An eBay seller has auctioned an extremely rare World Championship cartridge, fetching nearly $100k from the sale.
Only 116 copies of the coveted Nintendo World Championship were ever made. The game cartridge, however, is not in a good condition with its label ripped off and "Mario" written on it with a ball point pen.
The game was designed for the actual Nintendo World Championship, which was a competition in 1990 that toured 29 cities in the U.S. However, the game never went up for sale to the general public. Each of the 90 semi-finalists at the Nintendo World Championship received a copy.
The game includes three reduced versions of classic Nintendo games including Super Mario Bros., Tetris and Rad Racer. The game maker specially designed the three games for the competition's format. Each participating contestant was given a few minutes to play through all three games and earn the highest possible points.
When the game went up for sale on eBay, the seller started the bid at $4,999 and the game finally fetched $99,902. The auction attracted a total of 328 bidders and ended on Saturday, January 25.
"Obviously, you'll immediately notice the ripped label. This is quite unfortunate but happened many decades ago by this point in time. No one knows the exact number of this cart (as each NWC cart was individually labeled upon production) as it appears in the upper left-hand corner of the cart label," writes the seller in his description of the game cartridge.
The seller also points out that the cartridge plays fine and may be worth even more if someone decides to involve a forensic lab to investigate and try to determine the official cartridge number.
"A must for Nintendo collectors, which I can attest to since I've been one for over 25 years. Those that walk in NES circles will relate my name with honesty and integrity but feel free to ask for references if you doubt my authenticity. These carts are near impossible to find anywhere so don't let this pass you by! All my games are in working order," added the seller.
The Nintendo World Championship cartridge is definitely one of the rarest game cartridges in the gaming industry. However, the golden cartridges of the same game, which were sent out as part of a separate competition by Nintendo Power magazine are considered even rarer by collectors.
