Atari 2600 Holy Grail finally arrives

batari · 02-04-2010 3:50pm #1

And you thought Stadium Events for the Nes went for crazy money at $14000? wait 'til you see this badboy end!
While only a few Air Raid carts have ever turned up, a box for it has never been seen, the only 'evidence' of one being people claiming to remember one back in the day.

And then this happens.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110514343174

If I win the Lotto this weekend, I'm definitely throwing my name in the hat for this.
Been keeping tabs on the story for a few days now, it can be found here:

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/160607-my-air-raid-auction-update/

:pac:

o1s1n · 02-04-2010 4:05pm

Did you not see the sealed Stadium events that sold for $41,300 in Feb? Most expensive game ever!

This should be an interesting auction. I only ever saw one Air Raid on ebay unboxed and I think it went for about $8000.

batari · 02-04-2010 4:19pm

Got my numbers mixed up, happens to me all the time

Yea I'm tempted to put a bid on it now while it's still early, just to say I stuck a bid on it!

o1s1n · 02-04-2010 4:23pm

Yay! Bid on it! If you win you'd better invite us all over to have a look

Have they verified if the box is real or not? I mean with a Sealed Stadium events you can compare it pretty easily to images of an existing copy.

But this is the only one. Whoever wins it will be taking some gamble.

batari · 02-04-2010 4:32pm

Oh it's gone crazy on AA with the whole timing (April 1st), there's a bit of a history of bad April Fools jokes on the Site; but I'm in the BELIEVE Camp. Especially now it's April 2nd and the auction is still on.

BELIEVE!:pac:

Albert, the Creator and main dude of Atariage, has checked it over and reckons it's the real deal. But even he's been behind April Fool's jokes before.

Plus he lives in the same State as the owner. Ya wouldn't want to be the sceptical type putting a bid on this!

Myrddin · 02-04-2010 5:21pm

Humbug I tell ya

Seriously though, he discovered he stored the box for the game seperately, and the box just happens to be in mint condiiton? If it is real its an astonishing find...just seems to weird to be true

CiDeRmAn · 02-04-2010 6:27pm

There is something quaint about rolling your pointer over the thumbnails and seeing the difference between the box art and the actual game, makes you thankful of gaming in the 21st century!

batari · 02-04-2010 6:31pm

Yes Cider, but this is the Arcade/Retro forum?!

Myrddin · 02-04-2010 8:04pm

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

There is something quaint about rolling your pointer over the thumbnails and seeing the difference between the box art and the actual game, makes you thankful of gaming in the 21st century!

Box hater

batari · 04-04-2010 10:22pm

$11,000 people!!! Go Atari :pac:

batari · 04-04-2010 11:59pm

Damn! Had a bid in for $11,400, just got outbid for $11,500...

Thank fcuk for that:cool:

o1s1n · 05-04-2010 12:00pm

Hah! Man you must be crazy. :pac: Talk about instant buyers remorse.

'OMFG I OWN THE ONLY BOXED AIR RAID!!!.'

/high five & happy dance

/reality starts to dawn

...

'Oh crap'

/close ebay account and run very far away.

batari · 11-04-2010 2:03pm

Well, it's over and finished at $31,600! The highest selling non-sealed game in video game history(?)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110514343174

Here's the last minute or so of the auction. Amazing to see it double with like five seconds to go!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zDoKY9QJJU

:pac:GO ATARI:pac:

o1s1n · 11-04-2010 2:54pm

Mother of god.

That wasn't you was it? Tell me it was you :pac:

Skid · 11-04-2010 3:03pm

Apparently the seller only realised the value of his game after reading an article about it last month ...

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/52521

batari · 11-04-2010 3:28pm

o1s1n wrote: »

Mother of god.

That wasn't you was it? Tell me it was you :pac:

I wish

No the winner is a guy from AA, Wonder007 or something like that. He's hoping to open an Atari Museum at some time in LA. Now that would be cool.:pac:

o1s1n · 11-04-2010 4:08pm

SkidMark wrote: »

Apparently the seller only realised the value of his game after reading an article about it last month ...

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/52521

It's always the way isn't it? Some lucky git who doesn't know anything about games ends up having the motherload in their basement.

atariman wrote: »

I wish No the winner is a guy from AA, Wonder007 or something like that. He's hoping to open an Atari Museum at some time in LA. Now that would be cool.:pac:

Cool! Glad to see it might be on public display and isn't going into a black hole never to be seen again.

