Sealed Copy Of Super Mario Bros. Sells For $114,000 at Auction

[mechtech]

Wish I kept my NES system and the 35+ games...............sigh

 

[neatfeatguy]

True. For better or worse.



Holy shit... I'm so sorry that happened to you -- and by a family member no less! Reading your post made me angry. Not at you, don't worry, but at your brother. Jesus. I don't blame you for having lost your ambition to collect gaming stuff. I think I would too. Not just that, but all the sports memorabilia!

I'm sorry my dude *hugs*

It still bugs me. I have a handful of sports cards that were locked away in a metal lockbox he didn't know about. Nothing of real value in there anymore...

Spoiler

Ken Griffy Jr - Upper Deck rookie card
Mike Singletary - Topps rookie card
Bart Starr - 1967 card (condition of the card might be considered good condition) that Bart Starr signed at one of the card shows around 1990 we attended and sold merchandise at. Bart Starr was only signing his cards or pictures for free if you provided it or you could spend $25 for him to sign a picture he provided. So I scoured the card show until I found the best Bart Starr card I could get for under $20. I should probably get this graded and have the auto graph authenticated seeing as how Bart Starr passed away last year)
I might still have a 1980-81 Topps Larry Bird card....I haven't looked in that lock box for years, perhaps I should look again.

Then there was my younger brother; after I moved out for college he found and "claimed" rights to my PC games. He was 14 when I moved out, so still naive and self centered. I boxed up all my stuff and only took the necessary things to the dorms in 2000, everything else that was boxed up was stored in my parent's basement (which is where his room was). He knew I had PC games that I wouldn't let him play and I always told him it was because of how he took care of things....but that never clicked in his head and he wanted to play them and decided to do so without asking my permission.

He'd unpack a game, install it, when done playing he'd just toss the disc(s) on his desk where they'd get pushed around, covered by other things, knocked on the floor. The game boxes he'd just toss to the side with jewel cases, manuals and anything that was in there...eventually the boxes would get covered by his mounds of dirty clothes and get crushed as he walked over everything......almost every game disc had scratches so bad they couldn't be fixed or the game discs were cracked.

Spoiler

All the games had original boxes, jewel cases, manuals, artwork and any extras that came with - he absolutely destroyed 95% of them all. Here are some games I can remember out of the 4 or 5 dozen he ruined:

Quake
Quake II
Warcraft - Orcs & Humans
Warcraft II (only thing I have left is the CD, which is in poor condition)
Half-Life (thankfully only the jewel case was broken, everything else was okay - disc has minor wear/tear on it, the big box and contents are in decent condition)
StarCraft (replaced with the StarCraft Battle Chest)
Diablo
Thief - The Dark Project (only thing I have left is the CD, which is in poor condition)
Black & White
MechWarrior 2
X-Wing
Tie Fighter
Star Wars - Dark Forces
Lords of the Realm II (still have the CD and manual - installed it about 6 months ago to play, still entertaining)
Baldur's Gate (Boo would be so sad if he knew the tragic ending to my copy of this game)

I guess I just never had luck with keeping my gaming stuff out of harms way when it came to my older brother that stole everything and eventually a younger brother that didn't understand how to respect other people's property.

 

[phill]

Given that you can still get 20 year old games on Steam, I think the value of old video games will decline significantly going forward.

I was thinking about this and thought that it might well be the case, but there's some loopy people out there, like me, who would always prefer a physical copy of a game over a digital copy.. Crap internet aside or not, I don't think I'll ever be different.

I remember going to buy games and Amiga upgrades when I was about 10 to 12 or something, you never get that same feeling now.. I hardly ever buy any physical games or games in general now as most of the ones I see I have no interest in or they just look awful...
I have a massive love for tech and games, that won't ever change.. I'm still after games and films before they all disappear from the shelves.... Reminds me, might grab a few Amiga games if there's any in the shops in town.. Nothing massive mind but.. My only problem is where to put the damn things... I'm running out of shelf room.. Re-phrase, I've ran out of shelf space!!

 

[neatfeatguy]

I was thinking about this and thought that it might well be the case, but there's some loopy people out there, like me, who would always prefer a physical copy of a game over a digital copy.. Crap internet aside or not, I don't think I'll ever be different.

I remember going to buy games and Amiga upgrades when I was about 10 to 12 or something, you never get that same feeling now.. I hardly ever buy any physical games or games in general now as most of the ones I see I have no interest in or they just look awful...
I have a massive love for tech and games, that won't ever change.. I'm still after games and films before they all disappear from the shelves.... Reminds me, might grab a few Amiga games if there's any in the shops in town.. Nothing massive mind but.. My only problem is where to put the damn things... I'm running out of shelf room.. Re-phrase, I've ran out of shelf space!!

The last physical copy of a game I purchased for PC was Dishonored 2 - happened across it for $9.72 or something stupid in the sale bin at my local Target store. This was almost 2 years ago. The media is in the case, but requires you to redeem the key against your Steam account to activate the game. I haven't opened it. I still have 1-2 dozen physical PC games I haven't opened.

Most physical PC games now don't even come with the media in the box, just some cardboard cutout with a CD key you use to download from a digital platform. I miss the physical side of things for PC games. Standing there in the aisle at Best Buy in the late 90s and early 2000s, depending on the store you'd have 2-4 aisles of PC games to drool over. I was probably one of the few people that would buy a game and sit down and read through the expansive backstories in the user manual for RPG games and the characters/locations and enjoy all the artwork before I even installed the game to play it. I'd carefully rebox everything and keep the game discs looking unused. This stuff was gold, to me.

Digital is boring - sure, fast and convenient. But it lacks character, context and doesn't give you (me, at least) the since of enjoyment of your purchase like physical copies did.

I can see the draw to wanting a brand new, unopened NES copy of Super Mario Bros. Had I mounds of money not being used for anything else, I probably wouldn't pass up the chance to own it. Sure, it's an iconic game for Nintendo, but it wasn't my favorite NES game by any means. I'd much rather get my hands on some new, unopened copies of the Dragon Warrior games on the NES.

 

[phill]

The last physical copy of a game I purchased for PC was Dishonored 2 - happened across it for $9.72 or something stupid in the sale bin at my local Target store. This was almost 2 years ago. The media is in the case, but requires you to redeem the key against your Steam account to activate the game. I haven't opened it. I still have 1-2 dozen physical PC games I haven't opened.

Most physical PC games now don't even come with the media in the box, just some cardboard cutout with a CD key you use to download from a digital platform. I miss the physical side of things for PC games. Standing there in the aisle at Best Buy in the late 90s and early 2000s, depending on the store you'd have 2-4 aisles of PC games to drool over. I was probably one of the few people that would buy a game and sit down and read through the expansive backstories in the user manual for RPG games and the characters/locations and enjoy all the artwork before I even installed the game to play it. I'd carefully rebox everything and keep the game discs looking unused. This stuff was gold, to me.

Digital is boring - sure, fast and convenient. But it lacks character, context and doesn't give you (me, at least) the since of enjoyment of your purchase like physical copies did.

I can see the draw to wanting a brand new, unopened NES copy of Super Mario Bros. Had I mounds of money not being used for anything else, I probably wouldn't pass up the chance to own it. Sure, it's an iconic game for Nintendo, but it wasn't my favorite NES game by any means. I'd much rather get my hands on some new, unopened copies of the Dragon Warrior games on the NES.

This is the big issue I find with any game now.. Console/PC, everything has to be tied to an account. All the DLCs you buy are forever with you as they are non transferable, I mean what the heck is the point?? Some of the DLCs cost so much more than the original game but then you have gimped versions of games with only half the content because you don't have some of the add on included.

Forza Horizon 2 is my pet peev since I've got the game, but never got one of the add ons for the Storm Island I believe it was. Can no longer buy the DLC, they just took it down and stopped doing it. But now I can't complete the game 100% because some of the achievements are stuck on the add on.. It's turned into a mess and a nightmare for me.. I'm not a fan of the new world when it comes to gaming..

Whatever happened to buying the game all DLCs included in the game, no in game money rubbish and then being able to install it anywhere, not just in Steam/Origin/Epic etc... You can't really even swap games around now anymore like you used to.. It's such a shame