You can learn a lot about a person based on what they’ll write in an eBay listing, and this is sheer entertainment (If you call watching someone shoot himself in the foot entertaining).  Several days ago, eBay seller acuraboi12’s listing for “Stadium Events Nes game” 110499541029 got bid up to $800,200.00 USD.   Since the auction was largely regarded as a fraud, it seems that bidders were having “fun” bidding it to absurdity.

Today, acuraboi12 relisted the auction 110501811026 with the following colorful and poorly written note on the situation:

“Im tired of these joy bidders thats not willing to pay and are playing around do you know this is causing me money to list this up. I will only take serious inquiries and offers only now and will not answer anyone with a yellow star rating. The two highest bidders was little kids that are sitting on their butts with pepperoni face pimples that have no lives. Now if you guys want to really make a offer please email me an offer and i will answer as many questions as possible.”

In my book, I bid on things based on the seller’s ability to make me comfortable and to feel confident that I’m receiving a great product and will be treated fairly if there’s an issue with it.  Unfortunately, acuraboi12 does neither of these and seems to demonstrate why his listing was target by sham bidders.  Besides his tirade, I think the yellow star thing is hilarious given the seller’s own “yellow star rating.”

Even if you disregard the troubling personality that seems to be attached to this game, I should point out that the seller still hasn’t supplied any close of photos of the game’s H-Seam.  Plus, it’s a bit strange that a “factory sealed” game like this would have a box hanging tab so far off center.  I’m highly doubting that someone at the factory miscalibrated the tab machine by a full inch on such a short run of games.  Nothing about his listing makes me trust the seller.

As a rule of thumb, take his method as an example of how best to not sell your possibly real / possibly fake sealed Nintendo Stadium Events game on eBay.  All things considered, this should be an interesting auction to watch again…that is if you enjoy watching train wrecks.

(Perhaps this article should have been titled “How Not to Sell Your ‘Sealed’ Nintendo Stadium Events Game.” )

Did a video game really just sell for $800,200.00 USD?  Do we have a new record for the world’s most expensive video game? Probably not, and here’s why.

Here are the last several minutes of a March 1, 2010 eBay auction “Stadium Events Nes game” item number 110499541029. The listing featured in this video has been regarded with suspicion as a fake, and it seems that collectors who are angry about the fraud have essentially killed the listing through bidding it to the point of absurdity. As a reminder, bidding on eBay is considered by eBay to be contractual; however, countless bidders get carried away and never end up paying.  This happens when they’re bidding on everything from rare & common video games, iPhones, to childhood memorabilia.  My assumption is that there will be little that eBay can do to enforce this except to give the bidder an unpaid item strike and to possibly ban the highest bidder’s account.  Chances are the bidder will simply claim their account was compromised (used by someone else against their will) and that the bids weren’t done with their permission.  Funny though, if you watch the bids, one of the high bidders retracted his/her bid right at the end. So if 2-3 guys were bidding on this as a team to simply have fun or to sabotage it, whoever was supposed to be the fall guy (aka the last high bidder) left his buddy on the line!  Ha ha!

What’s extra interesting is that only days ago what is commonly believed to be an authentic sealed copy of Nintendo Stadium Events sold for $41,300; however, bids mean nothing without payment. Word has it that the top bidder for that auction hasn’t paid either. If that’s the case, the $41,300 value is meaningless.  Likewise, perhaps the $15,000+ values for ultra rare video games are simply as meaningless as this $800,200.00 USD auction.  Each time we hear of these transactions, we simply have to take someone’s word for it.  There are never any video, photos, receipts of cleared checks.  Rarely do both parties even come forward.  It’s funny to think that all of the most expensive video game prices might just be fog and mirrors intended to boost the value of a collection and the cost of future sales.

I love collecting rare video games and like many collectors, and like many of my fellow geeky collectors, I daydream of one day putting together my own retro gaming museum.  But, unfortunately, it seems that in something as harmless as vintage video game collecting, one has to be streetwise.