The Mario Bros cartridge from 1986 for $ 660,000

Dallas. An unopened cartridge of the Nintendo Super Mario Bros. video game. which was purchased in 1986 and then left in an office drawer for decades was sold for $ 660,000 on Friday, Heritage Auctions in Dallas reported.

Heritage said the game was purchased as a Christmas gift, but ended up in an office drawer, where it remained sealed in plastic wrap and with the flap suspended intact until it was found a few months ago.

“Because the production of this specimen and others like it was very small, finding another specimen of the same batch in similar conditions would be like finding a needle in a haystack,” he said. Valarie McLeckie, video game specialist at Heritage Auctions.

Heritage said it is the best specimen ever auctioned. Its asking price far exceeded the $ 114,000 recorded for another unopened copy produced in 1987 and auctioned by Heritage last summer.