In a record-breaking feat of profitability, an original Super Mario Bros. cartridge in an unopened box has sold online for $2 million. Sealed cartridges like this are increasingly difficult to find, and their value is proof that collectors will go to any length to own them.
This record arrives on the heels of two others, both set last month. On July 9th, an original Legend of Zelda cartridge was sold for $870,000, valued so highly for being one of the first editions of the game ever made. It was sold and publicized by Heritage Auctions. Just days later, that same auction site sold a sealed copy of Super Mario 64 for $1.5 million, outdoing its previous record. Vintage Nintendo games follow this trend as they’re some of the oldest video games no longer in production. Their incredible rarity makes them prized valuables, and since support for the original games and their related consoles is no longer officially available anywhere, the market is inaccessibly niche.
Today’s $2 million Super Mario Bros. sealed cartridge sale is not associated with Heritage Auctions, and instead came from the collectibles site Rally, as announced by New York Times. The end buyer is currently only referenced as anonymous. As explained in the article, Rally takes a different approach from other auction sites: instead of selling to the highest bidder, each item on the site hosts a group of investors who vote on whether or not their item will be sold at a given bid. Ed Converse, who had previously invested $100 on the Wata Games-rated Super Mario Bros. cartridge, is now expecting a $950 return after 3/4 of its investors decided to sell. NYT reports that those Rally investors had previously turned down a bid for $300,000 on the same cartridge; their patience seems to have been rewarded with a substantial gain.
When it was first released, Super Mario Bros. sold for only $25; not accounting for market changes over the years, it’s surprising even by comparison to Nintendo’s regular price tag of $60 for games nowadays. Not to be outdone, a rare golden Nintendo World Championships cartridge on eBay—originally on sale for $1 million before the previous $1.5 million Super Mario 64 record—has increased its asking price to a matching $2 million. Perhaps the same anonymous buyer will come for that esteemed cartridge as well.
The exorbitant fees these games pull at auction might call to mind the dishonorable practice of scalping, which has become a pervasive issue concerning recent consoles, games, and even game-related trading cards. Following its delisting from the Nintendo eShop, Super Mario 3D All-Stars was upsold on eBay at shockingly higher prices than its initial retail. It begs the question of whether value by rarity is legitimate, or if it’s just the product of a bought-out, overpriced market. Were Nintendo to offer support for its older titles, it would mean that those games could be circulated and enjoyed by a wider audience. By contrast, Super Mario Bros. selling for $2 million should be encouraging for vintage resellers looking to strike the next record-breaking video game deal.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include the firm that graded this copy of Super Mario Bros.
