Super Mario World CIB prices....WTF?!?!

[bikingjahuty]

I belong to a local retro gaming group on Facebook, and pretty much like all of them, people often post what they recently picked up. Someone posted a CIB Player's Choice copy of Super Mario World and I immediately noticed the $350.00 price sticker on the top corner of the box. My immediate reaction was, "wow, I hope he was able to talk the seller down from that...that's waaayy overpriced." It turns out that was actually a fair price, maybe even a pretty good deal compared to what it's currently selling for online right now. I literally could not believe my eyes when I saw that it was worth that much, not because I'm somehow not used to how insanely expensive retro games have become, especially in the last 3-years, but because it's frickin Super Mario World.


Super Mario World sold 20-million copies on the SNES, and while i understand it was a common pack in game, it was still sold in high quantities as a standalone release as well. I am aware that the first run of black box copies are harder to find (more on those too in a minute), but the player's choice copies were still being sold in stores long after the pack in version of the SNES was discontinued. I know because i remember seeing this game in stores, and as a collector I've seen it CIB more times than i can count over the years. And let's not forget it's a $20 loose. So what has me scratching my head is how on God's green earth did this game's CIB price shoot up so dramatically? Which youtuber blew the lid off this game's supposed rarity as a CIB game and caused a feverish demand that now has these game selling for $350+ or $#@%ing $750+ for the black box version? Or is this some sort of normie speculation bubble created during the pandemic?


I get how rare games can shoot up in value so quick, hell, we've seen it happen countless times over the years. Or how a slightly uncommon game that has proven to be an overlooked gem can shoot up in price, but this is Super Mario World, one of the best selling, if not the best selling SNES game of all time. Super Metroid, A Link to the Past, Final Fantasy III, Mega Man X, and so many other must have SNES games could never dream of such a dramatic bump despite selling less than Super Mario World. This one just seems super weird to me, with speculation being the primary cause of its surge in price, and not an organic supply and demand situation like what we see with 99% of all other retro games.

[telekill]

I checked about a week ago and Crash Dummies for Game Gear of all things is now worth more than $100!

[sworddude]

I belong to a local retro gaming group on Facebook, and pretty much like all of them, people often post what they recently picked up. Someone posted a CIB Player's Choice copy of Super Mario World and I immediately noticed the $350.00 price sticker on the top corner of the box. My immediate reaction was, "wow, I hope he was able to talk the seller down from that...that's waaayy overpriced." It turns out that was actually a fair price, maybe even a pretty good deal compared to what it's currently selling for online right now. I literally could not believe my eyes when I saw that it was worth that much, not because I'm somehow not used to how insanely expensive retro games have become, especially in the last 3-years, but because it's frickin Super Mario World.

As I said before I find it hard to imagine prices dropping down to 2018 lvl's for hyped stuff if said ip's keep being in the spotlight.

I do hope your speculation comes true. but low hopes.

More niche stuff has a good shot, but otherwise oof. still imo I just hope you have less people hunting the supply chain, so that way you can also get stuff for allot cheaper. That's a thing that has been allot worse post covid as one of the main downgrades for collecting.

[bikingjahuty]

I belong to a local retro gaming group on Facebook, and pretty much like all of them, people often post what they recently picked up. Someone posted a CIB Player's Choice copy of Super Mario World and I immediately noticed the $350.00 price sticker on the top corner of the box. My immediate reaction was, "wow, I hope he was able to talk the seller down from that...that's waaayy overpriced." It turns out that was actually a fair price, maybe even a pretty good deal compared to what it's currently selling for online right now. I literally could not believe my eyes when I saw that it was worth that much, not because I'm somehow not used to how insanely expensive retro games have become, especially in the last 3-years, but because it's frickin Super Mario World.

As I said before I find it hard to imagine prices dropping down to 2018 lvl's for hyped stuff if said ip's keep being in the spotlight.

I do hope your speculation comes true. but low hopes.

More niche stuff has a good shot, but otherwise oof. still imo I just hope you have less people hunting the supply chain, so that way you can also get stuff for allot cheaper. That's a thing that has been allot worse post covid as one of the main downgrades for collecting.

It is absolutely wild. I never thought I'd see such a common game increase in value so substantially. I do think a lot of it is speculation and also overplaying the rarity of its standalone release, but even so, I find it crazy it's selling for that much; even half that would be alarming given the game in question.

[dhaabi]

How I'm understanding the exponential rise in game prices is that a lot of these consumers are only buying for a potential future investment. It is the same as when some people are having modern games graded. From my outsider's perspective, it seems as if items at this price level are only being traded back-and-forth between a small pool of individuals which unfortunately targets many more. At some point, it will collapse as they lose disinterest. Or, alternatively, collecting will just become a hobby for a niche group of individuals with deep pockets who aren't interested in the medium at all, as opposed to the niche group of fans as it was before.

Nevertheless, something you can't ignore is that for many of these high valued items, they are out of production with years not having been kind to their condition, in most cases. If there is actual demand for the item, there are only so many available which will certainly raise market value.

