Hundreds of sealed retro 90’s toys worth a million dollars

For game collectors and preservers, it’s a high score: hundreds of classic games, many of them, according to Video shot From the find, it appears to be factory sealed. Everything eventually sells out, and when it does, it can be scored as one of the largest, potentially north of seven figures.

The collection is an impressive franchise, and includes games from 3DO, Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, and of course, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). An eight-minute clip featuring the library was shown earlier this week, courtesy of games rooma three-point video game retailer based in Nebraska, whose owner, Chris Thompson, serves as the sales contact.

You’d think it was the kind of once-in-a-lifetime discovery that comes out of the blue and makes instant waves (and instant success on social media). But Thompson, in a phone interview with KotakuThe video, he said, goes back to last fall, before the holiday retail rush in Gameroom.

“An employee called me one night and said, like, ‘Chris, you’re not going to believe what just came in,'” Thompson said.

YOU MAY ALSO MAY NOT: A factory sealed copy of Mortal Kombat II For SNES, held by a guy who just wanted to get a rough sense of its value. (Apparently, the guy had a second match with him that was even more shocking than Mortal Kombat IIbut Thompson declined to explain what it was, noting that the owner requested anonymity throughout the process and that the game was a uniquely identifiable find.)

Thompson met the owner, who said he had plenty where he came from, leftovers of a video game store that closed in the mid-1990s. The two went back and forth for a while, and Thompson came up with an idea: He was shooting some stills, cutting a short video, and garnering some interest for the sale (and sure enough, for Gameroom’s youtube buddyvery).

“I got my camera out which I don’t really know how to use, and I’m afraid to set off on a game that’s worth more than my house, you know,” Thompson said. “So I get a bunch of shots and then we say goodbye.”

That was in December. Thompson just posted the video earlier this week. Since then, interest has skyrocketed. The original video currently has nearly 40,000 views. It’s covered by IGN.

However, Thompson acknowledged publishing some details hastily. The video is titled “Video Game Store Closed 1994 Stock found 27 years after factory sealed SNES Sega Genesis Saturn” (Focus Kotaku‘s). But some of the games on offer —Chrono player, for example, or “96 Sports” – was released in 1995, which led to some scrutiny. Some commentators described beans. Others have tried to use the wrong date to determine the exact location of the original store. (Thompson declined to provide the original the shop details for Kotaku.)

The specific year is beside the point: That total is worth a lot — likely much more than some initial estimates, which pegged it to “tens of thousands,” Chris Koehler, managing editor digital eclipseTell Kotaku By email. (Disclosure: Kohler was previously a feature editor at Kotaku.) Shrink-wrapped version of TMNT: Turtles in Time Recently sold for $38,400, Final Fantasy III for $36000, Chrono player For just under $20,000.

“I made a joke that everyone wants Chrono player …I have 40 different people saying, ‘I want Chrono player “And I can get you the bag full of cash,” Thompson said, noting how a sale of that volume would never happen.

Chrono player It is the largest, but the sprawl is full of other desirable finds such as Street Fighter II TurboAnd Eating zombies my neighborsAnd Castlevania: BloodlinesAnd Breath of Fire IIalong with no shortage of sports from the era: your maddens, your FIFAs. The vast majority seem to be factory sealed.

“There are just so many of them, while the group easily gets into the ‘hundreds of thousands’ range if it’s a penny, I think you also have the potential, once it’s all said and done, that you end up being a million dollars in the crazy market,” Kohler said. today”.

Classic games in mint condition have always had buyers, but in recent years there has been a drastic change in how certain records come to life. Just last year, a copy of 1987 the legend of zelda went for Almost $900,000. This was immediately followed by a copy of Super Mario 64 Sold for $1.5 million, once sold Taken into account in the 20 percent buyer’s premium. The market is crazy right now.

“I think we’re seeing these pull-ups pop up more and more because there are more video game sellers on YouTube now,” Koehler said. “The last generation of sellers tended to keep these things to themselves.”

The video may have generated some serious fanfare this week, but it’s only the beginning. Thompson said the clip does not refer to the full library, and estimates that what is shown publicly could be half of the total discovery, though he suggested that some games could be unlocked in the non-screened portion of the loading. He does factor in his interest, including some offers – perhaps not fully contemplated – in the million-dollar range, but he described them, frankly, as probably low. He has not yet cleared the entire group. He still has to document everything — beyond just an eight-minute camera-shaking snippet on YouTube. Then there is the matter of, oh, the classification of the entire group by a formal organization, such as Watta. All this takes time.

“There is a right way and a wrong way to do it,” Thompson said. “And frankly, what is more valuable than the things themselves is the historical significance.”