After finding a 30-year-old unopened Nintendo Entertainment System game at his attic, 40-year-old Scott Amos was able to sell a copy of “Kid Icarus” for $9,000, including the buyer’s premium in an auction.
In a report published by CNN, Amos’ mom was asking him to take his childhood stuff outside her attic in Reno, Nevada after he moved out over 20 years ago.
According to Amos, he found the rare unopened copy of “Kid Icarus” which was still in a JCPenney bag with a receipt showing its purchase date in December 1988 when he was just 9 years old and was bought for $38.45 with taxes and fees.
Amos said: “Our only theory is that it was a Christmas present my mom bought for us and never actually gave to us.”
Amos then contacted Wata Games, a Denver company that grades the condition of video games for collectors and found that the game is more valuable than he thought.
Wata Games CEO Deniz Kahn said: “He provided me some photos, and I said, ‘what you have there is something special, and it’s worth a pretty good chunk of change if it’s authentic.'”
After undergoing authentication, Wata rated the game as real and in great shape despite being at the attic for decades. The copy’s box condition was also rated an 8 out of 10 and the wrapper as an A with A++ as the highest grade.
Kahn connected Amos with Heritage Auctions where the game was sold.
“‘Kid Icarus’ is one of those really iconic titles for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Finding a sealed copy in the wild is very difficult. It’s nigh to impossible because there’s less than 10 known sealed that are in the hands of collectors currently, and we don’t suspect that there are very many, if any, [more] that are still sealed,” said Valarie McLeckie, video game consignment director at Heritage Auctions.
While Amos said that there had been debate among his family about the proceeds of the sale, they decided to split it 50/50. He also shared that they are planning to go on a Disney vacation and will be bringing their parents who originally bought the game.
(Photo source: edition-m.cnn.com)
