A few years ago, a pop culture store owner in Wisconsin mentioned to Jason Ganos, a well-known Nintendo game collector, that he had a box of Super Mario cartridges that had been sitting in storage for years. It turned out to be an ultra-rare collection of 97 copies of Super Mario Brothers Duck Hunt, a popular Nintendo game that had been released in 1988.
Discovery and Verification
Ganos found that the cartridges he held were not only a new variant of the game but also the last known production date of it. The cartridges were made in 1993, long after the company discontinued the bundle in 1991. Ganos and the store owner, Kevin Braun, still aren’t sure why the copies they possess were made but assume they were either warranty replacements or part of a bundle with a box retailer that never panned out.
Ganos booked a flight immediately to have the cartridges verified and graded by video game experts, giving them a perceived value. There had never been a cartridge rated a perfect 10, on a .01 scaling basis at Professional Sports Authenticator video games, Ganos said. Five of the 97 Ganos possessed received a perfect score.
Auction and Charity
Most of the cartridges will go up for sale in an online auction that will run until Sept. 9. Ganos and Braun are only auctioning off three of the perfect 10 scored cartridges at Golden Pop’s Culture Auction beginning Friday. They are both keeping one copy with a score of a 10, and a few others rated in the higher 9’s. The games can be played if the buyer wants. But because they are pristine, Ganos hopes to keep them that way.
Ganos and Braun also plan to do a charity auction after they are finished with the current one.
Original reporting: Alexandria, VA News – WTOP News — read the source article.
