A rare copy of Super Mario Bros for NES has sold for £477,000 ($660,000 USD) at auction.
The sale, which was held by Heritage Auctions, makes this the highest-priced video game collectible sale ever, doubling the price of the rare Nintendo Play Station prototype that was sold in 2020, as reported by Polygon.
The rarity of the game was down to a number of factors, including its age, rarity, the fact it was factory sealed and came with its retail hang tab. According to game grading site Wata, the copy earned a 9.6 rating for the condition, and an A+ rating for the seal-quality.
The Heritage Auctions listing explained exactly why the copy sold for so much: “This is only the fourth version of Super Mario Bros. ever produced, and its window of production was remarkably short.”
This specific copy was produced at some point between the US launch of the console in mid to late 1986, with Nintendo adding their trademark symbol to the boxes at the beginning of 1987.
The limited time frame of the printing makes it extremely rare too, on top of its near-pristine factory sealed condition. According to the auction listing, in July 2020 a 9.4 Wata graded copy of Super Mario Bros. sold for £82,000 ($114,000) breaking records at the time.
In January of this year, auctions for various Pokémon Trading Card Game items broke records, as an unopened first edition printing booster box sold for £297,000. Two rare presentation type Blastoise cards also sold for £262,000, making them the most expensive Pokémon ever sold.
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