The $33,433.30 Atari Air Raid

You may remember a little auction back in 2010 that made national news. An auction for a rarer than rare Atari 2600 game called Air Raid. You might also remember this auction closed for a staggering $31,000+; that’s right over $30K for an Atari 2600 game. What made this auction particularly special was this Air Raid, which had been sold cartridge only before for a few thousand dollars, also included the original box. Why was that so special, you ask? Well because this was the first time a box had been discovered and auctioned off and was the catalyst for driving this auction hammer price into the stratosphere. This box you could say was worth around $28,000 to the winning bidder. Wow!  And, until now, this was the only Air Raid box to have ever been found.

Well, just last week a second boxed and complete Air Raid was discovered by a family here in Southern California. It turns out after they just recently discovered the story of the first boxed Air Raid sale, which is still making the rounds on the internet, their father recalled he had been given that game by a sales rep for the company Men-A-Vision while he tended a game retail space in a local drug store. After this store closed he was given the video game stock and even the Atari display kiosk, seen here, which all these games have been stored in for around thirty years. It wasn’t until they read of the outrageous selling price of the first one did they even think of these games stored in their past.

It was then the family went together and dug out these cases of old, still boxed and in exceptional condition, Atari 2600 games in search of what is considered one of the rarest video games from any console generation.   They took the dusty cases home and produced this video and posted it on AtariAge.com.

This video is exciting to watch for anyone who collects video games and you find yourself pulling for the family to confirm the father’s memory from decades earlier, that there was in fact, a boxed Air Raid among these games he was fortunate enough to have received upon the store’s closing. Well, sure enough, after digging through the games, he pulled out a boxed Air Raid, all the while his hands trembling with excitement. This is what this hobby is all about, folks. And it turns out video games have played a big roll in their family since their father was in the retail business.  In fact, he just told me they have about 60 full size classic arcade games (including an Environmental Discs of TRON) in their home too! How cool is that?

Since finding this game they have decided to list it up for auction and what is even more miraculous, is this game is in even nicer condition than the first one and it is truly a complete specimen as it also includes, the previously unconfirmed existence of, an instruction manual. So to be true, this is the first “complete in box” or “CIB” Air Raid that has ever been found and put up for auction; and it has luckily been stored and well preserved in these protective plexi-glass crates for over twenty years.  What are the chances of that?

GameGavel.com was proud to be a part of this history making auction which ended over the weekend.  This complete in box Air Raid sold for a record $33,433.30 making it the most expensive “commercially sold” video games ever to have been sold at auction (not including prototypes or NES Challenge Cartridges, etc.).

If you have something rare to sell bring it on over to GameGavel.  We will charge you less than eBay and also help promote the auction so you will get the most possible for your items.