If you’ve been following Retro Dodo for some time, you’ll know that we’re absolutely obsessed with rare Gameboys, we collect them, we pimp them and we mod them.
They’re growing in popularity by the day and the true collectors will know that they’re somewhat becoming an expensive console to collect, especially in boxed and or mint conditions. Heck, thanks to Retro Future, Mr Beast is even collecting them!
We want to start a new series here on our website, dedicated to shining light on some of the rarest games consoles, accessories and even games from around the world, and we thought we’d start the series off with the oh so popular Gameboy.
In this video we feature a wide range of rare Gameboys, ones that you may have hidden in your attics to Gameboys that are so rare that there’s rumoured to be only 1 in the world.
So, sit back relax, and enjoy our first article of The Rarest & Most Valuable series. We have also launched our video series on our YouTube channel, so be sure to subscribe.
A shoutout goes to Console Variations for supplying some of this research.
1. Pokemon Gameboy Advance SP
We’ll start off with one that’s not technically rare, but rather continuously growing in value, and that’s the limited edition Pokemon Gameboy Advance SP’s. More specifically the Charizard edition.
It is rumoured that only 10,000 to 50,000 of these were ever made and the most recent auction on eBay of this console sold for over $500, and that’s not sealed! Sealed versions with a high PSA grading have sold for almost $15,000 and as of recording this video, there’s one listed on eBay priced at $20,000 buy it now. Crazy!
The only way to obtain one of these back in the day was to buy it at the official Nintendo World Store in New York City in 2004 close to the Gameboy Advance SP launch.
Not only was this wanted for the exclusive Charizard design, but it was also the newer model of the GBA SP known as the AGS-101 which had a brighter back lit screen instead of the original hazey front lit screen of the AGS 001.
Due to Pokemon’s recent boom in popularity this variant has been increasing in value drastically, just like the rare Pokemon Topps cards! So check your basements, ask your parents and hop in your attics because you may just hit the jackpot.
2. Pink Heart Gameboy DMG
This is a Gameboy we never knew existed until we started doing some research for this video, many thought it was fake, but it wasn’t until recently that facts came to fruition about what could be the rarest Gameboy DMG ever.
It’s known as the “Pink Heart Gameboy” a Gameboy so rare that there’s rumoured to be the only one in the world.
A 1 of 1 official Gameboy that was actually featured on Nintendo’s website, and nobody until a few years ago thought it was real.
Reddit user under the name of JesusPunks made a post stating “Looking through old junk and found this. Mum says she won it on a Gameshow in the 90’s”.
After doing some research it is apparent that the mother won it on a popular 90’s game show in the UK called “Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway”. Which funnily enough is still going to this day.
The only way to obtain this very rare Gameboy was to ring in and answer a bunch of quiz questions, the lucky prize would be a Pink Heart Gameboy which at the time was nothing special, but now 20+ years later it is now crowned one of the rarest Gameboys ever. Cheers Mum!
This Gameboy has never been sold, or if it has it’s never been public, so it’s hard to put a price on what it’s actually worth.
Undoubtedly it would be in the tens of thousands but it all comes down to what collector is crazy enough to buy it. Imagine playing your best Gameboy games on this…
3. Golden Gameboy Advance SP
The golden Gameboy Advance SP is probably the most valuable Gameboy of the lot, and that’s not only because it’s golden but also because of the mysterious nature of how you go about getting hold of one.
Originally back in November of 2004 the Zelda Minish Cap was released, and with that came limited edition consoles to celebrate the launch with a tri-force printed on top.
But what was extra special was that Nintendo placed 6 golden tickets inside 6 boxes of this variant.
This golden ticket allowed you to win a 24K gold Gameboy Advance SP that weighed the same as a small child.
6 out of 25,000 is a very small chance of winning and for years nobody thought it was real because nobody came out saying they won it, and Nintendo never made the winners public.
There was also 1 other golden Gameboy to win, this was given to the magazine Games ™ by Nintendo for a competition. To win all you had to do was email the answer to the following question:
“By what other name are the Minish people known?”
This competition run until the end of 2004, but again there was no public information regarding the winner.
BUT in 2019 the golden Gameboys started to pop up proving that the competitions were in fact real and that the Golden Gameboys are amongst some of the rarest Gameboys in the world.
Only a few have been found as of now, two of them have been sourced on twitter by user LSuperSonicQ. They look simple, but one of the owners has stated the following:
“The GB isn’t solid metal. It was actually made by a company using electroplating to attach gold to unpainted factory parts so weight wise it’s about the same as a normal unit”.
They’re also based on the old AGS 001 so its front lit instead of back lit and came in no box nor display.
But nonetheless an incredibly rare and valuable Gameboy that any collector would dream of having, as of now none has been sold so the price is still unknown. Be honest, how much would you pay for one of these? We want this to play some our best Gameboy Advance games, asap!
4. Golden Sun Gameboy Advance
Finally, a rare Gameboy Advance I hear you ask! By far one of the most popular consoles of the Gameboy line.
Golden Sun is a very popular retro game that was officially released for the first time on the Gameboy Advance in 2001. With the release came a special edition variant in Japan that’s so rare only 20 were actually made.
The only image of this Gameboy Advance SP to be seen is in fact the promotional image for the Golden Sun GBA that was a competition within the CoroCoro magazine from Japan.
The Gameboy had a golden painted shell with the words “Golden Sun” on the top of the screen and character sprites below.
This console keeps growing in demand and is swiftly becoming one of the rarest consoles out there because nobody has proof of owning one nor is there any listings.
Some could say the competition failed and that they were never sent out, others say they must have been thrown away in the past but many still believe they are out there, waiting to be found.
5. CoroCoro Gameboy Color
While we’re on the subject of CoroCoro they also gave birth to more rare Gameboys, this time a Pokemon edition Gameboy Color.
CoroCoro is a magazine that was established in 1977 dedicated to Japanese manga, and it’s always been quite popular especially in the 90s and early 2000’s when it started featuring Gameboy games and the best Gameboy accessories.
In 1999 CoroCoro celebrated their 250th issue by giving away limited edition Pokemon Gameboy Colors. It is rumoured than only 20 – 30 of these consoles were made, making them highly sought after.
What made this Gameboy special was the detailing across the whole console. The screen lens had pikachu faces everywhere, a 250th logo at the bottom and the middle featuring pikachu saying thank you. It’s an all round looker.
For Pokemon lovers this is the ultimate collectible but finding one is hard. Many of them have probably been lost and only a couple has popped up on eBay but the most recent sold in November of 2020 for $5,000 and this wasn’t even in good condition.
Apparently, they never came boxed, just the console was given out if you were lucky enough to win it and like every Gameboy Color it had no back lit screen.
So there’s a little look at some of the rarest and most valuable Gameboys on the planet.
Most of them unattainable, but if there’s anything to take away from this video that’s to keep your consoles in good condition and boxed if you can because every day that goes by more and more collectors want to get their hands on rare Gameboys.
A 29 year old fella that’s had a Gameboy addiction ever since he was a child. Brandon is the founder of RetroDodo and created a YouTube channel with 240,000 subscribers dedicated to retro gaming products. He now wants to create the No.1 site to showcase the latest retro products from around the globe.
