A recent purchase has now made Super Mario Bros. the most expensive game ever sold. According to experts in the classic gaming collectibles world, a recent sale of a first run copy of Super Mario Bros. just fetched over $100,000, which is apparently now the highest-priced video game ever. But this isn’t just your average copy of the game that started it all. Head below for everything.
Super Mario Bros. now the most expensive game ever sold:
Deniz Khan, the president of gaming collectible authentication company Wata, oversaw the private transaction. The buyers put up an unbelievable $100,150 to make Super Mario Bros. the most expensive game ever sold. We have seen copies of the game go for anywhere between $50 and $60,000, depending on the condition. But the question has to be, what makes this particular copy so valuable?
Ok, but why?
Well that’s easy. This is one of the very first copies Nintendo ever sold of the now iconic game. In fact, before it went in to full production, Nintendo pushed early copies of the game in the US ahead of the NES’s full rollout back in 1985/86. The main difference here comes down to one tiny little black sticker on the game’s box. Once the game went up for sale in an official capacity, it featured a shrink wrap cover. But the early runs only had a round black sticker with the Nintendo logo on it. That’s one expensive little sticker.
The Last Man Standing
Khan was recently quoted as saying that there are loads of copies in various conditions out there. But Super Mario Bros. is the most expensive game ever sold because this might be the only pre-release copy left. Khan said this is the only known and intact copy of the early run version.
Clearly games like Stadium Events and other rare titles have also fetched crazy number. But the historical value of the black sticker Super Mario Bros. is undeniable.
The Lucky Owners:
The seller of the game has requested to remain anonymous but we do know the new owners. The purchase was made by Jim Halperin, Rich Lecce and Zac Gieg. While the announcement of the sale was indeed tied to the fact that Wata games will now be working with Heritage Games – a company owned by Jim Halperin – Khan vehemently maintains the sale was legitimate. Khan also said that outside of an advisory level of involvement, Wata took no part in the sale of the game.
The Wata president has apparently always believed that a black sticker copy of Super Mario Bros. will indeed be the first million-dollar video game. While only time will tell, it isn’t hard to believe that as time passes the value of this thing continues to skyrocket.
But for the rest of us, a quick Switch Online subscription with access to Nintendo’s growing classic game library will have to do. And there’s more than enough awesome $60 games coming down the pipeline for Switch if this month’s Nintendo Direct is any indication.
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