Nintendo game found in California attic sells for $9,000

From <https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/08/09/nintendo-game-found-in-california-attic-sells-for-9000/>

As a Mother’s Day gift this year, Scott Amos cleared out five boxes
of his childhood belongings from his mom’s Eureka home. “She had been bugging me for 15-plus years,” he said.

It turned out to be well worth his while.

Once Amos got home to Reno, he found among his old possessions one he didn’t remember: a sealed 1980s Nintendo game cartridge called “Kid Icarus,” still in a JC Penney bag with its receipt.

Given the game’s near-mint condition, he thought it might be worth
more than the $38.45 purchase price.

Last week, it sold at auction for $9,000.

As soon as Amos had contacted Heritage Auctions video game
consignment director Valarie McLeckie, she recognized the rarity of
the game.

“It was incredible,” said McLeckie. “For somebody to have found a
game that rare in that condition is just spectacular.”

That it had the original receipt only added to the value of Amos’ find.

“It had the catalog, the price sticker was still attached to the
game,” McLeckie said. “It was still in the same shopping bag. To find
a game with provenance that clear is very hard to come by.”

She estimated that fewer than 10 copies of the game still in the
original packaging are known to exist.

Amos, 40, has a theory about why the game was never opened: He thinks
his mom bought it as a Christmas present — the receipt is dated Dec.
6, 1988 — then hid it away from the prying eyes of children and
forgot to put it under the tree.
An unopened copy of “Kid Icarus” belonging to Scott Amos of Reno,
Nev. (Heritage Auctions via AP)

Amos was familiar with the game, though: “There was a kid down the
street with the same game. The one thing I remember was it’s really difficult.”

The game is very loosely based on the Greek myth of Icarus, who tried
to escape from Crete with wings made of feathers and wax but flew too
close to the sun. “As Kid Icarus, your mission is to find the
treasures, destroy Medusa and rescue Palutena from the depths of the
Palace in the Sky,” the game description on the back of the package
states.

Asked whether he would reimburse his mom, Amos said he had not
considered that, but he does plan to include her on a celebratory
vacation with his wife and two children.

“It’s just been such a fun experience,” Amos said Thursday. “We are planning a Disney vacation. So she’ll get to come along with that.”

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