One of 26 rare gold NES cartridges up for auction today

Starting tonight, Golden will be auctioned. One of the rarest Nintendo Entertainment System cartridges ever made. Nintendo originally produced only 26 gold cartridges as prizes. nintendo power Magazine readers in 1990. They are so hard to find that One sold on eBay for $100,088. Ten years ago.

Hundreds of cartridges were created. For the 1990 Nintendo World Championships, an event that toured the United States in an attempt to find the best players in the country. Players competed for the highest scores in timed versions of super mario bros, TetrisAnd Rad Racer, All of which are housed in special cartridges containing physical keys, allowing the time limits of the games to be adjusted.

Most of these cartridges featured standard gray NES cases, but 26 were upgraded with shiny gold cases and given away to the winners. nintendo power The magazine’s “Player Opinion Poll” was conducted in the same year.

These games were never sold in packaging, which partly explains why this particular cartridge, which looks worn and is missing its sticker, was given only a 4.0 by CGC Classification(A rating of 10 indicates excellent condition.)

Despite the cartridge’s rough shape, bidding tonight will start at $10,000. According to Frequently Asked Questions Page on the Auction House WebsiteAt this level, potential buyers will be pre-screened to ensure they are able to pay. This will help protect the unknown seller of the cartridge, but what about the buyers?

Counterfeiting a rare cartridge like this and cheating the CGC grading would be a huge but lucrative venture given the current demand for rare vintage games and hardware. The easiest way to be sure this cartridge is authentic would be to win the auction and have the cartridge plugged into a real NES, but that could end up being a budget-busting approach best left to wealthy collectors.