A copy of ‘Super Mario Bros. 3’ sold for $156,000
It's the most expensive game ever sold at auction.
It seems that one Mario fan/collector found something to do with all of those coins they’ve picked up. Someone bought a rare copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 for $156,000 at auction.
The sealed copy of the NES classic is now the most expensive game ever sold, according to The Verge. It took the record from a copy of Super Mario Bros., which a bidder snapped up in July for $114,000. Bidding for SMB3 started at $62,500 and 20 bidders tried to get their hands on it.
What makes this particular copy so valuable is that it has a rare box design variant. The word “Bros.” is typically on the right, whereas it’s on the left of this box and it covers a bit of Mario’s glove. It's the earliest version of the game in SMB3's production history. It’s also in excellent condition, with a Wata 9.2 A+ rating for the quality of the box and the seal. The same auction house, Heritage Auctions, sold a Wata 9.0 A-rated copy of that variant in July for $38,400.
The SMB3 sale wasn’t the only Nintendo-related record set during last week’s auction. A copy of Pokémon Red, which had a Wata 9.8 A++.rating, is now the most expensive Pokémon game sold at auction. A bidder plunked down $84,000 for it.
