That sale took place on February 26, 2010. Previous to this, a non-shrink-wrapped copy of the game sold for $13,105 dollars on February 13, 2010, when a grandmother unknowingly put the game, along with others, for sale on ebay and saw the bid skyrocket.

Now that the selling price has reached such insane heights, it seems that people who actually own a copy of the game are coming out of the woodwork.

Case in point, the 41 grand above was put up for auction by a man named Dave, who was literally within a month of giving the game (along with others in his collection) to Goodwill! He has a collection of over 185 games and that was one of the ones on the list to GIVE away. Thankfully, he heard about the grandma and her fortune for the game, and when he went to checked his own basement to see if he might have a copy, he was shocked to find out that he had a complete, and sealed, copy!

So what is is he going to do with all that cash?

“After taxes and tithing, the rest of our part will be going to a retirement account that has been decimated by the dot-com bomb, 9/11, and the recent market problems. Not very sexy, but needed.”

The game itself is a Power Pad-supported title and is the English name for “Running Stadium” by Bandai. It was released in North America in 1987 and in Japan in 1986 (followed by West Germany and Sweden in 1988).

The game is part of the “Family Fun Fitness” (FFF) series along with “Athletic World” (with the former being branded “Series 2″ and the latter branded “Series 1″ on the box) before being re-branded and re-released by Nintendo specifically for the Power Pad as the much better known “World Class Track Meet” (a game that IS NOT worth anything).

In the game players use the Power Pad (side B) to physically make the characters on screen run and jump (by running on the pad) in events ranging from 100m Dash to Long Jump, Hurdles and Triple Jump.

So why is the game so rare? It is due to the rebranding, as well as the fact that the game was only sold in a limited number of stores. Not only that, but after Nintendo bought the rights from Bandai to the game and rebranded it as “World Class Track Meet” for their Power Pad accessory, they subsequently recalled the “Stadium Events”-branded games and destroyed them (along with Bandai’s version of the Power Pad accessory, called the “Family Fun Fitness Mat” or Running Pad).

All of this adds up to the fact that only 200 copies of the game are thought to have actually been produced and sold to consumers before the recall (Dave himself bought it for $29.99! Thus he has made a $41,270 profit!). Of those, only 20 complete (that’s with box and instructions) copies are known to exist. Making the game highly rare and valuable. In fact it was recently listed as the 6th entry in the “Holy Grails of Console Gaming” list by Racket Boy.

Here is a gameplay video of Stadium Events in action.

I know what you’re saying after watching the video. “All that money for THAT!?!?!”

Via Yahoo Games