Sales of unearthed atari games total more than 100K

[krymesolvr93]

Sales of Unearthed Atari Games Total More Than $100,000 - ABC News

 

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[bdsawyer]

Awesome story! Have been following this one for awhile.

 

[Gold Maven]

the article didn't really say if they were digging to find them, or just happened upon it, either way nice find.

 

[FC-Treasure]

the article didn't really say if they were digging to find them, or just happened upon it, either way nice find.

They were dug up on purpose. They also made a documentary, which is available on Netflix: http://www.netflix.com/search/atari

 

[Sheldon J]

OK I still have that Atari game. undamaged in the box, so I thought OH BY BIG $$$$ um yeah they were selling for like 15 bucks on E bay....

 

[dejapooh]

OK I still have that Atari game. undamaged in the box, so I thought OH BY BIG $$$$ um yeah they were selling for like 15 bucks on E bay....

These games were part of the Infamous ET hoard. When Atari bought the rights to produce a game based on the ET movie, they paid so much ($20m to $25M), they ended up producing something like 5,000,000 copies of the game. They gave the developer about 6 weeks to design, program, and test the game. Normally, that would take about 6 months... at least. The game was poorly designed, buggy, and decidedly unfun. Many of the games sold were returned to the stores, who returned the games with the unsold games to Atari. They sold about 1.5 million copies. With warehouse space costing money, they decided to dump about 700,000 of the leftovers in secret in a land fill in New Mexico. This was running the Urban Myth route for YEARS. It was a major part of the downfall of Atari. Now Console makers bring out a new console every 3 or 4 years...

Anyhow, Game Collecting has become a popular hobby, and these games were a kind of Mythic Beast. ET carts are VERY common, but one, verified from the landfill? New in Box? The ET game sells for $1, the land fill games sell for a lot more... Only so many were dug and sold...

 

[Sheldon J]

These games were part of the Infamous ET hoard. When Atari bought the rights to produce a game based on the ET movie, they paid so much ($20m to $25M), they ended up producing something like 5,000,000 copies of the game. They gave the developer about 6 weeks to design, program, and test the game. Normally, that would take about 6 months... at least. The game was poorly designed, buggy, and decidedly unfun. Many of the games sold were returned to the stores, who returned the games with the unsold games to Atari. They sold about 1.5 million copies. With warehouse space costing money, they decided to dump about 700,000 of the leftovers in secret in a land fill in New Mexico. This was running the Urban Myth route for YEARS. It was a major part of the downfall of Atari. Now Console makers bring out a new console every 3 or 4 years...

Anyhow, Game Collecting has become a popular hobby, and these games were a kind of Mythic Beast. ET carts are VERY common, but one, verified from the landfill? New in Box? The ET game sells for $1, the land fill games sell for a lot more... Only so many were dug and sold...

OK so if you can buy one on E buy it for $15 bucks why would you buy one that has been in the ground rained on, messed up box, may not work due to corrosion, (NIB really??) for a lot more.... makes no sense to me....

 

[FC-Treasure]

OK so if you can buy one on E buy it for $15 bucks why would you buy one that has been in the ground rained on, messed up box, may not work due to corrosion, (NIB really??) for a lot more.... makes no sense to me....

You will have to watch the movie. People are buying them because they are a piece of gaming history and represent the horrendous crash of a meteoric company (Atari). For a long time people didn't believe they were all dumped in a landfill. The excavation and associated documentary proved the rumors were true. They don't care if they work, they want the bragging rights of having one of the games that was thrown away as Atari crashed and burned as a company.

 

[Riverbum]

Hello,
The secret land fill is the dump for Alamagordo N.M. Why did the company dump these 90 miles away from El Paso, Tx. were they where produced?

 

[Sheldon J]

You will have to watch the movie. People are buying them because they are a piece of gaming history and represent the horrendous crash of a meteoric company (Atari). For a long time people didn't believe they were all dumped in a landfill. The excavation and associated documentary proved the rumors were true. They don't care if they work, they want the bragging rights of having one of the games that was thrown away as Atari crashed and burned as a company.

Hey Look I'm going to bury mine in the back yard for a year, then make a video of it, think I can get big $$$$$$ by someone stupid enough to buy into it saying it is in the history.... Sorry but a burred looser is still a looser if I want history I will go to an museum or and antique shop for something that has real historical significance.....

 

[Nitric]

Hey Look I'm going to bury mine in the back yard for a year, then make a video of it, think I can get big $$$$$$ by someone stupid enough to buy into it saying it is in the history.... Sorry but a burred looser is still a looser if I want history I will go to an museum or and antique shop for something that has real historical significance.....

Mine look like they were dug out of a dump! Does that count? I couldn't get a buck each! So I kept them! I have a couple hundred or more. Some look pretty rough! This stupid pepsi game doesn't even have a label! I'm jkg!

 

[dejapooh]

OK so if you can buy one on E buy it for $15 bucks why would you buy one that has been in the ground rained on, messed up box, may not work due to corrosion, (NIB really??) for a lot more.... makes no sense to me....

Because it is part of an Urban Legend that was true. It is part of the history of video games. If you are a collector, it is likely there will not be more available for sale. The area has been covered over with concrete and the city is unlikely to give permission for another excavation. You know the story, Collectors collect weird things.

 

[dejapooh]

Hello,
The secret land fill is the dump for Alamagordo N.M. Why did the company dump these 90 miles away from El Paso, Tx. were they where produced?

One of their main production facilities was in El Paso, and the warehouse was in Alamagordo, if I remember correctly.

 

[dejapooh]

Hey Look I'm going to bury mine in the back yard for a year, then make a video of it, think I can get big $$$$$$ by someone stupid enough to buy into it saying it is in the history.... Sorry but a burred looser is still a looser if I want history I will go to an museum or and antique shop for something that has real historical significance.....

What is a Burred looser? I mean, a burred loosener would be a loosener that has metal shavings or burrs on it, right?

 

[Sheldon J]

Mine look like they were dug out of a dump! Does that count? I couldn't get a buck each! So I kept them! I have a couple hundred or more. Some look pretty rough! This stupid pepsi game doesn't even have a label! I'm jkg!

PT Barnum said it best... "There's a sucker born every minute" you just chose the wrong minute to sell yours...