Sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. sells for $2 mil, breaks last month's record of most expensive game

1.jpg

In the far-flung past of July 2021, a sealed edition of Super Mario 64--perfectly immaculate and professionally graded--sold for a whopping $1.56 million dollars. That auction set a new record for the most expensive video game ever sold, until it promptly lost that title less than a month later. There's a new record-holder in town, and it's the original Super Mario Bros. The news comes from The New York Times, who reported on the sale of the game, discovering that it was sold not at auction, but on a website called Rally.

Described as "alternative investment", Rally lets its users invest in collectable items, rather than stocks or crypto. The investors buy "shares" of a given physical item, and then are able to vote amongst themselves on whether or not to sell it to prospective buyers. Rally acquired the sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. for $140,000 just last year, and the "shareholders" in the game rejected a buy offer for $300,000. However, when presented a bid for $2 million dollars, the collective majority--about 75%--voted in favor of selling the game to the anonymous buyer.

Graded at A+ level from grading service Wata, much like last month's pricey copy of Super Mario 64, this is the highest-graded version of the game ever. It's a dramatic increase in value compared to how much it was bought for less than a year ago, but regardless, this sale now marks the most expensive transaction of a video game ever.

:arrow: Source
 

Veho

The man who cried "Ni".
Former Staff
Joined
Apr 4, 2006
Messages
11,414
Trophies
3
Age
42
Location
Zagreb
XP
42,340
Country
Croatia
I haven't heard of Rally, and that sounds pretty cool, and I guess the people who joined in to buy the game for that $140,000 made a healthy profit.
Of course, the idea of games being sold for this much is crazy, I'm just interested in the idea of Rally itself.
It's like buying shares in items instead of companies? For people who can't afford to buy the entire item. Interesting investment idea, but it makes me suspicious of the sale now. Who's the buyer? Is it a stunt by Rally to generate interest and build up hype?
 

Noctosphere

Nova's Guardian
Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2013
Messages
6,769
Trophies
3
Age
30
Location
Biblically accurate Hell
XP
19,031
Country
Canada
It's like buying shares in items instead of companies? For people who can't afford to buy the entire item. Interesting investment idea, but it makes me suspicious of the sale now. Who's the buyer? Is it a stunt by Rally to generate interest and build up hype?
I'm with you on this
They probably simply saw the news of the SMB64 and told themselve "we can do better"
It's probably just made up just to promote themselves
 
  • Like
Reactions: DarknessPlay3r

SG854

Hail Mary
Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2017
Messages
5,215
Trophies
1
Location
N/A
XP
8,104
Country
Congo, Republic of the
Smart choice. This will be highly desirable collectors item in museums in the future worth tons of money. People now preserving art is a huge step up compared to the past. Imagine if we preserved works of art in this way from leonardo or da vinci? They would be even worth more now and preserve history alot better.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Noctosphere

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • Jayro @ Jayro:
    The phat model had amazingly loud speakers tho.
    +1
  • SylverReZ @ SylverReZ:
    @Jayro, I don't see whats so special about the DS ML, its just a DS lite in a phat shell. At least the phat model had louder speakers, whereas the lite has a much better screen.
    +1
  • SylverReZ @ SylverReZ:
    They probably said "Hey, why not we combine the two together and make a 'new' DS to sell".
  • Veho @ Veho:
    It's a DS Lite in a slightly bigger DS Lite shell.
    +1
  • Veho @ Veho:
    It's not a Nintendo / iQue official product, it's a 3rd party custom.
    +1
  • Veho @ Veho:
    Nothing special about it other than it's more comfortable than the Lite
    for people with beefy hands.
    +1
  • Jayro @ Jayro:
    I have yaoi anime hands, very lorge but slender.
  • Jayro @ Jayro:
    I'm Slenderman.
  • Veho @ Veho:
    I have hands.
  • BakerMan @ BakerMan:
    imagine not having hands, cringe
    +1
  • AncientBoi @ AncientBoi:
    ESPECIALLY for things I do to myself :sad:.. :tpi::rofl2: Or others :shy::blush::evil:
    +1
  • The Real Jdbye @ The Real Jdbye:
    @SylverReZ if you could find a v5 DS ML you would have the best of both worlds since the v5 units had the same backlight brightness levels as the DS Lite unlockable with flashme
  • The Real Jdbye @ The Real Jdbye:
    but that's a long shot
  • The Real Jdbye @ The Real Jdbye:
    i think only the red mario kart edition phat was v5
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    A woman with no arms and no legs was sitting on a beach. A man comes along and the woman says, "I've never been hugged before." So the man feels bad and hugs her. She says "Well i've also never been kissed before." So he gives her a kiss on the cheek. She says "Well I've also never been fucked before." So the man picks her up, and throws her in the ocean and says "Now you're fucked."
    +1
  • BakerMan @ BakerMan:
    lmao
  • BakerMan @ BakerMan:
    anyways, we need to re-normalize physical media

    if i didn't want my games to be permanent, then i'd rent them
    +1
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    Agreed, that why I try to buy all my games on disc, Xbox anyways. Switch games (which I pirate tbh) don't matter much, I stay offline 24/7 anyways.
  • AncientBoi @ AncientBoi:
    I don't pirate them, I Use Them :mellow:. Like I do @BigOnYa 's couch :tpi::evil::rofl2:
    +1
  • cearp @ cearp:
    @BakerMan - you can still "own" digital media, arguably easier and better than physical since you can make copies and backups, as much as you like.

    The issue is DRM
  • cearp @ cearp:
    You can buy drm free games / music / ebooks, and if you keep backups of your data (like documents and family photos etc), then you shouldn't lose the game. but with a disk, your toddler could put it in the toaster and there goes your $60

    :rofl2:
  • cearp @ cearp:
    still, I agree physical media is nice to have. just pointing out the issue is drm
  • rqkaiju2 @ rqkaiju2:
    i like physical media because it actually feels like you own it. thats why i plan on burning music to cds
    rqkaiju2 @ rqkaiju2: i like physical media because it actually feels like you own it. thats why i plan on burning...