November 16, 2009 by Vinnie Leduc
Last week on 11-10-09, when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was busy breaking entertainment launch records the way The Dark Knight could only dream of, some video game called The Music Machine for a system I’ve never seen in real life (Atari 2600) was sold for the price of about 31 Prestige Editions (plus tax): $5,250.
According to AtariAge, the game was only sold in religious bookstores, is categorized as “unbelievably rare” (the maximum 10 out of 10), and was released in the year “n/a.” Yup, it’s so rare, people don’t even know its exact birthday, kinda like a Chinese gymnast or baseball player from the Dominican Republic. Assuming it was available sometime during the Atari 2600’s retail availability from 1977 to 1983, some eBayer kept it sealed and in pristine condition for over a quarter century before saying “DEAL”, pressing the red button, and flippin’ the bird to the banker giving Howie Mandel a fist pound. Cha-ching: + $5,250.
A recent study of analytical projections estimated that you only have to wait about half that time, 15 years, for your Halo 3: Legendary Edition to be worth that much (10 years if it’s still sealed). I made that last sentence up, so your poo-colored non-fitting Master Chief helmet is still worth as much as your pog collection: $4.20… maybe.
Click here to check out the actual auction page. Love the suggestions one of the potential bidders made to the seller. And I thought I was an anal collecting whore.
Last thing: dunno what the official record price for a video game is, but a few months ago an NES game that only has a playing time of 6:21 (minutes and seconds, not hours and minutes!) sold for $17,500.
UPDATE: Speaking of video games only being sold in religious bookstores, how about this? In the 21st century, religious books come to your video game console for the pithy tithe of $5.
