Sealed Copy Of Super Mario Bros. Sells For A Record-Breaking $100,150

[boxpressed]

I think it was on AA where I read this, but it made me rethink how "rare" and "valuable" video games are and aren't:

 

How many video games that you bought at retail price are worth more now -- in their used state -- than the retail price you paid?

 

For me, the number is very low, especially adjusting for inflation.

 

The flip side is that there is still some resale value for popular titles (e.g. Mario games), unlike the zero resale value of other items we bought for entertainment (CDs, DVDs, books).

[schuwalker]

 

It's interesting that SMB was included during the Oct. 1985 test run, cause I couldn't rememeber it being available for sale till later in 1986 after the other Black Box games came out nationally. My first exposure to SMB was the arcade version.

 

Anyone else seen this game come out in 1985? I couldn't find the exact date it was released in the US anywhere online...

 

I really didn't find an exact release date either... just a general Fall window.

 

I played the Vs. version first too. I believe my arcade got it around the summer of '86. I must have got the NES version sometime in the Fall that year.

[0078265317]

My first nintendo was from kmart in 1987 for 130 bucks with gyromite and duckhunt. Gun and robot included.

[Tanooki]

Strange. A thread over in the NintendoAge Collectors Corner about this got locked before any responses could be posted. That's the same place that recently started promoting the WATA grading system.

 

There's a lot more to this story. Stsy tuned.

 

I think you're reading too much into it. They've had years of trouble due to the shady business of VGA which some members there used got guarded defensively for a time. WATA though, the admin/mod staff some of them if I recall are part of the WATA organization so it's in a way kind of a step child of the site or a kind of legitimate cousin of sorts. I don't think they're going to want people bitching about it on there or trying to start up some vGA era dust up either and I really can't blame them as I wouldn't tolerate it either. If WATA were as shady as VGA is, then I could see some legit reasons to drop the teeth into it on the boards, but right now, it seems more like butthurt and jealousy postings about it than anything.

[+atari2600land]

I have an unopened bottle of 7-up from circa 1939. I paid $20 for it. It's still unopened.

Edited February 18, 2019 by atari2600land

[Andromeda Stardust]

If I was rich, I'd buy that game to immediately open it...

But in your excitement to tear into the box the armored vehicle just dropped, you realised you forgot to record it for the "viral" unboxing video...

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

That's the part that makes even less sense to me. What are they going to do, each take it two days a week, and every third Sunday?

 

Why would you pay $33,000 for something you don't even own, unless your only reason for doing it is as an investment, expecting to resell and make more money on it later? And that's the one kind of "collecting" I don't respect at all.

It will play out exactly like that Simpsons episode with Radioactive man Volume 1.

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

It's an investment. Just like you can get mutable investors in a business. For sure you will see this up for sale later. As classic video games are getting harder and harder to find, the really rare ones in flawless shape will go for some big money. This one just falls as a ultra rare one that not many are known to exist.

 

It makes you think....all the games I paid for back in the day...if I just got 2 of each and kept one sealed...maybe one day it would be my retirement.

 

This does show that people not in the know, should see video games are not just a toy...

But if everyone did this they would be worthless. You gotta be well ahead of the curve. Every collectible commodity goes through this. Baseball cards were discarded and thrown away before they became valuable. Toys got used and broken.

 

Like 90s era baseball cards are practically worthless, only cards released before it became popular are worth anything. Ditto for toys. And games, though people do still buy used games to play as well as collect.

[Bartman72]

I wonder if th views from opening it and posting the video on youtube would cover the cost of the game

Or you can be a news regurgitating video game youtuber and essentially steal the content of Kotaku's article and make money with views, without citing your source. I've unsubbed them and hidden from my recommendations but a few still slip by. This is wrong and I can't believe none of these guys have ever been sued, to my knowledge. Maybe not $100k, but a lot of these guys do YouTube full time.

[TDIRunner]

Strange. A thread over in the NintendoAge Collectors Corner about this got locked before any responses could be posted. That's the same place that recently started promoting the WATA grading system.

 

There's a lot more to this story. Stsy tuned.

 

That thread was locked because it was a duplicate thread. The original thread about the $100k SMB game is now 165 posts long or about 5 times as long as the AA thread. Not as suspicious as you might be thinking it is.

[TheCoolDave]

But if everyone did this they would be worthless. You gotta be well ahead of the curve. Every collectible commodity goes through this. Baseball cards were discarded and thrown away before they became valuable. Toys got used and broken.

 

Like 90s era baseball cards are practically worthless, only cards released before it became popular are worth anything. Ditto for toys. And games, though people do still buy used games to play as well as collect.

