Tech

YouTubers Uncover Massive Video Game Collection Buried Under Maggots and Cockroaches

Resellers who document their lives on YouTube found an extraordinary collection of beloved video games lurking underneath mounds of filth and bugs.
Hoarders treasure
Image: YouTube screengrab

Buried under a collapsed ceiling, next to a box crawling with maggots, is a factory sealed copy of Viva Pinata, the beloved Xbox 360 game first released in 2006. It is just one of hundreds of video games YouTube channel Cheap Finds Gold Mines found in a hoarder’s house they documented in a shocking series of videos.

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On the surface of the home was a disgusting mess, but under piles of rat shit and swarming bugs were classic video games still sealed as if they’d just come from the factory.

Sealed copies of The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker lay next to a factory sealed Resident Evil 4 collector’s edition complete with chainsaw controller.

Cheap Finds Gold Mines follows couple Aimee and Korbin as they look for yard sales, pawn shops, and thrift stores. Hidden in these places are treasures the couple buys cheap and resells online for a huge profit.

In three separate videos the couple braved scabies, swarming roaches, a brown recluse spider bite, and the attention of other collector’s to uncover video game treasures. Underneath the layers of filth were countless games from every system—PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 1, PSP, and GameCube. Many of the games were used copies from Blockbuster, the cases filled with rat poop. Others were sealed treasures worth a fortune on the secondary market. The only catch was that Aimee and Korbin had to wade through garbage to find them.

According to Aimee, the house belonged to someone on the spectrum who lost a loved one. After the loss, the owner began collecting video games and neglected the basic upkeep of the home. The couple said they kept a few of the games and integrated them into their own collection as a way to honor the unnamed hoarder’s passion. The rest they sold for a tidy profit.

Aimee and Korbin paid $400 to enter the house and take what they could carry out. On a second trip the couple refused to enter the house after dealing with the scabies and spiders, but the owner had pulled out another mound of games himself and sold them in bulk to the couple for an additional $470.

“Definitely a 100k, easy,” Aimee said in a video detailing the aftermath. “And there was honestly more in the house, we just couldn’t get to it.” Korbin estimated that he and Aimee pulled about $20,000 in value out of the house and two other resellers pulled out $40,000 each. Not bad for spending $870.