Original Mario Bros. Fetches $75K At Goodwill Auction

Someone in the Racine, WI area may want to update their 2021 tax deductions. A local Goodwill store has auctioned off a donated copy of The Original Mario Bros. The bidding ended Monday at $75,000 with 61 bids. A sealed copy of the game, in what appears to be in near immaculate condition has ballooned in value over the past week. Another element influencing the game’s price is the REV-A denoted on the front of the box. This is to indicate it is the date or printing of The Original Mario Bros. REV – A is defined by Wata as,

“Rev-A” or Revision-A was an identifier that Nintendo added to their boxes in January 1988, which was before the Oval SOQ was implemented. That’s why you can find “Rev-A” present on boxes with both Round SOQs as well as Oval SOQs. However, you won’t find an Oval SOQ WITHOUT Rev-A, since the addition of Rev-A happened some 15 months before the switch to Oval SOQs. “Rev-A” signified a change in design to the cartridges from the original 5 screw to the new 3 screw design. To denote it, Nintendo decided it was necessary to change the box, as well as the cart label and other pieces contained with the game.“

A Lucky Score

With that, the game now has a story with the Goodwill thrift chain. Somewhere in Racine, WI someone donated a box of old games. Miraculously leaving this 35-year-old copy intact and sealed. The Original Mario Bros. was released in arcades in 1983. Following the success of Super Mario Bros. in 1985 a port of the arcade version of The Original Mario Bros. was released for the NES in 1986. This comes after a stretch of inflating prices on retro games. In March 2020, we saw the Nintendo PlayStation sell for $300,000. Then in September, a Super Mario Bros. 3 prototype sold for $31,000. In addition to a Wata graded 9.2 copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 fetch $156,000 in November. 

It is safe to say that as long as the winning bidder can secure a high grade from Wata or VGA, this could be a good investment. Although the only other recent auction for the game ended at $5,520 for a 9.6 graded copy. With that, the game was opened to be verified. A major difference between the Goodwill auction and the previous Heritage Auction may be due to the circumstances of it arriving at a Goodwill. Plus every single time The Original Mario Bros. is posted for sale, it could be the last one, attracting high rolling collectors.