I know there is a Weekend Finds thread, but I figured this one may qualify for those "special" cases.
First of all, it's not in the DP guide (well, the print one anyway, the online one is down right now).
Looking through some old threads regarding this cart, it seems that these carts were available for purchase through Racermate as recently as last year, but they went for $175 for just the cart.
Well here it is, purchased today during a Flea Market run:
Here's the story, as I was walking up to a booth, a guy was purchasing a top loader (loose) with this in it. Needless to say, I was pretty peeved since I had literally missed out on a top loader by seconds.
His buying price was $7.00 (who said deals in the wild are dead?)
Seeing the cart in the NES, I told him I was into NES stuff and had never seen anything like it. I asked if I could take a look at it. He agreed (and was a very nice guy all around!).
Now I consider myself pretty a pretty savvy collector. Some consoles more than others, but I pretty much know the NES rarity list by heart. I had never heard or seen anything like this for NES. I expected it to be some pirate game or something but it looked perfectly legit.
I told him I was a collector and would be interested in buying the cart w/ the adapter from him. He said he was getting out of collecting but still checks for deals and wouldn't mind selling it to me. I offered $25.00 for the cart and adapter and he accepted.
He came out with a Top Loader + $18.00 for having met me and I came out one Racermate Challenge 2 cart richer.
So the question becomes, just how rare is this thing? Also, was a box and/or manual available for this? I know it originally came with exercise bikes that could attach to the NES through the adapter, but that's about ALL I know.
Since it's not in the DP guide, that may say something about it in itself.
I know the Myriad 6 in 1 and Cheetamen were still around for some time after the "life" of the NES expired. The back of the cart says "6554NES" on it. I assume this is a serial number.
The guy running the booth didn't speak much English but I gathered that he didn't acquire the cart first hand. He didn't have any exercise bikes there either.
Any insight would be valuable. And if this post doesn't warrant a unique thread, I apologize in advance.