The man who once auctioned off the Queen’s golden Wii is now hoping to sell a rare Nintendo GameCube for a six-figure sum. To an outsider, spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on a rare video game console can seem like madness, especially if it can’t actually play any games. But for some, the bragging rights alone are worth it. We’ve seen it happen before, such as with a prototype of the cancelled Nintendo PlayStation console. While it wound up selling for about £276,900, it would have sold for much more had its owner agreed to an initial offer of £1 million.

While it’s unlikely the newest example – a rare prototype of the Nintendo GameCube – will ever go for that much money, its owner is certainly hoping to make sextuple figures by putting it up for $100,000 (roughly £80,400). Nintendo unveiled the GameCube during its Space World trade show in 2000, more than a year before the console’s official launch, which sounds unbelievable nowadays when you look at how secretive the company’s been with the Nintendo Switch 2.

Anyway, the GameCube that was shown was purely for display purposes, so only a very small numberwere ever made. One of these prototypes – the purple one specifically – was found and acquired by Consolevariations (an online catalogue for game console variants) in 2023. While at first glance it looks identical to the GameCube’s final design, there turned out to be a number of differences in the hardware. For instance, the lid has a transparent window you can see through, and it has more air vents for cooling purposes (121 compared to the final design’s 64).

Now, Consolevariations’ co-founder Donny Fillerup has listed the console on eBay for $100,000 ‘or best offer,’ acknowledging there is some wear due to how long it was hidden for. While Fillerup is no doubt hoping to sell it for more, it’s entirely possible someone can manage to haggle for less if not enough people bite. It’s an incredibly niche item, especially since it wasn’t designed to play any games, although it would be nice to see in a museum.

Despite the price tag, it’s also not atually the rarest GameCube prototype out there. That honour belongs to the Nintendo Dolphin, which was the GameCube’s original codename. That one’s so rare that detailed pictures of it only emerged last year. This isn’t the first time Fillerup has auctioned off a rare console. He once owned the gold-plated Wii that was delivered to Queen Elizabeth II as part of a marketing stunt.

He initially hoped to sell it for $300,000, but it ultimately went for a significantly smaller price of $36,000 (just under £29,000). Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.

Arrow MORE: Nintendo Switch 2 price at Italian retailer sounds too good to be true. Arrow MORE: Nintendo Switch 2 Experience tickets are being sold on eBay but it’s a scam. Arrow MORE: Nintendo loses legal battle against Costa Rican supermarket called ‘Super Mario’. Sign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy.