Isn't the whole game collectable rating and pricing system massively inflated by a few "totally not related" authorities, or am I misremembering?
this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2026
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Yes. Also money laundering.
Alright, so knowing of the numerous scandels involved in the retro gaming collection market, this is almost certainly either a backdoor deal to inflate value and was never actually sold, or money laundering.
Yeah, this is just more horseshit like all of that Wata nonsense was a few years ago. All garbage like this does is damage the hobby for us normal people.
What wata nonsense?
The I dont really follow physical retrogaming, outside of seeing games I missed as a kid in used game stores and wanting to play them.. but not being able to because its being sold for 200 dollars for a bare cart with sharpie across the back and i dont care if I have President Bribing money, I aint paying 200 dollars for that shit.
Utterly ridiculous.That's a copy of a game that will never get played. It's utterly useless and ridiculous.
Then again, the important part of that cartridge has been perfectly emulated for a while. The only value of it has been rereleased on SNES, GBC, GBA, 3DS, and Switch.
Genuinely, why would anyone want this? Why wouldn't you want the cartridge with Duck Hunt, too? Or All-Stars (with SMW if possible)? Or thr handheld versions?
Genuinely, why would anyone want this?
Nobody involved cares about the game. What happens is you sell it to yourself, thus "proving" it's worth that much, then sell it to some schmuck who thinks the value will be increasing in time.
..... And money laundering. I want to pay you to do a crime. You do the crime. Now you can't put "earned by crime" in the sheet for the IRS (actually you can) and thus we find something you own that is that much money worth to me. But IRS knows all the tricks in the book, so we both need something very "rare" and a corruptable appraiser and now I can buy that "rare" game you never unpacked from your childhood at that price. And badabing badaboom, money laundered. Ah also all my other criminal friends now can use this rare collectors item as a vehicle to get payed by me because its reusable. And now you also understand most of the art trade.
They pay for the seal, not for the game. Makes it even more ridiculous.
It’s not perfectly emulated. It’s emulated close enough that there aren’t any currently known useful glitches that aren’t emulated.
That said, it’s still ridiculous.
Everything related to collectionism is either some scam or money laundering done by rich people or over consumerism done by regular people.
Both sickens me
I see it as on par with buying art, or a relic. Sure that 3rd century goblet can be drank out of, but that's not why someone buys it. The argument I hear in my head is that "it's a part of history." While true, I don't think it's worth that to have in a private collection, but I could see its value in being displayed by a public institution. (I'm not defending the price, just the view that it does have value.)
Okay, but I'd say with the goblet, it's got purely artistic value because someone made it by hand and might be unique. Cartridges are machine made and the box artwork is mass-produced.
That's pretty disgusting when you think about what else could be accomplished with that kind of money
Ah yes, SMB1, a game so rare they only printed 30 million copies.
Going to point out that actual boxed copies of just Super Mario Bros. Is actually on the more rare side, since it was quickly bundled with the NES and the version with Duck Hunt came out pretty quickly.
It may have sold 30 million copies, but a large majority of them are either the Duck Hunt combo or the one with Duck Hunt and World Class Track Meet. Kinda the same way Stadium Events is that much more rare because of the bundled, renamed version.
That being said, people have too much fucking money...
Yeah, I didnt even know until just now that there was a retail package release of Super Mario Bros, by itself, without duckhunt.
cause I thought it was just a packin game with the nes.
I can see why its rare, but its stupid that someone paid 3 million for it.
Only reason I know is because I've been collecting since I was a kid. I've got three loose copies, shame they're not worth anything... I'd be happy to separate some stupid people from their money.
yeah.
I feel the same way about all my 1st and 2nd gen pokemon games, open, but complete in box.
I'll probably never play the physical games again, since emulation is so much easier (and eats less batteries)..but on the otherhand, they are childhood memories and its not something i want to hand over to some greedy fuckwit whose just gonna sit on them for 6 months and flip them for 30% profit.
With sealed stuff that was never opened before, I wonder how to make sure the inside is not a fake?
It's like those diamond dealers who would sell you diamonds in a sealed pouch and "guaranteed" their value as long as you never open to the pouch. It was a scam tantamount to NFTs.
People are weird..
I like how it’s only graded 9.6. I take it a true perfect 10 grade must be worth infinity dollars. It’s like warp speeds!
This phenomena is spreading to Manga, too. Mind you, magazines with paper the equivalent of toilet paper.