But its not even the craziest sale this year
On the 19th of October, a copy of the 1988 hit game Super Mario Bros. 2 sold for $88,550, just short of $90,000 USD. This sale comes just 10 days after the thirty-third anniversary of the games release. The auction was hosted by Harrit Group Inc, a full service auction, real estate, and appraisal company. Bidding lasted two weeks, starting on October 5th, and ending with some lucky fella going home with an almost mint condition copy of the late 80s hit.
While some are surprised, this isn’t even the craziest Nintendo sale this year. 2021 has seen an incredible spike in popularity of video game collectibles, and the amount of monies those are going for has been increasing dramatically. In July of 2020, the world record was set by a copy of Super Mario Bros. selling for $114,000 through Heritage Auctions. Ever since, the price of these unopened classics have continued to rise into the 7 digits. In early April, CNN reported a copy of the same game selling for $660,000. A few weeks later the title for most expensive sale was again smashed by a copy of The Legend of Zelda selling for almost $900k.
If only your parents knew this video game could have made them a millionaire
In July, a copy of Super Mario 64 managed to sell for $1.56 million dollars, breaking the record once more in less than a month. But before anyone had time to calculate the number of AAA titles that could afford you today, a copy of Super Mario Bros. sold for $2 million not even a month later, smashing the record again.
The price of collectibles have been an interesting study in value and worth, as people scratch their heads at where the $2 million dollar price tag comes from. When it comes to these retro video games, there isn’t even any sort of rarity to them. In fact, NES Super Mario Bros. is actually the most sold game in the franchise. Some people speculate the increasing prices in collectible sales is part of some scam or money laundering operation.
Appraisal of old video games has become its own market, as retro cartridges are rated out of 10 on a scale known as WATA, to determine their quality and overall condition. Having a WATA rating can be the difference of getting $5 for your old games in a yard sale to affording a mansion.
Collection of 3 Original Mario Games Selling for $2,000,000 on Ebay
The strangest part about these purchases, is the fact that none of these games that have been sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars can be opened. Meaning you’ve spent $2 million on a game you can’t even play, or the price will immediately drop to less than a Big Mac. The only thing stranger that these selling for thousands is the NFT craze, which is seeing millions of dollars flowing from no physical assets.
While the worth of these games might be nothing to you or me, that doesn’t mean the market for it isn’t there. Playing by the rules the invisible hand of capitalism is how you get Oreo cookies selling for thousands of dollars, and Pokémon cards going for hundreds of thousands. All we can do is hope for the best we find one of these rare collectibles ourselves buried in a closest or old storage unit.
