Sealed Super Mario Bros. Sells for Whopping $660,000

The discovery of the record-breaking sold copy came about innocently enough. The seller, who remained anonymous, stated that he had bought the copy as a Christmas gift. However, he placed it at the bottom of his office desk and forgot about it for the next 35 years. The game pack would remain untouched during that time until the seller rediscovered it and checked if it could be worth something off the secondary market.

According to Heritage Auctions, this particular Super Mario Bros. pack is the most pristine and finest sealed black box copy they had ever encountered, complete with the perforated cardboard. It should be noted that this copy still featured a shrink-wrap sealed plastic packaging. This copy of Super Mario Bros. was part of the fourth series production, which and had a very short production period before a new version was created.

The packaging also featured the Game Pak NES-GP trademark notice. That might seem to be trivial point. However, the practice of the familiar trademark notice by Nintendo to the Nintendo Entertainment System games would not be standardized until 1987, which adds to its rarity. WataGames graded this copy at 9.6 and A+ condition. This makes it one of the highest graded piece of this particular game and version. Collect 660 Thousand Gold Coins! The rare Super Mario Bros. game copy became the featured lot for its set, along with other rare video games up for auction. Ultimately, the unit sold for an astounding $660,000. Although it was expected to sell well, this ultimate bid was not foreseen.

Heritage Auctions Video Games Director Valarie McLeckie had this to say: As soon as this copy of Super Mario Bros. arrived at Heritage, we knew the market would find it just as sensational as we did. Even so, the degree to which this game was embraced outside the market has been nothing short of exceptional, and that aspect of this sale has certainly exceeded our expectations. Though, I suppose we can't be too shocked; who doesn't love Mario? The previous highest sold copy of Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. was also conducted through Heritage Auctions for $144,000 in July of 2020.