Sealed copy of 'Super Mario Bros. 2' sells for $88,550 in estate sale
By: Graham Tuck
A copy 1988 'Super Mario Bros. 2', recently sold at an auction for an astounding $88,500; the auction was a part of a real-estate sale for a recently deceased Indiana women. Harritt group inc. who was real-estate company, said their workers discovered the valuable game among other classic titles, that the late owner Patricia Martinn owned.
A Gaming Gold Mine
The workers on the site were able to stumble across some Nintendo Entertainment System games in a walk-in closet. The Harritt group said, "At first glance, it was a comforting wave of classic Nintendo nostalgia. All the classics were there, Super Mario Bros, Duck Hunt, Qix, and even an NES console. So, we did what any children of the 1990s would do: we fired up the console and tested the open games. It was a great day." These titles were interesting items to find by themselves, but when they were quite surprised when discovered the copy 'Super Mario Bros. 2'."At a second glance, it was something else entirely. The seemingly ordinary collection included an extraordinary unopened copy of Super Mario Bros. 2."
Hitting The Lottery
The group knew that they had stumbled upon omitting valuable, when they discovered the game. However, once the game was inspected by Wata Games in Denver, it was given a 9.8 A+ rating, and its value skyrocketed. The rating was the second-highest possible, and shortly after it sold for $88,500 to a Florida businessman. This was not the first Nintendo title to sell for a large amount. In fact, a 25-year-old sealed copy of 'Super Mario 64' sold for a record price of $1.56 million in July.
Other Success Stories
While these Nintendo Mario titles are very valuable and have sold for large amounts, Mario games are not the only classic Nintendo games to sell for large amounts. A 34-year-old unopened copy of 'Legend of Zelda' sold just before the 'Super Mario 64' for $870,000. Like the others, what made this copy worth so much money was the fact that the seal was in tact and that it was unopened. Legend of Zelda was also a very popular game like the others, and was first released in 1986. All of these games are considered retro, and as can be seen, that if they are sealed they are very valuable.
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