Heritage Auctions sells sealed NES cartridge of The Legend of Zelda for record $870,000

Next time your parents give you grief about your nerd collection, show them this story about how an NES Zelda cartridge almost sold for a million dollars!

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Heritage Auctions has set a new record for the sale of a sealed video game cartridge. Their recent auction of a sealed NES cartridge of The Legend of Zelda has ended with a total sales price of $870,000. That could buy you over 4,500 shares of GameStop, or a really nice house. Let's dive a bit deeper into the details of this auction.

The previous world record was also for a Nintendo title, when a sealed copy of NES Super Mario Bros. sold for $660,000 earlier this year in April. The original release of The Legend of Zelda for NES sold for $49.99 back in 1986, so you may be wondering what exactly makes this sealed copy so special.


Heritage Auctions provides a very detailed description on their website:

A True Grail Among Games


This The Legend of Zelda cartridge is likely the earliest produced sealed copy that one can find in the universe, so the price tag isn't that insane... Is it? With Pokemon Trading Cards jumping in value this year and a sealed Mario Bros NES cart selling for $660,000 in April, it seems like a great time to dust off your video game collections to see if you have the next record-setting item sitting in your grandma's attic. No word on what the winner plans on doing with the cartridge. Just a little over two years ago, rare sealed NES cartridges were struggling to top six figures at auction, but now it seems like it is only a matter of time until we see our first million dollar sealed cartridge sold. 

Heritage Auctions posted some images of The Legend of Zelda sealed NES cartridge.
Heritage Auctions posted some images of The Legend of Zelda sealed NES cartridge.

Are you a rare video game collector? Do you think this story is just further anecdotal evidence of an asset bubble brought on by out of control central bank monetary policy? Do you like the Zelda franchise? Hate it? Let us know in the Shacknews Chatty comments section below. We really want to hear your opinion.

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