[wgerard]

I think the reason for the speculation it’s wash trading is that unlike the 1952 Mickey Mantle card, there are presumably a lot more Mario 64 cartridges in circulation and thus the auction price seems out of line for the supply available.

Doing a cursory google search, I can see most used cartridges going for ~$25-40. Is an unopened cartridge worth many more orders of magnitude? Possibly, but it at least raises a lot of eyebrows that there’s something else at play.

EDIT: An analogous collectible is probably more something like a black lotus card, which as far as I can tell has “only” procured 500K at auction for a flawless one, and as far as I can tell inferior versions cost an order of magnitude less (10K or so) but nothing near to the spread here.

[adventured]

> I can see most used cartridges going for ~$25-40. Is an unopened cartridge worth many more orders of magnitude? Possibly, but it at least raises a lot of eyebrows that there’s something else at play.

Yes, that's exactly how it works. The unopened package in near perfect condition is considered extraordinarily scarce.

It's the scarcity factor via grading that is being applied. That's obviously a graded Mario 64 package, not just a stray cartridge (of which there are zillions of copies as you note).

The supply, in the collectible world, is thus considered to be exceptionally low. You're talking about a sealed box, top notch grade. There are only a small number of those still in existence.

Here is the image of the graded Mario game:

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/12EF3/production...

It's a 9.8, which is a very high grade for a vintage video game box. As far as the collectors are concerned, that's a very scarce item. The value is in the condition of the box and that it's sealed. Without that, you could just buy the item on eBay for ~$30-$50.

You see the exact same outcome in the comics world, for graded comics. And it's identical to the quality + grading = scarcity aspect in baseball / basketball / pokemon cards.

1969 is Mickey Mantle's last year for Topps baseball cards. There are a lot of copies of that card in existence, relatively speaking. You can buy it ungraded for $100-$1,000 depending on the condition you want. If you want a PSA 10 of that card (there are only two)? Be ready to pay $500,000+. That's the same exact scarcity by grading mechanism in action as with the 9.8 graded Mario cartridge, it's because there are not very many of them in that condition.

[nly]

Would there be anyway to buy a low grade cartridge and repackage it in to look like a high grade $1.5M one?

Asking for a friend.

[wgerard]

Interesting! TIL.