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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Virtual Bowling for Virtual Boy | Used Price: $1,395 - Last game for Virtual Boy. Only released in Japan.
• Exertainment Mountain Bikerally/Speed Racer for SNES | Used Price: $500 - Bike racing might qualify as a sports game, but we classify it as racing.
• Punch-Out Special Edition for NES | Used Price: $300 - Gold cartridge released in a competition. Only released in Japan.
• NCAA Basketball 10 for PS3 | Used Price: $54 - Same as the Xbox 360 game listed above, but not as valuable.
• International Superstar Soccer for SNES | Used Price: $60 - Similar to ISS Deluxe but not quite as rare.

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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