QUOTE said:PLEASANTON — Cort Allen's treasure trove of 2,200 Atari historical documents, drawings and diagrams is still his.
The 60-year-old Pleasanton resident was auctioning off his massive collection, which received national media attention, at Sotheby's New York on Thursday.
The pre-auction estimate for this piece of the video game pioneer's history was $150,000 to $250,000, but the lot did not sell. There were several bidders, but the bidding did not reach the undisclosed reserve price set by the owner.
Allen, a semiconductor design consultant, said he is now reviewing his options to see what to do next with the collection.
He added he could sell off the massive collection in parts, or possibly get in contact with individuals who did bid at the Sotheby's auction in New York.
Allen said he has received tons of e-mails from Atari fans inquiring about the collection.
Allen stumbled onto the treasure trove of gaming goodness when he was looking for used furniture for his new company in the mid-1980s. He stopped by a fire sale of old Atari office equipment and found 40 cabinets full of the original artwork for the game cartridges and the original manual write-ups — including drafts for a manual for the game "Robotron 2084," classic artwork from "Dig Dug" and early images of such characters such as Mario and Donkey Kong, for Atari versions of the classic Nintendo games.
The cabinets were being sold for $2 each, and the contents were being emptied into the trash by sale employees when Allen stopped by and offered on the spot to buy all the cabinets, contents and all.
Since that time, Allen said he has moved the 350 pounds of video game history around his house from closet, to shelves to garage — much to his wife's chagrin.
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I didn't hear about this auction until now and it's kind of a shame the artwork went unsold, maybe the reserve price was quite high?
Anywho what is interesting is that I think that the story behind the artwork is fantastic, it must have been absolutely amazing discovering several cabinets worth of high profile original artwork being thrown out in the trash!
As a regular car booter one always has dreams of uncovering a huge treasure trove of rare stuff - like those which pick up proto carts at garage sales for a few cents or something crazy. So keep an eye open!
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