A sealed copy of 1987’s “The Legend of Zelda” — which sold more than 6 million copies and spawned one of the most iconic video game franchises of all time — will be hitting the auction block this week.
The seller, a 22-year-old from California who goes by Kiro, and did not want us to use his full name for privacy reasons, tells CNBC Make it that the vintage game was in his family ever since it was purchased at now-defunct Fedco for $29.87 in 1987 — a figure equivalent to just over $80 today.
Kiro was no stranger to selling stuff online: he had made a few hundred bucks selling things like sneakers and Barbie dolls on eBay. But when he researched his “Zelda” game, he figured he’d be able to make a bit more than that.
“I looked at price history and thought ‘Oh, maybe at most I’ll get like $17,000 or $20,000 if I’m lucky,'” he says.
He put up the listing one night this past October and set the Buy It Now price at $17,000. Within minutes, his game had sold.
“I was like ‘Yo, this is wild. There’s no way I just sold it that fast,'” he tells Make It. A few minutes after that, another offer came in. He was soon fielding bids from a number of eager buyers.
“Multiple people were messaging me on eBay right away,” he says. “One guy offered to drive down to where I was and give me $30,000 cash.”
Kiro quickly canceled the sale and took down his listing, realizing that he probably had something special on his hands.
That same night, he received a message from a collector who asked him if he’d be open to a phone call. The collector explained that Kiro’s copy of “Zelda” was an extremely rare unit from the game’s very first production run.
The fact that the item was still sealed made it the “holy grail” for video game collectors. In fact, the last time a first production run of “Zelda” was for sale, it went for $705,000, making it one of the most expensive video games ever sold.
The collector offered to put Kiro in touch with a grading service and an auction house specializing in…
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