A rare, sealed copy of the NES classic Super Mario Bros. recently sold for $100,150.00, setting a new record that, curiously, had belonged to the same game when it sold for $30,000.00 in 2017. As reported by Kotaku, this edition deserves its sale price because its seal bears a black sticker with the Nintendo logo, which would make this version rarer than the others.
According to the information available, this version of Super Mario Bros. was sold for a very brief period while Nintendo was testing it with the American public in major cities between 1985 and 1986.
After the sale, the rare Super Mario Bros. cartridge came to be owned by three people: video game store chain owner Zac Gieg, game collector Rich Lecce, and Jim Halperin, founder and co-chairman of an auction company called Heritage Auctions.
A company called Wata Games was asked to evaluate the sealed cartridge and determine whether it was authentic. On that occasion, company president Deniz Khan said: "A sticker-sealed Super Mario Bros. like this is certainly one of the most important and rare items in video game history". He also said that the cartridge's previous owner had already received offers of more than $50,000.00 for the rarity, but would never close the deal for less than $100,000.00.
In recent times, auction company Heritage Auctions began selling products evaluated and authenticated by Wata Games.
