Pristine Super Mario Bros. for NES sells for $3 million

Heritage Auctions closed a "staggering" $3 million sale on Friday for a copy of Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Evan Masingill, a consignment director at Heritage, called the backstory remarkable: the game was discovered a few months ago inside a brand-new Control Deck NES console bundle and had not been touched for nearly 40 years.

The cartridge remained shrink-wrapped and comes from the game's second print run, making it the oldest known sealed copy. It bears a special glossy sticker from 1986 and a cardboard hang tab that was discontinued in 1987.

Graded PSA 9.6, this copy is the closest any Super Mario Bros. game has come to a perfect grade, and only two other sealed copies of a similar nature exist. The sale surpasses a $2 million private sale in 2021 and a $660,000 cartridge sold earlier that year, and Heritage's website currently allows visitors to send offers to the new owner.

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