We all know that Retro Gaming is seeing a massive resurgence at the minute thanks to iPhone emulators and people looking to consoles of the past to play classic titles, and Heritage Auctions has made incredible record sales figures thanks to some sealed and graded copies of old games that will no doubt have made their old owners incredibly happy.
Heritage Auctions sees a lot of graded copies of games and cards heading to their website, with users selling mint-condition items to collectors who are serious about their gaming. Their latest auction comprised 314 lots and amassed a total of $2,143,969, which I think we can all agree is a staggering amount!
Speaking in an official press release, Heritage Auctions Managing Director of Video Games Valarie Spiegel said that this event saw two days of ‘treasures that span gaming’s history’ in an auction where ‘history met rarity’. Valarie definitely got that right; just check out some of the items that sold!
Collectibles Worth More Than The Shire
This graded copy of Super Mario World for the SNES is a first-production copy. It’s the second-highest-graded copy in the world (our world, not Mario’s) and sold for a whopping $125,000. Can you imagine buying this game and not ever playing it, just putting it in a box with the hope it would make some money one day, and then selling it for that much! The next two highest sales were Mega Man first production (graded 9.4) which sold for $106, 250, and a sealed first-production copy of Castlevania, now 37 years old at the time of writing, which sold for a cool $100,000. As Valerie Spiegel says, it’s a rare piece of video game history with its hangtab still intact’.
I won’t go through the whole listing of lots, but two more that might interest you were a graded copy of Super Smash Bros. (grade 9.8 A++) which sold for just under $94,000, and some early-Pokémon-action in the form of the Pocket Monsters Game Boy series, with all four iterations of the game appearing in the auction. Pocket Monsters Aka featuring Charizard on the front cover sold for $45,000, with a VGA grade of 90+ 90+ NM+/MT NS Unopened.
Speaking on the Pocket Monsters auction, Spiegel said ‘It provided a rare chance for knowing collectors to add the first artistic rendering of the final starter evolutions to their collections, along with many other significant and rare titles that make up the cornerstones of both video games, and our longstanding relationship with the technology that allows us to enjoy them.’
Those wanting to check out the entire auction and price up items they might have in their own collection can do so at HA.com/7372. Unfortunately, I don’t think my copy of Super Smash Bros. is going to bring that much at auction, but maybe you have a copy of one of the items in the auction at home that you might suddenly be thinking about selling!
