I'm not a collector of vintage games by any means, nor am I an economist with a knowledge of how inflation, or supply and demand affect costs of cartridge games for a system now over 20 years old.
Combine these two facets, and you have my excuse for why I cannot, for the life of me, even begin to wrap my head around why someone is offering a sealed "yellow box edition" of Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo, for the absoludicrous (yes, that's a word now) price of £7,600, a shade over $12,000. But much like shopping on Black Friday, or "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo," my lack of understanding doesn't stop it from happening.
eBay seller "the-holt" is doing just that. Apparently in the-holt's mind, old games age like fine wine (with glaringly obvious certain exceptions of course), and deserve to fetch a similar dollar amount. And what's more, people are actually making offers.
Either there's a hot market for "yellow box edition" games, or Holt's belief that "this game will sell for more than a million one day in the future (probably a few decades time!)" is enough of a justification for such a selling price.
Obviously, Super Mario World has a legacy. It was first game of Nintendo's best selling consoles, served as the basis for a TV show, sold over 20 million copies, has been re-released three times, remains one of the highest rated games of all time, and enemies introduced in it are still seen in Mario games today. But $12,000?
Please, come to your senses people. For the children.
via GameSniped