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