Alexandria Wyckoff
A sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. just sold at Heritage Auctions for a whopping $3 million.
There’s a surprisingly small reason for such a large price tag.
Extremely Rare Copy
The Super Mario Bros. copy is from the 1985 second production run.
Instead of the shrink wrap that would become standard shortly after, Nintendo sealed the game with a glossy sticker. It was discontinued almost immediately after, leaving very few of the sticker-bound games on the market.
According to Heritage Auctions, it’s the earliest known sealed copy in existence. It helps that the Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) graded it 9.6 A++, making it extremely rare and valuable.
Heritage even noted in the description that it was “the holy grail of video game collecting,” since the other two sealed copies from the same run are rated lower at Video Game Authority (VGA) 80 and Wata 9.4 A++.
Hidden Away for Years
The story behind the Super Mario Bros. copy is even crazier. The 40-year-old item seemingly appeared out of nowhere, and in great condition.
Heritage consignment director for video games, Evan Masingill, released a statement after the sale. He said, “The remarkable back story — it was just discovered a few months ago inside a brand-new Control Deck NES console bundle, meaning it has not been touched for nearly 40 years — makes the result even more impressive.”
Breaking Records
The $3 million price tag didn’t just beat the previous record; it destroyed it.
In 2021, Heritage Auctions sold a Super Mario Bros. for $2 million, which was right after a sealed Super Mario 64 earned $1.56 million days earlier. Before that, a sealed Super Mario Bros. 3 copy sold for $156,000 in 2020, which at the time seemed incredibly expensive.
As an extra add-in to the $3 million game, Heritage Auctions added a working NES console, on the rare chance that the buyer would open up the package and play the game.
Though it’s probably safe to say the game will stay sealed, because that’s where its true value lies.
Market for Sealed Video Games
The market for sealed vintage games has only increased over the years, driven mainly by collectors who grew up with NES and N64 games and consoles, and now want to gain back a piece of their childhoods.
Graded copies have exploded even more in value, with the price tag often determined by grade and specific details rather than the game itself.