Celtics vs. Lakers for SEGA Mega Drive Sells for $8,000 USD

[Nz17]

Usually, SEGA Genesis / Mega Drive sports games sell for like $5. This PAL variant was limited to only about 146 copies (for the press, media, etc.). It was never officially being meant to be sold to the public. Therefore, thanks to its rareness, a copy of the PAL Celtics vs. Lakers game recently sold for about $8K. That's because less than 20 are publicly known to be owned by collectors.

Back during the day, the game was going to be officially launched for Europe, UK, Australia, New Zealand, etc. However, the agreement fell apart. Reportedly, the cost of the contract was just too expensive to try to sell a game about U.S. basketball teams at non-U.S. places.

[Steve W]

It always boggles my mind when a sports title goes for over its original price, considering sports game players tend to treat their games as disposable. Once the newest version of a sports game comes out, the old one is virtually worthless to most players. But in this case, in this situation, I get it. I would never pay that much, even though it's an insane rarity, paying more than a few bucks for a sports game under any circumstance makes me uncontrollably vomit all over myself.

[SparTonberry]

The only one I heard of was the Madden '93 Championship Edition. Supposedly a Blockbuster exclusive. I just remember reading about it in EGM back in the day, when someone wrote in saying it was always checked out, and EGM reported people were willing to pay $150+ in fines for keeping the game.

Especially crazy, as I doubt this game is anything more than a label variant, compared to the US where I imagine the game is common and almost worthless in price value?

[Greg2600]

Usually, SEGA Genesis / Mega Drive sports games sell for like $5. This PAL variant was limited to only about 146 copies (for the press, media, etc.). It was never officially being meant to be sold to the public. Therefore, thanks to its rareness, a copy of the PAL Celtics vs. Lakers game recently sold for about $8K. That's because less than 20 are publicly known to be owned by collectors.

Back during the day, the game was going to be officially launched for Europe, UK, Australia, New Zealand, etc. However, the agreement fell apart. Reportedly, the cost of the contract was just too expensive to try to sell a game about U.S. basketball teams at non-U.S. places.

That was likely during the 90-91 period, when NBA basketball was an afterthought in Europe. However, once the Dream Team was assembled and played in the summer of 1992 in Spain, EA had no issues getting licensed in the EU!


It always boggles my mind when a sports title goes for over its original price, considering sports game players tend to treat their games as disposable. Once the newest version of a sports game comes out, the old one is virtually worthless to most players. But in this case, in this situation, I get it. I would never pay that much, even though it's an insane rarity, paying more than a few bucks for a sports game under any circumstance makes me uncontrollably vomit all over myself.

Cancellation or even short runs of games are what result in the rarity. NBA Elite 11 for Xbox 360 is worth thousands, for that reason. A few of the EA NCAA games have higher prices mainly because they stopped producing college sports games, and people wanted "something" so that upped the value. I swore Madden 09 for regular Xbox had higher value?


The only one I heard of was the Madden '93 Championship Edition. Supposedly a Blockbuster exclusive. I just remember reading about it in EGM back in the day, when someone wrote in saying it was always checked out, and EGM reported people were willing to pay $150+ in fines for keeping the game.

Especially crazy, as I doubt this game is anything more than a label variant, compared to the US where I imagine the game is common and almost worthless in price value?

Actually CE was a decent "upgrade" if you're a football fan, as it contained the rosters of several legendary Super Bowl winning teams. This would become standard from Madden '94 onwards but it was really cool at the time.

[Gameguy]

Cancellation or even short runs of games are what result in the rarity. NBA Elite 11 for Xbox 360 is worth thousands, for that reason. A few of the EA NCAA games have higher prices mainly because they stopped producing college sports games, and people wanted "something" so that upped the value. I swore Madden 09 for regular Xbox had higher value?
I keep forgetting what sports games are valuable for these more recent systems, basically I now come across these types of sports games for the 360 or PS3 but I don't always bother paying attention to them. Same with some cheap looking DS games that are somehow really expensive.

Madden 09 for Xbox seems to be worth around $50 now so that's still a pretty good amount for a random Xbox sports game. Apparently there's a specific version for the Xbox 360 which is also valuable, it comes with a rare slip cover which adds a few hundred dollars to the value of an otherwise cheap game.

For older consoles I wouldn't mind buying these sports games if I came across them cheap, some are still fun to play. I wouldn't pay much for them though just because they're rare.

[SparTonberry]

Madden 09 seems EXTREMELY late for the original Xbox.
I thought Microsoft couldn't have been happier to dump the OG console once the 360 launched, in 2005?

[Gamevet]

I think NCAA Basketball on the GameCube is pretty pricey, because of it’s small print run and being the last year of the license for EA.

[Spartacus]

When I was Wii collecting, the Madden 09 All-Play Pink Deanna Favre Hope Foundation Edition, which was nothing more than a pink plastic slip cover, was quite hard to find. I didn't know there was an identical version for the Xbox360. The prices for these on eBay are several hundred dollars now.

[Hep038]

NCAA Football 2014 and NCAA Basketball 2010 both cost a pretty penny because they are the last year of College games before the Ed O'Bannon law suit put the kibosh on making any more. Also both are really good sports games too, you can find lots of people still playing them on twitch. I think there is a Gamecube basketball game that is rare and also quite expensive.