There’s no question that reading a mental_floss story can pay off during Trivial Pursuit, or when you’re trying to impress someone at a cocktail party. But for one lucky reader, it meant a whole lot more.
My last article, 9 Very Rare (and Very Expensive) Video Games, was reprinted by CNN.com (mental_floss has an agreement with CNN). While reading the story over there, one of the games stood out for Tanner Sandlin of Austin, Texas—Air Raid for the Atari 2600. Thanks to the cartridge’s distinct blue case and “T-Handle” top, he remembered owning it when he was a kid. So he started digging through boxes of old stuff in the garage and, lo and behold, he found it—the thirteenth known copy of the game in existence. He put it up on eBay and the bids started rolling in.
Sandlin bought the game when he was 11 or 12 years old at a store called Tuesday Morning in Arlington, Texas. Tuesday Morning bought overstocked or undersold goods from other retailers and sold the items at a discount. Sandlin paid less than $10.00, possibly as low as $5.00, for Air Raid in 1984 or 1985. This is important because none of the other twelve people who have Air Raid cartridges were the original owners—they bought them at auction, secondhand stores, or through private collectors. Learning a collectible item’s “provenance,” or owner history, is key to proving its authenticity. Since Sandlin was the original owner, his cartridge had more street cred than one found in a box at the local thrift store.
Oddly enough, Sandlin remembered that this much sought after game wasn’t really all that great. In fact, the only reason he still had it was because it was so bad. He and his friends used to borrow games from each other all the time—sometimes you’d get your game back, sometimes you wouldn’t, and that was OK. But no one wanted to keep Air Raid, so it kept coming back to him. He’s not complaining now.
While it’s impressive that Sandlin had the thirteenth known copy of Air Raid, he later found that he still had the original packaging for the game as well. This changed everything. Why? Because his was the only known Air Raid box in the world, making it the only known complete copy of the game in existence. Tanner Sandlin had just become a part of video gaming history.
But he couldn’t start counting his fortune just yet. If you’re willing to pay thousands of dollars for a video game, you’re going to make sure it’s legitimate. Sandlin knew this, so he went straight to an expert, Albert Yarusso of AtariAge.com, a forum for fans of anything Atari, to get his professional opinion on the authenticity of the find. The two both live in Austin, so Yarusso met with Sandlin and examined both the game and the box in person. After some thorough research, Yarusso declared everything was real (or the most impressive forgery he’d ever seen). With expert confirmation behind him, Sandlin pulled his stand-alone cartridge auction on eBay and replaced it with the complete game package. The starting price was $.50.
Unfortunately, Yarusso’s announcement came on April 1, 2010. He’s been known for pulling some pretty elaborate and convincing April Fool’s Day pranks on the website in the past, so at first the retrogamers on AtariAge were skeptical. They cited spelling errors on the box that seemed “too perfect” and the fact that it said it was the debut game from Men-A-Vision seemed sketchy at best. While the timing was bad, Yarusso and Sandlin stuck to their guns. When there was no big reveal of a hoax in the subsequent days, collectors swarmed to Sandlin’s eBay auction. The first bid alone jumped the price from $.50 to $3,000.
Sold!
Sandlin’s eBay auction ended on April 10, 2010 at about 10:15PM (EST). With only 5 minutes to go, the highest bid was $14,600. It sat at this price until the very last few seconds, when it jumped to $17,528, and then made a giant leap to $31,500. The final bid was $31,600.
This sets a new record price for the game, blowing away the previous record of $3,000. That also makes it the second-highest price ever paid for a video game cartridge, just behind the $43,300 paid for a factory-sealed copy of Stadium Events for the Nintendo back in February.
I asked Sandlin what he intended to do with the money and he wasn’t quite sure yet. He did know that he wanted to buy something tangible; something he could point at it and say, “I bought that with a video game!” You can buy a whole lot of mental_floss magazine gift subscriptions for $31,600.
We here at mental_floss are incredibly excited to have been a part of this amazing, somewhat crazy moment. Thanks for reading, Tanner, and congratulations on your record-breaking sale!
More from mental_floss…
9 Very Rare (and Very Expensive) Video Game Cartridges
*
Your Favorite Grade School Computer Games
*
Get Rich Quick: 6 People Who Accidentally Found a Fortune
*
Vacation to Mars: Photos of Antarctica’s Dry Valleys
*
11 Famous Actors and the Big TV Roles They Turned Down
*
Why Does Bottled Water Have an Expiration Date?
*
10 Secret Menu Items at Fast Food Restaurants
Comments (26)
Comment
- subscribe /
- give a gift /
- terms of service /
- about /
- contact us /
- write for us /
- ad info /
- subscriber services /
- press /
- privacy policy /
- rss /
© 2012 Mental Floss Inc. All Rights Reserved. Mental Floss is a registered trademark owned by Felix Dennis. mentalfloss.com is a trademark owned by Felix Dennis.
