Original 'Legend Of Zelda' Game Sells For Over $400k... through Goodwill

Goodwill in Connecticut made itself a nice chunk of change by selling an unopened copy of The Legend of Zelda.

According to TMZ, the game was sold through shopgoodwill.com and became the biggest sale in the site's more than twenty-year history. The final bid? A whopping $411 thousand.

If you're wondering how that's even possible, it all comes down to the only economic principle that I have even a cursory understanding of: supply and demand.

Nintendo dropped the Legend of Zelda on the video game-loving public back in 1986. Back then, the game retailed for $49.99. As soon as a copy left the store, it was clawed open by an excited 12-year-old who was the toast of their neighborhood.

This is why unopened copies are so hard to find. The scarcity then pumps up the prices on the few that still exist

See? Simple supply and demand.

Couple that with the game's cult following, and you've got yourself a piece of video game history worth mid-six figures.

What one does with an unopened video game from the mid-eighties is anyone's guess. The only answer I can come up with is putting it on a shelf to impress a select group of über nerds.

Fortunately, the money that NES cartridges raked in will be going to a good cause. It'll be put toward building a new career center to help area job seekers.

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