You never know what treasures you might find in your atic. Just ask Scott Amos. This young man from Reno was checking what he had in the storage room when he stumbled upon a copy of Kid Ikarus. The 1998 game was new, unopened and even had the purchase receipt.
According to the Reno Gazette Journal, nobody in the Amos family knows exactly how that game ended up in the storage room. The main hypothesis is that someone bought it to give it away at Christmas and hid it, but then they did not remember its existence (the receipt is from December 8, 1998).
Seeing that it was in perfect condition and unopened, Scott thought it might have some value. Maybe a couple of hundred dollars. The next day he contacted several video game experts. One of them replied in less than half an hour by saying: “You have found an Easter egg.”
After speaking more thoroughly with different experts, Scott discovered that what he had in his hands was a real rarity. Heritage Auctions auction house specialist Valerie McLeckie explains:
Finding a sealed copy of a game, in such incredibly good conditions and even with the proof of when and how it was bought is an event as unusual as it is historical. We believe that the game will have a high value for collectors.
And so much. This weekend the copy of Kid Ikarus was auctioned for no less than $9,000. Amos already has plans on what to do with that unexpected amount of money:
I have an older sister and we are splitting the money. Next month we go on vacation to Disney World. We have decided that instead of doing something responsible with money, let’s have fun with it.
