http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/the-17-500-video-game/1332488

Think $60 video games are too expensive? You won't hear any argument from us, but you might from JJ Hendricks, a collector who just paid a clinically insane $17,500 for an obscure NES game from 1990.

The game in question is an ultra-rare, gold-colored version of Nintendo World Championships, a cartridge specially produced for use in a Nintendo-sponsored gaming contest. According to Wikipedia only 26 were created, and Hendricks calls it the "Holy Grail" of video game collectors.

The game itself has a time limit of just 6 minutes and 21 seconds and consists of three short segments from other NES games: Super Mario Bros., Tetris, and Rad Racer. Players are scored according to their performance in each game, and their scores are totaled once the time limit expires. Doesn't sound too riveting to us, but then somehow we doubt Hendricks is in it for the gameplay.

And while $17,500 might seem a bit much for a collection of ones and zeroes, Hendricks actually got a bargain: the game was originally listed on eBay for a cool $25,000.

It is a fucking NINTENDO CARTRIDGE!! Even if there are only 26, why was such a thing even worth such a price? If it was an interesting collectible or rare item, then sure.. But a Nintendo game? This guy is seriously off his rocker. I would never get any fulfillment from doing something so ludicrous.

Anyway, anyone ever see any other gaming accessories go for such wild prices as this?

I don't get how things like this become this valuable.   I mean it's not like it is a particularly worthwhile game to have considering that it is just a short snippet of a few games.  There may have been only 26 of these made, but if it is just some terrible gaming-contest game that nobody would play outside of when it was originally made, why would it become valuable?

JJ Hendricks is just Walter Day's pseudonym

Aphex Twin bought this obscure Yamaha synthesizer that costs $60,000 and supposedly there's only 100 of them in existence and only 13 outside of Japan, but at least he probably makes use of it and it has some reason to become a collector's item (ABBA and Stevie Wonder used it, and some other people I dunno go on the Wikipedia page)

that's different though, as that is something that you can use for a practical purpose.   Same thing with like buying antique furniture or something.   The difference with these items is that they are valuable and are usable for an actual purpose.  This,however  is just LOL GAMES

Didn't someone else do this (with the same game) just a couple years ago, for a similar price?

that's different though, as that is something that you can use for a practical purpose.   Same thing with like buying antique furniture or something.   The difference with these items is that they are valuable and are usable for an actual purpose.  This,however  is just LOL GAMES

well I was saying even if you didn't plan on using the GX-1, you can understand where the value comes from because a lot of famous people used it and it's so rare it might be THE one such and such used. (like Aphex Twin might have Stevie Wonder's old GX-1 etc.) It's like if you bought such-and-such's guitar, of course it's going to be worth something, but yeah I don't understand what makes these games so valuable

http://media1.break.com/dnet/media/2009/6/60%20Nintendo%20Power.jpg rare copy of NES game once owned by this guy

like I can understand some video game nerd being crazy enough to pay/ask that much but how does it increase in value like is there a book for this stuff like baseball cards

People collect all sorts of shit, if you are really into collecting games I don't see how this is any worse than putting tons of money into any other type of collection.

I wish this was at least some cool prototype like Earthbound Zero or Mother 3 for N64 or something well really Earthbound is the only cool game series ever

well maybe also all the Resident Evil 2.5's, 3.5's that you can find videos of, if they exist somewhere as a physical game

Edit: extremely rare copy of black pac-man

well I was saying even if you didn't plan on using the GX-1, you can understand where the value comes from because a lot of famous people used it and it's so rare it might be THE one such and such used. (like Aphex Twin might have Stevie Wonder's old GX-1 etc.) It's like if you bought such-and-such's guitar, of course it's going to be worth something, but yeah I don't understand what makes these games so valuable

http://media1.break.com/dnet/media/2009/6/60%20Nintendo%20Power.jpg rare copy of NES game once owned by this guy

like I can understand some video game nerd being crazy enough to pay/ask that much but how does it increase in value like is there a book for this stuff like baseball cards

yea i totally see the whole thing that if somebody famous owned it being valuable but who famous owned/used this specific cartridge

People collect all sorts of shit, if you are really into collecting games I don't see how this is any worse than putting tons of money into any other type of collection.

but even in collecting games it can make sense if its like some out of print game or some uncensored or banned version of a game but this is just a snippet of a bunch of other games together  and that doesn't seem like it would anything worthwhile considering it isn't original content/valubale content.  (unless I am interpreting the contents of this cartridge wrong )

Well I mean it is rare because there are only a handful of copies, why is this so weird to you?  IIRC there's some sort of NES thing that's not even a game that's incredibly rare, I feel like it's something similar to the cartridge cleaner thing they had.  It's like any other thing, if there's only a few in the world it is a hard thing to get into a collection, and so you have to pay a lot for it.  Rare = collectable, that's all.

Also I don't see how you don't consider this out of print.  It's about as out of print as you can get.  Why shouldn't this count?  Should only good games count for a collection?  That's not how collecting works.

So you think it's okay to buy something just because a celebrity but buying an extremely rare game THAT IS GOING TOO FAR!
Seriously, I don't get your point.  You don't like it because it's not something you'd want to play?  Have you ever watched Antique Roadshow?  Who uses that stuff for its original purpose!  They buy it because they like it.

i'm not contesting that this item is rare or out of print or anything like that it just boggles me that VIDEO GAME demo disk can be something people would want to collect let alone pay money for, let alone this much money for. 

also


there is a burger in las vegas that goes for like 770$

it's a burger

._.

is it the ribwich

I get the whole thing with that this guy is a collector and yes that games could and are something that people collect and would be desirable to do so.  I am not trying to see either that things have to have a practical purpose to be collected either.   I do think though for something to become a collectors item in the first place it has to be something that was originally desirable, and I don't see how this was originally desirable in the first place considering that well who wants a dumb ol' demo?

it's desirable because there's only a few of them which means only a few people will get to have it in their collection why are you struggling with this????  it is desirable SOLELY because not many people get to have it