You've found a Holy Grail. Now what?

[Queen Of The Felines]

Let's say one day you decide to go browse your local flea market/pawn shop/garage sales. You see a plethora of the usual crap: Combat, Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt, Genesis sports games, etc. But then you see it, the one item that you KNOW everyone's been searching for, but only a precious few actually own or has even seen. The Air Raid. The gold Nintendo World Champ cart. The Eli's Ladder. The Odyssey Percepts. The Japanese Vectrex. The previously undiscovered prototype. Y'know, those things. Oh, and it's being sold for $1. (Hey, we can dream, can't we? )

So you immediately buy it and take it home. Now what do you do?

Sell it? Trade it? Donate it to a museum (if one existed by then)? Brag about it to everyone? Keep it quiet? Bronze it? Proudly display it? Keep it hidden away? Put it in a safety deposit box? Play it? Never, ever touch it?

What would you do?

Kristine

[ClubNinja]

Let's use Air Raid for this example.

After getting home, I'd lovingly clean it, plug it into my 2600, play it for about five minutes (unless it's especially enjoyable, in which case, until I'm sick of playing), check it off my list, tuck it into the 2600 bin right between Adventures of Tron and Air Raiders, and finally, post about it on every related forum and newsgroup I frequent. If I did enjoy playing it, then it would likely make more trips into the 2600 on future dates.

That's all. In fact, if you remove the last step, you've essentially got the same routine that I've used for games such as Home Run, Frogger, and any other common. They're all the same in my collection - some just have a better story to tell

[Mr-E_MaN]

If it was for the NES (ie. Stadium Events, Gold NWC) I would keep it. If it was for another system, I would probably trade it for NES games like Stadium events or Gold NWC... or maybe sell it... but either way I would buy NES games with the money... or something video game related...

[Sega Hitman]

If I ever find something as rare as Air Raid, you can bet it'd be put on eBay that same day . I might offer it to somebody like Joe first, but I'd most certainly sell it. It's not that I'm greedy, but I'd much rather have a couple thousand games instead of a crappy 2600 game that only hardcore collectors have even heard of. If it were only worth a few hundred instead of a few thousand, like Stadium Events or something, I might hold onto it for a little while, but probably not very long.

-Hitman-

[Pantechnicon]

Personally, it's more important to have games I enjoy playing than games I would "worship" for their rarity. Case in point: Last summer I found Atari 2600 Malagai at a local shop for $4. They had no idea what that thing was worth. For a couple of days I was like, "Woot!" but then decided I should try to do something with it other than simply possess it. Where's the fun in that?

So I traded it at CGE for a couple of multicarts. Best. Personal. Trade. Ever.

[Bratwurst]

I would sell it, as ultimately it would land in the lap of someone who truly wanted it. Super rare stuff doesn't tickle my underpants, unless it were something like Magical Chase, hahaha,

[hades]

I would likely put it on the floor, dance around it for a bit, pet it, clean it, and then brag about it for a bit. I'd put it back on the shelf for a few days, than repeat the process over at a weekly basis.

Yes... I am that much of a loser.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I'd hang onto it, myself. Bring it to any meets or shows that I go to. Tell all my friends to come over and give it a play. Loan it to the CGE Museum if it's truly worthy. Do a big write-up on my site for all to read. Get it dumped if it hasn't been already. Scan the labels and box art and manual, if applicable.

In short, I'd share it. That, to me, is what it's all about.

To back that up, anyone who comes to see the PDF table at OKGE gets to play Power Lords and some other O2 rarities all they want.

[Videogamerdaryll]

Play it..then Proudly display it..

[MarioAllStar2600]

i wqould take it home. But it in a fireproof case. Brag about my find to everyone, even the mailman! :P

[briskbc]

I am between a rock and a hard place on this one. The collector in me would say keep it. Treasure it. But my practical side knows we (my family) are in a financial bind and this would help out a lot. I would probable sell it and regret it for years.

[hamburgler]

It depends. If it's rare and worth a lotta money, i wouldn't sell it unless someone offered me the price I asked to pay me.If I found a rare game for cheap or very expensive, I would still pick it up no matter what.

[Chunky]

NWC would keep, put it on display somehow. Everything else would be played once or twice and sold, there is soo much out there that i want that i don't have, why bother with 1 game when i need still way more over 100+

[den68]

I'd keep it for sure. I'd probably do what my wife calls my "happy dance". I'd then take pictures of it to post, to brag a bit sure but also so everyone can see it. I like posting pics if I find something I'm particularly excited about. I like seeing other peoples finds as well.

I always read the weekly finds threads and am awed at some of the scores. it's always cool when someone posts a a pic of their stuff. the Game Room pics are one of my favorite features of this site.

[Scoots]

If it was a NES grail I'd probably keep it since that is the only system I would ever even *consider* trying to complete (and I sure as hell won't pay Ebay prices for NWC or Panesian stuff). Other systems, assuming the game isn't great, I'd most likely sell.

[buttasuperb]

Sell it.

I'd rather have arcade cabs.

[1bigmig]

Well, if I got the gold NWC, I would find someone with a high quality digital camcorder, make sure the lighting was perfect and then destroy it slowly and irreversibly. I would then forward this video to every NES site on the web.


Just kidding, unless I was very well off when I found it, I would scan it for posterity and then would sell it for thousands.

[Nature Boy]

I'd definitely keep it. I'm more into game quality than rarity quality, but even I get caught up in the whole rarity thing so I'd be damn excited to have it.

I'd be *really* looking forward to 'bragging' about it here. So I'd start figuring out how I'd take a picture with it first. But a post here wouldn't be far away

[christianscott27]

i've been in this spot with the vectrex minicade, when i found mine at the flea market it was only the 2cnd one known to exist. it was a funny site, i went to flea market out of the city by bus and subway and had to carry this thing back that way, i'm too cheap for a cab ride. so there i was with something the size of a 27" TV, crossing a 4 lane hi-way, taking a crowded city bus and going down 2 lines of the subway to bring this baby home. damn my arms were tired but i knew that it was the find of a lifetime. as soon as i got home i had to try and convince my wife that it wasnt junk, she was like " i like the regular vectrex better, this thing is ugly and big"...

the first thing i did was call up my friends who collect and make them come over to "oooh and ahh" over it. then i posted and fielded questions on it, i thought for maybe 10 mnutes about selling it and then decided no way never its mine. i had some pictures of it hosted online and that was that. it was my treasure, something i had on the santullis and ianoids of this world then lightening struck again, i tracked one down at an coin-op warehouse and picked it up for $100...i had 2 of them! so i thought what to do with #2, i hate ebay with a passion and the trade offers were not making good sense so i decided to do a newsgroup auction. ng auctions are the old school way to sell things, i used the vectrex group so at least it would go to somebody in the community. the auction ran for 2 weeks and the bidding went up to 775, now my wife was impressed. so i got the money orders and took it to mailboxes etc. no trouble letting it go since i had 2, the buyer was happy with it and i spent most of the money on my ps2 and arcade machine...all good.

i'm pretty hardcore, i never let go of anything until i have a double, even if it means i could make a lot of cash.

[maxlords]

I'd sell it. I have no need for games that I wouldn't play, and 99% of the rarest stuff is stuff I'd never use. I'd use the money for either a big buying spree, or to pay bills.