Dark Savior · 11-04-2010 4:24pm

atariman wrote: »

Well, it's over and finished at $31,600! The highest selling non-sealed game in video game history(?)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110514343174

Here's the last minute or so of the auction. Amazing to see it double with like five seconds to go!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zDoKY9QJJU

:pac:GO ATARI:pac:

Thats class,I wish all ebay auctions played the final countdown in the last minute

o1s1n · 11-04-2010 4:32pm

Dark Savior wrote: »

I wish all ebay auctions played the final countdown in the last minute

Yeah I was singing along with that myself. Really got into it!

They should either have that or the countdown music.

Dih duh, dih duh, duh duh duhhhhhhh BONG.

ntlbell · 11-04-2010 9:58pm

So was it actually the real deal or not?

After watching that thread I still haven't figured it out.

that's a crazy amount of money.

Has anyone here played the game? is it any good?

Jack burton · 11-04-2010 10:04pm

o1s1n wrote: »

Yeah I was singing along with that myself. Really got into it!

They should either have that or the countdown music.

Dih duh, dih duh, duh duh duhhhhhhh BONG.

Well I have my download manager set up to play this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoF3Ylcze68

When all my downloads finish so ebay is the next step with the final countdown

batari · 11-04-2010 10:16pm

ntlbell wrote: »

Has anyone here played the game? is it any good?

Yea, just download Stella to play 2600 Roms, and you'll have no problem finding any game you want on the net.

It's pretty crappy to be honest, doesn't have anything to keep you playing. Spaceships keep falling from the sky, you gotta move left and right to shoot them before they get to the bottom, dodging their bullets.
Most of the rare 2600 games are notorious for being crappy. I think that works with rare games on most systems, doesn't it? They're crap, nobody wanted them, so they're all thrown out and become mega rare.

All except E.T. of course :pac:

weeder · 12-04-2010 6:22pm

haha bet he thought it was going to stay around 14k with a minute left and went off to do somthing else and came back and nearly died at 30k:D

Zombrex · 13-04-2010 1:45pm

aren't we a funny species? :pac:

It is like the property boom, people buy it at such a ridiculous price not because it has actual tangable value, but simply because other people think it is worth a lot.

Would hate to be the person owning this when the music stops and he finds himself with a chair.

o1s1n · 13-04-2010 1:57pm

Wicknight wrote: »

aren't we a funny species? :pac:

It is like the property boom, people buy it at such a ridiculous price not because it has actual tangable value, but simply because other people think it is worth a lot.

Would hate to be the person owning this when the music stops and he finds himself with a chair.

In this case it's not so much people thinking it's worth a lot as it is a supply and demand thing. There are a lot of big 2600 collectors out there, some of which have lots of money.

Something like this comes up that is extremely rare and unheard of. There hasn't been another boxed copy of this discovered. Ever. It was so unheard of that nobody even knew what the box looked like. Or if one even existed at all.

To make matters even more interesting, the cart design is extremely odd. Nobody knows what the hell that handle thing was for. Maybe somewhere in the box explains it... we're getting up to mythical levels now..

Anyway, all those things combined, how could a big collector with reams of cash say no?! I know if I was a millionare I'd be bidding along with them

The only way it'll ever drop in value is if a warehouse full of them is found. Which is highly unlikely.

marco_polo · 16-04-2010 2:01am

Anyone else think the last gast bump of $14000 over the second last bid was a little bit excessive to secure the win?

batari · 16-04-2010 8:21am

o1s1n wrote: »

The only way it'll ever drop in value is if a warehouse full of them is found. Which is highly unlikely.

Maybe not a Warehouse full, but they're starting to appear on eBay now:

http://cgi.ebay.com/AIR-RAID-CARTRIDGE-VERY-RARE-ATARI-2600-GAME-R10_W0QQitemZ300417876289QQcmdZViewItemQQptZVideo_Games_Games?hash=item45f24d0141

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170472271464
Reserve not met.

Plus the chancers:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300417401418

marco_polo wrote: »

Anyone else think the last gast bump of $14000 over the second last bid was a little bit excessive to secure the win?

Well if ya want something bad enough you put in a max bid to make sure you get it. I'd say Wonder007 had a max bid of something like $50,000 to be sure he won.

o1s1n · 16-04-2010 11:50am

atariman wrote: »

Maybe not a Warehouse full, but they're starting to appear on eBay now

Bah, I meant boxed copies. The game is only worth a few grand. The box is what's worth $20,000+.

I spit on unboxed copies! :pac:

batari · 16-04-2010 12:21pm

The seller was interviewed for local TV. I guess this pretty much confirms that it's the real deal.

http://www.myfoxaustin.com/dpp/top_stories/41410-Atari-Video-Game-Sold-for-31K

Atari 2600 Holy Grail finally arrives

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