 

There is a difference here. Baseball cards lost their appeal to a lot of people, so the 90's cards that were with $50-200 might be worth $0.10- $25... Demand has gone down for cards, same with the old beanie babies, they were worth good money and it faded. Then toys for the example, it's the retro toys that were released in very limited amounts that are worth money, the big money is for the sealed ones. Some things just go through fads... if you trying to make money, grab then and sell them when the fads are in.

 

The thing about video games. They have always been popular, they were 20-30 years ago, they were 10 years ago and even today. After the release of the mini-NES and how crazy people went over it just for the retro value, it just shows videos games are not going anywhere.

 

It's why some ultra rare prime games will go for big money and this trend will continue…. Something like this sale gets people really looking into games and the rare ones...

 

The only sad thing about this is, going to a yardsale, a beat up NES with 10 games people are going to ask $200 for it... So much for the huge box of games for $5... sigh..

Edited February 20, 2019 by TheCoolDave

[Rick Dangerous]

What a laugh. It's not even a rare edition or anything; it's like THE most common NES game.

 

Well; things are worth what people will pay for them; no saying what he'll be able to sell it for.

[+wongojack]

 

That thread was locked because it was a duplicate thread. The original thread about the $100k SMB game is now 165 posts long or about 5 times as long as the AA thread. Not as suspicious as you might be thinking it is.

 

Providing the link - http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=24&threadid=185989

[TDIRunner]

It's not even a rare edition or anything;

 

 

Where are you getting that from?

[Rick Dangerous]

It's a standard original boxed copy of Super Mario Bros for NES. The reason it sold for so much is because it's supposedly one of the last that is sealed and in such good condition.

[+wongojack]

/\/\/\

 

It is actually one of the FIRST from the limited run of the NES and its games that was done in NY and LA before the console went nationwide. The uniqueness seems to come from the method by which it was sealed which was only done during that limited run. Here is the story quoted from one of the buyers on Nintendo Age. I would link the actual post, but I can't quickly figure out how to do that on NA. The user's name is Bronty and he claims to be the buyer who also owns Heritage where this sale was announced.

 

So, look, 99% of the vintage sealed games you ever come across came from a store or a distributor closing out. Unsold inventory. And since they are unsold inventory, you don't see the early ones - they were the first copies in, and therefore the first copies out, and therefore the first copies ripped open by little Johnny on Christmas.

People buying games for say $40 in 1985 money and not opening them... that simply did not happen. They were kid's toys, and expensive ones, and the only reason we have some around now is because of the copies that slipped through the cracks and didn't make it through the sales channels because Crazy Mike's video store had a downturn in 1992 and closed down, or what have you.

There are extremely rare cases when maybe Johnny got two copies of mega man and so he kept one sealed and didn't return it, or whatever, but those types of stories are truly not even worth talking about. They are the rarest of exceptions and when they happen, its not one copy, its not 1000 titles like a closed out store is.

Anyway, this copy came from that rarest of birds, an adult collector who started playing in the 1970s as an adult already, stopped playing during the atari era but kept buying through the 80s anyways, and simply stored them. I've really only seen two significant collections like that where an adult was intentionally buying and setting aside sealed games as they came out.

It was frankly a completely crazy thing to be doing in the 70s and 80s and is probably more hoarder tendencies than foresight if I had to guess.

He passed away about 7 years ago, and the collection came to market. The other collection that fits this description was a similar scenario, adult collector, buying one title at a time on release day, and then passing away. That collection skewed significantly later though (more snes and ps1 and late nes time frame than the atari and early nes).

He was clearly buying them as they came out, or almost, as almost all the titles in the collection were first release or at least early release versions.

[TDIRunner]

It's a standard original boxed copy of Super Mario Bros for NES. The reason it sold for so much is because it's supposedly one of the last that is sealed and in such good condition.

 

 

There is a lot more to it than that. I suggest you read up on it. It's an interesting story.

[Blazing Lazers]

As if this sale wasn't enough for the speculators, it seems that Heritage is making a regular thing of game sales:

 

https://www.ha.com/c/search-results.zx?N=0+793+794+791+792+1893+1577+2088&Ntk=SI_Titles-Desc&Nty=1&Ntt=video+game&limitTo=all&ic=homepage-search-A-K-071316

 

I especially like how some listings aren't even open for bidding, yet they still have them posted in advance.

 

Now, I can see this service becoming useful for those looking to avoid Ebay counterfeits. Assuming that everything that is (and/or will be) sold via Heritage can be confirmed as authentic by WATA, there are definitely collectors and other speculators who will pay a price premium to remove any doubts about fake copies.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Kind of ironic don't ya think?

