Dentist Snaps Up Collection Of Ultra Rare Retro Video Games For US$1.02 Million

"OHH MY GODDD...F'ING GUMSHOE AND MARIO BROS. IN GRADED HARD PLASTIC BOXES, LIFE IS COMPLETE!!!! I WILL DRILL YOUR KID'S TEETH INTO OBLIVION! Is it safe?"

That's what I get from his expression in that picture. >_>

You would think he would at least show his Pearly Whites in his smile

Well, I feel a lot better about my graphics card "splurge"

I might be in the minority here, but he got those cheap. Yeah holy crap a cool mil is a ton of money- but these items will only appreciate in value. Mario Bros 40 year anniversary is coming up- this set will probably have doubled in value by then. Imagine what they’ll be worth in 40 years. In a few months, 2060 will be closer to now than 1980. And if kept safe, by 2083 these games could go for deep in the 8 figures. Man what a find.

If any of his grandkids are gamers, they’re family will have some of the greatest video game heirlooms on the planet

I wouldn't be quite as excited when the grades are only 9.2.

Oh yeah! Well I paid $9 for Wizards and Warriors.

@ItsOKToBeOK

In 40 years the majority of gamers that have affinity for Original NES games will be in their 70s or 80s. At that time I can't see any of them interested in starting up an NES collection or wanting to drop a chunk of their retirement on a collection. By 2083 the majority of people that owned an NES in the 80s will be dead (including me). Younger kids grew up in a different time with different games so I don't see them valuing NES games the same as my generation. As a long time collector I stopped collecting a couple of years ago as I pretty much got all the games I wanted. Now I'm tired of storing many of the games that I'll never play and my priorities are changing. So I'm starting to widdle down my collection only aiming to keep only the games I really appreciated. Which is actually the goal I started collecting with before I got carried away. I think most gamers will hit a point in their life (like me) where owning games just to sit on a shelf isn't as important. Sealed games will always be rare, but their value is largely tied to the sentimental attachment. Over time that attachment will fade. I guess that's a long way to say that I disagree that sealed games will always appreciate in value.

I'm a retro collector and while it's great to have as nice copies as possible of certain games, I first and foremost collect older games to be able to play them. I have never understood collecting just to have it on display in ones home. Factory sealed stuff like this would be better suited in a museum.

But at least it's an investment for the future, or so we can hope. It's hard to tell which collector stuff will keep it's value. For example, I have heard that Elvis memorabilia has lost it's value because of a shrinking demand, which I guess has to do with the generation that grew up on Elvis is steadily going away.

Video games on the other hand are still popular. The question is how an all-digital future will affect the retro scene? Will newer generations be as interested in collecting dusty old NES cartridges as us growing up in the 80's and 90's? What happens when our generations are gone?

40 games at $1m is about $25,000 a game. That's not too bad. He could sell them separately for more, even right now.

He'll be able to trade these for water rations once the planet dies

Wait, dentists make millions of dollars now? I know they make good money but I thought it was like, 80k-120k a year.

Or did this guy actually just spend like 10 years of his income on video games?

@Heavyarms55 The guys probably been re-investing for years. Regardless, yeah it's a lot to spend on games.

40 Nintendo games carefully assembled over 52 years, huh? I don't get it

@Heavyarms55 Either way he's an idiot.

Must be a swiss dentist. Hole in the tooth? 2000chf pls. Single tooth implant? 5000chf pls. Dentists here could ez af buy up apple with a few patients.

@NintoRich I assume it means time combined by multiple parties.

@Heavyarms55 could be a business man. His money could be inherited or invested...

Congrats! And geta life btw

That's areally good price, i hope he is really happy.

If your significant other thinks you spend too much money on games, just show them this story.

I could think of a lot better stuff to do with that kind of money.

But each to their own like.
I suppose if you've got more money than that, why not?

The world Is a weird place.
We got people who can't even afford to cloth or feed themselves.
And then we have someone who can buy old Nes games fog $1.2 million.

I'm not critisising that guy, he's probably worked really hard to earn that.
I just think the world economic systems are crazy at times

@cleveland124 Yeah I always felt like NES collecting is really high priced right now because it's one of the first consoles that a whole generation grew up with and it seems to have made far more of a mark on the industry than the consoles before it. Problem is that it is pretty much only gen x'ers who have fond memories of owning one, everyone younger grew up with later consoles. It seems like it is always the people who grew up in the 80's that are willing to pay top dollar for NES related items. As a video game collector I never had any interest what so ever in collecting anything NES, it was before my time and I have zero sentimental attachment to that era so it was never even a consideration for me. Most of my classic gaming stuff is focused around the 90's and all of it is playable, I never saw the point of collecting sealed games just to keep them sealed forever, the whole appeal of video game collecting to me was being able to play them.

@ItsOKToBeOK I dunno, I can only see the value going down after a certain point. No time soon, but eventually.

