Source: KAREN BLEIER / Getty
If you’re holding onto pristine copies of Nintendo games, you definitely should check out this story.
Someone just got $114,000 richer thanks to unknown buyer scooping up a sealed copy of the 1985 NES classic, Super Mario Bros. The game was sold via Heritage Auctions and broke a previous record held by another copy of the same video game making this copy of the iconic title “the most expensive game ever sold to date.”
According to Heritage Auctions, the game’s 9.4 out of 10 rating, which means it is in near-mint condition, is the reason why this game fetched so many coins. Here is Heritage Auctions description for the item:
“What’s the deal with cardboard hangtabs? One may, understandably, wonder. Cardboard hangtabs were originally used on the US test market copies of black box games, back before plastic was used to seal each game. As Nintendo began to further establish their company in the US, their packaging was updated almost continuously. Strangely, the addition of the plastic wrap came before the box cutting die was altered to remove the cardboard hangtab. This rendered the functionality of the cardboard hangtab completely useless since it was under the plastic seal.”
“There are four sub-variants of the plastic sealed cardboard hangtab box (this particular copy of Super Mario Bros. being the “3 Code” variant) that were produced within the span of one year. Each sub-variant of the cardboard hangtab black box, produced within that timeframe, had a production period of just a few months; a drop in the bucket compared to the title’s overall production run.”
“In short, a cardboard hangtab copy of any early Nintendo Entertainment System game brings a certain air of “vintage” unrivaled by its successors.”
So if you got a copy of The Legend of Zelda, more specifically the gold cartridge laying around or copy of Super Mario Bros. laying around, you might be sitting on some serious cash.
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Photo: KAREN BLEIER / Getty
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