( Mental Floss ) -- While reading a story on this site about rare video games , Tanner Sandlin of Austin , Texas , recognized one of the games -- Air Raid for the Atari 2600 . He found the thirteenth known copy of the game in his garage and put it on eBay . It sold last Sunday for $ 31,600 , the second-highest price ever paid for a video game . Sandlin bought the game when he was 11 or 12 years old at a store called Tuesday Morning in Arlington , Texas . The store bought overstocked or undersold goods from other retailers and sold the items at a discount . 8 very rare and very expensive video games . Sandlin said he paid between $ 5 and $ 10 for Air Raid in the mid-1980s . This is important because none of the other twelve people who possess Air Raid cartridges were the original owners -- they bought them at auction , secondhand stores , or through private collectors . Learning a collectible item 's `` provenance , '' or owner history , is key to proving its authenticity . Since Sandlin was the original owner , his cartridge had more credibility than one found in a box at the local thrift store . 6 more people who accidentally found a fortune . Oddly enough , Sandlin remembered that this much sought after game was n't really all that great . In fact , the only reason he still had it was because it was so bad . He and his friends used to borrow games from each other all the time -- sometimes you 'd get your game back , sometimes you would n't , and that was OK . But no one wanted to keep Air Raid , so it kept coming back to him . He 's not complaining now . While it 's impressive that Sandlin had the thirteenth known copy of Air Raid , he also had the original packaging , which changed everything . Why ? Because his was the only known Air Raid box in the world , making it the only known complete copy of the game in existence . But he could n't start counting his fortune just yet . If you 're willing to pay thousands of dollars for a video game , you 're going to make sure it 's legitimate . Sandlin knew this , so he went straight to an expert , Albert Yarusso of AtariAge.com , a forum for fans of anything Atari , to get his professional opinion on the authenticity of the find . The two both live in Austin , so Yarusso met with Sandlin and examined both the game and the box in person . After some thorough research , Yarusso declared everything was real ( or the most impressive forgery he 'd ever seen ) . With expert confirmation behind him , Sandlin pulled his stand-alone cartridge auction on eBay and replaced it with the complete game package . The starting price was $ .50 . Sandlin 's eBay auction ended on April 10 , 2010 at about 10:15 p.m. EST . With only 5 minutes to go , the highest bid was $ 14,600 . It sat at this price until the very last few seconds , when it jumped to $ 17,528 , and then made a giant leap to $ 31,500 . The final bid was $ 31,600 . This sets a new record price for the game , blowing away the previous record of $ 3,000 . That also makes it the second-highest price ever paid for a video game cartridge , just behind the $ 43,300 paid for a factory-sealed copy of Stadium Events for the Nintendo back in February . I asked Sandlin what he intended to do with the money and he was n't quite sure yet . He did know that he wanted to buy something tangible ; something he could point at it and say , `` I bought that with a video game ! '' Now if you 'll excuse me , I have to go look for something in my garage . Mental Floss : Lost treasures waiting to be found . For more mental_floss articles , visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright , Mental Floss LLC . All rights reserved .
Tanner Sandlin read on CNN.com about high prices paid for rare video games . He remembered he owned Air Raid for the Atari 2600 and dug it out of garage . Expert declared it authentic ; Sandlin put the game up for auction , gets $ 31,6000 . Says he never really enjoyed playing the video game .