The hottest collectibles worth the most value often wind up at big auction houses that command top dollar. But some items fall through the cracks, either by accident or on purpose by a person with a higher purpose in mind.
Such was the case this week when Goodwill listed a sealed second print Zelda game on its auction platform after an anonymous donor brought the game into a Goodwill in Bridgeport, Conn. A sealed version of the first print, with the box graded out by WATA as a 9.0 recently sold for $870,000.
Bidding was fast and furious once video game collectors were made aware of the auction on message boards. After several bids were discounted due to what Goodwill deemed to be fraud, the final price was $411,278. The winner was noted video game collector Eric Naierman, a dentist in Florida.
"I think the box would get an 8 or an 8.5," Naierman told The Action Network. "And given what the first print in a higher condition went for, we thought the market was around $600,000 for this."
The Zelda game, Goodwill said, was the most expensive item ever sold on its website, Shopgoodwill.com, which has existed since 1999.
Vintage sealed video games have been skyrocketing recently. A Super Mario N64 cartridge recently sold at auction for $1.56 million and earlier this month, fractional share company Rally accepted a $2 million buying on behalf of its investors for a sealed Super Mario Bros. on the original Nintendo platform.
The first print Zelda has a "TM" (trademark) after Zelda. The one that was donated to Goodwill has a circled R, which means it came later because the trademark was actually registered.
Goodwill has not always been the beneficiary of an amazing find. In 2015, a person bought a West Point sweater for 58 cents. The sweater, which had Lombardi written on the cotton swatch sewn inside, turned out to be the Vince Lombardi's.
It sold at Heritage Auction house for $43,020.
Goodwill said the sale of Zelda will allow Goodwill to open a career center in Stamford, Conn.
