A few years ago, the owner of a pop culture store in Wisconsin mentioned to Jason Ganos, a well-known Nintendo game collector, that he had a box of Super Mario cartridges that had been in storage for years. It stopped Ganos in his tracks. It turned out to be an ultra-rare collection of 97 “absolutely pristine” copies of Super Mario Brothers Duck Hunt, a popular Nintendo game that was released in 1988, Ganos said. After some initial research, Ganos discovered that the cartridges he had were not only a new variant of the game, but also the last known production date. Most of the cartridges will go on sale on Friday in an online auction that runs until September 1. 9. “I still don’t believe any of this is happening,” Ganos said. “I think it’s kind of random that this happened. It’s still very strange to me.” Ganos, a tattoo-covered hardcore Nintendo fan who has operated Nintendo Wire, a news service for Nintendo announcements and nostalgia, for more than 10 years, said he wouldn’t hazard a guess at how much the games are worth. But when he saw the box, he immediately knew it was special. “It’s like putting it out like a Holy Grail,” Ganos said, later adding, “They’re beautiful.” The discovery came after owner Kevin Braun of One Stop Wonders in Waukesha, outside Milwaukee, asked Ganos to help him sell some things, including common Nintendo games and Pokémon cards. Braun mentioned the box of Mario cartridges that had been in storage for years. He recalled that he bought them from a customer whose family kept them as scrap metal but thought they were not worth much. The Super Mario Brothers Duck Hunt cartridges I had were made in 1993, long after the company discontinued the package in 1991. Braun and Ganos still aren’t sure why the copies they own were made, but they assume they were warranty replacements or part of a package with a box retailer that never worked out. Knowing the potential significance of the possession, Ganos booked a flight immediately. “I flew to California with 97 cars in my carry-on, sweating buckets going through TSA, like why do you have 97 little circuit boards in your carry-on?” Ganos remembered thinking nervously. Subscribe to Morning Wire: Our flagship newsletter breaks down the day’s biggest headlines. He eagerly passed through airport security to meet with video game experts to check and rate the cartridges, giving them a perceived value. There has never been a cartridge rated a perfect 10 in Professional Sports Authenticator video games, Ganos said. Five of the 97 Ganos owned received a perfect score. “I think the dozens will have historical significance,” Ganos said when talking about how much the games could sell for at auction. “Like number one, it’s a lot of people’s childhood, and number two, there’s never been a 10 on an NES cart before.” Ultra-rare video game cartridges, especially those with a unique production history, can sell for six- to seven-figure prices on the collectors market. Ganos said the 97 cartridges are also unique because of their mint condition, which, like comics or sports cards, often sells for more. Ganos cannot estimate the final value of the cartridges because they are incomparable to other video game collectibles he has seen before. They could be worth hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands, he said. Ganos and Braun will only auction three of the 10 perfect cartridges at the Golden Pop cultural auction that begins Friday. They both keep one copy with a score of 10 and a few others with a score higher than 9. The games can be played if the buyer wishes. But because they are pristine, Ganos hopes to keep them that way. “For me, finding uncirculated material is super exciting,” Ganos said. “This was the first video game I ever played. Mario Duck Hunt was a huge part of my life growing up.” Braun and Ganos also plan to do a charity auction after they finish the current one. ___Wilder is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
