Why your old video games may be worth millions
Most collectors were simply “nostalgic” for their childhood games, Dillon explained in a video interview. “There was no idea that games could become artifacts of the past that we want to conserve and preserve.”
A copy of “The Legend of Zelda” became the most expensive video game when it sold for $870,000 at auction last month — but the record stood for just two days. Credit: Courtesy Heritage Auctions
The market for vintage games is rapidly evolving, with auction houses taking notice and game-grading services, like Wata Games, providing certification for the emerging market. (Wata had given the record-breaking Mario game a near-perfect score of 9.8 out of 10, based on the condition of the box, cartridge and manual). An expert nod of approval can now transform a yard sale copy of “Pokémon” into an investment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Cultural artifacts
Collecting is not just Dillon’s hobby, it’s also part of his job. He’s the founder and curator of Singapore’s James Cook University Museum of Video and Computer Games, which charts the sector’s evolution through a 400-strong collection of game memorabilia.
Retro video games have become a kind of modern relic, Dillon said — one intertwined with nostalgia, pop culture and technological history.
“They really show us how technology evolves with the kinds of tastes that we had years ago in gaming,” he said.
A customer buys newly released “Pokemon” games in 1999 in Tokyo. Credit: Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images
But not everyone who held onto their old Nintendo or Sega titles will be sitting on a fortune. Many factors dictate the value of a video game, from the number of units produced and the region the game was released in, to whether the cartridge comes in its original box with all the manuals intact.
The “holy grails” are unopened, shrink-wrapped early editions of iconic titles. “If you open it, the value of the game halves,” Dillon explained.
The emergence of professional grading and classification has transformed the space, making it easier for buyers to assess the condition of their purchases. And while game collecting was, in the past, a hobby confined to eBay, Reddit, Facebook groups and forums, interest…
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