Harritt Group said the item was found in “near-mint” condition in a box of video games in the crowded closet, which was part of a deceased estate in Floyds Knobs, Indiana.
“At first glance, it was a comforting wave of classic Nintendo nostalgia. All the classics were there, Super Mario Brothers, Duck Hunt, Qix, and even an NES console. So we did what any children of the 1990s would do: we fired up the console and tested the open games,” Harritt Group said in its description of the item.
At an online auction last week the item sold for $88,550, including the buyer’s premium.
Games from Super Mario, a series first released in 1985, have been fetching record-breaking prices in the past couple of years.
Prior to that, a sealed variant of Super Mario Bros. 3 had sold for $156,000, the company said, in turn breaking the record video game price set in July of $114,000 — for a 1985 copy of the game.