It appears the art of thrift shopping is not without its fringe benefits.
A North Carolina woman uncovered a gamer’s gold mine when she purchased an old Nintendo game for $7.99 at her local Goodwill.
The game was Stadium Events, released in 1987. The game was premiered to a test market in North America but later pulled after Nintendo bought the rights to its Family Fun Fitness mat which became the prototype for Nintendo’s Power Pad.
“This was found here in Charlotte for basically nothing! This game in this condition can go for 15k+. I nearly fainted and was too dazzled to make a legitimate offer. She will be getting it VGA graded and you might see it on eBay sometime soon. I’m humbled to have even laid hands on it. Don’t lose hope game hunters, the gems are still out there!” (Facebook)
The woman made her way to Save Point Video Games, a retailer in Charlotte, N.C., to see if she could grab a decent price on her prize.
Owner Wilder Hamm couldn’t contain himself when she revealed it.
“Oh my God!” he told gamer blog Kotaku. “She knew exactly what she had.”
Saving the best for last, the woman revealed the game after presenting 10-Yard Fight and The Karate Kid as smaller gems.
“Normally in this business we try not to show our cards,” Hamm said. “We’re not in the business of ripping people off but you show that kind of excitement, they start expecting a mountain of money.”
Anyhow, Hamm had to turn her away since the store did not have enough money to purchase it outright. He did offer to sell the game on consignment but the women wanted keep all the proceeds herself.
In 2010 a sealed copy of the game went for $41,300 on Ebay. That’s a lot of proceeds.
