Here’s a first-hand account of a collector buying the Nintendo World Championships Gold cartridge for $17,500. It’s the most valuable video game cartridge and only 26 of the gold cartridges exist. If you read the comments below his story or on other gaming sites, it’s a few “congratulations” and a tons of “get a life” or “should of put that in your baby’s college fund.” And his responses to them lack any snarkiness that you’ve come to expect online.
I can definitely understand people not wanting to pay a lot of money for a collectors item. But I’m not paying that much money to play the game, just like people who buy a Honus Wagner baseball card aren’t going to put it in the spokes of their bicycle or Action Comic #1 buyers aren’t going to buy it so they can read it while they eat breakfast. The same can be said about rare paintings, “why would I pay millions of dollars for a Picasso when I can just look at a poster of the same painting?”
They are pieces of history and very rare. That is where the value comes from. Not because someone wants to play the game.
That being said, I can completely understand why someone wouldn’t want to spend that much money on a video game. Just as I can understand it for a painting, a comic, a vintage car, or anything else.
There’s also concern about his confidence that the value of the cartridge will continue to rise. I have a bare Earthbound SNES cartridge. A few years ago I could have thrown it on eBay and (if I remember correctly) got more than $150. More people realized they had them lying around and fewer people wanted them. Now it’d be hard to get more than $60. I’m no expert, but it seems that while¨Ü the average price of a collectible game will decrease, a holy-grail item like this (where only a couple dozen exist) will only increase in value.
Even dorkier example (“But wait, what could be dorkier than collecting video game cartridges?” Answer: Magic the Gathering.): I have a few Balduvian Hordes that I could of sold for $20 each when I first got them, but now you can pick up four for $5 on eBay. But an alpha Black Lotus is worth more now than a decade ago. Anyway, JJ Hendricks, congratulations.