GUEST: These are two games for a Nintendo gaming system. And my dad gave these to me. They were two games from the 1980s and somebody gave them to him, and he already had the games, so he didn't open them. And they were just lying, for a really long time, in my grandma's attic.
APPRAISER: First off, bunch of bonus points. Kudos to you, 'cause you know what's going on. You are right in that Nintendo was a 1980s video game system. The Nintendo Entertainment System, abbreviated by collectors today as simply N.E.S., revolutionized video games when it was first introduced in 1983. And prior to that, everybody was growing up with Atari, ColecoVision, Intellivision; very, very basic. You have some of the most iconic games for the N.E.S. I mean, your first one right here. Super Mario Brothers 3. I wouldn't be exaggerating if that, as a kid with my older brother, we played over 30 hours on that game.
GUEST: (gasps, laughs)
APPRAISER: Now, also here we have Double Dragon. Totally awesome, bad-to-the-bone, karate-fighting-style game. And the thing that's really funny is, in terms of a market, if you came to ANTIQUES ROADSHOW five years ago, we wouldn't be here today. (laughing) I love that face. The collectible video game market really exploded 2019 into 2020. We've seen some very big numbers, uh, very volatile numbers. So the market is a little unsteady. When looking at the Super Mario Brothers 3, we know that it's a second printing instead of a first printing due to the location of the "Bros." in the title. A true first printing of the cartridge would have the "Bros." all the way to the left under the M in Mario. So just that little difference is a big deal in value. When looking at the Double Dragon cartridge, the way we know that it's a second printing of the game is that when we look at the O.S.Q. on the bottom, which is the official seal of quality for Nintendo, on the very first print, this would be a circular form sticker.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: The fact that we have the ovoid form sticker knows that this is, in fact, a second printing of the game. Now, do you have any idea of what these are worth today?
GUEST: I don't know, about $100?
APPRAISER: In their ungraded, just factory-sealed condition...
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: ...conservatively, at auction today, the Super Mario Brothers 3 would be $1,000 to $2,000.
GUEST (laughing): Oh, my God, that's a lot.
APPRAISER: Okay, now, this is where you're really going to thank your dad, the Double Dragon. This is easily a $2,000 to $3,000 game.
GUEST (laughing): Wow, that's a lot.
APPRAISER: So, total at auction today for the pair of cartridges, you'd be at $3,000 to $5,000 in the market.
GUEST (quietly): Oh, my gosh. (aloud): That's surprising.
APPRAISER: Thank you, Dad? (both laughing)
GUEST: Thank you, Dad.
APPRAISER: Graded perfect 9.8 examples of Super Mario Brothers 3 for the first print have brought upwards of $150,000.
GUEST: Wow.
