A rare "Left Super Mario Bros. 3" auction has been revealed, selling one of the strangest pieces of gaming history for a princely sum. If you're a Nintendo or Super Mario fanatic, then this odd N.E.S. game might be just the kind of thing to add your collection.
This auction is selling a sealed boxed copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game itself isn't what makes this offering particularly rare; rather, it's the box art.
As you can see in the above image, Heritage Auctions is selling a copy of this classic N.E.S. game with variant box art as reported by BleedingCool. The "Left Super Mario Bros. 3" auction will let you snap up a copy of this super-rare game, but you'll probably have to pay a hefty premium.
Here's the description of the item from Heritage Auctions:
Super Mario Bros. 3 - Wata 9.0 A Sealed [Bros. "Left, First Production], NES Nintendo 1990 USA. This is the first sealed copy of the "Left Bros." variant of Super Mario Bros. 3 that we have ever offered in our auctions. Make no mistake, this copy is not at all to be compared with any sealed copy of the "Right Bros." variety; the "Left Bros." is in a completely different league. This variant's nickname refers to the justification of "Bros." on the front of the box, which indicates this copy is from the earliest production run of the title. It is as close as one could get to saying this copy is from a "first printing." While there are certainly a fair number of complete in box copies of this variant out there, sealed copies of the "Left Bros." variant exist in the low single digits.
This isn't the only big gaming auction Heritage Auctions has done. Earlier this year, a rare "Nintendo PlayStation" auction concluded with a winning six-figure bid.
How Much will the Left Super Mario Bros. 3 Auction Cost You?
There is the question of cost with an item as rare as this. Heritage Auctions says that they've sold a copy of this game graded 9.4 by Wata for over $5,000 last year. ("Graded", in this sense, is an indicator of the quality and condition of the item.)
The copy being sold in the Left Super Mario Bros. 3 auction is graded slightly lower by Wata at a score of 9.0, but this is also a much rarer edition of the game's box art. It could well fetch five figures or more depending on the interest of collectors.
If you've got a silly amount of money to spend, you can make a bid on the Left Super Mario Bros. 3 Auction at Heritage Auctions. For the rest of us, however, it's much cheaper to buy a 1-year subscription to Nintendo Switch Online and pick up Super Mario Bros. 3 as one of the included games.
