Atari eBay Auctions

Alamogordo ran eBay auctions on 44 separate days between November 13, 2014, and August 4, 2015, each day’s listings consisting of 1–96 individual lots. Each of the auctioned games came with a metal City of Alamogordo property tag and ID number as well as a certificate of authenticity signed by the mayor, Susie Galea, and by Howard Scott Warshaw, Atari wunderkind developer and creator of the E.T. game. Despite the variable conditions of the artifacts, the games served (and still serve) as a memento to three events: the mythologized, original dumping by Atari in 1983, the subsequent video game crash of the mid-1980s, and the 2014 excavation. The fact that actual archaeologists were on-hand gave further legitimacy and value to the finds. All of the auctioned games contained landfill dust stuck in the corners (and occasional evidence of the cement slurry poured over the top layer of games during the dumping), as well as the unmistakable stench of garbage, which can be used to authenticate games appearing on future auctions from private re-sellers. At the conclusion of the final auction on August 4, 2015, Alamogordo netted a total of $104,333, selling 827 of the 1,324 excavated games. Some lots (boxed copies of E.T.) sold for a maximum of $1,537 to as little as $17 (loose copies of Defender) with an average selling price of $126 from the 7,452 bids received. Driven by the dump’s mythology, copies of E.T. garnered the highest total sales ($28,357 or 27% of the total sales), while several non-E.T. games netted only a single bid, often selling for less than $40. This dataset contains the auctioned lots listed by eBay seller tbhs575 (Tularosa Basin Historical Society), organized chronologically from November 13, 2014, until August 4, 2015. Columns include the auction end-date, item ID, auction title, selling price, and total number of bids.

阿拉莫戈多市于2014年11月13日至2015年8月4日期间，分44个独立拍卖日举办eBay拍卖，每日拍品包含1至96个独立拍卖批次。每件上拍游戏均附带阿拉莫戈多市金属物业标签与专属编号，以及由时任市长苏西·加莱亚（Susie Galea）与雅达利（Atari）天才开发者、《E.T.》游戏创作者霍华德·斯科特·沃肖（Howard Scott Warshaw）共同签署的真品证书。尽管这批出土文物的保存条件存在差异，但这些游戏始终（并将持续）作为三件标志性事件的纪念载体：1983年被广为传颂的雅达利游戏填埋事件、随后爆发的20世纪80年代中期电子游戏产业崩盘，以及2014年的考古发掘活动。当时有专业考古人员到场参与，进一步提升了这批拍品的合法性与市场价值。所有上拍游戏的缝隙中均残留填埋场尘土，部分还可见填埋作业时覆盖顶层游戏的水泥浆痕迹，同时带有辨识度极高的垃圾腐臭异味——该特征可用于鉴别后续私人转售市场中出现的同款出土游戏。2015年8月4日最后一场拍卖结束后，阿拉莫戈多市共售出1324件发掘出土游戏中的827件，总成交额达104333美元。部分拍卖批次（《E.T.》盒装版）最高成交价达1537美元，最低成交价为17美元（《Defender》裸卡版）；期间共收到7452次出价，平均成交价为126美元。受此次填埋事件的传奇性影响，《E.T.》游戏的总销售额最高（达28357美元，占总成交额的27%），而多款非《E.T.》游戏仅获得一次出价，成交价通常低于40美元。本数据集包含由eBay卖家tbhs575（图拉罗萨盆地历史学会，Tularosa Basin Historical Society）上架的全部拍卖批次，按时间顺序排列，时间跨度为2014年11月13日至2015年8月4日。数据集字段包括拍卖结束日期、商品ID、拍卖标题、成交价及总出价次数。