2 More Rare NES Carts on eBay (Gray and GOLD!)

Considering the record amount a gray Nintendo World Championships cart auction ended for last week on eBay, it’s no surprise that other owners of the coveted cartridge would try to capitalize on it.  There are now concurrent eBay auctions for a gray and even rarer gold version (only 26 of the 116 made) of the game.

Image from actual listing

First up, is *yawn* the gray version, currently at 27 bids with 5 days to go and a price of $11,000.  This one has the original label still on as opposed to the one from last week.

Image from actual listing

Next is the ultra-rare gold cart, currently at $90,100 with 67 bids and 7 days left.  The issue with the cart that ended with a high bid of almost $100,000 last week is that the top bidder recently backed out stating that “their 2 year old placed the bid without their knowledge”.  So there can be some artificial inflation of bids going on with all these auctions.  It’ll be interesting to see how much these two listings can grow to with almost a week left to go and if any will sell to legitimate bidders.

Update: eBay Listing For NES Game Ends At…

$99,902.

Wow.

328 total bids and the winning price makes it the most expensive video game ever sold, eclipsing the $55,000 spent on a “The Legend of Zelda” prototype in 2012.  It also shatters the previous high of $18,000 for the same Nintendo World Championships cart.  I guess the hand-written “Mario” label makes it all that more valuable.

Rare NES Cartridge on eBay for a Paltry $5,000

For those unfamiliar with the cartridge listed in this eBay auction, a starting bid of $4,999 probably seems ridiculous especially given the sad state of the label.  But to the fanatical collectors of old-school video games, this is a golden opportunity to own one of the rarest NES games ever made.

“Mario” for 5Gs! (actual picture from listing)

116 to be exact of these Nintendo World Championships cartridges were manufactured.  90 are of the gray variety like the one in the auction and the other 26 are gold toned, as pictured in the post header.  The Nintendo World Championships was held in 1990 and tasked contestants to play a customized game cartridge that included Super Mario Bros., Rad Racer, and Tetris.  They were then given out to the finalists and have since grown to become the most valuable NES “game” due to the limited quantities.

Recent sales of this cartridge include $15,000 for one in 2008, $17,500 and $18,000 in 2009, and $11,500 in 2011.  With those figures in mind, $5,000 could be considered a steal for some to own a piece of NES history.  The auction currently has no bids and 2 days left.  I’m sure you’d still have to blow into the cartridge for several minutes to get it to play…

*Note: I am in no way affiliated with this eBay auction.