Don't understand the fuss
I could understand if you were to go digging for rare games or prototype consoles, but ET is a rotten games and is very very common.
As for the games being unharmed by 30 years in the ground, New Mexico is very dry. In the UK the boxes and labels wouldn't have survived very long at all.
In terms of video games, the story of the fabled Konix Multisystem and the mystery that surrounds it is far more interesting than the ET carts. Perhaps one for El Reg to cover in the future?