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Surprised by $1.5 million Super Mario 64
Eyebrows weren't just raised when a sealed copy of Super Mario 64 sold for $1.5 million at an auction, they pretty much launched like rockets and went into orbit. Now that the dust has settled, collectors are scratching their heads.
The factory-sealed copy of the classic Nintendo 64 game was graded 9.8 A++, which means it is practically undamaged, and then went on to set a new price record for games at Heritage Auctions on July 11th. Here are some other recent auctions:
- Sealed Skyrim copy graded 9.2 A+ sells for $600
- Sealed Red Dead Redemption for Xbox 360 sold for $384
- Early copy of first Tomb Raider auctioned at $144k
- Rare copy of Super Mario Bros. sold for 660k in April
- Heritage Auctions vets major bidders to avoid fraud
Legend of auction: Just a few days earlier, a copy of The Legend of Zelda for NES sold for $870,000. Super Mario 64 shifted over 12 million units and was shipped in a box that is very prone to damage, and a 9.4 A+ rated copy of Super Mario 64 fetched only $38,400 at an auction in January.
Tiny details: Director of the Video Game History Foundation Frank Cifaldi said “I 100% agree it being a 9.8 puts it at a completely different level but a sudden jump from $30k to $1.5M feels wrong,” while Deniz Kahn of Wata Games said “There are discussions of how many first-print sealed Mario 64’s may exist,” and noted that this auction was probably the result of a bidding war between collectors wanting “absolute best of an iconic relic of pop culture that exists.”
