Mother Discards $500,000 Video Game Collection, Regrets Decision

This gamer amassed an impressive retrogaming collection, and it went wrong

On the other side of the Atlantic, we sometimes discover incredible stories. Some time ago, in 2020, a mother did the irreparable by throwing her son's entire collection of retro video games in the trash, without realizing its value.. Indeed, what she doesn't know is that this famous collection is estimated at 500,000 dollars! For years, his son, working as an employee in a J&L video game store, had managed to accumulate an impressive collection of vintage games and consoles.

Obviously, such stock takes up space and he decided to store it with his parents before finding a place for it in his own home. However, he learned the hard way that this idea was not the best… Determined to do a major spring cleaning, his mother decided to get rid of the “old things” that were cluttering the garage. You see it coming: this garage contained the son's precious collection, and the mother obviously took it for things to be thrown away. When his son found out, he was inconsolable, particularly because his collection, filled with rare and collector's games, consisted of, among others, an Atari console, a Coleco and a Famicom, to name but a few. than these few treasures.

A colossal financial and emotional loss: this gamer's mother threw away $500,000 worth of video games

This video game anecdote, disastrous for the owner (well, the ex-owner) of the collection, obviously made the rounds on social networks, causing a reaction from an entire community which mourned, with the son, the loss of such a collection. As support, the son even received offers from other players to help him find at least a few lost copies, but it was already too late. Beyond a wave of grief, this loss raised a whole other debate, that of the valuation of video game goods, more particularly retrogaming. If some people see them as insignificant objects, taking up too much space for nothing in domestic storage areas, for others they are real treasures that increase in value over the years.

Consequently, this terrible story, capable of making the greatest collectors tremble, reminds us that it is important to find out before taking these objects towards the trash. This is particularly why there are now lots of ways to support players and families in estimating their video game assets and the different elements of their collection.. However, the biggest lesson to be learned from this news item is that it is good practice to communicate with those close to you, especially when you have the annoying habit of storing things in their home without warning them: that, the player at the origin of this article will not soon forget it.