Sealed copy of "Super Mario Bros." fetches $30K on eBay

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Classic Nintendo gets a modern upgrade

Fox Gamer: Nintendo of America's PJ Sadler and Joel Taveras with a hands-on look at Nintendo's ultimate retro gaming experience, the NES Classic Edition

If you want to play the original Super Mario Bros. NES game, it's not hard to do so for very little money. Nintendo makes it available to play on different versions of the Virtual Console, it was re-released on the Game Boy Advance, it was included as an unlock in Animal Crossing on the GameCube, and 3DS Ambassador Program members received it for free in 2011.

But getting hold of an original copy on the NES in mint condition and sealed? That's going to cost you thousands. That's a fact confirmed by a recent eBay auction when just such a copy of the game sold for a staggering $30,100.44.

As Kotaku reports, the game was listed by retro game dealer DKOldies, run by CEO Drew Steimel and based in Pennsylvania. The sealed copy of this NES classic sat in his office for years, so many years in fact Drew can't remember how he came to be in possession of it.

The game is in the original "hangtab-style box" with a perforated cardboard tab on the back allowing the game to be hung on a peg. As the game is still sealed that tab was never used.

It turns out there are likely only a dozen or so copies of the game left in this condition, so the sale price of over $30,000 probably shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. Of course, it did to Drew who initially listed the game on eBay for just $0.01. It only took 43 bids to reach $30,100.44.

The age of the mint condition games may be coming to end. We see more games being purchased digitally each year, and physical copies that require large day-one patches in order for them to play properly. A few decades from now will anyone want a sealed copy of a game you can no longer download the patch for to make it playable?

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.