Old video games have reached the point of being collectibles  What used to be a fun family activity has become a gold mine for collectors. Sure, there are plenty of NES games that you can pick up for a dollar, and they are still fun to play, but there are some games that are worth absolutely insane dollar amounts. Some games are so valuable that they cost substantially more than most cars. Personally, I cannot imagine spending that kind of money for a video game, but I can certainly imagine selling one if I had one sitting in my closet.

Imagine opening your closet and finding a video game that could be worth $70,000. Imagine finding one and not knowing its value and selling it at a garage sale for a couple bucks. It’s easy to not realize that some games are worth big bucks and some are worth next to nothing. Mario 3 is an amazing game, but it’s so common that you can grab one for under ten dollars.

The games I am going to talk about today are ones most people have never heard of, and ones they might assume have no value. Maybe you should look through your old video game collection and see if you have one of these sitting around (and then sell it to me for really, really cheap).

Stadium Events

A used copy of stadium events usually sells for over $2000. Of course, that’s if you can even find a copy available, and as of this writing, there are none. However, there is a new copy on eBay selling for $70,000. No, I did not include a couple extra zeros in there. What else can you get for $70,000? How about a brand new BMW M3 convertible.

So why is this game so expensive? There are only 200 copies of the game known in existence. Nintendo bought the rights from Bandai and remade the game as World Class Track Meet. Because of this, finding one of these games is considered the holy grail for NES collectors. Don’t confuse it with the PAL version though. While the PAL version is still valuable, it sells for more like $1000 for a sealed copy.

Nintendo World Championships

This game was never released at retail, and it is worth an obscene amount of money. They were given away at  a Nintendo  tournament in 1990, and there are only 90 known to have existed. This is not one you will find in your closet, but you never know, you could stumble on one at your local yard sale.

There is also a gold version of the cartridge, but those are nearly impossible to find. They have sold for close to $20,000, while the gray version goes for closer to $10,000. As these were given out as prizes, there are no new copies available. Both carts features minigames designed to test the skills of the gamers in the tournament. If you ever stumble across one of these, consider yourself the king of video game collectors.

Myriad 6-in-1

During the heyday of the NES, developers often released carts without getting Nintendo approval, and most of them were utter garbage, and have little to no value in today’s market. Myriad 6-in-1 is one of few exceptions. A new copy can easily pull over $5,000 and a used copy can often go for around $1,000.

This collection of six games in one cartridge has about 100 of them floating around out there in the world. The rest of the copies were purchased by Caltron and rebranded as Caltron 6-in-1. Caltron’s version also has some value, but it’s in the hundreds, not thousands like Myriad’s version. Also, the games on this cart are terrible, so don’t go seeking this one out for fun gameplay value.

Flintstones: The Surprise at Dinosaur Peak!

This game has seen some serious market fluctuation over its history. Since 2009, it has gone for as low as $110 and as high as $1300 for a used copy. New copies, while incredibly rare, have fetched well over $2000. Currently, you can find a used copy on Amazon for around $800, which is still a pretty penny for a tiny NES cart.

The game is rare because it was only released at Blockbuster Video, so it was not readily available at video game stores. For commercially available games, this is the second most valuable behind Stadium Events. If you one find of these sitting in your video game collection, consider yourself a lucky individual. (I’m fairly certain I had this game as a child, and sadly, I cannot find it now.)

Conclusion

These games are considered the holy grail for video game collectors. Owning one of these is something most collectors (myself included) only dream of. If you have one, please, preserve it, as they are only going to become rarer as time goes on.