In the world of ridiculous collector’s items there are a few well-known goods that anyone who is a true collector has to have. A suped up 1966 Corvette might fetch a good deal of money or possibly even an original work by Thomas Heart Benton. In the world of video games one of the rarest items is a golden NES cartridge known as the Nintendo World Championships.
26 of these cartridges were made for a sweepstakes in Nintendo Power in the early 1990s. The prize was a gold (spray paint) edition of the grey cartridge given to winners of the actual Nintendo Championship. According to Wikipedia, the gold version is considered by game enthusiasts to be the “Holy Grail of video games” as only 12 have ever surfaced of that original 26 (How many mothers threw out or sold their son’s cartridge at a yard sale for a couple dollars?).
JJ Hendricks recently paid $17,500 on one of the 26 cartridges. Typically, a gold copy of Nintendo World Championships goes for around $25,000 so technically JJ got a deal(?). He has written up a response to the month-long tide of emotions that went into the fine art of selling used, golden video game cartridges.
The next day, June 12th, I [JJ Hendricks] email him saying we have a contract and I will not accept his cancellation. He calls me 15 minutes later apologizing repeatedly saying he felt really bad the rest of the night because he felt like he had cheated me too. He says he will ship it that night via FedEx overnight with guaranteed 8AM delivery. I’m a bit skeptical but double check he has the correct address and pray for the best.
That night FedEx emails with a tracking number again. 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours go by with no cancellation email. I refresh the tracking page on FedEx about 100 hundred times and finally it shows it was actually picked-up. I might finally get the game!
The next morning at 7:30AM the FedEx man comes to the door. I’m holding my 7 week old baby, probably have a ridiculously big smile on my face, and sign for the package. I quickly open everything up half expecting some other problem.
Nintendo World Championships Gold is neatly packaged inside with a custom built display case and looks just as good as I imagined it would. I have the “Holy Grail of Gaming” and the emotional ride is finally over.
After reading his account one gets a sense that his seven-week-old kid is either going to have an awesome childhood or be completely neglected by a dad spending his Friday nights trying to buy a copy of Kizuna Encounter.
For a list of the top 20 rarist video games see The Holy Grails of Console Gaming.
Sources: How one man spent $17,500 on a video game (Kotaku), JJ Hendricks’ Account
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