Huge video game collection sold on eBay for more than $1.2 million
A French video game collector just sold a collection of thousands of video games on eBay for more than $1.2 million.
The collection includes every video game for many of Nintendo’s consoles, every video game for every single Sega console as well as all the games for the lesser-known NEC video game systems. In total, the collection includes 22 full sets with about 7,000 video games.
The seller is a 32-year-old man named Andre who lives in south France. Andre said he works in law and is constantly selling video games -- this collection just happened to be the biggest he’s ever sold.
Andre said he made it his mission to collect the entire sets of every Sega, Nintendo and NEC system, and he said he was able to achieve his goal. He then decided to go above and beyond.
“I perfected some full sets by getting every title of them factory sealed, just for the challenge of it,” he said in an email. “Some titles are extremely hard to come by brand new when they’re 25 years old. Now that the mission is complete, maybe it’s time to move on.”
The collection includes the rare Nintendo Virtual Boy and the short-lived Sega Dreamcast, complete with its about 550 games. But among the rarest items in the collection is a game called Go-Net for the Sega Mega Drive (known as the Genesisin the U.S.), which Andre said there are only two of on the planet. He also included the game Kunio-Kun Dodgeball Gold for the Super Famicom (which is the Japanese version of the Super Nintendo). Andre said only eight copies of Kunio-Kun Dodgeball Gold were ever produced.
“What was important was the completion of each full set, every game of all those systems, all complete in box with instructions, or even brand new factory sealed,” he said regarding how the rarity of the collection outweighs its size.
“Any good video game store could sell instantly a 20,000 games stock, and it wouldn’t approach such price,” Andre said, complete with a winking emoticon.
But despite having his collection cut down some 7,000 games, Andre assured me that he still has thousands of others he’ll be keeping for himself. He said he was a big time gamer until he was 25. He began putting together this particular collection 15 years ago.
“What I put on Ebay is just a part of my collection,” said Andre, whose favorite video game series is the “Ys” games. “I still do have thousands of other games that I didn’t put there.”
Andre said the big question now is whether or not he’ll actually get paid.
He’s owed exactly $1,230,699.99 along with a shipping cost of $1,230.70, but if he does get his money, Andre said the rare collection is heading to Canada. If not, he has backup plans.
“If the payment doesn’t come, I’ll probably list [it] again on eBay, or on Japanese auction [sites], but maybe I’ll split it by selling each [full set] separately,” he said. “We’ll see in time.”
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