An anonymous buyer just dropped hundreds of thousands of dollars to become the new owner of the world’s largest video game collection.
The trove of 11,000 games sold on June 15 at online auction site GameGavel for $750,250, which rounds out to about $68 per game, according to Gamespot. The winning bid came from a user going by the handle “peeps_10091970.”
According to Kotaku, previous owner Michael Thomasson put the collection up for sale. Thomasson was awarded the Guinness World Record for his collection last year, when his hoard totaled 10,607 games.
CNET reports that Thomasson has been collecting since 1983. He apparently keeps his games in excellent condition: 2,600 of the games in the recently sold collection are still in their original shrink wrapping, and more than 8,300 still have their boxes and instruction manuals.
Why did he sell? Apparently, he did it to help out family.
"I simply have an immediate family and extended family that have needs that need to be addressed. While I do not wish to part with these games, I have responsibilities that I have made to others and this action is how I will help meet them," he said in a statement published on GameGavel. “No worries, I’ve sold my collection many times in the past and still managed to capture Guinness’ attention, and it is entirely possible that I may again”
According to a previous profile Gamespot did with Thomasson, he sold his first collection in 1989 to raise money for a Sega Genesis and sold another collection in 1998 to pay for his wedding.