Rare Super Mario Bros. game sells for a record $ 660,000

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The Dallas-based auction company said the NES cartridge was purchased as a Christmas present in 1986 and remained untouched until the seller found it earlier this year.

“It has been at the bottom of my desk the whole time since the day I bought it,” said the unknown salesman in the press release. “I’ve never thought about it.”

According to the auction company, it is also one of the first copies of the game to be shrink-wrapped instead of with a sticker seal.

This particular version of the game first hit the market in 1986, but Nintendo changed packaging in early 1987 so that only a relatively small number were sold.

“Because the production window for this specimen and similar specimens was so short, finding another specimen of the same production run in similar condition would be like looking for a single drop of water in an ocean,” said Valarie McLeckie, Heritage Auctions director of video games . “Never say never, but chances are you can’t.”

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It wasn’t the only video game that made big bucks at auction. A 1987 Mega Man cartridge sold for $ 144,000 and a buyer paid $ 102,000 for a copy of Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out !! made in the same year.

The $ 660,000 price includes the buyer’s bounty and breaks the previous record for a copy of Super Mario Bros. game.

A 1985 copy of the game sold for $ 114,000 last July, which was the highest amount ever paid for a video game at the time, according to Heritage, which also handled those sales.
A sealed variant of Super Mario Bros. 3 broke that record in November, selling for $ 156,000, the company said.

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