On Friday, Heritage sold an early copy of the 1987 “The Legend of Zelda,” made for the original Nintendo gaming system and the first in a franchise that includes more than 20 titles. The $870,000 bid was a record-setting sale for a single video game — at least until Sunday’s deal.
The $1.56 million “Super Mario 64” sale shocked even video game experts. Chris Kohler, a video game historian who has been collecting since he was a teenager in the 1990s, told The Washington Post he would not have predicted the game would sell for such a high price.
He would have guessed the first “Super Mario Bros.” game, released in 1985 for the original Nintendo, would have been considered more valuable. In April, an unopened, high-quality copy sold for $660,000.
His second guess would have been “The Legend of Zelda.” His third response: “Are you sure it’s not one of those?”
Valarie McLeckie, the consignment director for video games at Heritage Auctions, told the Times that she, too, was surprised by the sale.
“I was blindsided, to be quite honest with you,” McLeckie said. “Never in my wildest dreams did I expect the price that was realized would become a reality.”
Still, Kohler said, “Super Mario 64” has a lot of appeal. It features one of the most iconic characters. It was the first in the Super Mario franchise to feature a three-dimensional world instead of its side-scrolling predecessors. For some, it was their first 3-D game ever.
“'Mario 64′ does tick all the boxes that these … million-dollar collectors are looking for,” Kohler said. “That’s their Beatles … their beloved game.”
The sale also revealed a rift in the world of video game collectors, Kohler said. “Old school collectors” tend to focus on acquiring every game released for a console, without putting a premium on a cartridge’s quality, he said. He snagged a copy of “Super Mario 64” when it came out and has never felt the need to get a better version. It’s one of the reasons that game wouldn’t have been a top choice if someone told him to pick a game that would sell for nearly twice as much as any before it.
But, Kohler said, that line of thinking doesn’t jibe with some of the newer video game collectors. They bring more of a “comic book” mentality to collecting video games, he said. They want the mint-condition version of the first edition of the best game instead of tracking down some obscure title to complete a set.
The two factions just don’t understand each another, and the record-breaking “Super Mario 64” sale will exacerbate the “interesting drama” that’s been brewing, Kohler said.
“This is not helping,” he said with a laugh.
Regardless, don’t expect interest in video game collecting to stop, Kohler said. Millennials are getting older, creeping into their 30s or even 40s. They have more stable jobs than a decade ago and more disposable income. Like generations before them, they want to “buy some stuff that makes them feel good and nostalgic about their childhood.”
For their predecessors, that might have been comic books. For those who grew up in the 1980s and ’90s, it often means harking back to “Mario Kart” races, “GoldenEye” shootouts and “Super Smash Bros.” battles.
Kohler said he is itching to know what motivated the buyer. He has been going to classic video game shows and talking to other collectors for nearly 20 years.
He and many of his peers are stumped over someone spending so much for a game that’s so common, he said. Anyone can download it off the Internet or buy a cartridge for $20.
Whoever shelled out more than $1.5 million for the game did so anonymously. It might have been an investment or maybe the buyer had a sentimental bond to a game that — if it was a person — would be old enough to drink or rent a car.
“It’s entirely possible that a person with a lot of money that really just loves ‘Super Mario 64’ so much that they want to buy the best, the finest ‘Super Mario 64’ in the whole world, and they would stop at nothing to own it,” Kohler said.
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