We all have heard of pricey auctions, but mostly of mansions and vintage cars. From those luxurious commodities to rare video games, auctions have traveled a little distance, to say.
Vintage video games are auctioning at a sky-high price, thanks to the Independent Wata Certified Grading System that boosted the gaming industry’s total revenue since 2019, and just this week, a sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. from 1985 sold for $660,000 at Heritage Auctions.
Video game players benefit the gaming industry more than people who aid for music and film industry’s revenue, as proven in the recent stats. Adding to the Wata Certified Grading system, the pandemic has also helped the gaming industry pace ahead of the music and film industry.
Comparing to the total generated revenue of $43 billion for the movie industry and $57 billion for the music industry, gaming made a revenue of $159 billion in 2019. A year ago, the record price for a video game auction was $100,150 for a sticker-sealed copy of the classic Super Mario Bros. Wata Games termed the copy as the only sticker-sealed copyleft and scored it 9.4 for its mint condition.
The new rise was expected since the copy that set the record is widely recognized as the finest and the oldest sealed hangtab copy of Super Mario Bros.
“This particular copy was produced in late 1986, and it was one of the earliest copies produced that had plastic shrink wrap, rather than sticker seal,” says Heritage Auctions Video Games Director Valarie McLeckie. “By early 1987, Nintendo was producing a version that had another new variation to their original packaging (an additional “code”). Since the production window for this copy and others like it was so short, finding another copy from this same production run in similar conditions would be akin to looking for a single drop of water in an ocean. Never say never, but there’s a good chance it can’t be done.”
The exclusive Wata Certified Grading System is the reason for trusting these super expensive auction deals, aided by the pandemic where most people are stuck at homes, have boosted the gaming industry a lot more than benefitting other forms of on-screen entertainment.
Gaming lovers pay Nostalgia’s price and the rarity of the sealed copy of the most famous games in history. These preserved copies are selling for a fortune now.