We're currently in a time where 80's and 90's nostalgia is friggin' huge, NES games being a part of that to an extent. There's so much tat from the 80's/90's that is fetching a higher price than retail and it doesn't always equate to quality or significance. Once all the people who grew up in the 80's and 90's get old and we start dying off, do we really think the generation after us is going to have the same attachment to old games like this? Maybe to an extent since they grew up alongside us, but the interest is only ever going to go down after a point.

Remember, gaming didn't start with the NES, that's just where a lot of American's and other countries got their start with gaming, hence the most nostalgia. You know what SHOULD be more valuable and important? Something like the Magnavox Odyssey...Of which I can buy on ebay right now for about $200, fully tested and working, because anybody who remembers or cares about that thing is already 1 foot in the grave.

They're always going to hold SOME value, again the Magnavox costing about as much as a modern console, but especially as we go further into a digital future, things like rare cartridges of old games are only going to start to dwindle in value.

I currently charge $200,000 per tooth extraction - it's to fund my root box addiction.

I don't think I'm ever going to get the whole "locked up and graded" thing.

@TossedLlama we should all play Pikmin4

@Quarth Ya it's always irked me people who collect but don't play with their stuff!

Have a friend and his old collection before he sold it, was all kept in glass display units.. Another friend, has all his old console collections, plugged in, hooked up, and ready to go.. The latter is much better.

Then again, I buy duplicate of toys sometimes just so I can have ones to keep in their box

@Doktor-Mandrake It's like some people want a miniature museum at home and as a collector myself, a part of me can understand that: retro games have a certain charm to them (I love my boxed Game Boy games for example). But I can't collect just for the sake of collecting. If I can play the games, then double the joy!

I hate this, the games are not being used for the purpose of their creation, it's sad to me.

This just makes me regret selling my retro collection on craigslist years ago 😔

Collecting things is a mental illness.

That's almost as much money as I spent on loot boxes last year.

I sold a bunch of star wars stuff as a kid. Basically all the stuff that wasnt darth vader or boba fett. Why anyone would ever want luke skywalker anything was beyond me. My mum is convinced that it all would be valuable today. I bought lollies with the money. It was worth it.

Oh hey, Hot Priest went into dentistry/game collecting!

A million to blow on games for a dentist.....?

If you thought the price of that root canal was a rip-off.....you were right!!

@Tao I remember when Disney kept advertising all their classic films "releasing on home video for the very last time!!"

We all fell for it. We ran out and bought them because we could never get them again! We got spare copies to keep sealed forever because they'd be worth fortunes in the future!!

We had no idea they meant the last time on VHS tapes and then they'd just print them 3 years later on DVDs, which we didn't even know existed at the time.

Another day another person with more money than sense, there is no way to tell if these games will go up in value either, then again collectors can be a little obsessive.

@NintoRich Yeah, I noticed the 52 years thing as well. I think they are just throwing big numbers around to sound important. I mean, 52 years divided by the 3 collectors is only 17 years apiece. Meaning that, at most, they've been collecting since 2002 on average. That isn't really a big deal. That's around the time all the Funcoland stores were being gutted by GameStop. So, yeah, boxed copies of games weren't nearly as hard to get back then.

@ItsOKToBeOK In 2083 the kids will be asking what is the "Nintendo Entertainment System".
Do the kids today know what Gumshoe is? I'll bet not too many '80s kids even know that game.

Maybe they'll know Mario which is why I think @ogo79 's Halloween plans of scaring off children with Mario 64 have a chance of failing.

At least it's not the same dentist who shoots animals for fun.

Everyone interested in collecting these old games are the ones who originally played them as a kid but couldn't afford them all or sold their collection as they got older. Those people are adults now and have gotten some disposable income to spend at games. As time passes by, the only ones interested to buy this guy's collection are his peers. The people from the same generation. And when that generation dies, no average person wants to buy collections like these. They don't have the nostalgia for the games that mostly are pretty poor in even today's standards. So collections like these might end up in a museum and those who are interested can go and see the boxes, learn about the history. But I don't think that many really even wants to play those games.

sheesh I guess he will be a true person now

@cleveland124 good point well made, demand will peak as the generation that grew up with these machines die off.

@ItsOKToBeOK or they could be worthless in 10 years! Personally I dot see the oibt in sealed games. They were made to be played not hoarded and kept in boxes, but that's just me.

Like others said before, he (if he chooses to) will probably sell them to someone of his generation because they are the only ones who would buy sealed nes games for the price. I work at a guitar shop and every now and then we get an older slightly rare Martin guitar to sell. The older musicians will practically drool over them but the musicians in there 30s and under don't pay them any mind and see something "old, out of style, and expensive" I can see the similarities these collectors might face in the future.

Must have a wealthy family/inheritance...

Dentists don't have that kind of money due to student loans.

This isn't some old guy who worked his whole life and is retiring soon.

Buying sealed games which are never to be played is also offensive to me.

guys a loser. I would of bought a yacht or retired. but now video idiot games

I guess I'll never fully understand this sort of thing. To me it's always a bit sad when people buy things that they really love, but can't use them without rendering them worthless. But then again, maybe ownership of flawless items is in itself a greater joy to these people than actually using them.