The sports card and vintage video game collecting universes recently collided in a big way.
A New York-based vintage comic book dealer just brokered a mother of sports card trade, and the deal was a little less conventional than the typical auction or trade.
Vincent Zurzolo, the co-owner and COO of New York’s Metropolis Collectibles, brokered a deal between two of his clients that involved a 1-to-1 trade.
On one side of the deal was a Tom Brady 2000 Contenders Rookie Autograph #144, the rarest and most valuable of modern football cards.
Graded Gem Mint 10 by PSA, the card is only one of 14 in existence that depicts the then-sixth-round draft pick, who is now better known as arguably the greatest quarterback to ever play the game. The card’s value was pegged at a recent auction price of $168,000.
So what did the other guy get? A Nintendo video game.
Ok, it’s actually a bit more impressive than that.
The Brady card was traded for a 1990 Nintendo World Championship grey cartridge video game, which is the rarest Nintendo cartridge in existence. The game was never sold commercially, instead, created for Nintendo’s traveling Power Fest tournament. The game had no use beyond the tournament.
There are only a few World Championship grey cartridge video games in existence, and most of them are in rough shape. This one was graded 8 out of 10 (yes, they do grade video games).
“Most owners of high-grade Nintendo World Championship Grey carts aren’t willing to sell them,” notes Zurzolo, “which is why this copy fetched such a valuable asset in return.”
With the Brady card clocking in at $168,000, the deal now makes the World Championship video game the costliest video game in history.
“In a nutshell,” says Zurzolo, “the rarest modern football card—featuring the greatest quarterback in NFL history—was traded for one of the rarest Nintendo cartridges ever created.”
While we all know the huge money figures tied to sports cards and collectibles, the vintage video game market isn’t necessarily child’s play, either.
Some other video games to fetch a pretty penny include a sticker-sealed Super Mario Bros. ($100,150) and a sealed Mega Man “Dr. Wright” First Release ($75,000).
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