After finally proving the urban legend of the unsold Atari game cartridges dump to be true last year, the town of Alamogordo, New Mexico, is using the unearthed games to bring in the big bucks. How much you ask? During a city commission meeting, consultant Joe Lewandowski announced the city has made a whopping $107,930.15 by selling these hidden treasures on eBay.

Often referred to as one of the worst games ever, E.T.: the Extra Terrestrial was part of the found loot, and has now become popular with collectors. Most were curious about what would happen to the games after last year’s excavation, and apparently the plan was to sell most of them off to the public.

According to Lewandowski, 881 of the cartridges have been sold, 100 went to the film company who made the documentary about the finding of the loot, titled Atari: Game Over, and 23 went off to museums. There are still 297 of them that will be archived in case a second film is made — the value will once again increase.

As for how the money is going to be split: $65,037.78 is going to the city, $16,259.44 is going to the Tularosa Bason Historical Society, and the other $26,632.93 is going towards shipping fees. Buyers were located in 45 states and 14 countries. This is definitely a decent outcome considering the city was digging through a dump.

Have you purchased any of the cartridges found in this Atari burial? Would you want a second film based on the story behind the events that led to the dumping of the games? Let us know in the comments below.

—

HT: Gameinformer

Image Credit: Atari: Game Over