Image Courtesy: The Verge
The astonishing sale price of the 1985 game intended for Nintendo’s original console broke a record that was set just a month ago when a sealed copy of Super Mario 64 was auctioned for $1.56 million (roughly Rs. 11.58 crores). The latest record is the highest price paid for a video game of any title, according to collectibles website Rally. An unidentified buyer paid $2 million (about Rs. 14.84 crores) for an untouched edition of Super Mario Bros, a game that was enormously popular at the turn of the century and still has a devoted fan base.
Over the last year, the record for the most costly video games has been beaten many times. At an auction in July of last year, a copy of Super Mario went for $114,000 (Rs. 84.65 lakhs). Another copy was auctioned off for $156,000 in November (Rs. 1.15 crores). That record was broken in April of this year, with a total of $660,000. (Rs. 4.90 crores).
A copy of The Legend of Zelda sold for $870,000 in July of this year (Rs. 6.45 crores).
While most high-priced games were auctioned off, SuperMario 1985 was sold using a somewhat unusual approach. The website Rally purchases goods and allows others to invest in shares of those products. When a bid for the item comes in, the investors get to decide whether to hold or sell.
The New York Times, which broke the record, said that Rally purchased the Super Mario 1985 game for $140,000 in April of last year (Rs. 1.03 crores). It was also stated that investors turned down a $300,000 (Rs. 2.22 crores) offer later in 2020. According to a graduate student who talked to the newspaper, he spent $100 (Rs. 7,423) in shares of the game and made $950 (Rs. 70,518) from the sale. Nintendo produced the Super Mario Bros game series, which debuted in 1985.
