Rare SNES and Sega Genesis Collection Unearthed, Potentially Worth Millions
Someone just hit the jackpot!
This article is more than 2 years old
On Tuesday, the Nebraska based video game reseller The Gameroom released a video in which Gameroom owner Chris Thompson and a man named John sort through crates of factory-sealed video games. Wherever the collection comes from, it features mostly games from the ’90s for SNES, Sega Genesis, CD, Saturn, and 3DO. It turns out while the bulk of the collection isn’t worth very much, it includes a number of what the sellers call “grail-level” games. When they’ve finally tallied everything, it could be worth millions.
Thompson doesn’t reveal where he is in the video, probably for security reasons. Thompson and John are in a room filled with crates and shelves stocked with mostly sealed SNES and Sega Genesis games. Toward the end of the video, they highlight what John refers to as the “grail-level” finds, including 1993’s Zombies Ate My Homework, 1992’s Cool World, 1991’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time, and 1990’s Final Fantasy III. But the grail among grails is the copy of 1995’s Chrono Trigger, which IGN reports is worth around $2400. You can watch the Gameroom’s video below.
Speaking to Omaha’s KETV, Chris Thompson says these games aren’t The Gameroom’s property. The owner, who Thompson says wants to remain anonymous, found the items in storage and went to the store hoping for help in figuring out exactly what he had in all these SNES and Sega Genesis games. Without confirming that this is where the games came from, Thompson pointed out that a video game store in the area went out of business in 1994, and that when they shuttered all of their games went into storage. He also said the games in the video had been in storage for 27 years.
IGN notes the values of some of the other “grail-level” titles in the video. Turtles in Time, they say, is worth $1400, Final Fantasy III is worth $1200, and the side-scrolling 1991 shooter Sunset Riders is worth $750. They also point out there are games in the video that are below grail-level, but still worth a few hundred dollars each, such as 1993’s Aladdin on SNES and Contra Hard Corps on Sega Genesis.
Chris Thompson reportedly believes the overall value of the collection could reach the millions, and is definitely at least in the ballpark of the tens of thousands. If the owner has the collection professionally graded, the value could double, triple, or more. Thompson says they won’t release details on the overall value until they have everything catalogued and appraised.
The best of the bunch, the JRPG Chrono Trigger, finds a home regularly on video game “best of” lists. An immediate best seller when it first released in Japan, Chrono Trigger sold 2 million copies in only 2 months. Its popularity has continued throughout the years, with the game constantly being re-released in new formats. It was eventually re-released for the first Playstation console, the Nintendo DS, as well as a mobile version. Its most recent release was for the PC on Steam, as recently as 2018.
