Jennifer Thompson’s $25,000 NES Find

In April 2013, Jennifer Thompson spotted the Stadium Events game for the NES behind the counter at the Steele Creek Goodwill in North Carolina, then used Wi-Fi to confirm what she had found before paying $8 with just $30 in her bank account. She took the game to a used video game store in Charlotte, where the clerk offered her all the cash in the register, but she refused and later successfully auctioned it online for $25,000. Collectors covet the cartridge because Bandai released it in 1987 for the short-lived Family Fun Fitness mat, then Nintendo bought the tech, relaunched it as the Power Pad, and reissued the game as World Class Track Meet, leaving the original Stadium Events release unusually scarce and its remaining stock a long-running mystery.

Previous Fact Next Fact