A rare copy of Super Mario Bros. has sold for $114,000 at auction.
Heritage Auctions sold the sealed 35-year-old NES game on Friday, July 10 during a public auction. According to the company, it took 29 bids to reach the final record-breaking sale price. You can find the Heritage Auction listing here.
“The buyer wishes to remain anonymous at this time,” Heritage Auctions said in a press release. “The previous record for the most valuable video game cartridge ever sold at auction was a 1987 sealed copy of Mega Man, which was sold for $75,000, also by Heritage Auctions in November 2019.”
This particular copy of the game received an A+ rating from Wata Games, which rates the quality of games for video game collectors. An A+ rating means that the game is in “exceptional condition.”
“A seal that is in near mint condition, but has a few small flaws that are not very distracting. Can have light scuffs or other small detracting marks, but no holes,” Wata Games says on their website.
Last year, we reported on how a collector tried to sell a sealed Super Mario Bros. for $1 million on Pawn Stars. The store owner, Rick Harrison, ultimately declined to buy the rare game, but he was impressed nonetheless.
“That’s pretty amazing,” Harrison said at the time. “I know some of them go for a lot of money.”