'Holy grail' of Zelda games worth close to $1 million was nearly sold for $17,000

A 22-year-old who discovered a sealed copy of The Legend of Zelda from 1987 nearly sold it on eBay for just $17,000 when it may be worth close to $1 million.

2

The sealed copy of 1987's The Legend of Zelda was discovered by the seller Kiro, who decided to use a pseudonym for privacy reasons, spoke to CNBC and said the sealed game of one of the most iconic video game franchises of all time was part of his family ever since it was purchased for just $29.87 in 1987. Kiro told the publication that they looked on eBay for copies of the vintage Zelda game and thought he was going to get anywhere between $17,000 and $20,000 "if I'm lucky".

Kiro proceeded to list the video game and immediately got responses from buyers attempting to finalize their payments. The 22-year-old said that one buyer even offered $30,000 cash to drive to his location immediately and pick it up. Upon realizing what they had was likely worth more than what it was listed for, Kiro decided to remove the listing, and that night, a collector offered to call him to discuss the game.

The collector informed Kiro that his copy was an extremely rare piece as it was part of the first production run, even going as far as to describe Kiro's particular copy as being the "holy grail" for collectors as it's still sealed.

Notably, the last sealed Zelda video game of the same year sold for an astonishing $705,000, making it one of the most expensive video games ever sold.

"It's really kind of a miracle," he says. "Something in me told me to put it up that night. And within those few minutes of getting sold I got connected to the right person. I feel like without that guidance, I would have been somewhat lost."

"He genuinely just wanted to help," Kiro says. "He was excited about seeing this go to market and wanted me to get what it was worth."