Ultra rare Mega Drive game goes for £3380 on eBay
"I will open it and I will also test it."
The ultra rare Mega Drive game we reported on last month ended up selling on eBay for £3380.
Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs is a 26-year-old Mega Drive game that was sought after by retro fans because it never officially made it out of publisher EA's European office - despite being primed for release.
The game ended up at the home of former Relentless Software chief David Amor, who saw bids over £9000.
An eBay-fuelled purge of bids from those without positive feedback brought the listing down to a more realistic £2000, and the winning bid nabbed the game for £3380. Amor told Eurogamer he has received the money - and now plans to FedEx the game to its new owner, who lives in Europe. "By and large they don't tend to lose items, do they?" Amor joked. "No Gatwick meet-up or anything like that!"
The new owner, who asked not to be named, told Eurogamer over email he bought Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs as part of a bid to complete the full set of PAL Mega Drive titles.
"My objective is to have the full set of PAL Mega Drive games (without considering all the different compilations and different covers for the same game) and I'm close to finishing it. There are around 550 games.
"My first idea was to get the Genesis version of this game (very cheap) because the EA cartridge is exactly the same. If you look at an EA cartridge sold here in Europe, there is also written 'for use with the Sega Genesis system'.
"Finally, I saw it on eBay and I said why not? I liked the story of David Amor and how he found the game. £3000 isn't a large expanse in a collector's life. I will sell some rare titles for the NES and SNES that I have doubles of and I will get my £3000 back.
"Yes, I will open it and I will also test it. I don't buy things if I can't use or play them normally. I will probably build a collector box to store the game in so it doesn't become sun-faded or the box becomes damaged. I'm a clumsy person and I always knock over my games."
As for Amor, he owes his son a Nintendo Switch. "The Switch is coming!" he said. "But the condition was we'd sell all of the games on eBay and there are still a few more to sell. So I think that's maybe a month or so away, which gives Nintendo enough time to get it in stock!"