this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2026
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122
A rare sticker-sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. just sold for $3 million (www.engadget.com)
submitted 2 days ago by return2ozma@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] Nytefyre@piefed.social 45 points 2 days ago

Fuck WATA for trending this bullshit. Like sure, it might've been a thing that was already going, but when WATA got into the picture, they amped it up. So now we've been seeing these people run around just securing their collections in little cases, getting little stickers and they're going around artificially inflating the value as to what to sell games by.

When, WATA has been shown to be operated by a bunch of hedgefund cronies that are definitely running money laundering schemes and are in court over things.

If you're an aspiring collector and you buy one of these kinds of games, you're the fool.

[–] theskyisfalling@lemmy.dbzer0.com 40 points 2 days ago

If it is Heritage Auctions and WATA then it is corruption. This game is never worth that amount and no one has actually bought it for that amount it is just an ongoing scam and any "publication" reporting on this trash as if it were anything else should also be considered compliant of this obvious market manipulation bullshit.

[–] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 27 points 2 days ago (4 children)

why

[–] NOPper@lemmy.dbzer0.com 44 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Money laundering? 🤷‍♂️

[–] FartMaster69@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 days ago

Yeah, probably some form of wash trading.

[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 2 days ago

Pricing of "collectibles" never makes any sense...

[–] Klear@piefed.world 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)
[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago

People like collecting things.

[–] Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 day ago

For real, or just for a little pump and dump action by some bad actor again?

[–] THE_GR8_MIKE@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Was it the founder of Wata selling to another founder of Wata who is buying the game as a group purchase with the other founding members of Wata - again?

[–] auzy1@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

And it still plays exactly the same as any other copy. You'll need to blow into the cartridge just like everyone else

[–] DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Its sealed so would be funny if was defective and didn't even play at all.

Of course, no one would ever know because this thing will probably never be opened and even less likely to be played

[–] xthexder@l.sw0.com 2 points 1 day ago

The article seems to imply the game was never sold with a factory seal, so this was sealed after the fact for some reason. Seems extra fishy to me.

[–] suodrazah@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago

Kinda sad, poor little cartridge :-(.

[–] mercano@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I suppose a cartridge of just SMB1 is somewhat rare; anyone I knew who had an NES had the Super Mario / Duck Hunt multicart, or very occasionally Super Mario / Duck Hunt / Track & Field triple game cartridge from the bundle that included the Power Pad.

[–] brickfrog@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Seems rare-ish, very skeptical about $3 million rare but I guess the selling point is more about that particular cartridge being distributed with the Nintendo sticker seal vs the plastic shrinkwrap most cartridges had later on?

anyone I knew who had an NES had the Super Mario / Duck Hunt multicart, or very occasionally Super Mario / Duck Hunt / Track & Field triple game cartridge from the bundle that included the Power Pad.

You got me thinking about that, you're probably talking about what Nintendo called the Action Set bundle, or the Power Set after that, when they were including those dual/triple game paks.

My own was the earlier bundle, what Nintendo called the Deluxe Set, that one came with two separate games (Duck Hunt and Gyromite). We had to buy SMB separately.. definitely don't remember if it had a sticker vs shrinkwrap.

Wikipedia mentions the different NES bundles back then https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System#Bundles_and_redesigns

[–] buran@lemmy.today 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I thought all of this speculative market around preserved game boxes was dead, but I see it isn't. I hope we get past this, let it die, and just keep being dead.

[–] IPeaceInYourFace@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It never will be.

This asset can be used as collateral for leverage. So now the owner has it, they can use it to put up maybe around $30,000,000 if they have a good enough relationship with a broker.

Because of the way America is right now too, they can give trump a 10m cut if he slides a particular stock one way or another.

President gets 10m, punter gets got knows how much, and nobody is any the wiser.

It's the same with art, but with art, it's a lot more speculative, which is why you have so many god awful contemporary pieces, because again they'll pay an appraiser to say it's worth 100m when it's a handful of beans on a canvas, and then use that as collateral.

These are just infinite money glitches for the rich.

In all seriousness, there's nothing stopping you and your friends and their families from doing the same thing, but because it's not the system they designed they're going to be skeptical of it and not want to do that.

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Infinite money glitches for the rich is well said, but they should be mindful that too many glitches will cause the system to come... crashing down.

As in if the rich just keep getting richer and inflation keep getting worse, soon it'll be like Ireland during the Great Hunger, but fucking everywhere. Because the potato blight wasn't even the worst thing back then for the Irish, the British government was.

Initial government actions to alleviate famine distress, which were constructive but limited, were ended by a new Whig administration in London. This administration pursued a laissez-faire economic doctrine, additionally, some members of the British government believed that the famine was divine judgement or that the Irish lacked moral character, Aid resumed only to some degree at a later stage. Large quantities of food were exported from Ireland during the famine, and the refusal of London to bar such exports, as had been done on previous occasions, was an immediate and continuing source of controversy.

Hmm I wonder of there are any good movies about it actually. Probably not because the BBC wouldn't make them. Like 1800-1930 set period pieces about politics in Ireland. Suggestions, anyone?

[–] FireWire400@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Why can't I just randomly find something like that in my attic?

[–] auzy1@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Because your house is probably shit like mine

I'm more likely to find expired meth which a dung Beatle carried in

[–] FireWire400@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Does meth even expire? Never thought about that

[–] hopesdead@startrek.website 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I don’t believe these boxes actually have the game till they are opened. Secondly, back in April, Yaamava Casino claimed to be giving away as a prize, a unopened copy of Mario Bros. The thing that pissed me off was in all the advertising (including television), they would never say the name of the game. They just showed a image of the box and referred to it as a “cartridge classic”. IF YOU WON’T SAY THE FUCKING GOD DAMN NAME THEN I DON’T FUCKING BELIEVE YOU ACTUALLY HAVE THAT GAME!

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I don’t believe these boxes actually have the game till they are opened.

Schrödinger's cartridge.

[–] Akasazh@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

There's always x-rays

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Well, of course it's going to be there if you scan the inside.