Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years.
TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust.
Jackpot: Imagine stumbling across nearly 100 copies of a beloved Nintendo game – Super Mario Bros/ / Duck Hunt – from roughly four decades ago. Now, imagine the cartridges in near mint condition… then imagine they’re of a version of the game that has never been seen before. That’s what recently happened to a retro shop owner in Wisconsin who is no doubt seeing dollar signs today.
As the story goes, Kevin Braun purchased the cartridges years ago from a person who claimed his grandfather used to own a business that recovered precious metals from electronics. At some point, it is believed that Nintendo sent the cartridges in to salvage gold from the metal contacts. For whatever reason, the games escaped being destroyed.
Braun bought the carts with the intent to resell them for $10-15 each but never got around to it. Now all these years later, the games have resurfaced.
Writing for Nintendo Wire, Jason Ganos tells the story of what unfolded next.
Ganos and Braun are good friends and have worked together to sell retro games in the past. Looking ahead to what else might make a good candidate for sale, Braun mentioned the old NES games which immediately got Ganos’ attention. Long story short, the old box contained 97 near-mint copies of Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt, the pack-in game that shipped with millions of Nintendo <a href="https://comicvibe.com/cynopsis-8-10-2026-the-media-and-entertainment-industry-is-creating-jobs/” title=”Cynopsis 8/10/2026: The Media And Entertainment Industry Is Creating Jobs”>Entertainment Systems starting in the mid-80s.
The pristine condition of these carts immediately stood out but after posting photos online, Ganos learned that there was even more to the story. The games featured stickers with text that had never been seen before, and included a unique version of the instruction manual. A date code revealed these had been produced very late in the lifecycle of the NES, perhaps as replacements for warranty claims – but that’s just a guess.
The carts caught the attention of a few grading companies, including PSA. Ganos ended up hand-delivering the games to PSA for grading, and the effort appears worth it. In total, five of the 97 examples received a perfect grade of 10. It marks the first time ever that an NES game has received a perfect grade of 10 from PSA, and now there are five.
The duo plan to keep some of the cartridges for themselves and auction off the rest. Goldin will host an auction for one of the PSA 10 carts starting August 12, and it’s anyone’s guess as to what it’ll go for. And to think, these pieces of history were originally meant to be destroyed.
See more TechSpot in GoogleAdd us as a preferredot
