A copy of Stadium Events for the Nintendo Entertainment System has just sold for $35,000. This is approximately the same price as a very nicely equipped Nissan Altima. However, if you choose the Nissan, you get a lovely family sedan, while if you choose the game you get a somewhat terrible old game that nobody in their right might would ever want to play. Welcome to the world of game collecting.
Most collectors seem to buy things based on merit. For example, a million dollar Ferrari might seem completely insane to most people, but the car has historic value, is beautiful and is quite fast for the era. It is worth money because it is good. In the world of game collection, actual quality does not matter that much. Stadium Events isn’t a very good game, a gimmick-laden track and field simulator notable largely because it used a big pad to simulate running. It’s a fun idea, but that didn’t make the game itself fun. Which does not matter anyway, because the game will never actually be played, since it will be sealed in a box forever.
At least if you never drive a multi-million dollar Ferrari you can look at it, and it will brighten your day by being gorgeous. If you buy a valuable painting, you can look at it, and it will enhance the atmosphere of whatever room you put it in, even if that room is a vault because the painting is too valuable to ever grace a mere wall. Look at Stadium Events, you have an illustration of two goofy-looking guys running, a shot of the game itself, on a silver background, with a very cluttered pile of text completing what might be the nadir of ‘80s visual design. As a work of art, it isn’t one.
So why is it so valuable? So why did someone pay more than a really quite nice new car to own this useless trinket? Well, it’s rare. That’s it, that is the entire reason for its popularity. The game was produced in extremely low numbers, and then it was recalled because Bandai, which made the game, reached a deal with Nintendo to release it under Nintendo branding as World Class Track Meet. This means that an incredibly small number of copies exist, sources estimating numbers as low as 20. Of course, if you just want to play it, millions of copies exist, because World Class Track Meet is the exact same thing in a different box. You don’t want to play it, because it has not aged well.
It is worth money just because it’s rare. This would be like someone paying a million dollars for an ‘80s Nissan Van, which was recalled because they tended to set themselves on fire. Nobody wants the extremely rare and surprisingly flammable Van, because it has nothing going for it beyond rarity. Yet if it was a game, it would be highly sought after.
Rarity is always going to be a big part of collecting, it’s the law of supply and demand. Small numbers of something that people want is going to cause prices to go up. In this case, supply actually causes demand. You can’t give away World Class Track Meet, because nobody cares. If Stadium Events wasn’t rare, there would be no demand for it at all. Nobody actually wants to play it, least of all the people who put a down-payment of a nice house down to possess it. It is a situation where rarity itself is its own reward.
