NES Auction Reaches $90k for Rare World Championship Cart

For video game collectors with deep pockets, one NES auction has reached $90k for the highly coveted World Championship cartridge.

The Nintendo World Championship game, according to RacketBoy, is considered to be the “holy grail of console game collecting.” Manufactured specifically for the US based Nintendo Entertainment System tournament in 1990, only 90 of the grey cartridges were made with each one numbered. They were distributed to the finalists of the contest. Another 26 were made with special golden cartridge covers similar to The Legend of Zelda and given away as part of a contest for Nintendo’s now defunct Nintendo Power publication. Only Stadium Events is sought after by collector’s as fervently.

As of this writing, the NES game is fetching a $94k bid.

According to Eurogamer the cartridge itself has only portions of 3 famous games. Super Mario Bros., Rad Racer, and Tetris. Players in the tournament were given 6 minutes and 21 seconds to rack up as many points as they could. The goals were that 50 coins had to be collected in Super Mario Bros., finishing an exclusive race track in Rad Racer, and accumulating as many points as possible in Tetris. The top winner in each age took home a $10k savings bond, a brand new 1990 Geo Metro and a 40? rear projection TV.

The last cartridge to go on sale in a public auction was in 2012 and sold for $8k. Another was sold for charity to the amount of $11,500. Both of these cartridges were in good condition with the label still intact. Even with the label off, the authenticity of the cartridge is laid to rest by the seller as they stated,

An Alt Newsgroups auction was held back in 1998 and purchased by thomaser in Norway. He traded to DreamTR, who sold to me maybe around 2004/05.That should stop the rumors that this is a reproduction cartridge.

If you happen to have a spare $94k lying around head over and place a bid.