A near-mint condition copy of “Super Mario 64” has sold for more than $1.5 million dollars at an auction house this week.
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The unopened 1996 copy was presented by Heritage Auctions who said an anonymous bidder bought the item at a record-breaking $1.5 million on Sunday. It followed the sale of an unopened copy of Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda that sold at the auction for $870,000 on Friday.
🎉#HERITAGELIVE #WORLDRECORD!! Super Mario 64 – Wata 9.8 A++ Sealed, N64 Nintendo 1996 USA just sold for $1,560,000 at #HeritageAuctions, smashing previous mark of $870K, set Friday at Heritage for The Legend of Zelda! https://t.co/SUgiijkkzL#SuperMario #Nintendo #N64 #WATA pic.twitter.com/rHpTuZl95l
— Heritage Auctions (@HeritageAuction) July 11, 2021
Heritage Auctions said the cartridge is the “highest-graded copy of the single best-selling video game on the Nintendo 64 — the first 3D adventure of Nintendo’s mascot, Mario” and told buyers: “We only have one piece of advice: this is not an opportunity to waste.”
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According to Polygon, video game preservationist Chris Kohler said there is a current trend of people trying to find the best copies of classic games regardless of the price.
“There’s a bit of a gold rush going on right now, where people are trying to buy up the nicest copies of things that they can, and for whatever reason, money was no object.”