What’s The Next Gadget, Toy, Or Collectible That Will Draw Ridiculously Big Bucks At Auction? A Game You Played As A Kid If You Grew Up In The 80’s Or 90’s.

So, you ransacked the basement and attic of your childhood home looking for your old baseball card collection, hoping to magically discover a Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card in mint condition. 

If you struck out on cashing in with the card craze, go back to mommy and daddy’s, and check every nook and cranny for your old vintage video game merchandise. Who knows, you might find a hidden treasure…

Here we go, it’s time now to hear about the ransom type prices that owners of vintage video games are getting. 

A seaside copy of Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros., is currently for sale, with bidding going north of $310,000. 

This one is an original 1989 copy, Heritage Auctions is handling the sale, and it is expected to be the all-time highest selling video game at Heritage. 

I know right now you are asking yourself why? Why are people willing to spend the equivalent of the price of a house in most states in the U.S. for a shot at owning a dusty old game?

The video games director for Heritage Auctions, Valerie McLeckie explained why in a story that ran in Luxury Launches. “This particular copy was produced in late 1986, which means it was one of the earliest copies produced that had plastic shrink wrap, rather than sticker seal, and a perforated cardboard hang tab.”

Simply put, it’s essentially a one of one. According to McLeckie, the value is so high because there’s almost a 0 percent chance of finding something similar to it. “Since the production window for this copy and others like it was so short, finding another copy from this same production run in similar condition would be as hard as looking for a single drop of water in an ocean. Never say never, but there’s a good chance it can’t be done.”

Currently, the all-time record price for a video game was a copy of Super Mario Bros 3 that went for $156K last year. That number will be doubled this time. 

Oh, and by the way, the owner of this game is going to have one of the best ROI’s the planet has ever seen. Luxury Launches reported the price listed on this sealed copy of the game shows it cost $25 when it was purchased in 1985.