NES Rarity Stadium Events Sells For A Record Amount After Being Found At A Thrift Shop

If you’re at all into classic video game collecting, you no doubt familiar with Stadium Events. The rarest officially released NES game, a copy of Stadium Events will set you back thousands of dollars. Mania over Stadium Events peaked during the late 2000s, with prices falling somewhat since then, but the game is back in the news in a big way, as somebody has just sold a factory-sealed version of the game for a record-setting amount on eBay.

The game’s seller, who goes by Joe Shmoe on YouTube, got the game as a random gift from his mom, who had no idea what it was when she found it in a New York thrift shop:

“My mum always buys things for me, and she thought that Stadium Events might be something that I would like, probably would open it up and play it. She knows I like video games, and I would be happy if this had no value. I’d say thanks Mum, but at the same time this one did have value.”

For those not up on your video game rarities, Stadium Events was made by Bandai for use with the Family Fun Fitness mat, which was essentially an early unsuccessful take on the DDR mat or Wii Balance Board. That alone would have made the game rare, but shortly after Stadium Events‘ release, Bandai recalled the game and reissued it as World Class Track Meet. At best, only a few hundred copies of Stadium Events made it to stores, but it was an official release, which increases its cache over most other NES oddities. If you can find a copy that’s still sealed in its original box? Then you’re really set.

The Holy Grail

Previously, a sealed version of Stadium Events sold for $41,300 in 2010, which was the most anybody had paid for a single video game at the time. Well, that’s now been topped, with this most recent Stadium Events auction fetching a whopping $42,077.

So yeah, if your mom is into thrift shopping, maybe have her keep an eye out for random NES sports games. You’ll probably just get a dozen copies of Konami’s Track & Field and Tecmo Bowl, but who knows?

[via Kotaku]