Have you checked your parent’s attic or basement recently? Scott Amos of Reno, Nevada is certainly glad he did. He was recently cleaning out his Mum’s attic on Mother’s Day (what a nice son) and discovered a few boxes of his childhood possessions. What he wasn’t expecting to find, however, was a J.C Penney bag with a sealed copy of Kid Icarus for the NES inside.
Also within the bag was the original receipt, which dated it to the 8th of December, 1988 (Kid Icarus was released in North America the year before) and cost someone, likely his Mum, $38.45 – which translates to approximately $80 in today’s currency. The running theory is that since it was purchased in December, it was intended as a Christmas gift but then forgot about in the attic.
Amos knew it would be worth something but assumed it wouldn’t be more than a few hundred bucks. The NES game was then left on the kitchen counter in full reach of little people until the next day. At work, Amos emailed a few experts and was promptly informed he had an “Easter egg”. A quick call to his wife later, and Kid Icarus was hurriedly stored in a less obvious location. “I didn’t want the kids pulling it down or coloring on it”, Amos told the Reno Gazette Journal.
As it turns out, Kid Icarus is very rare to find sealed and since it’s bundled with its original receipt (so, a nice backstory) sold for a nice premium on Heritage Auctions. It’s thought less than ten sealed copies exist out there – so if you do manage to locate one in the dark, dank reaches of your garage, prepare for a nice Christmas bonus yourself.
