In early June 2021, Alex Juarez, a Goodwill North Central Texas’ e-commerce item processer, was searching through donated video games and came across a copy of the video game Air Raid. In the game published for the Atari 2600 in 1982 by Men-A-Vision, players take control of an air ship defending Earth. The cartridge is distinct for its T-shaped design and blue coloring. Very few copies of the game were released, making it incredibly sought after by retro video game collectors despite its lackluster gameplay. In fact, only 13 known copies exist.
Auctions for Air Raid began on ShopGoodwill.com/NCT on June 10th and lasted for one week. The game was added to 235 watchlists while live and sold for $10,590.79. Only 12 copies of the game have previously been found and sold, with one complete edition selling for $33,433.30 in 2012. A previous cartridge-only copy of Air Raid was sold on EBay in 2011 for $3,575.
With the $10,000 earned from the sale of this one item, Goodwill North Central Texas can provide day habilitation services for a year for one adult with disabilities; or provide 20 homeless individuals with job placement services and community resources; or help 10 at-risk youth earn their GED and a paycheck at the same time.
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