Super Mario Bros cartridge has never been auctioned at such a high price: here's how much it's worth and why there will be someone willing to pay for it.
Super Mario Bros never ceases to amaze: 35 years after its birth, the iconic Nintendo video game sets a new record, confirming itself not only as one of the most beloved characters in the history of pop culture, but also as an object of desire for rich collectors.
The record we are talking about is that of the video game auctioned at the highest price ever: $310,000 (and this is the auction base, not the final price) for a Super Mario Bros cartridge for NES. The auction will be held in three days online, on the site of the auction house specializing in video games and comics Heritage Auctions. This is the same house that had managed in recent months other record auctions, putting up for sale other cartridges of the series of Super Mario, but this time the new record is likely to seriously double the previous one.
Super Mario Bros: why the cartridge is worth so much
Naturally at auction for 310 thousand dollars is not just any cartridge, but a true collector's item very rare. It's in perfect condition, sealed and with the hard plastic anti-shoplifting box. But, most importantly, it belongs to a very limited series of cartridges produced by Nintendo in a very narrow time frame.
It is also the oldest sealed copy of Super Mario Bros ever auctioned by Heritage Auctions. Its production window was remarkably short: the domestic version for the NES console arrived on the market between mid- and late 1986, without the "Game Pak NES-GP" code.
Nintendo added that code in early 1987, so the cartridge at auction is certainly among the oldest ever.
The other Super Mario records
This is certainly not the first time Super Mario has been featured in a record auction. Just to mention the ones managed by Heritage Auctions, let us remember the Super Mario Bros cartridge sold in July 2020 for 114 thousand dollars and the Super Mario Bros 3 cartridge sold in November 2020 for 156 thousand dollars.
Impressive figures, of course, but nothing compared to what a rich collector fond of gaming could pay for this very rare Super Mario Bros cartridge in three days' time.