It appears that one man’s trash is, indeed, another man’s treasure as bids for old, dirty, and crumpled up Atari 2600 games on Ebay have exceeded $500. Thousands of Atari games were buried in Alamogordo, New Mexico and, after being buried for 30 years, were dug up and are now being sold on Ebay that includes copies of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Defender, Asteroids, and other classic games.

The games are being sold through the Tularosa Basin Historical society on Ebay. Right now, only 100 cartridges are being auctioned off on Ebay to get a sense of how much they’ll go for with plans to sell around 700 to 800 more. Games such as Asteroids, Missile Command, Warlords, and Star Raiders join the E.T. title on the block with a description for each game that reads, “This game is one of the limited numbers recovered from the 'Old Alamogordo Landfill', also known as the 'Atari Dump.' Purchaser will receive the game as portrayed in photo, city property I.D. tag, the Certificate of authenticity ad a narrative with photos of the 1983 burial and the 2014 excavation proving the legend true. The seller does not represent that this item is operable; it was buried for 30 years. SOLD AS IS."


However, not all of the games excavated will be sold. Some of the games will be heading to museums to be put on display. One such place is the Video Game Museum of Rome which is already showcasing the games while other museums from France, Denmark, Sweden, and Australia are requesting games from the dig site as well.

Back in 1983, Atari had dumped and buried a bunch of Atari 2600 games which included a large amount of stock for the infamously bad E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial video game. The game was so bad that there was an excessive amount of overstock that resulted in Atari dumping it all in a landfill and covering it up with concrete. But in April this year, the site was excavated and other titles were recovered as well, with plans to sell them off. According to Tularosa Historical Society Vice President Joe Lewandowski, it has been estimated that there are around 792,000 cartridges still buried in the landfill, but that it would be too costly to dig them all up.