Classic game publisher cleans out its closet, makes thousands on eBay

Natsume made 2,800% more on this cartridge by waiting 23 years to sell it.

These days, it's not uncommon to see unopened, "factory sealed" copies of games from decades-past selling on eBay for huge markups over the original price they demanded on the shelves of Funcoland or Babbage's. Usually, though, those mint condition games are being resold by forward-thinking collectors looking to make a profit. But at least one storied game publisher is currently getting in on the act, making some decent profits by clearing out sealed copies of classic games that have been sitting around its office shelves for decades.

To be sure, the bulk of Natsume's business still comes from the niche games it continues to publish for the Wii U, 3DS, and PlayStation Vita. But the Japanese publisher's eBay store has recently started to include brand new copies of older games from Natsume's back catalog, plucked directly from the company's office closets.

Natsume's collection of sellable legacy titles boasts a lot of forgettable, low-cost "classics" such as Reel Fishing on the Wii and Math Play for the DS. But it also has quite a few well-regarded games that are relatively hard to find in factory-sealed condition today, including SNES action games Pocky & Rocky, epic RPG Lufia II, and farming simulator Harvest Moon 64.

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