Game Sells for $1.5 million

Yes you read that headline right. Just recently a game sold at Heritage Auctions for a cool $1.5 million. That is beyond nuts and I can’t in any fathomable way see that sort of price for a game being worth it in any shape or form. Just recently a record was broken for a sealed and mint copy of Zelda selling for $870.000 which in itself was astounding to say the least.

However here we now have what is definitely a very nice copy of Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64 clocking in at that mentioned $1.5 million. I’ve been thinking about this a bit and what might make someone willing to pay that amount and for that there may need to be a bit of back story.

Speculation where money changes hands just for the fact an item is valuable is on the rise in video gaming circles. I’m not deeply versed in these industries and the money that gets thrown around but as I understand this has long been a thing with things such as rare sneakers or vinyl records. Supply and demand fuels a craze by people willing to invest to make a lot more money back. Look at pristine examples of 60s muscle cars for something that may feel a bit more appropriate to trade in. Expensive sure but at least you can in theory use a classic car or somewhat enjoy it. Not so much with something like a collectors item such as this Mario 64. It’ll never leave that case, it’ll never get opened and it’ll never get played. Now obviously there are a thousand different ways to play Mario 64 all which don’t require over a million bucks but it’s still something to behold.

I think the biggest thing with this is what it does to the used game market. Hey if that game sold for that much surely this game is worth at least this! It drags the entire game collecting hobby up with it. I think this is the true end to hobbyist collecting for cheap. Sure you might stumble onto a yard sale or something and get lucky sure but any online marketplace will slowly but surely pull all the prices up.

It’s a sad situation and frankly just ridiculous. Not to be a total downer but it shows that anything that gets popular enough inevitably brings the money with it. Another feather in the cap for solutions such as flash carts and the MiSTer!