DALLAS, TX.- The original Mario Bros. is the first game named for the character whose popularity has for decades made him one of the most recognized characters in the world and the mascot of gaming giant Nintendo. A moderately successful arcade game before it joined the second wave of Nintendo Entertainment System titles in 1986, Mario Bros. introduced floating coins, enemy turtles and Mario’s twin brother, Luigi, and it is the game that compelled his career change from carpenter to plumber.
And of all the known first-production copies of the game for the massively popular Nintendo Entertainment System, the PSA 9.2 A++ Mario Bros. copy for sale in Heritage Auctions’ August 28–29 Video Games Signature Auction is the only sealed example.
Evan Masingill, Heritage Auctions’ Consignment Director of Video Games, says an unmatched, one-of-a-kind copy of the predecessor to Super Mario Bros. makes a fitting follow-up to the June 12–13 Video Games Signature Auction’s headline lot: the highest-graded copy of the earliest sealed edition of Super Mario Bros., which speed-ran to a world-record price of $3 million.
“Any time you have a one-of-one collectible, especially in a franchise as iconic as Mario, you know that all high-end pop culture collectors will be watching closely,” Masingill says.
Like the $3 million Super Mario Bros. cartridge, this Mario Bros. copy dates to 1986, during the console’s first wide release, putting it among the first lineup of games to feature the early gloss sticker seal — a recognizable packaging feature on early NES boxes. It traces its lineage to the legendary Wisconsin collection find from the early 2010s that also uncovered one of the three known sealed gloss sticker Super Mario Bros. examples, the Wata 9.4 A++ copy that brought mainstream attention to the potential collectible value of video games when it sold for a then-record $100,150 in a private sale.
The August 28–29 Video Games Signature Auction has other exceptional Mario lots that rank among the best Heritage has offered in years, including a 9.8 A++ Super Mario 64, one of only five on PSA’s census to achieve the grade and the first to come up for auction in five years. It’s the same grade and the same title that set history in 2021 as the first game to hit the seven-digit mark when it sold at Heritage for $1.56 million.
“This is the first 3-D game for the Nintendo 64, making it a monumentally important title,” Masingill says. “Collectors have waited five years to add one of these in this condition to their collection. It remains an essential collectible that represents a breakthrough moment in both gaming and collecting.”
An extremely rare first-print copy of Super Mario Land is another elite-condition icon of gaming history. The first handheld Mario console game and a launch title for the Game Boy in North America, it introduced Princess Daisy and was an unusual spin on the series, a rare title that didn’t take place in the Mushroom Kingdom and which had an alien as the final boss. This newly certified copy from the summer 1989 North America initial launch is one of only three certified first-production examples, and it sits alone atop the census with a PSA 9.8 A+ grade.
“As rare as boxed NES cartridges from the 1980s are, Game Boy game boxes survived even less frequently because of their portability,” Masingill says. “No one saved the boxes.”
Sega’s answer to Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, debuted as an early Sega Genesis title. Until the 1991 release of the Genesis, the company was mostly known for its arcade games. Sonic’s popularity played a huge part in the success of the company’s new home console. This PSA 9.8 A++ Sealed copy is the highest-graded example of the title that put the speedy hedgehog and the company on the home-gaming map. Because the packaging on early Genesis games was so fragile, PSA has certified just 59 sealed copies of Sonic the Hedgehog across all variants, compared to the 288 certified Super Mario Bros. copies.
Japanese games, including several that debuted some of the most popular characters and series before they were introduced to North American audiences, are a category gaining popularity with collectors. As Pokmon Trading Card Game collectors drive prices skyward for top-condition cards, fans of the biggest media franchise on the planet are increasingly searching out the earliest releases from the games that preceded the cards. These factors make the sole PSA 10 copy of Pocket Monsters Ao, known internationally as Pokmon Blue Version, another premier highlight of this auction. One of fewer than 30 known unopened copies of the game, its perfect grade is remarkable because Japanese games at the time were not shrink-wrapped. Confirming the unopened status is a painstaking process undertaken by grading experts who examine the box’s hinges for imperfections and signs of opening that are difficult to identify with the naked eye. Any sign that decades of handling, shelf wear, humidity and other environmental factors have caused even minor surface scuffing, impressions, edge wear or other flaws render a copy unworthy of Gem Mint status.
This auction is replete with other elite-condition copies, with some of the biggest grails in gaming offered in the exceedingly uncommon 9.8 A++ grade, including:
• Mario Kart 64
• GoldenEye 007
• Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!
And with Sony’s announcement that it will no longer manufacture discs for video games beginning in 2028, it’s worth looking back on some modern gaming classics as the era of physical media ends. One highlight in this auction is the sole PSA 10 copy of Fortnite for PS4. This 2017 game was released just before video game collecting took off as a hobby.
“People continue to enjoy collecting physical media, despite Sony’s unpopular stance on killing the production of discs,” Masingill says. “People want tangible products and a physical representation of their love for the stories, experiences and enjoyment video games bring. The only tangible product associated with the origins of Fortnite was this small physical release from 2017. I’m confident these collectibles will continue to grow in popularity as time goes on.”
Those are just a few highlights of this historic August 28–29 Video Games Signature Auction.
