Wednesday, April 3, 2013

15 Rare Sports Video Games | The Most Expensive Sports Games Ever

Sports video games are notorious for dropping in value really quickly. That Madden game you bought last year is probably worth 10% of what you paid and after a few years might be worth $3 if your lucky.

There are some big exceptions to this general rule. Some rare sports games sell for thousands of dollars. Below is a list of the rarest and most expensive sports video games and what makes them so valuable.

Most Valuable Sports Video Games

Stadium Events for Nintendo NES

Rare Sports Games New Price: $25,000 | Used Price: $2,200 | See Current Prices
Stadium Events is a track and field game for the Nintendo NES. Stadium Events was the second game designed for the Family Fitness mat (Athletic World was the first). But in 1987 Nintendo bought the rights from Bandai and changed the name to World Class Track Meet.

Nintendo stopped shipping Stadium Events and recalled all copies that had shipped but not all the copies were destroyed and a few ended up in customer's hands. The European version was never recalled and is much cheaper.

Spiker! Super Pro Volleyball for Intellivision

Valuable Sports Video Games New Price: $N/A | Used Price: $1,599 | See Current Prices
Spiker Super Pro Volleyball is a volleball game for the Intellivision. You can play 2v2 or 6v6. The graphics were very advanced for the Intellivision era.

The Intellivision stopped production in 1984 and Spiker was released in 1989 and was the last game released for the system. The publisher, INTV, barely scraped the money together to publish the game at all and was unable to produce many copies.

NBA Elite 11 for Playstation 3

Rare Video Games Sports New Price: $2,250 | Used Price: $995 | See Current Prices
NBA Elite 11 is a NBA basketball game for Playstation 3. The game was to be published by EA Sports in 2011, but it was delayed and missed the start of the regular season. In late 2011 it was officially cancelled by EA.

Although it was never officially released, EA had shipped copies of the game to retailers and media for demo purposes. These copies show that the game is very glitchy and incomplete. Collector's aren't paying thousands of dollars to play a great basketball game, they are paying for the rarity.

Super Series Big League Baseball for Intellivision

Most Expensive Sports Games New Price: $N/A | Used Price: $305 | See Current Prices
Super Series Baseball is for Intellivision. It was way ahead of its time with play-by-play, multiple camera angles, and picture-in-picture for runner's on base. All of this for a game released in 1982.

The exact same game was also released in 1983 as 'World Series Major League Baseball' with an official MLB license. The original 'Super Series' version from 1982 is much more valuable and harder to find.

Mountain Madness: Super Pro Skiing for Intellvision

Most Valuable Sports Video Games New Price: $N/A | Used Price: $90 | See Current Prices
Mountain Madness: Super Pro Skiing was released for the Intellivision in 1988. It is an enhanced version of Skiing with 32 courses instead of just one. You could race any course as downhill or slalom and even design your own courses.

The game was released by INTV Corp, four years after Mattel shut-down the Intellivision division. By this point most Intellivision owners had stopped buying new games and almost all retail stores had stopped carrying them. Because of this the game was produced in very small quantities.

Super Copa for Super Nintendo

Rarest Sports Video Games New Price: $2,000 | Used Price: $90 | See Current Prices
Super Copa is a soccer game for the Super Nintendo. The exact same game was originally released as Tony Meola's Sidekicks Soccer in 1993. It sold poorly as Tony Meola but not bad enough to be considered rare.

The game was rebranded as Super Copa for release outside the USA. Some collector's think the game was never officially released in the USA but it was rated by the ESRB, which only happens for games slated to be released here. Whether it was released officially or not, the copies available are very expensive and very rare.

NCAA Basketball 10 for Xbox 360

Valuable NCAA Basketball Games New Price: $210 | Used Price: $80 | See Current Prices
NCAA Basketball 10 was released for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. The game features Blake Griffin on the front cover and has broadcasting voices from ESPN and CBS. In February 2010, EA announced they would not release another NCAA Basketball game in the foreseeable future.

Every February and March prices spike for NCAA Basketball 10 as interest peaks with March Madness. It is the most updated NCAA Basketball game available. The Xbox 360 version is more expensive than the PS3 version.

James Buster Douglas Boxing for Sega Master System

Rare Sports Games New Price: $N/A | Used Price: $80 | See Current Prices
James Buster Douglas Knockout Boxing was released for Sega Master System in 1988. After Buster Douglas beat Mike Tyson, Sega quickly signed him to a deal and released a boxing game with his name on it. The Genesis version is worth hardly anything.

Buster Douglas boxing is the second most expensive game for the Master System and very hard to find. The game was released in 1990, which was a year after the Genesis was released. By this point Sega was only providing token support and didn't produce many copies of the game.

NCAA College Basketball 2K3

Rare NCAA Basketball Games New Price: $20,000 | Used Price: $75 | See Current Prices
NCAA Basketball 2K3 was released for Xbox, PS2, and Gamecube but only the Gamecube version is rare. It is the only NCAA basketball game for the Gamecube.

In 2003, Sega decided to stop making sports games in their 2K line of games because of lackluster sales. The Gamecube games had sold the worst. Part way through production, Sega decided to stop the Gamecube version but continue making PS2 and Xbox. The few Gamecube games made were sold to stores but on a very limited basis.

International Superstar Soccer Deluxe for Super Nintendo

Expensive Sports Games New Price: $192 | Used Price: $74 | See Current Prices
International Superstar Soccer Deluxe was published on the Super Nintendo. The game was released in 1995 and is a sequel to a very similar game released a year earlier. The Deluxe version added features like 2 player co-op, extra commentary, and small graphical improvements.

Both ISS and ISS Deluxe were trying to capitalize on the success of the World Cup in the USA in 1994, but neither sold very well in the USA. The Deluxe version is rarer than the original and incredibly hard to find complete with the box and instructions.

Other Noteworthy Rare Sports Games


The list is ranked by the highest average used price and then highest average new price in the event of a tie.

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10 comments :

telepathy said...

I don't know if this is worth mentioning, but someone in Japan on Yahoo! Auctions is selling a new copy of Virtual Bowling. It's only 200,000 円!

http://page16.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/u38804163

Anonymous said...

Nice find. I personally stick to US releases but cool to see!

Anonymous said...

You should do articles like this but for each genre!

Anonymous said...

Bassmasters 2000 gray loose prices will be up there soon!!! Got a feeling. 8/10 rarity its just a matter of time.

Anonymous said...

ncaa 10 is at game stop

Anonymous said...

You forget ESPN Hang Time 95 for Sega CD. I purchased a copy at goodwill new sealed for a buck. I looked it up just before I opened it (was going to use the case to refurbish a GOOD game) found out it was rare and SOLD it on eBay for $199 BIN last year.

DJ Omnimaga said...

What about the NTSC version of FIFA 14 for the Playstation 2? It's the last PS2 game ever released in North (or South?) America and it seems that copies on Ebay are next to impossible to find only a year after the game came out.

JJ Hendricks said...

@DJ - It is pretty rare in USA and only came out with a Spanish cover. I don't think it was widely released so it is pretty rare. Will be interesting to see if prices increase over time on this one. You can buy it now for $25 without a problem.

DJ Omnimaga said...

The Wii version (NTSC) of FIFA Soccer 13 ranges from $40 to 110 now. Also Madden 09 for the original Xbox has a quite good value it seems too.

Unknown said...

I have madden 13,madden 11,fifa08soccer &12,13,16

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