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Copy of Super Mario 64 Sold for Over $1.5 Million, Most Ever Paid for a Video Game

posted by chromas on Monday July 12 2021, @01:29PM   
from the stonks dept.

martyb writes:

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

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Original Submission

• Re:more dollars than sense Re:more dollars than sense (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 12 2021, @10:58PM (2 children)

  by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 12 2021, @10:58PM (#1155565)

  that money is profit he's taxed on. Now he spends 1.6mil on a game, that's an expense, that profit is now gone. Now he has the game, and saves 37% of that amount on the taxes. That game actually cost him $1mil. He sells that game later for 1.6mil in a few years. His cost basis is the same as his selling price - no gains taxes. He just made $600k.

  so.. lets carry this out.

  - Receives money, taxes due on received money
  - buys came with received money, net 0
  - owes no taxes.
  - inventory: 1.6mil (you said business collector/buyer/seller -- this becomes inventory, or it's not a valid expense.)

  Ok. Then, at the end of the year, the buyer pays inventory taxes on his business. Well crap.

  Next year (or this year), the buyer sells the game, originally purchased for $1.6mm. Now the collector has to pay either sales tax or income tax (if it wasn't billed as inventory). Sales tax, 7%. Income tax, 40%. Net return: probably $1mm, the same amount as you're saying he would have originally gotten.

  Am I missing anything? (Tax fraud?)

  Parent

• Re:more dollars than sense Re:more dollars than sense (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 12 2021, @11:24PM (1 child)

  by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 12 2021, @11:24PM (#1155574)

  Oops, I said it wrong:

  Next year (or this year), the buyer sells the game, originally purchased for $1.6mm. Now the collector has to pay either sales tax or income tax

  pays sales tax *AND* income tax. The whole sale is a profit (you already paid the expense, last year), so you'll be paying 7% sales tax and 40% tax on $1.6mm, possibly with inventory tax if you hold it through the year's end.

  So, net, if you pull in $1.6mm, it doesn't matter how, tax is due.

  Parent

  • Re:more dollars than sense (Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Tuesday July 13 2021, @12:07AM

    by fakefuck39 (6620) on Tuesday July 13 2021, @12:07AM (#1155593)

    I'm not here t explain tax law to you if you think an llc pays income tax and don't know what a cost basis is. Indeed, you did 'say it wrong.' Because you have no dea what you're talking about.

    Parent