Rare Nintendo PlayStation console sells at auction for $ 360,000

A prototype of the Nintendo PlayStation, a console that never came on the market, raised $ 360,000 at an auction this weekend, CNN reports. Greg McLemore, founder of Pets.com and Toys.com had the winning bid and beat other collectors, including Palmer Luckey, CEO of Oculus VR.

The console is one of only 200 prototypes made on the basis of a failed collaboration between Sony and Nintendo in 1991. Forbes describes the unit as in fact a Super NES with a CD-ROM drive. Valerie McLeckie of Heritage Auctions, where the console was offered, tells CNN it is believed that the other 199 prototypes were destroyed when the Sony / Nintendo deal broke. Sony released its first PlayStation in 1994.

According to Polygon, this prototype of the Nintendo PlayStation was discovered by a man named Terry Diebold in a box of things that was once owned by former Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Olaf Olafsson. The two had both worked at Advanta Corporation and when that company went bankrupt, the console was one of many items that ended up in a private auction, which Diebold took over.

McLemore says the console is “the most expensive thing I’ve ever bought outside of a home,” and added, “it was worth it especially in combination with the rest of my collection,” CNN reports. That collection includes more than 800 coin machines, as well as smaller games, magazines and art that McLemore wants to use to create a permanent museum, according to Forbes.

“I don’t want this machine just buried somewhere in a closet,” says McLemore.