The Rarest and Most Valuable Sports Games

Presented by RetroSportsGamer

Check out the rest of our Rare & Valuable series to see what collectors are looking for

When one conjures up images of older sports games, they most likely think of a stack of sun-bleached PlayStation 2 games; victims of being sorted through and left to bake under the hot sun at a flea market or swap meet. For years, the steady giants like Madden or FIFA have been mass produced across numerous gaming platforms, becoming nearly irrelevant just a year later when the next iteration is released.

Outside of a few classics that are still played (but worth hardly anything) through fan competitions or online leagues, the shelf life for sports games is incredibly short and the basic tenants of supply and demand dictate that many are worth just a fraction of their original retail price. (This is a good opportunity to look for valuable games that most people wouldn’t realize are worth much)

In thirty years of gaming, there are a small number of sports games that broke this mold and, for reasons that will be detailed, are rare and in some instances worth a considerable amount of money. In this piece, we have looked across generations of gaming systems, including Japanese and European releases, in determining the rarest and most valuable sports games. There are some caveats when dealing with such a huge sample. When looking at rare consoles like the Neo Geo AES, it is inherent that the sports games for that system will be worth considerably more than other consoles’ games.

We have looked to establish a baseline to what the common sports games are worth on the system to determine if a game really deserves inclusion. When two prices are shown below, the amounts represent a range that the game has sold for in the last six months to a year, with the condition or completeness of case and manual dictating the higher number.

Additional Rare and Valuable Sports Games

Super Sidekicks 4 – Neo Geo (JP) – $600-$800 (eBay)

Windjammers / Flying Power Disk – Neo Geo $900-1600 (JP $100-$200) (eBay)

Super Sidekicks 3: The Next Glory – Neo Geo – $500-$600 (eBay)

F1 Pole Position (USA “Black Label”) – Game Boy: $127-$830 (eBay)

Baseball Stars 2 – Neo Geo – $200-$330 (eBay)

Jimmy Connors Tennis – Nintendo Entertainment System – $55-$400 (eBay)

ISS 2000 – N64 – $50 – $400

Jimmy Connors Tennis (USA Version) – Game Boy: $100-$399 (eBay)

World Sports Competition – TurboGrafx-16: $150-$270

Mega Man Soccer – Super Nintendo – $40-$350

Super Copa – SNES – $100 – $200

Disney Sports Basketball – Gamecube: $60-$245

Winning Post – Saturn: $65-$200

WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game – 32X : $47 – $190 (eBay)

FIFA Soccer 96 – 32X (PAL): $100 – $140

Space Squash – Virtual Boy (JP) – $65- $80

Dusty Diamond’s All-Star Softball – Nintendo Entertainment System – $40-$85

ISS Deluxe – SNES – $60 – $100

NASCAR Racing 2003 Season – PC: $35 – $100

Tecmo Super Bowl II: Special Edition – Super Nintendo – $40-$125

ISS Pro Evolution – PS1 : $40-$100 ($150 Sealed)

NCAA Basketball 10 – PS3: $43 – $80

College Hoops 2k8 – PS3: $35 – $80

College Hoops 2k8 -Xbox 360 $35 – $80

NCAA Basketball 10 – Xbox 360: $40 – $60

NFL Blitz Special Edition – Nintendo 64 – $35-$60

Slap Shot – Sega Master System -$40-$57 (US release has the blue label and is the rare copy)

3D Baseball – Sega Saturn – $20-$40

Tecmo Super Bowl II: Special Edition – Sega Genesis – $25-$40

Chavez II – Super Nintendo – $15-$40

Olympic Soccer – 3DO – $25

Special thanks to Digitpress, VGPC and neo-geo.com for the resources their sites provide.