Nintendo World Championships cartridge sells for $100K on eBay

A Nintendo World Championships cartridge for the Nintendo Entertainment System sold for $100,088 on on eBay today, according to the auction listing.

According to the eBay listing by user "mtnlife," the cartridge is pre-owned, in acceptable condition with its front label torn off. The seller states the method of which the cartridges were glued onto the magazine for the Nintendo Power Magazine NWC giveaway damaged the label.

"The label in the pictures from the magazine during the championship showed a full red label, that was just for the picture and not what was actually sent out," the seller writes. "Only 26 Gold carts were made for the Nintendo Power Magazine NWC giveaway. Still, case in point, this is an authentic, original NWC Gold cart from the Nintendo Power Magazine championships giveaway back in the early 90s. The cart plays just fine and will be worth much much more in the future as no one actually knows if all 26 gold carts are still around."

The 1990 Nintendo World Championships ran across 29 cities and was based on competitors scoring the highest in Super Mario Bros., Rad Racer and Tetris within a time limit of 6 minutes and 21 seconds. The three games were put on the 116 game cartridges designed specifically for the contest, some of which were awarded to finalists.

Another Nintendo collector, eBay user "Muresan," decided to put his video game collection up for auction last month, including another Nintendo World Championships cartridge. The winning bid reached $99,902; however, the successful bidder told the seller that the bid was a mistake.

In the past, Nintendo World Championships cartridges have sold for a fifth of the recent auction's amount, with known sales reaching $21,400 (2007), $15,000 (2008) and $18,000 (2009).