Retro-gaming seems to be in, at least judging by the fact that someone just purchased a copy of Nintendo World Championships 1990 cart for $21,400 at myebid.

There were only 116 copies ever made and just 26 of them were of the gold variation and these are considered the Holy Grail of Nintendo collectibles. The game belonged to a father of a soldier killed in Iraq who didn't realise the value so put the initial price to $24, $1 per game sold on the auction.

uh. that's nuts.

And if he had put it on Ebay instead he would probably have made even more. Some fanboys can be quite crazy...

Nice to know that there still are people having money to burn!

The nice thing about it is the father having no clue about the possible value. I think a dollar for each game is a fare price so I'm starting the bidding at $24. On the other hand, not being able to spell fair, maybe there are other issues.

Maybe he was planning a trip somewhere?

It would be interesting to know if this man's son actually knew how much this cart was worth.

Well, the buyer certainly didn't.

Come on, it's just a bloody game! Aren't there laws against this kind of behaviour?

Well, it's better than buying Elton John's underwear for 100000 bucks :-/ Some collectors are totally insane... and some of them simply have too much money. 21000 dollars, holy cow! To think what you could buy with all this money... You could buy over 25000 of those tasty spicy meat+potatoes+rice meals I'm going to order soon from a local restaurant. Supposing you eat three of such meals per day, you shouldn't be worrying about getting hungry for more than 25 years!!

Though you may not live that long. It's not a very well balanced diet.

LOL, it shouldn't necessarily be that dish, what I meant was that every dish costs less than 1 dollar in cheaper restaurants here, you could eat different things every day and still live 25 years for that money :)

With food that cheap, it isn't no real surprise China is so populated!

This food isn't cheap for an average Chinese guy who earns 200 bucks per month...

He'd be turning in his grave.

It'll be a nice surprise for the father I assume. Not that I think that any money in the world can make up the loss of his son, mind you.

I am very glad that it sold for a lot of money. If this guy just lost his son in Iraq it would have been a terrible tragedy to lose the game for a dollar. I mean, nothing like a shock when you discover you sold your dead son's priceless treasure for a couple of bucks.

There is no reason why a Nintendo game should sell for 21 400 dollars, dead son or not.

No, dead son definitely makes it. Better a grieving father than a raging jackass.

And for the true NES tech geeks out there, here is what the sacred cartridge looks like on the inside:

http://www.tripoint.org/kevtris/mappers/nes_custom/NES_EVENT.html

At least I think it's interesting. :-)

Yes, that's about 10€ worth of components.

I believe this was a fake auction, but I'll never know if that's true or not.