Last week, we shared the exciting news that a local historical society would auction a bunch of trash on eBay. Well, okay, that “trash” was really some of the millions of unsold Atari cartridges that were crushed, covered with cement, and left in the desert for three decades. They were left in the desert because nobody wanted them in 1983, but cartridges sold for as much as $1,537 on eBay, with auctions concluding this week.
The group behind these auctions, the Tularosa Basin Historical Society, said that it will sell maybe 900 more cartridges from the dump site, but that’s all. Material from the legendary “Atari Graveyard” has also been sent to relevant museums all over the world.
Out of the 100 listings in this initial test batch, nine pre-mangled cartridges sold for more than a thousand dollars each. All were copies of “E.T.,” the game whose terribleness created the Atari Graveyard legend and was a large part of Atari’s demise.
In case you wondered whether these auctions were legit, as of right now they have one satisfied customer who has left feedback:
I paid a hojillion dollars for trash, just as described. A+, would buy again!
The buyer paid $1,400 for their cartridge.
tbhs575 [eBay]
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Atari Games Recovered From New Mexico Dump Now Available On eBay
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist
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