Sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 sells for record $156,000 at auction
The rare copy of the 1990 NES game shatters the previous record for the highest price paid for a video game at auction.
- She received the Renau Writing Scholarship in 2016 from the University of Louisville's communication department.
How much would you pay for your favorite classic video game?
A sealed copy of 1990's Super Mario Bros. 3 sold for $156,000 at auction on Friday, unseating the previous record holder for the highest price paid for a video game at auction, a 1985 copy of Super Mario Bros. that had sold for $114,000 in July. Bidding opened Friday at over $62,000, and the numbers skyrocketed after 20 bidders began vying for the game.
Heritage Auctions, the auction house that sold the game, said in a release that the remarkable condition of the game, the packaging layout, and the added rarity of being sealed, made this a hot item for collectors.
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"We couldn't be more pleased about breaking the world record for the second time in the same year," Valarie McLeckie, Heritage Auctions' director of video games said in a statement Friday. "That said, it's no surprise that another Mario game, which so many of us grew up with, would set the new bar."
Heritage Auctions' Friday event also reached new heights when it sold a sealed copy of the "Red Version" of 1998's Pokemon for Nintendo's Gameboy for $84,000. It's the highest price ever paid for a Pokemon title.
