1 of the 116 copies of Nintendo World Championship is up on eBay

[Dohc-WP]

A copy of rarest-of-the-rare NES game Nintendo World Championship is going for sale on eBay, and despite it having a ripped label and "Mario" written on it in ballpoint pen, the current highest bid is a whopping $5,500. That's because the cartridge is one of only 116 made for the 1990 nationwide NES tournament of the same name - and far fewer of those 116 are even accounted for.

It's a game that's popped up on auctions before: One went for $15,000 several years ago. If you think that's crazy money, we'll raise you to $33,433.30; that's how much a complete-as-complete-can-be edition of Air Raid, an Atari 2600 rarity, went for 14 months ago.

[Image Source: muresan on eBay]

Sources: Joystiq Via Ebay

[brendanvb]

The condition it's in is a shame. Looks like the winning bid was $99,902:

$99,902 is the winning bid on the extremely rare NES game Nintendo World Championships that was auctioned off on eBay today.

Historically, that is an extremely high price for this item. For comparison, In 2011 another copy of the Nintendo World Championships fetched $11,000 on eBay, and that version was in much better condition.

This could very well be a fake bid, which are common on eBay. However, while the winning bidder's identity is kept confidential, a limited view of his eBay history shows that he has made 16 bids within the last 30 days on a total of nine items. The bidder also has a 100 percent positive feedback score of 775. Interestingly, the buyer was the first and last to bid on the item.

Finally, there is always the possibility that the entire auction is fake to begin with.

If this is a legitimate sale, the media attention around the auction significantly raised the value of the item. The auction was covered on all the games and technology websites you'd expect, as well as mainstream publications like the BBC.

As we reported when we first noticed the auction, only 116 copies of Nintendo World Championships were manufactured and were distributed in 1990 only to winners of a special competition. The game is considered one of the rarest and most valuable NES games in existence.

Winning bid on super rare NES game is $99,902

[Dohc-WP]

The condition it's in is a shame. Looks like the winning bid was $99,902:



Winning bid on super rare NES game is $99,902

they'll probably reprint a replica label, and swap the cartridge casing for a nicer looking one

[brendanvb]

they'll probably reprint a replica label, and swap the cartridge casing for a nicer looking one

And then put it up on ebay again and hope to make 200% profit

[Ike_009]

Damn, that's to much for something in that condition

[thomascmyk]

Stupid money for that!

[Dohc-WP]

An even Rarer Gold Cartridge has surfaced on ebay ! 1 of only 26 ever made and its currently at just over 1.1 Million Rand

[brendanvb]

An even Rarer Gold Cartridge has surfaced on ebay ! 1 of only 26 ever made and its currently at just over 1.1 Million Rand

Just read that haha. Quite the item for a collector! And it turns out the winning bid of $99,902 for the one in the OP was a troll:

Auction bid up by trolls; high bidder does not intend to pay.

[UPDATE] Following the publication of this story, a reporter for Wired spoke with the seller, who reportedly said the auction was bid up by trolls and the high bidder does not intend to pay up.

[Tom]

This is retarded... People are buying absolute junk for a fortune... The people that have these got them for free...