'Legend of Zelda' auction sets bar for the most expensive video game at $870,000:
Just a few months after a record-setting auction turned a sealed copy of Nintendo's original Super Mario Bros. into the most expensive video game — at an eye-popping price of $660,000 — that record has fallen. Another NES classic, The Legend of Zelda, is now the title-holder.
In a Heritage Auctions sale that ended Friday, a sealed copy of the very first Zelda game sold for $870,000. Even though this particular copy scored a (slightly) lower quality rating than Mario, the rarity of the item boosted its value significantly.
[...] The distinction here is a major difference-maker for serious collectors. There are little clues on every NES package that indicate which production run the release comes from. This copy of Zelda is from a run dubbed "NES R" (for the ® that appears next to the "Nintendo Entertainment System" logo on the box).
That "NES R" production run dates back to late 1987, and it was preceded by only one other run (dubbed "NES TM").
Also at Toms Hardware, GameSpot, and The Washington Post.
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A copy of 'Super Mario 64' sold for over $1.5 million, the most ever paid for a video game:
A copy of "Super Mario 64" has sold for more than $1.5 million, smashing the record for the most expensive sale ever of a video game at auction.
The sealed copy of the classic Nintendo 64 video game fetched $1.56 million including fees on Sunday.
Dallas-based auction house Heritage said it was the first time a game had gone for more than $1 million. The sale topped a record set just two days ago, when another Nintendo game, "The Legend of Zelda," was sold for $870,000, the auctioneers said.
[...] "After the record-breaking sale of the first game in the Zelda series on Friday, the possibility of surpassing $1 million on a single video game seemed like a goal that would need to wait for another auction," Heritage Auctions video games specialist Valarie McLeckie said in a statement.
"We were shocked to see that it turned out to be in the same one! We are proud to have been a part of this historic event," she added.
Previously:
"Legend of Zelda" Auction Sets Bar for the Most Expensive Video Game at $870,000
Unopened Super Mario Bros. Game from 1986 Sells for $660,000
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 11 2021, @03:46PM (4 children)
It won't be a gamer that snags up this thing.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Tork on Sunday July 11 2021, @03:49PM
That's true. The most I could get together for the bid was 255 rupees. Oh and my neighbors are pissed I cut their lawn and smashed their pots.
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(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Monday July 12 2021, @12:10AM (2 children)
That internal battery for holding save data won't be in a pretty state by now.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Tork on Monday July 12 2021, @12:31AM (1 child)
Hypothetical Question: If they packaged the cartridge in plastic (and assuming they also sucked the oxygen out...) would that prevent the battery from decaying and leaking? Would it do anything for holding the charge? I imagine no but I've been surprised by asking questions like this before.
Can you tell I'm a software and not a hardware guy? ;)
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by coolgopher on Monday July 12 2021, @01:01AM
It would not substantially change things I expect. All batteries self-discharge (even when just sitting on a shelf, not connected to anything). This is an internal chemical reaction within the (sealed) battery, which results in hydrogen (iirc) gas being created and builds up the pressure until it ruptures the seal and the battery starts leaking.
An absence of air in the package might on the other hand reduce the resulting crystalline build-up on the outside of the battery, since that apparently uses CO2 [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 11 2021, @03:50PM
You should see how much I'm getting for E.T. cartridges for the old Atari game consoles! They're selling like hotcakes out of my Uncle Rico's van!
(Score: 2) by Booga1 on Sunday July 11 2021, @03:52PM
If only I never opened my games and played them, maybe I would be a millionaire now.
If I had any idea which toys would be popular and sell for 2,000x the value in the future, might as well buy everything now and wait 30-40 years and hope for some rich person to buy it.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by looorg on Sunday July 11 2021, @04:10PM (3 children)
Isn't this kind of suspicious that they keep finding all these sealed copies of 30-40 year old games in mint or near mint condition just laying about. I can't really recall anyone in the early to mid 80's sitting around with their NES saying things like "I'm going to buy the latest Zelda game and never play it but instead saving it until I'm middle aged or retire as some kind of collectors item", but perhaps I just knew the wrong people. People like me, that I knew, tended to play the games. Not to mention that collecting games, if that was a thing it was who had the most amount of pirated games, or access to them, since a single tape could contain quite a few games in the very early days.
I think it was one of the Mario games, mentioned previously in the news, that someone had bought and then put in a desk and then apparently forgot about for a couple of decades. Sure. Slightly weird but sure. Didn't Jr get someone annoying when they forgot the present or x-mas gift or was it that both parents (or grandparents etc) bought multiple copies and then they sort of just forgot about one of them? Still more believable then this collectors items nonsense, collectors editions for games came much later and is beyond stupid but still whatever you want to spend your money on.
(Score: 3, Informative) by deimtee on Sunday July 11 2021, @11:58PM
At a guess, one likely source is duplicate gifts. I know I have a couple of books in essentially mint condition because I was given copies of books I already had.
