Imagine discovering nearly 100 pristine NES cartridges that were supposed to have been melted down decades ago just to recover the tiny amount of gold inside them. Now imagine finding out those cartridges are actually a previously undocumented piece of Nintendo history.
That’s essentially what happened to longtime Nintendo collector Jason Ganos after a box containing 97 seemingly ordinary copies of Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt resurfaced at a small retro game store in Wisconsin called OneStopWonders. The game itself is incredibly common, having been bundled with millions of Nintendo Entertainment System consoles over the years.
Initially, the most remarkable thing about the discovery was simply the condition of the games, as each cartridge appeared practically brand new and came with a pristine manual. However, once experienced collectors started examining photographs, they noticed something considerably more important.
These weren’t just unusually clean copies of a common NES game. Ganos appears to have discovered a previously undocumented variant potentially originating from the final production run of Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt.
These Mario Cartridges Were Supposed To Be Melted Down
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According to NintendoWire, the story begins with OneStopWonders owner Kevin Braun, who had purchased the cartridges from the grandson of someone who operated a precious-metal recovery business during the late 1980s and early 1990s. According to the story Braun was given, the company worked with vendors, including Nintendo, to recover gold from unwanted circuit boards.
This particular box of games was reportedly supposed to be destroyed so the gold contained on the cartridge contacts could be salvaged, but that never happened. Instead, it apparently spent more than 20 years sitting in a garage before eventually finding its way to Braun.
Braun didn’t realize there was anything particularly valuable inside and stored the box for several years, eventually forgetting about it. He had even considered selling the cartridges individually for just $14.99 before Ganos learned about the forgotten shipment.
When they finally pulled the box from underneath Halloween decorations in Braun’s storage unit, they discovered 97 individually wrapped Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt cartridges with pristine manuals. The original shipping box listed 100 cartridges and carried a December 19, 1995 date, meaning three games had disappeared somewhere during its unusual journey.
The box also contained Japanese labeling alongside an “NOA” marking and described its contents as “Mario – Hunt Remanufactured NES.” What was apparently supposed to end with 100 cartridges being destroyed for their precious metals instead left 97 examples sitting untouched for decades.
These Aren’t Ordinary Super Mario Bros. Cartridges
Ganos initially wasn’t sure how much the games could actually be worth because Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt remains one of the most common NES cartridges around. That changed after he shared photographs with a high-end gaming collector group and was contacted by representatives from two grading companies.
The cartridges featured a multilingual back label instead of the standard English-only version known to collectors, while manufacturing codes indicated they were produced in late 1993. Their instruction manuals were also different, replacing the previously documented phrase “maintenance or repairs” with “maintenance or service.”
Even more importantly, the manufacturing dates on the cartridges and manuals apparently came after every known Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt console bundle they could have been included with. Ganos concluded that the collection could therefore represent the game’s final production run and an entirely undocumented variant.
Exactly why Nintendo manufactured these cartridges remains a mystery, especially since the known bundles associated with the game were no longer being sold. Ganos thinks they could have been replacement stock for refurbished systems or warranty repairs, although they could also have been intended for a bundle that never reached consumers.
Whatever their intended purpose, Nintendo apparently no longer needed them by the time the box was sent for precious-metal recovery in 1995. If everything had gone according to that plan, one of the more fascinating modern discoveries in Nintendo collecting would have literally been melted down.
Five Cartridges Earn Perfect PSA 10s Before Heading to Auction
Ganos and Braun eventually decided to have all 97 cartridges authenticated and graded by PSA, but Ganos wasn’t particularly interested in trusting the mail with them. Instead, he packed the entire collection into his carry-on luggage and boarded a 5 a.m. flight from Milwaukee to Orange County, California.
After somehow getting through airport security with 97 NES circuit boards without much trouble, Ganos personally delivered the collection to PSA headquarters. The cartridges appeared authentic upon initial inspection and were described as being in remarkably good condition.
The eventual grades confirmed just how remarkable that condition was, with many cartridges receiving scores of 9.8 and 9.6. Even more impressively, five received perfect PSA 10 grades, which, according to PSA themselves, are the first PSA 10s ever awarded to NES cartridges.
Now, the question is how much collectors are willing to pay for them, and we won’t have to wait particularly long to start finding out. Ganos and Braun plan to keep some cartridges while auctioning others, including several intended for charity, with the first three scheduled to hit Goldin Auctions on August 12.
One of those first three will be among the five PSA 10 copies, meaning the auction should provide the first indication of what this previously unknown variant is actually worth. Whatever the number ends up being, it’s almost certainly going to beat the value of the tiny amount of gold these 97 cartridges were nearly destroyed to recover.