"And that's what you're starting to see happen in video games. "In the late 1980s, comic prices started to skyrocket because they weren't viewed as just this relic of nostalgia, but rather they were appreciated by collectors and the community as legitimate forms of art and history," he said. He said the game-collecting market was starting to mature and head down the same path as coins and comic books before it. Mr Kahn said the original owner had been holding on to the game for a while and famously would not entertain offers below six figures. The game sold last week to a syndicate of private collectors, said Mr Kahn, who was not involved in the sale.Īt least three of the new owners have made themselves public: Heritage Auctions founder Jim Halperin, video game store owner Zac Gieg and collector Rich Lecce. Now, the New York City-based company is leading the way in an increasingly popular market for. ( Supplied: Wata Games) Game sold to group of collectors Five-year-old start-up Rally sold a copy of Nintendo's 'Super Mario Bros.' for a record 2 million.
Mr Kahn said video game collecting was starting to mature, like the coin and comic book markets before it. Join us for a spellbinding new trip to rescue. The copy was sent to Wata Games several months ago for grading and was rated a near perfect 9.4 out of 10 before being sent back to the owner. play super mario 64 1 (Super Demo World - The Legend Continues) Sonic in Super Mario 64 V2 Super Mario Bros. "Due to that and us being hardcore collectors, and the community being fairly tight-knit and small for a long time, we've known who had the game." "It has been owned by one of the largest sealed video game collectors," he said. Mr Kahn said as a collector himself, he had known about this rare copy of the game and its owner for some time. Heritage Auctions in Dallas said that the 1996 game sold Sunday, breaking its previous record. This record-breaking copy is technically from the second print run of the game in test markets - a difference denoted by the sticker's gloss as opposed to a matte finish - but no sealed copy of the first run has found its way to market. DALLAS (AP) An unopened copy of Nintendo’s Super Mario 64 has sold at auction for 1.56 million. And on top of that, it's in immaculate condition - possibly the nicest condition of any sticker-sealed game that has ever been discovered." Copy well known among tight-knit collectors Not only that, but it's the only known still sealed copy from the test market. "It turned out to be the largest video game franchise and recognisable character in the world.
"And so Nintendo came along and tried out their product in these test markets, and at the time, Super Mario Bros was just another game," Mr Kahn said. The game came out in 1985 after the video game crash of 1983, in which other makers - including Atari and Intellivision - pumped out low-quality games and many people regarded the industry as a fad. "This was before Nintendo had gone nationwide ," he told the ABC. Mr Kahn said this copy of the game was the equivalent of video games' Action Comics #1 - the debut of Superman, and the most valuable comic book in the world.
The intact sticker seal on the copy of Super Mario Bros made it so valuable.