If you think 660,000 USD Unsealed copies of the original are expensive Super Mario Bros Game, think twice, because an unzipped copy The Legend of Zelda Recently was auctioned off an amazing 870,000 USD (by edge).
The game in question comes from the original run The Legend of Zelda NES R cartridge for Nintendo Entertainment System. The company released the game cassette at the end of 1987 and only produced it for a few weeks (until early 1988). Heritage Auctions, which specializes in selling collectibles, describes the copy as “The Legend of Zelda-Wata 9.0 A Sealed [No Rev-A, Round SOQ, Early Production], NES Nintendo 1987. ”
Wata 9.0 is a status rating conducted by WataGames, a collectible rating company. A rating of 9.0 indicates that the project is close to its original state, but not brand new.At the same time, because The Legend of Zelda NES R cartridges have only been produced for a few weeks. They are very rare and very valuable to collectors.
Here is Heritage Auctions’ description of the game that sold for nearly $1,000,000:
Although this is a cruel fact, it is still a fact-none of the copies of this title we provided before attempted to compare with this title, because it has very rare variants and has an early production status. This matter is completely indisputable. This is the only copy of one of the earliest production runs we have ever had the opportunity to provide, and may have the opportunity to provide it for many years to come. Considering that this variant was only produced for a few months in late 1987, and was finally replaced by the “Rev-A” variant in early 1988, this statement may not be surprising to collectors. There is only one other variant before the “NES R” variant provided, and that is the “NES TM” variant, which is the real first production run. However, it is also generally believed that only one sealed “NES TM” example exists, and it is unknown whether this copy will enter the market. In essence, this copy is the earliest sealed copy that people hope to obtain in reality.
Nowadays, game developers provide special editions and limited edition releases with exclusive content to reward their fans. Therefore, there are a large number of special editions of various games on the market, and it is not difficult to buy “rare” things. It is much more difficult to unpack this item and keep it in its original condition for more than 30 years, but this is exactly what collectors expect.
The $870,000 video game is not bought for play (even assuming one can get a valid NES or copycat game console), but ends up being a very valuable private collection. If it ends at an auction in a few decades, how much will the collection be worth? Well, this is indeed a question worth more than one million dollars.
