Original Super Mario Bros. video game sets a new record at auction

The selling price is double what had been expected

Last Friday was a historic date for the video game industry and it was no surprise that Mario Bros had something to do with it. It appears that a fortune may have been long hidden in a dusty box containing an original 1985 “Super Mario Bros” edition for the Nintendo Entertainment System, as it broke the record after selling for $660,000 in Dallas after being put up for auction online. That was more than double what the video game had been expected to receive when the auction came to light last month.

By Christmas 1986, this game had been bought and stored, not knowing that 35 years later it would have a value that would surpass all expectations. At the moment, the details of the seller and the lucky buyer are not known. Heritage Auctions, which often coordinates high-ticket auctions, was responsible for this one, as well, and said that the unopened Nintendo video game is “the best copy known to have been professionally graded for auction.”

“[The video game] sat at the bottom of my office desk all this time from the day I bought it. I never thought anything of it,” the seller said in the Heritage Auctions statement. But now there is no doubt that the seller became half a million dollars richer, having made the purchase of a lifetime more than 35 years ago.

Nowadays, it is very common to see how old video games are sold for large amounts of money, and this is mainly due to many collectors who are willing to pay what is necessary to be able to continue increasing their collection or because they have a special fascination for a specific item. Mario Bros, it seems, was and will continue to be a huge boom in the video game industry, and continues to be a record-breaker.