From BoingBoing comes the story of a old Nintendo NES system and five games selling for $13,105 on eBay on February 10, 2010. It turns out it wasn’t the system that sparked the bidding war, but one of the games – an obscure title from Bandai called Stadium Events.

Mike Smith from Yahoo Games reports that “it wasn’t even the game itself that was worth the bulk of the money – it was the original cardboard box, which collectors value at a breathtaking $10,000.”

Apparently collectors consider it to be one of the hardest-to-find NES games ever made, as fewer than 10 complete copies of the game are thought to exist.

The seller, who at first wasn’t aware of why the auction was attracting such avid interest posted the item description as:
“Up for auction is an original Nintendo NES gaming system with 1 hand control. There are 5 games with it. They are, Family & Fitness Stadium Events in the original box with the dust jacket inside of the box, Major League Baseball in the original box with the dust jacket inside of the box, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 the arcade game in the original box with the dust jacket inside of the box, Super Mario 3 in the original box with the dust jacket inside of the box and the original game, Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt. I have had this stored in the closet for years for my kids to play but the way that electronics come & go and change from one year to the next they wanted all of the new hot items of their own now and now it’s time to get rid of things that are no longer being used or wanted. This system worked perfect when i stored it but somehow over the years, we have managed to misplace the AC cord & the television hook up. I am listing this and selling without hook up but it I find them, i’ll send them along with the rest at no additional charges to you. Please keep in mind though that any AC cord will work with this and the hook up from a VCR would hook it up just as well as the original cords!”

UPDATE: After this story was published two weeks ago, it inspired a gentleman to check through the collection of games in his basement that were slated for a Goodwill donation. From Plugged In on Yahoo Games comes the following:

Rare Nintendo game is $40,000 windfall – Plugged In – Yahoo! Games

Rare Nintendo game is $40,000 windfall
by Mike Smith
Buzz up!

February 26 8:46 P.M.
Stadium Events

“This rare game sold for $41,300.

Impressed by the story of the North Carolina eBay seller who stumbled upon an ultra-rare, $13,000 Nintendo game? So were we — and so was Kansas reader Dave, who headed for his basement to see if there was video game gold lurking down there.

“We had quite a collection (185+ games) that has sat in our basement for over 20 years,” Dave told Y! Games. “The games were on a list to be brought to Goodwill – in fact, within a month, Goodwill was going to have them.”

To his astonishment, not only did he find a copy of the same game that just fetched over $13,000 on eBay — highly sought-after collector’s item Stadium Events — it was in perfect condition, right down to the original shrinkwrapping and Richard Gordman pricetag. (A mere $29.99, if you’re wondering.)”

Wow!

Interested in other collectible video games? Check out Video Game Price Charts.