An unopened copy of Super Mario 64 sold for $1.56 million on Sunday, breaking the world record for most expensive video game auction, according to Dallas-based Heritage Auctions. The previous record was held by The Legend of Zelda, when an unopened copy of the game for the original Nintendo sold for $870,000 last Friday.
Super Mario 64 was released in 1996 for the Nintendo 64 game console, which was an enormous hit in the mid-90s. The game was billed as the first appearance of Mario in 3D, a huge deal at the time, as any millennial can probably tell you.
“It seems impossible to overstate the importance of this title, not only to the history of Mario and Nintendo, but to video games as a whole,” Heritage Auctions Video Games Specialist Valarie McLeckie said in a statement promoting the auction.
“This is Mario’s debut appearance in a 3D world, and it was the most popular—best-selling—video game for the N64,” McLeckie continued. “Considering this, and the fact that there are fewer than five sealed in this grade according to Wata, this copy is a true prize for any serious collector.”
Before last Friday’s record for a copy of The Legend of Zelda, the world record for most expensive video game was for an unopened copy of Super Mario Bros. for the original Nintendo gaming system. That copy sold for $660,000 after it had been sitting in a desk drawer completely forgotten since 1986.
It’s unknown who purchased the vintage Super Mario 64 cartridge and Heritage Auctions hasn’t disclosed the identity of the seller.
If you want to relive the experience of playing Super Mario 64, or if you’ve never played it before and want a peak, there’s a complete gameplay video on YouTube.
Heritage Auctions doesn’t have another video game auction anytime soon, but there is a trading card auction on July 24-25 if that’s your cup of tea. Or, if you’re into worthless nonsense, Heritage has also gotten into the world of non-fungible tokens or NFTs, the digital equivalent of selling magic beans to the most gullible people alive.
But if you’ve got the money to spare, who are we to judge? Well, we’re going to judge a little. NFTs are dumb as hell. But if you can make money selling air to people with too much money lying around, go for it.
DISCUSSION
I think sealed games are kind of stupid as a collector’s item. The shrinkwrap WILL warp the boxes eventually. I’m sure later plastic used in N64 boxes which were looser and a different type of plastic are less of a concern, but shrinkwrap it is still and it will eventually screw things up.
If you have to damage the shrinkwrap to make sure it doesn’t damage the box you might as well accept that it should be removed altogether and then fraud gets to go down dramatically.
Then you get a whole new bullshit way to collect depending on the documents inside. Oh does this manufacturing run have the special promotion inside? Does it have the mail card with this date on it? Does the instruction manual have this print run? oooooh.... Plus an opened box game, complete with everything, is far more rare to be in good condition than a “sealed” one.
These are only worth money because it’s easily damaged so it has that premium. I imagine sealed Playstation games that aren’t the original large box format won’t really see these types of insanity in auction. But it’s also fun waiting there, as well, since the shrinkwrap will eventually bond with the plastic cases or just simply disintegrate... So, yeah, gaming collectors need to reevaluate what they value in collecting.