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Dallas. An unopened cartridge of Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. video game purchased in 1986 and then left in a desk drawer for decades sold for $ 660,000 on Friday, Heritage Auctions of Dallas reported.
Heritage said the game was bought as a Christmas present, but ended up in a desk drawer, where it remained sealed in plastic wrap and with the hanging tab intact until it was found a few months ago.
“Because the production of this specimen and similar specimens was very small, finding another specimen from the same batch in similar circumstances would be like finding a needle in a haystack,” he said. Valarie McLeckie, video game specialist at Heritage Auctions.
Heritage said it is the highest quality specimen ever to be auctioned. The asking price was well above the $ 114,000 registered for another unopened example produced in 1987 and auctioned by Heritage last summer.