Buying an old NES off eBay is a great idea. I did it in college and got two zappers, two power gloves, like twenty games, and a bunch of other stuff for just under $50. But this particular auction fetched the mind-blowing bid of $13,105. Can you see why?

Yes: it comes with a copy of Stadium Events, which is the rarest licensed NES game in the world. It originally came out in Japan, then was licensed and released over here, but only a couple hundred made it into consumers’ hands, and perhaps only 10 actually exist now in the wild.

Of course, you could buy one of the rebranded ones or play it on an emulator, but these actual original cartridges are the rarest of the rare — not so much as the gold World Championship carts, but still pretty freaking rare.

Update: awesome commenter Drake points us to a forum thread where this was discovered and tracked.

[via Hot Blooded Gaming]

So you want to buy a decent auction car for as little money as possible? Then you should go to a public auto auction. At a car auction – especially at a government auction – you can get a very decent car in any range at an amazingly low price. All over the country you will find a car auction running almost any time.

There are also car auctions on the internet and if you consider buying or bidding on cars online there are a couple of things you need to be aware of:

- The description you read and the pictures you see on the internet don’t necessarily match the reality. Unfortunately not everybody is honest and it’s easy to make a vehicle appear better than it actually is.

The good thing is that there are serious online auto auction sites where cheating people are no option (for example by clicking the hyperlinks in this article). Since you don’t have the option of inspecting the vehicle before you bid on it, I feel it’s appropriate to show some caution.

- Normally a public auto auction considers a bid on a certain vehicle as a contract between the seller and the winning bidder to fulfill the transaction within a specified time.

Do Your Homework Upfront

Before you go to a car auction, be it online or traditional, there are a few things you should take into consideration.

- you must sit down and work out a budget figure or a maximum amount that you can spend freely and – in worst case – can be without.

When you have come up with a set budget you will

- already have narrowed down your options with regard to which car to bid on
- Prevent the risk of bidding too high and spending more than necessary.
- you also want to acquire sufficient automotive knowledge or update the knowledge already might have.

Another option is to bring someone with the necessary knowledge with you and trust his or her abilities to judge the vehicle you consider to purchase.

- get a list of the different vehicles makes and models, their listing values as well as their general asking prices and take it with you to the public auto auction.

With this knowledge you are in a much better position to distinguish a good auction car deal from a bad one and take advantage of it.

by Terry Carters