[NickAwesome]

I don't understand why this is such a shock.  It's a universally loved game and because most copies were sold as a pack-in, the supply of boxes- whether original print or later prints is not high enough to meet the demand of collectors and enthusiasts that want a complete copy.  It's not always some conspiracy- this hobby has become exponentially more popular in the last 5 years- more people want to become videogame collectors- prices go up. 

[bikingjahuty]

I don't understand why this is such a shock.  It's a universally loved game and because most copies were sold as a pack-in, the supply of boxes- whether original print or later prints is not high enough to meet the demand of collectors and enthusiasts that want a complete copy.  It's not always some conspiracy- this hobby has become exponentially more popular in the last 5 years- more people want to become videogame collectors- prices go up.

It sold 20-million copies, and I'd be shocked if the standalone release didn't outsell many common games on the SNES. I've personally seen it both as a new game back in the 90s and throughout the years since I began collecting. This is not some ultra rare game as a CIB game. People were just as likely to throw away their DKC or Mario Kart boxes, yet those games are not even close to as valuable as complete games. And both are highly beloved games just like Super Mario World. I'd get it if this was some rare or even uncommon game or edition, but it frankly is not. It was a flagship title for the SNES and one of its best sellers, pack in or not.


And no, i don't believe there's some secret cabal of deep pocket video game investors cornering the market on CIB Super Mario Worlds to drive the values up. Rather, I believe somewhere on the internet (a reddit forum, a big youtuber, or just someone with a lot of reach in the retro gaming community) information was spread that Super Mario World was a rare standalone release, leading people to scoop them up feverishly, therefore increasing the demand and prices. I've seen shit like this happen before, albeit with games far less well known or common. This one doesn't make much sense to me outside of mass speculation and internet induced collector fomo.

[sworddude]

I don't understand why this is such a shock.  It's a universally loved game and because most copies were sold as a pack-in, the supply of boxes- whether original print or later prints is not high enough to meet the demand of collectors and enthusiasts that want a complete copy.  It's not always some conspiracy- this hobby has become exponentially more popular in the last 5 years- more people want to become videogame collectors- prices go up.

It sold 20-million copies, and I'd be shocked if the standalone release didn't outsell many common games on the SNES. I've personally seen it both as a new game back in the 90s and throughout the years since I began collecting. This is not some ultra rare game as a CIB game. People were just as likely to throw away their DKC or Mario Kart boxes, yet those games are not even close to as valuable as complete games. And both are highly beloved games just like Super Mario World. I'd get it if this was some rare or even uncommon game or edition, but it frankly is not. It was a flagship title for the SNES and one of its best sellers, pack in or not.


And no, i don't believe there's some secret cabal of deep pocket video game investors cornering the market on CIB Super Mario Worlds to drive the values up. Rather, I believe somewhere on the internet (a reddit forum, a big youtuber, or just someone with a lot of reach in the retro gaming community) information was spread that Super Mario World was a rare standalone release, leading people to scoop them up feverishly, therefore increasing the demand and prices. I've seen shit like this happen before, albeit with games far less well known or common. This one doesn't make much sense to me outside of mass speculation and internet induced collector fomo.

if price charting is to be believed the cib usa version of supermario world was worth around the 100$ mark for quite a long time. which does imply it's somewhat uncommon at the very least because that's allot of money for the average cib snes game in the early 2010 era. hype can only do so much.

the other 2 where far lower back than. I can imagine the price hike if it already had such a value to the right person back than.

That being said, how many old collectors on here didn't manage to snag a cib copy of super mario world back than. that might be decent proof if the game was actually easy to get for the average collector or just for the people that tried. how common was a cib super mario world in cheap sets.

I can personally definitely recall which games where actually hard to get back than for europe and got huge price hikes even if you'd think they should have plenty of sales on paper.

XD gale of darkness or kirby air ride on cube are some nice examples in europe. very hard to get even way back when prices where way way cheaper. especially for the pokemon game you'd think supply was nice. it was hell,only got both of those a couple of times in cheap sets. very easy to miss titles for the average collector that didn't want to buy them at the going rates and hoped for a cheap set or copy to pop up.

meanwhile ye have games like windwaker or double dash melee etc which had plenty of sales and didn't get super insane prices in current era because those where actually piss easy to get back in the day for cheap. I can't imagine a game worth an average 100$ (which would imply higher prices for a nice copy) being that easy to get back in the day. In my neighbour hood people would look at you funny if you where to spend 40$ for a path of radiance. I'm just saying 100$ is a pretty sizable amount in those era's. For that money you'd be left with a very small group of super hardcore collectors that would buy stuff like a cib wild guns for the snes in nice shape at the time.

In europe's case super mario world wasn't 100$ back than maybe 30$ and it was fairly easy to get a cheap nice cib condition copy, doesn't have a crazy 500$ price tag in current era as a result. if it was 100$ back than it might have had such insane prices in europe aswell nowadays since it would be uncommon enough plus hype factor of said iconic game. it wouldn't have such a price if it was easy to get back in the day.