A man in Reno (who was, based on early reports never shot by Johnny Cash for Cash’s own amusement) named Scott Amos was rummaging through the attic of his childhood home when he found a copy of Kid Icarus that turned out to be worth quite a lot of money at auction.
Released in 1986 for the NES, Kid Icarus is a fairly beloved NES game that nevertheless isn’t necessarily considered to be one of the rarest NES games ever made. That honor would go to games like Nintendo World Championship Gold and Stadium Events.
However, the Kid Icarus that Amos found happens to have not only been unopened but still sealed and resting alongside its original receipt. Amos recognized that a sealed NES game would likely be valuable to some collectors, but it wasn’t until he contacted some experts that he quickly realized that he had discovered something truly valuable.
As some of those experts have since pointed out, the value of this copy not only lies in the fact it was sealed and unopened (which drastically raises the value of any classic video games) but that it’s a true “in the wild” copy of the game that was discovered in such an organic way. So far as that goes, there’s some mystery as to how the game ended up in the attic in the first place. The most popular theory is that it was a Christmas present someone forgot to hand out, but Amos’ mother reportedly said “I paid $34.99 for a stupid video game?” in response to the find, which at least suggests she has no memory of ever purchasing it.
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Due to the game’s origin and condition, it later went on to be sold for $9,000. It’s now believed to be one of less than 10 such unopened and sealed copies in the known world. Amos said that he plans on splitting the money with his sister so that they can go on a vacation to Disney World.
While many people enjoy their NES Classics, finds like these make it clear that there will always be a market for proper original NES games as well as ways to turn some of the console’s hidden gems into cold cash.
Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014.
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