Disclaimer: All submissions made to mental_floss become the property of Mental Floss Inc and may be used without further permission by the submitter and without compensation to the submitter. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not submit anything to mental_floss.
Way to go Tanner! :)
posted by Angela on 4-11-2010 at 1:43 am
What a cool story!
posted by Miss Cellania on 4-11-2010 at 6:23 am
Wow. I think I said that four or five times while reading this. What an amazing story.
posted by TheZed on 4-11-2010 at 8:30 am
I am so happy for him!
posted by Amanda on 4-11-2010 at 8:42 am
Speaking of AtariAge,
Does anyone beside myself remember having a subscription to the same-named magazine?
My brother and I did – and they sent us each a silver ‘metallic’ jacket as a membership perk. Wish we had either jacket, but they ended up being passed
on to our cousins yrs later.
posted by Amy on 4-11-2010 at 9:27 am
Way to go, Tanner! Congratulations!
posted by Sara in Al on 4-11-2010 at 10:14 am
Wow, wow, and wow. That is the coolest story I’ve read on here. What luck! Kudos to you Tanner. Choose wisely how you spend the money…NAH! Forget it! This amount of money found definitely deserves something fun! Knock yourself out!
posted by Gregg on 4-11-2010 at 3:00 pm
Wow. Just wow.
posted by this is not my name on 4-11-2010 at 3:44 pm
Too bad no one wants Coleco. I have a system and games worth nada. BUT – I also have an IBM plaque that says “THINK” in giant letters and is at least 60 years old, “Compliments of International Business Machines Corporation” that I wouldn’t trade for anything.
posted by Tracy on 4-11-2010 at 6:18 pm
Makes the $170 I got for Panzer Dragoon Saga seem insignificant.
Ohhhhh, that’s what he should do with some of the money–get a Saturn with Panzer Dragoon! “You see that video game over there… a video game bought that for me.”
posted by Kevin on 4-12-2010 at 3:28 am
That’s awesome and kinda makes me sick. I grew up in Arlington, TX, bought things at that same store, and had a ton of Atari games. …and I think I recognize Tanner Sandlin’s name (like he was a few years separated from me in school). hahhaha.
posted by Elliott on 4-12-2010 at 9:27 am
Awesome story! Congrats, Tanner!
posted by Roger on 4-12-2010 at 10:10 am
Oh, that just rocks!
Way to go, Tanner! =)
posted by Jen on 4-12-2010 at 10:33 am
Thanks for the update! I remember reading his post in the comments section about having one. I wondered if he was being facetious or if it was true. Congrats!
posted by Sarah in Canada on 4-12-2010 at 11:26 am
Great story! Way to go, Tanner!
posted by Steve from San Diego on 4-12-2010 at 12:47 pm
I used to work at a Tuesday Morning… that place is like a giant garage sale in a storefront.
posted by Troy H. on 4-12-2010 at 1:09 pm
This is one of the coolest stories I’ve read on Mental Floss
posted by Andi on 4-12-2010 at 4:02 pm
I saw that in the comments where he said something like “I have that!” so I was wondering what would become of it. Awesome story! All in a day’s work for Mental_Floss right?
posted by C.A. on 4-12-2010 at 4:34 pm
That’s so cool!!!
posted by Carolyn on 4-12-2010 at 4:44 pm
First of all, congratulations Tanner, knock yourself up dude!!!!
In second place, what cool history, great, i hope someone pays something like that for my Nolan Ryan or my Pete Rose card.
posted by omarzarzuela on 4-12-2010 at 10:34 pm
One in a million! I love it :-)
posted by MetFanMac on 4-13-2010 at 6:00 am
Your article is now on CNN.com.
AWESOME!
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/wayoflife/04/13/game.sells.for.thousands/index.html
posted by IFB on 4-14-2010 at 12:45 pm
Tuesday Morning still exists, and still has finds like this all the time. I work in a Tuesday Morning in Pennsylvania and have found rare DVDs and other things like this. Nothing quite as rare… or profitable though lol.
posted by Chris on 4-18-2010 at 11:20 pm
There’s Tuesday Mornings in Kentucky. There’s one in Louisville and one in Bowling Green–they are great for cheap finds on (sometimes) slightly weird items. If you poke around and go there often enough, you can find great stuff. Sometimes they have really nice yarn for cheap! Maybe I should pay more attention to the video games next time.
posted by Jennifer on 4-20-2010 at 10:31 am
I find it really interesting that the game is actually called “Air Raid”.
From what the other article said, that title was complete guesswork based on gameplay since the cartridge had no name printed on it. What an odd coincidence. Or ridiculous flaw in a hoax.
posted by WonderGirl on 11-17-2011 at 10:57 pm
Wasn’t a coincidence for the name there is a guy that use to have the game with the box in the 80′s the name come from there , having the box simply confirm the name . Actually there is a chance that the guys found is box now since he know that the game sell for 31 K . Im saying that before 2020 we will see a second box .
posted by Personator81 on 1-5-2012 at 12:24 pm