Heritage Auctions scores another record blow. After selling a copy of Zelda for the NES for nearly $ 1 million, the auction site’s managers have just placed a rare copy of Super Mario 64 for a frightening $ 1.56 million (roughly 1.3 million euro at the current exchange rate).
The incredible value achieved by this copy is due both to the rarity of the version and, above all, to the practically perfect state of conservation. The classification body, WATA, rated the game’s condition with a score of 9.8 out of 10, the highest that a cartridge-based video game has ever achieved.
The packaging that houses the Nintendo 64 platform masterpiece is still sealed and in ideal conditions, without the slightest sign of wear or damage caused, for example, by the small and almost imperceptible scratches generated by the industrial machinery used to pack the game.
Whoever paid out the 1.56 million dollars with which the international auction for this rare video game came to an end, therefore, managed to take home the “Holy Grail” of Super Mario games, as well as one of the electronics products most valuable consumer goods in the world. With the exponential growth of the turnover connected to videogame collecting, as evidenced by the explosion of the phenomenon of now unobtainable Pokemon cards, the record of one million and a half dollars spent on the rare copy of Super Mario 64 seems to be destined to last very little.