One of 26 rare gold NES cartridges up for auction today

Hundreds of cartridges were produced For the 1990 Nintendo World Series, an event that traveled across the United States to find the nation’s best players. Players competed for the highest score in its timed version SUPER MARIO BROS, TetrisAnd rad racer, All are packaged in special cartridges that contain physical keys to adjust game timing.

Most of these cartridges had the standard gray NES case, but 26 were upgraded with a shiny gold case and distributed to winners. Nintendo Power The magazine’s “Player Poll Contest” was held the same year.

These games were never sold in a box, which partially explains why this particular cartridge appears to be worn and has no label, only a 4.0 rating. CGC rating(A rating of 10 indicates excellent condition.)

Despite the cartridge’s rugged appearance, tonight’s auction starts at $10,000 and according to Frequently asked questions page on the auction house websiteAt this level, potential buyers are pre-screened to ensure they are solvent. This helps protect the unknown seller of the cartridge, but what about the buyers?

Given the current demand for rare vintage games and hardware, forging such a rare cartridge and cheating on the CGC rating would be a huge but lucrative undertaking. The easiest way to confirm that this cartridge is authentic is to win the auction and attach the cartridge to a real NES device. However, this can result in an expensive exercise for wealthy collectors.