200 million years is actually quite a long time.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Monday July 12 2021, @12:35AM
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(Score: 2) by toddestan on Monday July 12 2021, @02:16AM
I would guess the reason a few of these popped up recently is that after the first one sold for a lot of money, anyone else who also had an unopened game (that they knew about) decided to cash in. While I would guess there isn't a lot of these around in this condition, I could see a few that are sitting in a box or on a shelf somewhere owned by someone who thought of it more as a curiosity than anything else, until they suddenly realize they could get megabucks for it.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday July 11 2021, @04:59PM (7 children)
Stupid is as stupid does.
No matter how much money i had, i'd consider this a real waste.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 11 2021, @05:33PM (6 children)
It's money laundering. It has to be money laundering. Anyone could buy a few houses for that amount of money. Hell you could buy sex slaves for that amount of money.
Sure there are rich people who are stupid (thanks to inheritances and the like), but there can't be that many rich stupid people to support an entire industry of this kind of stuff. It's just got to be money laundering.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 11 2021, @06:23PM (5 children)
Why would something that was mass produced with such limited appeal as an 80s video game attract that much cash, just because the original cardboard box is still around it? Not like the box itself is a masterpiece, it also was mass produced.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 11 2021, @06:34PM (3 children)
It's rare, and it's a display of wealth. It's not any worse than the non-fungible token craze.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 11 2021, @07:02PM (2 children)
>> It's not any worse than the non-fungible token craze.
Which is also money laundering in action.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 12 2021, @01:58AM (1 child)
There has to be better ways to money launder that don't involve headline-grabbing auctions or a crypto public ledger.
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 12 2021, @06:14AM
Hunter Biden's finger painting art?
(Score: 2) by Tork on Monday July 12 2021, @12:37AM
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(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 11 2021, @10:50PM (1 child)
The original Zelda cartridges were colored shiny gold. Somebody probably convinced a Jewish buyer that it was real solid gold.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 11 2021, @11:52PM
a jewish seller?
(Score: 2) by Sourcery42 on Monday July 12 2021, @04:16PM (3 children)
I get that this is a collector's item and never coming out of the box, but would it still work? I had this golden cartridge growing up. Unfortunately all my Atari and Nintendo stuff got handed off to cousins when I lost interest and I never saw it again.
I think these early game cartridges that could retain save data like Zelda games had a small battery soldered to the board. It seems like that should have discharged ages ago. Maybe they still play, but won't hold a save anymore? Anyone still have a box of these treasures laying around?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Tuesday July 13 2021, @01:52PM (2 children)
Probably. If they have been sealed for 30-40 years in a container they should be fine. The cartridges are normally just a connector and a few chips on a pcb. The plastic could be somewhat brittle but should probably be ok.
If something is wrong it's usually that the connector on the cartridge have become corroded, but if it has been sealed that shouldn't be an issue.
Based on having repaired (or I guess refurbished) quite a few NES machines I have to say that there is quite good documentation, and funny new hacks for them. But a larger issue might be finding a working Atari2600, NES or whatever. But they are usually quite easy to fix on a component level if they are broken. If the machine have electrolytic caps they might have leaked by now, but just clean and replace and hope there is no trace damage but if it is then it's not hard to bodge or fix. The edge connectors are probably corroded but can normally just be polished and clean and they'll be fine again, somewhat worse if you are one of those people that used to breath/blow into the connectors to get it to "work better" as every time you did you essentially spat a little into the console and now that should be nice and corroded but that to can be cleaned off. Controllers have to be cleaned since they'll probably contain a lot of finger fat and dirt. One might also want to check the power-supply so it delivers what it should so you don't get some nasty unit burning current when you turn it on.
As I recall it now the battery cartridges was not that common, but the battery is for certain dead by now and if it was a bad type it has probably leaked and corroded the area where it is and that could be a big issue. They probably won't hold charge anymore even if rechargeable, but swap and try might work. It was more common that the game gave you pass-codes etc that you could enter to skip to your desired level or retain your game state.
(Score: 2) by Sourcery42 on Tuesday July 13 2021, @04:49PM (1 child)
Yeah, leaked and corroded was what I was envisioning from a 30some year old battery. I know this cartridge had one. It was one of the good, old hold reset while you turn off the power games.
(Score: 3, Funny) by looorg on Tuesday July 13 2021, @05:51PM
I guess the biggest issue here is that as soon as you break the seal/open the container or whatever the item goes from apparently being worth $870,000 to about $5. So the question then remains how do they know if the cartridge works if it is in an unbroken case? It will take quite some time before the corrosion will eat thru to the surface of the cartridge or start to leak out at the bottom/connector side of the cartridge. It's Schrödinger-cartridge, the game is both working and not working until you break the seal and observe it ...