Unopened copy of Super Mario Bros. sold at auction for $100,150

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/02/14/unopened-copy-of-super-mario-b.html

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looks down at beat-up copy of SMB/Duck Hunt nestled in shoebox, sighs

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Everything I own isn’t worth $100,150. Excluding the house since the bank still owns that.

But good on whoever ended up buying it. You go, you!

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A group of collectors joined forces Feb. 6 to purchase the game, including some of the biggest names in video games and collectibles as a whole.

So… who gets to pop the seal?

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This is a fascinating case study is how arbitrarily we assign value to physical artifacts because unlike, say, a mint-condition copy of Action Comics #1 or a well-preserved vintage vinyl record the gameplay is literally indistinguishable between any two working copies of a digital game. Add to that the near-certainty that this game will never be played at all and you have a wacky human trait indeed.

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Right? I have collections of stuff, but I’m more of a “as it happens” kinda guy. I’ve never scoured for that one special thing to complete my collection, or even focused on rarity. So… maybe I’m just a hoarder?

Although i have identified rare things within my collections, but didn’t find them because they were rare.

This is also why I’m horrible at playing Pokeman. “Do I really gotta catch 'em all? Sounds tedious.”

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Somebody really hopes they won’t have to be blowing in the cartridge every 5 minutes

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So…they know the cartridge is in the box.

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Cosmic rays could pass thru that shell.

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There is something very sad about a game that will sit unopened and unplayed.

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It’s just a little mayonaise from the sandwich.

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One word: WARENFETISCH.

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The picture makes it look like it’s been shoplifted.

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I might have an unopened AOL CD-ROM – what could I get for that? Mint condition, never used.

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Hopefully, given what they paid for it, this copy comes with the princess in the correct fucking castle.

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Collectors are rich. I’m not rich, so yeah… was mildly hoarding. Recently purged a great deal of stuff though including my NES and games. Worth it. One less thing to think about. Now I just really want to be careful about “collecting” anything in the future.

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Et tu, Mario?

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It’s like this: no, you aren’t quite a hoarder. The possession of “taste” prevents you from accumulating everything. The true litmus test is if you ever have moments where, gazing out upon your pile, you think “jesus, why do I have all this crap anyway?”

Stinky Pete agrees

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