A Copy of Super Mario Bros is The Most Expensive Game Auction Record Ever

A Copy of Super Mario Bros is The Most Expensive Game Auction Record Ever

Video Game

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RakitAplikasi.com/en - Super Mario Bros. continues to break records three and a half decades after its release. A mint copy of the US version of the 1985 game just sold for $ 114,000 at Heritage Auctions, breaking the previous record set by a copy of Super Mario Bros. in the same condition that sold for $ 100,150 at last year's auction.

That makes it, according to game collector and journalist Chris Kohler, the most expensive game ever sold to date.

What makes this special version so coveted? Well, it's rated at 9.4 out of 10, which means it's in almost perfect condition, with everything sealed in the original packaging. This is also a special version of the US retail edition, which experiences several iterations from time to time. Here's Heritage with a neat explanation of what is called a cardboard hangtab which makes this unit very rare:

What’s the deal with cardboard hangtabs? one may, understandably, wonder. Cardboard hangtabs were originally used on the US test market copies of black box games, back before plastic was used to seal each game. As Nintendo began to further establish their company in the US, their packaging was updated almost continuously. Strangely, the addition of the plastic wrap came before the box cutting die was altered to remove the cardboard hangtab. This rendered the functionality of the cardboard hangtab completely useless, since it was under the plastic seal.

There are four sub-variants of the plastic sealed cardboard hangtab box (this particular copy of Super Mario Bros. being the “3 Code” variant) that were produced within the span of one year. Each sub-variant of the cardboard hangtab black box, produced within that timeframe, had a production period of just a few months; a drop in the bucket compared to the title’s overall production run.

In short, a cardboard hangtab copy of any early Nintendo Entertainment System game brings a certain air of “vintage” unrivaled by its successors.

Heritage also outlines a broader picture in terms of game value and nostalgia factors: it is the best-selling game on the original NES console of all time, besides being the first entry in the Super Mario Bros series and marking the first appearance of the Bowser villain series.

But why, of all items, is this one worth $ 114,000? We cannot be completely sure, because the auction winner remains anonymous. Usually, these buyers, often very wealthy, want to stay that way. That said, it is certainly believable that someone with money and dedication to building the rarest Nintendo collection or video game would want something like this on a shelf (or maybe sealed in a glass or in a safe).

Keywords: super mario bros nes, super mario bros nes, super mario bros copy auction, copy of Super Mario Bros, super mario bros original price, super mario bros price on release

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