Not me, but here's a cool story a collector told me that relates to this topic.
A local collector lived on the same street as one of the kids who won an NWC cartridge during the 1990 NWC event; he told me his name a long time ago and I verified it, but I can't remember for the life of me what it was now. But anyhow, the collector also competed with him, but didn't get very far. After winning the NWC event in his league, the collector's neighbor had his NWC displayed like a trophy in his room and had some concept of its specialness since he never wanted to play it when the collector asked him if they could.
The collector and him had somewhat grown apart in middle school and high school despite living on the same street, so they rarely talked. However, one afternoon they started talking and eventually the collector asked if he still had the NWC cartridge. The guy laughed and said he did, but it was packed away with some of his childhood toys in his basement. He then told the collector he could have it if he wanted it, which the collector said he'd pass since he didn't have an NES anymore, and also didn't think anyone would want it since it was just short bits of three common NES games in a single, boring looking cartridge.
Years later after the collector had moved out and moved halfway across the country he'd started getting nostalgic about growing up with the NES and SNES and started out like many by just picking up games he used to own s a kid. Shortly after this started he discovered how insanely valuable the NWC cartridge was and pretty much dropped everything to find his old neighbor. This was in the early 2010s so social media wasn't as insane as it is now, but still he tried hunting him down online, and the best he was able to do was find out that he lived in a different city and was married. He also found out the guy's parents still lived in the same house. He decided to drive like 900 miles back to his old neighborhood where his parent's no longer lived, but he'd make up some lie that they still lived in town and was visiting. He arrived at his old neighborhood and rang the doorbell of his old friend's house. The friend's mom let him in and they caught up on things before the collector asked about getting in touch with the friend. This whole time he just wanted to go in the basement and find the NWC cartridge assuming it was still there, but he wasn't going to steal from or deceive his old friend's mom to get it.
He called his old friend and they chatted for a while and reminisced about old time. The whole time the collector just wanted to ask about the NWC cartridge, but tried to play it cool and bring it up naturally in the conversation. Eventually he did bring it up, and the response he got made his heart sink. The collector's old friend said that his parent's had a garage sale while he was in college and assumed he didn't want any of his old stuff since he was then in his early 20s. They sold all his childhood toys including lots of HeMan and GI Joe stuff, but also his old NES and all of his games. The collector's friend then asked him, "you want to know what happened to the NWC right?" which somewhat surprised the collector since he didn't think his friend had been into video games in a long time. Apparently he wasn't, but his name was known as one of the people that won the NWC contest and received a cartridge. He said that collectors have been contacting him for years wanting to buy it off him, but pretty much told them the same story. I guess his mom sold his NES and about a dozen games including the NWC for like $20 thinking no one would want it anymore and it was essentially worthless. The friend said it haunts him everyday.