Sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. sells for $100,150 (insane game auction price thread)

[AdamAnt316]

Words fail me..........

https://www.cnet.com/news/super-mari...ls-for-100150/

[WelcomeToTheNextLevel]

Idiots with deep pockets. I thought this "grading" bull shit was pretty much over. I would have expected a sealed Super Mario Bros. from the launch to sell for $100 to $150, but $100,150?! I could hold a whole demolition derby with 10 of (the newer) Dodge Darts for that money!

[Aussie2B]

Seems like a pretty rare item. I know boxed copies of SMB are fairly rare to begin with, since most copies of the game were sold as pack-ins, and obviously still sealed is much rarer yet, with this sticker variant even more so. Still insane either way. Sealed collecting in general has no appeal to me.

[mkenyon2]

I wish I could send a message to myself in the past, I'd send myself a list of the super-rares... :grin:

[MASTERWEEDO]

I'm just thinking about Funcoland opening and throwing away all the boxes back in the day.

[Tanooki]

Idiots with deep pockets. I thought this "grading" bull shit was pretty much over. I would have expected a sealed Super Mario Bros. from the launch to sell for $100 to $150, but $100,150?! I could hold a whole demolition derby with 10 of (the newer) Dodge Darts for that money!

It probably to a point was over since VGA was an obvious scam with their bullshit mysterious behavior of inconsistent grading, no published list of quality individuals doing it, nor published standards on how they did it either to qualify it all. WATA though, they are backed by all that and people from other grading agencies of other hobbies. That sale basically cemented them on a level with the rest with heritage auctions getting in on it.

Either this will be a benefit to everyone, or potentially only those who still have the goodies as the values will show more perhaps given they do both individual item and sealed good grading on those qualified scales. It could help those who want it, but it could hurt those if a ripple effect happened for even more trolls thinking their $2 copy of Taboo is worth a gold brick.

[Niku-Sama]

a game doesnt have to be sealed to be graded by wata, unlike vga.

i dont feel like getting something graded necessarily adds greatly to the value that hey this is a "legit thing" but in a way its in a protective case and you kind of know where things rank.

same thing with coins and comics, its like why charge twice or 3 times more when its graded when if its a hobby you are into you can figure condition, variants or rare mintages on your own.
this is in general thinking though.

who ever forked over about a 3rd of my houses value for a game has either more money than brains or is truly hardcore into collecting oddities, the duders putting it up i am sure just did it to see whats up (and of course to get the name out there)

[Nz17]

I heard that this might have been bought on speculation. In other words, pay $100,150 today, resale for much higher in a few years' time.

[Aussie2B]

I wouldn't be surprised. When you get prices this high, it basically enters the realm of fine art buying, where the rich use it as a way to invest their money rather than buying because they actually care about the item in any way. This article about sums it up: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts...ticle35123665/

[Bojay1997]

I've mentioned this on other forums, but this "sale" was mostly to hype the new partnership between WATA and Heritage and one of the three people that supposedly bought the item is the owner of Heritage. Since Heritage charges a 20% seller premium and a 20% buyer premium (as well as a 3% credit card premium), the seller really only got $80K or so and I'm sure Heritage just booked this as a cost of advertising and promo for their auction services. It will be interesting to see how this goes long term, but the buyer and seller premiums are going to be difficult to sell to many buyers and sellers when Ebay is so much cheaper and doesn't charge credit card fees.

[AdamAnt316]

And now, we've (apparently) heard from the seller of the $100K game, referred to only as "Bronty":

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/...er-mario-bros/

[Niku-Sama]

oh the NA dude or dudette

[Aussie2B]

Geez, basically nothing in that article is a good look. That article about sums up why I have never registered for Nintendo Age.

[AdamAnt316]

Well, it's happened yet again..........

Why is this copy of Super Mario Bros. worth a record $114,000?

A question we all should be asking ourselves...........

[Aussie2B]

I saw a story on my local news about this last night, which gave me a chuckle. Of course, they made no mention of the cardboard hangtab.

This is just another nail in the coffin of hunting for games in the wild. When non-collectors hear about this stuff, they don't grasp the details and start thinking all retro video games are like gold and snap everything up for flipping. As much as I may miss my game hunting days, I'm glad I already have a big collection I can be content with.

[Greg2600]

When the value increases 14K in one year, maybe they're onto something?

[AdamAnt316]

I saw a story on my local news about this last night, which gave me a chuckle. Of course, they made no mention of the cardboard hangtab.

This is just another nail in the coffin of hunting for games in the wild. When non-collectors hear about this stuff, they don't grasp the details and start thinking all retro video games are like gold and snap everything up for flipping. As much as I may miss my game hunting days, I'm glad I already have a big collection I can be content with.

Hangtab or not, this is definitely insane. I'm glad I got into this stuff when it was almost literally being given away, and (more importantly) that I generally couldn't care less about sealed games. Sure, I pick them up when I see them cheap (which isn't often), but then I fret about what I'm going to do with them, since games are meant to be played, IMO. Same thing goes for 'un-built' electronic kits from the likes of Heathkit or Knight-Kit. I actually have a small selection of un-built (or partially built) kits from the '60s and '70s, and I am planning on assembling them. The one (likely) exception is my Motorola MEK-6800-D2 microprocessor trainer, which is probably worth a fair bit, though I've seen other un-built examples shown online, so who knows.

When the value increases 14K in one year, maybe they're onto something?

I sure hope not!

[Emperor Megas]

I generally couldn't care less about sealed games. Sure, I pick them up when I see them cheap (which isn't often), but then I fret about what I'm going to do with them, since games are meant to be played, IMO.

This, right here.

It's really a paradox. I have sealed games that I really want to play, but I can't see myself unsealing something like 'Kuon' or 'Rule of Rose' when they're 'worth' so much. I've sold games in the past when I've been in a pinch, and so I see games in my collection that sell for goofy high prices as rainy day funds. I never purchase games for their value, but I only break the seal on a game when I'm about to play it, and with such a large backlog often games go up in value, and so they're pretty much off the table for playing. 😐

I mean, why casually break the seal on a game that sells for triple digits sealed if you have hundreds of other (unsealed) games you can play?

[Aussie2B]

I avoid the sealed game dilemma by opening and trying out almost everything when I first get it, even if I don't intend to play all the way through anytime soon. I mean, for one, I want to put in a tiny bit of time just to see what a game is like and to confirm it's not defective. That way, I can better decide what to play later on, when I'm craving a particular type of game and remember what seemed fun from the, say, 30-60 minutes I played in the past. From a financial standpoint, I understand if people think it's dumb, since I may sit on these games for like 10-20 years (I have PS1 and N64 games I bought new back when the systems were still alive that I still haven't gotten around to), but once a game stays sealed for a long time, to the point that it becomes a rarity to have sealed, I'd feel bad opening them up, especially if there's a significant value difference between a mint, complete copy and a sealed copy. To play the game, I'd feel compelled to sell off the sealed copy and buy one that's already opened. But that's a pain, so I'd rather just open my own copy at a time when opening copies of said game is normal. One time several years ago I came across a sealed Intellivision game in the wild, and even though it was barely worth anything, I still ended up selling it because, if it had survived that long without ever being opened, I just couldn't bring myself to open it.

[Nz17]

One time several years ago I came across a sealed Intellivision game in the wild, and even though it was barely worth anything, I still ended up selling it because, if it had survived that long without ever being opened, I just couldn't bring myself to open it.

I understand that one!