eBay Investigating Suspiciously High Sale Value of Sonic: The Hedgehog (2006) Game

A copy of the 2006 game Sonic: The Hedgehog (colloquially Sonic '06) recently was auctioned off on eBay for a shocking price of $9.56. 

"I never thought it would actually sell," said the teenager gamer who sold the item, "I just put it up on eBay as a joke thinking maybe at the most I could get a enough for a Coke at school or something." Surrounding the house of the Wisconsin teen were dozens of news outlets and newspapers, everyone wanting a piece of the shocking story.

In it's initial 2006 release, Sonic '06 somehow sold an astounding 400,000 copies despite a plethora of gameplay issues, awkward implied bestiality and long loading screens. One SEGA representative told us they assumed all the copies were burned or destroyed in frustration by now, and they were amazed one was still floating around. Even more surprising to SEGA was the selling price, which they worry may be an error or mistaken purchase, telling us "Holy hell, almost $10? We barely even put $10 worth of work into the damn thing."

eBay's only public comment on the issue has come via a public post on their forums: "eBay takes very seriously the integrity of all sales. The last thing we want is for some poor child to think he's purchasing a video game for $9.56 and ends up getting Sonic '06 instead. If we find the seller is in violation of our Terms of Service he will be prosecuted and the game hopefully destroyed like it should have been a long time ago." 

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Like everyone else, we were very confused as to who would buy a such a game. It took some tracking and hard work, but eventually were able to track the buyer down to 43-year-old Frank Bronson. Currently homeless and staying near the edges of the Nevada desert, Mr. Bronson had never heard of Sonic '06. In fact, he doesn't even have internet. He had only once played Sonic on an old Genesis he found in an abandoned house and was told by local friends that he should considering buy it online. 

While he also doesn't appear to speak any kind of known human language, we were able to communicate with him through a series of crude drawings and clicking noises. What we eventually deciphered him saying was that he loved the first Sonic and only hoped that this new one would be as fun. 

All we could do was hold back tears, embrace him and hope for the best in his upcoming hardships.