. Seems stupid tho; just take the plastic off and re-shrinkwrap it.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

I found the auction for this item; bidding is at $4100 but the BP is $4920.

The sticker has been removed (and preserved; it’s part of the auction package), so that can’t have been an issue in the rating, I wouldn’t think. Here is the entire text at the listing:

Kid Icarus (NES, Nintendo, 1987) Wata 8.0 A (Seal Rating) Variant: Rev-A Round SOQ. This particular copy of Kid Icarus was discovered very recently whilst someone was cleaning a relative’s attic - and what a discovery! Confirming its provenance, this example includes both the J. C. Penney receipt and the large price sticker that was skillfully removed from the seal. Kid Icarus is considered one of the hardest titles to find for the NES in a sealed condition. Longtime collectors have even expressed to us that there are less than 10 sealed copies that are currently within collectors’ hands. Records of public sales are difficult, if not impossible, to find, but we have heard firsthand of a private sale of a round seal of quality Rev-A variant that sold for $12,000.

I zoomed in to 100% on the view page and the thing looks as perfect as anything you’d find new at the store today, IMO.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

I mis-read the auction listing last night. :smack:

The bid is now $5250 and with the buyer’s premium of 20% added on the price would be $6300.

1 hour, 49 minutes left on the auction, btw. Get your bids in now!

[Trancephalic]

I have a few first-party Nintendo games still sealed, but I’m under no delusion they’ll ever be as appraised as highly as this. For one, this is from an era when CIB was next to unheard of; those cardboard casings were fragile, and took up space, so they typically no longer have them. Additionally, Kid Icarus is one of those properties that’s grown in renown long after its inception via association (Smash Bros.) and superior sequels (Uprising).

[Snowboarder_Bo]

Now $5750/$6900! Less than an hour to go!

[Snowboarder_Bo]

I think the live bidding has started.

[Atamasama]

@Trancephalic

I have a few first-party Nintendo games still sealed, but I’m under no delusion they’ll ever be as appraised as highly as this. For one, this is from an era when CIB was next to unheard of; those cardboard casings were fragile, and took up space, so they typically no longer have them. Additionally, Kid Icarus is one of those properties that’s grown in renown long after its inception via association (Smash Bros.) and superior sequels (Uprising).

Don’t forget being on the Captain N cartoon.

(Or maybe we should forget.)

[Trancephalic]

The world* wasn’t yet ready for Captain N’s take on Pit.

*financially well-heeled children, some of whom only grown up physically.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

Well, it sold. I missed what the final price was, tho.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

Final price was $7500, $9k including BP.