Atari buried surplus cartridges and other material at a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico, in 1983. The often-cited total is about 700,000 cartridges, an estimate rather than a verified inventory. In 2015, 881 recovered cartridges were auctioned on eBay for $107,930.15. Those auctioned items were only a small portion of the much larger amount reportedly buried.
What Atari buried in Alamogordo
Atari disposed of surplus cartridges and other inventory at the Alamogordo landfill in 1983. The event was reported at the time, but it later acquired the status of an urban legend. Joe Lewandowski, a local waste collection company owner and witness to the burial, later recalled: “It was ranked as one of the biggest urban legends of all time.” New Mexico Magazine also quotes him joking, “Now they call me the Indiana Jones of garbage.”
The burial was not a shipment of E.T. cartridges alone. A contemporaneous account of the 2014 excavation described E.T., Centipede, Atari catalogs and promotional material among what was found; participants were uncertain about the full contents and condition of the buried material. Ars Technica’s excavation report documents the mixed assemblage.
How many cartridges were buried?
“About 700,000” is a reasonable shorthand, not a definitive count. A 2026 Parade account attributes an estimate of 728,000 cartridges to former Atari manager James Heller. A 2025 New Mexico Magazine retrospective instead says nearly 800,000. These are attributed and rounded estimates; the available accounts do not reconcile them into a verified inventory.
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What the 2014 excavation recovered
The 2014 excavation associated with the documentary Atari: Game Over confirmed that Atari material was at the site, including E.T. cartridges and other games. A Smithsonian collection record identifies an E.T. Atari 2600 cartridge excavated on April 26, 2014. The Smithsonian says that cartridge bears a City of Alamogordo serial number certifying its excavation provenance.
Published totals for the overall excavation haul differ: New Mexico Magazine reports 1,382 recovered items, while a Smithsonian podcast search result reports 1,178. Because those figures are not reconciled against a checked excavation manifest, neither should be treated as a settled total.
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What the 881 eBay sales brought in
The 881 figure refers to cartridges sold in 2015, not the number buried or the total excavation haul. Ars Technica’s auction report puts the combined eBay sales at $107,930.15, with the highest single cartridge selling for $1,535.
| Reported auction allocation | Amount |
|---|---|
| Paid to Alamogordo | $65,037.78 |
| Paid to the Tularosa Basin Historical Society | $16,259.44 |
| Shipping charges | More than $26,000 |
The reported amounts describe the proceeds and shipping from those 881 sales; they should not be confused with a valuation of all material recovered or buried.
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How to distinguish a landfill artifact from a regular E.T. cartridge
A standard Atari 2600 E.T. cartridge is not automatically an excavation collectible. Provenance is the key distinction: the Smithsonian’s example has a City of Alamogordo serial number identifying it as excavated. Condition is a separate question. The city’s 2014 auction description, reproduced by ABC News, said cartridges were sold as-is and might not be operable after burial. Excavation provenance therefore does not guarantee that a cartridge can be played.
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