An eBay sale price tag of $55,000 for a rare Zelda game prototype broke a world record for the bartering of any Nintendo Entertainment System game on eBay.

A sold for $55,000 on eBay this week, breaking a world record for the sale of a Nintendo Entertainment System game on eBay.

When seller Tom Curtin and the anonymous buyer landed on the final deal around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, Curtin, an avid game collector, knew he was in for a treat.

"I knew the prior record was $41,300 for a [factory-sealed] copy of Stadium Events," he wrote in an email.

Irked by the fact that 1986's Stadium Events, while rare and almost unheard of in its unopened state, though not historically relevant, earned such a high selling price, Curtin set his sights on the big money.

"There was zero chance I was letting it [a 25-year-old Legends of Zelda prototype] go for less than the record," he said. "This has solidified prototypes as a major part of video game collecting.

EBay did not return requests for confirmation of Curtin's world-record-breaking sale.

Curtin initially asked for $150,000 for the game, but eventually settled for $55,000. Details of other public and private offers were not disclosed. The seller and eventual buyer began wheeling and dealing around 1 a.m. Wednesday, when Curtin wrote a non-disclosure agreement before the parties settled on a final sale price.

"The money is definitely nice. The World Record is nice," Curtin said. But his objective was to find his beloved game a good home, while legitimizing collectors who are working to preserve the prototype part of gaming history.

In the vein of most lottery winners, Curtin said he plans to use the money to spend time with his family, helping them financially where he can. Some of the profit will be donated to nintendoage.com, a site without which Curtin said he would have never owned the Zelda NES prototype.

"I also plan on giving some to charities and paying it forward," he said.