 

The last nes game ever released, Warios woods, I own a sealed copy I paid $60 for. The first ever released, and most common game in existence loose, sealed 100 grand. I'll even trade you a candy bar for it.

 

[Classic Pac]

I find this very strange no news media outlet has even posted this story, and when I tried tracing back the story. I find 1 source and that is someone's blog who doesn't even quote where they got the story. I just believe this is an internet rumor...until I see otherwise.

[+Black_Tiger]

/\/\/\

 

It is actually one of the FIRST from the limited run of the NES and its games that was done in NY and LA before the console went nationwide. The uniqueness seems to come from the method by which it was sealed which was only done during that limited run. Here is the story quoted from one of the buyers on Nintendo Age. I would link the actual post, but I can't quickly figure out how to do that on NA. The user's name is Bronty and he claims to be the buyer who also owns Heritage where this sale was announced.

 

So, look, 99% of the vintage sealed games you ever come across came from a store or a distributor closing out. Unsold inventory. And since they are unsold inventory, you don't see the early ones - they were the first copies in, and therefore the first copies out, and therefore the first copies ripped open by little Johnny on Christmas.[/size]People buying games for say $40 in 1985 money and not opening them... that simply did not happen. They were kid's toys, and expensive ones, and the only reason we have some around now is because of the copies that slipped through the cracks and didn't make it through the sales channels because Crazy Mike's video store had a downturn in 1992 and closed down, or what have you. [/size]There are extremely rare cases when maybe Johnny got two copies of mega man and so he kept one sealed and didn't return it, or whatever, but those types of stories are truly not even worth talking about. They are the rarest of exceptions and when they happen, its not one copy, its not 1000 titles like a closed out store is.[/size]Anyway, this copy came from that rarest of birds, an adult collector who started playing in the 1970s as an adult already, stopped playing during the atari era but kept buying through the 80s anyways, and simply stored them. I've really only seen two significant collections like that where an adult was intentionally buying and setting aside sealed games as they came out. [/size]It was frankly a completely crazy thing to be doing in the 70s and 80s and is probably more hoarder tendencies than foresight if I had to guess. [/size]He passed away about 7 years ago, and the collection came to market. The other collection that fits this description was a similar scenario, adult collector, buying one title at a time on release day, and then passing away. That collection skewed significantly later though (more snes and ps1 and late nes time frame than the atari and early nes).[/size]He was clearly buying them as they came out, or almost, as almost all the titles in the collection were first release or at least early release versions.[/size]

This kind of of b.s. by cellophane and shrinkwrap enthusiasts is why I tell self proclaimed "collectors" that their unsealed copies of games are not complete unless they possess the entirety of the plastic wrapping.

 

To hate video games so much that you hunt plastic wrapping variants and blow your life savings/go further into debt buying them is a sad outlook for the near future of classic gaming.

 

Moralless flippers even cheat hombrewers who don't seal their games in an effort to fight this, by selling every copy of their game they bought only to flip as being "MIB"/"NEW!"/"sealed".

[+atari2600land]

I find this very strange no news media outlet has even posted this story, and when I tried tracing back the story. I find 1 source and that is someone's blog who doesn't even quote where they got the story. I just believe this is an internet rumor...until I see otherwise.

It was on my local news.

[Tanooki]

I got it out of a national news site, not from some game forum or facebook. And again it really isn't all that strange given the companies involved in it.

[jhd]

I just find it amazing that someone (or even a small group of people) would be willing to spend more on a single video game than the value of many of the houses in my neighbourhood!

 

Leaving aside the question of which would make the better long-term investment, I know which choice would provide more utility.

[bojay1997]

I just find it amazing that someone (or even a small group of people) would be willing to spend more on a single video game than the value of many of the houses in my neighbourhood!

 

Leaving aside the question of which would make the better long-term investment, I know which choice would provide more utility.

The bidders have a vested interest in hyping the new relationship between Heritage and Wata though. If you read the press release (it really isn't an article as none of the sources I have looked at bothered to do any additional work beyond quoting the press release issued by Wata and Heritage), it's pretty clear that the owner of Heritage and the two other collectors are looking to promote the new Heritage video game auctions and the collectibility of video games in general. Frankly, since Heritage charges a 20% buyer premium and a 20% seller premium and a 3% credit card premium, the seller may have cleared $80K at most. Of course, the guy from Wata won't reveal the sellers name for "privacy reasons" which is another shady fact in this whole thing. In any event, people should take this for what it is, a publicity stunt and I suspect you won't ever see this thing flipped for fear that the real bidding will be nowhere near the $100K allegedly paid for this copy.