After a 23-year quest, collector manages to grab a rare Castlevania copy for $90,100, all because it 'was the first game my mom ever bought me'
After 130 bids, the sale is over, and an original NES 1st production new sealed copy of Castlevania has been sold for $90,100 in one of the highest-priced auctions for a raw boxed video game (via GamesRadar).
The winner, who goes by minus_worlds on Instagram, posted a picture of the sealed copy with the price tag and Nintendo Gold certification on it. In the comments, he explains that "the search is over after 23 years. I resigned to never being able to add this grail after years of searching. But everything just came together for a childhood friend and me this week as we were able to obtain this absolute beauty."
"This was the first game my mom ever bought me. I still remember the phone call we made to buy it. It’s a core memory, as is this past week. [A] couple more plane rides to go, but this beautiful first print hangtab Castlevania is almost home."
???? VIDEO GAME GRAIL ????Last night, an extremely rare sealed 1987 Castlevania for NES sold on eBay for over $90,000. There are only 32 graded copies of this game in the WATA Pop Report. But what makes this game EVEN MORE unique is that it has a hang tab, which means it’s a 1st… pic.twitter.com/KH9jx2rBgeMarch 24, 2024
Towards the end of the comment, minus_worlds also thanks a couple of key supporters and the other major bidder, Frank Giaramita, who goes by grailmonster, for his "graciousness in defeat in our battle over this amazing, historical piece."
Looking on Giaramita's Instagram, he posted a picture of his max bid, which was $90,000, with bold writing above it reading, "You didn't win this auction." But he doesn't seem too upset by his loss: "Win some, lose some. Congrats to the winner (I know him, and he deserved it wayyy more than me)."
But Giaramita doesn't just stop at congratulating minus_worlds as he also goes on to theorise the possible upsell price: "Curious to see the future of this piece. It's a $250K flip imo (in my opinion). To my knowledge, this is the most a raw game has ever sold for."
While it's impossible to say for sure how much this copy could be worth or whether the buyer would even be willing to sell it considering its sentimental value, it's clearly worth a great deal.
It's not the only retro game we've seen sell for an outrageous price recently. Just last month, an original copy of BurgerTime sold for $11,377, and while it's not in the same price range, a canceled version of TimeSplitters 4 was found and bought on eBay for £525. So, if you have any old games collecting dust in your attic, now seems like a pretty good time to take to eBay and see how much they are worth.