Rare Air Raid Cartridge and Box Unearthed

Tom Goldman

Crying on the inside.
Aug 17, 2009
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Rare Air Raid Cartridge and Box Unearthed



The videogame collectible world is being shaken up again by the discovery of a one-of-a-kind item.

Air Raid for the Atari 2600 is one of the rarest items related to the system, with only around a dozen cartridges known to exist. As of this week, make that a baker's dozen, because AtariAge forum member Tanner [http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/160607-my-air-raid-auction-update/] has discovered another, but what makes it even more special is that he also has the game's box.

The unearthing of an Air Raid box might not seem that special, but there aren't any other known Air Raid boxes in existence. That's correct, Tanner has the only one on the planet we know as Earth. He's listed both box and game together on $41,000 Stadium Events auction [http://cgi.ebay.com/AIR-RAID-CARTRIDGE-W-BOX-VERY-RARE-ATARI-2600-GAME-R10_W0QQitemZ110514343174QQihZ001QQcategoryZ139973QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem].

The Air Raid cartridge itself is pretty neat looking, colored a sky blue and shaped like like a T-handle so it can be more easily used as a weapon. Tanner is believed to be the original owner and bought the game in the mid-1980s. AtariAge.com admin Albert actually traveled out to Tanner's residence to verify the cartridge and box, and posted that he is "of the opinion this is a legitimate box and that someone is going to be adding a thus far one-of-a-kind box to their collection soon."

"Everything about the box seems authentic to me, from the chipboard paper stock used, the offset printing, the die-cut nature of the box, the aging of the box interior, the insert with the plastic tray perfectly sized to the cartridge, the horrible typesetting (which would be a lot of work to reproduce digitally!), the Tuesday the wear of the box, and more," Albert detailed. "Also, the artwork on the front of the box certainly was not 'blown up' from a label scan--as I stated earlier, it would have had to been redrawn from scratch to match the label artwork if this was a fake." The discovery was made close to April Fools Day, but this does not appear to be a joke at all.

The world of videogame collectibles is always an interesting one, both in seeing what items are valuable and what people randomly end up digging out of their basements. This year alone, we've seen at least two very big discoveries that have (and will) earn their sellers thousands of dollars. Just in case anyone is interested, I've got a copy of Flintstones for the NES I'm trying to get rid of. I'm sure that's worth a couple thousand right?

GameSetWatch [http://gdri.smspower.org/wiki/index.php/Blog:Ode_to_Air_Raid]

Image via GameSetWatch

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Simalacrum

Resident Juggler
Apr 17, 2008
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Cool, but...

I'm going to be honest, I don't understand why people want to pay thousands of dollars of decade old games... however rare they are! After all, surely a cardboard box is still a cardboard box, even if the specific pictures and ink patterns on there happen to be unique from any other cardboard box on the planet?
 

SnootyEnglishman

New member
May 26, 2009
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Flintstones for the NES? I say give it to AVGN i'm sure he'll take it from ya if not you can use the internet?
 

Onyx Oblivion

Borderlands Addict. Again.
Sep 9, 2008
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That's rare?! HOLY SHIT! I have a copy.

In my goddamn dreams!

For you, Mr. Goldman:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=flintstones+nes&x=19&y=23

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=flintstones+nes&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=

One Flintstones game seems to go for 200. The other...not so much.
 

Tom Goldman

Crying on the inside.
Aug 17, 2009
14,499
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Onyx Oblivion said:
That's rare?! HOLY SHIT! I have a copy.

In my goddamn dreams!

For you, Mr. Goldman:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=flintstones+nes&x=19&y=23

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=flintstones+nes&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=

One Flintstones game seems to go for 200. The other...not so much.
Well, my copy is opened, played, and I'm pretty sure a baby puked on it.
 

Distorted Stu

New member
Sep 22, 2009
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It belongs in museum!

I have a load of old crap laid around, shame its not worth anything. Sorry Dad.
 

hansari

New member
May 31, 2009
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Marq said:
And this is why I don't get rid of my old video game stuff.
I can't wait for the day my SNES games are worth a fortune.

Then again, they aren't "mint condition"...
 

Canadamus Prime

Robot in Disguise
Jun 17, 2009
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Hopeless Bastard said:
Can't wait for digital distribution to end all this bullshit.

Its a piece of plastic with some silicon inside. Inside a box made of cardboard with some ink on it. You could buy something of actual functional worth for $7100. Hell, several somethings.
Don't tell me you've never bought or at least thought about buying something for no other reason than it's sentimental value.

On that note; damn it, I wish I'd held on to some of my old NES stuff if I'd known it was going to be worth money. Not that any of it was ever in mint condition.
 

bismarck55

New member
Mar 1, 2010
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Hopeless Bastard said:
Can't wait for digital distribution to end all this bullshit.

Its a piece of plastic with some silicon inside. Inside a box made of cardboard with some ink on it. You could buy something of actual functional worth for $7100. Hell, several somethings.
It's kind of like how gold is practically useless as a metal (I am aware that it is used in electronics, however humans have been in love with gold since it was first discovered). It's only valuable because it's valuable. There will always be plenty of things that have little to no utilitarian value, but are highly sought after.

Edit: sort of ninja'd. also I'd like to point out that if games were ever to become exclusively distributed through downloads, that would probably only increase the value of older games. I know I would try get my mitts on as many oldies as I could (wouldn't pay thousands of dollars though).
 

Snowalker

New member
Nov 8, 2008
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Onyx Oblivion said:
That's rare?! HOLY SHIT! I have a copy.

In my goddamn dreams!
I see what you did there...


Anyhow, I think its an overpriced card broad box, unless of course this is in fact the game to end all games, but considering its age, thats really unlikely.
 
Dec 16, 2009
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Simalacrum said:
Cool, but...

I'm going to be honest, I don't understand why people want to pay thousands of dollars of decade old games... however rare they are! After all, surely a cardboard box is still a cardboard box, even if the specific pictures and ink patterns on there happen to be unique from any other cardboard box on the planet?
I think a combination of nostalgia, uniqueness and bragging rights is what makes them sell
 

Old Man Neck

New member
Feb 22, 2009
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Quite awesome, Makes me kind of jealous, since I'm getting into the classic gaming scene. But that is quite a rare find, one of the rarest games. Too bad it's horrible.
 

oppp7

New member
Aug 29, 2009
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Damn. I wouldn't pay that much for any video game. I try to keep my collections on the cheap side.