Pottoe, dusty boxes, a rainy Sunday, open an old wardrobe and there, buried under old comics and tangled cables, he shines, the legendary Nintendo Nes, off for decades, but still fascinating, as only the great classics know how to be. A gray rectangle with square corners and those two minimal controllers, disconnected but never forgotten: if you have lived childhood between the eighties and the first nineties, you know what I’m talking about. And if that console was still there, you may have a small treasure in hand.
The myth of an era
The Nintendo Entertainment Systemfor friends Nes, It was born in Japan in 1983 – with the name of Famicom – and crosses national borders only in 1985, arriving in the USA, while in Europe it only arrived in 1986 (to reach Italy the following year, in 1987). Legends were born with the legendary Nintendo car Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda And Metroidjust to name a few. It was the console that kept you glued to the screen in the pajamas, with the fingers crossed because the game would leave on the first shot, or, more often, to the fifth attempt, after the notorious “blow” inside the cartridges and some superstitious rite.
A rebirth after the collapse
To understand how important the NES has been, you have to go back to a dark moment for the videogame industry, the 1983the year of Great video game crisis. In the United States, the market collapsed because of a surplus of poor console, a myriad of badly made games, saturation of the offer and a trust now worn out by disappointing titles such as Et for Atari (The choice of the company to bury in a landfill of the new Mexico thousands of cartridges of the bankruptcy “et”, a bad re -entry of Spielberg’s masterpiece) is famous. The companies collapsed, the shops emptied the shelves, the media decreed the end of the video game as a commercial phenomenon.
Then Nintendo arrived and the situation changed drastically. With a cunning strategy, a simple controller and a wealthy and well -kept game bookcase, the Japanese house did what few believed possible: he regained the hearts and salons of families. The NES was the console of the rebirth, of a new beginning for an entire industry, with Mario to take the honors of the news, like the hero who raised a sector on his knees.
How much is it really worth?
Depends. And here you have to be clear: it is not enough to have an old console to become rich. It is necessary that it is functional, possibly with original box and manuals. If you also have the most sought after games – perhaps still sealed – the figures rise dramatically.
A NES in good condition, with cables and controllers, can apply between 100 and 300 euros. Some specimens, especially those rare or in a limited edition, quietly exceed 1,000 euros. And there are cases in which the value multiplies.
In 2021, A sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. was auctioned for over 2 million dollars. A madness? No, if we think that the previous record always belonged to dear Mario – a copy of Super Mario 64, released in 1996 for Nintendo 64, was sold for 1.56 million dollars – rather the signal of an expanding market, in which games become relics and memories are transformed into collectible goods.
The most sought after games (and dream cartridges)
In addition to the legendary Mario, there are titles that throat collectors. Some examples? Little Samsonvery rare and almost never sold in Italy. A copy in excellent condition It can also apply more than 2,000 EURor. Or Stadium Eventsdistributed briefly before being withdrawn: today it is considered the Holy Grail of the NES, with assessments that reach the 40,000 eurosif complete with everything.
And then there are them, The legendary cartridges of the Nintendo World Championship 1990. They were distributed in a limited edition – just 116 specimens – on the occasion of the homonymous competition organized by Nintendo in the United States. It was an itinerant tournament, also celebrated in the film “The little wizard of video games” (original title: The Wizard), released in 1989, a cult film for those who loved that period. Those cartridges today are worth as small as a small small car: Some were sold for over 20,000 euroswhile the “gold” versions, even rarer, have reached figures over 100,000 dollars.
Why all this value?
The answer is simple and to be found, first of all, in thenostalgia effect. Collectors not only look for the console, look for a piece of their childhood and are willing to pay to relive that emotion. Nes is not just an object, it is a bridge with an era in which everything seemed simpler, more magical.
Then there is another reason: The vintage video game market is constantly growing. The years pass, the objects become rare, and what was common yesterday today becomes wanted. Those who were ten years old in 1990, today he has forty and perhaps even some more money to spend to take off a whim.
How to sell your NES (without getting rid)
Have you found your old console and want to sell it? Well, but before throwing it on any site, stop for a moment. Take some photos, check that it works, try the games. Then compare real prices on auction sites, specialized forums or marketplace for collectors. Beware of scams: if someone offers you a few pennies, don’t be in a hurry, it is better to wait for the buyer just than to sell off a piece of history.
Alternatively, you can Contact you to specialized shops in retrogamingwhich often make free assessments and, in some cases, buy directly. If you have time and a little patience, also the Online auctions They can reserve beautiful surprises.
A advice from old gamer
While not having it I would never sell the old Nes (I still jealously keep my game boy purchased in the early 90s and I could never separate it, because I left too many hours, too many afternoons, too many levels lost at the last second) even if I understand the charm of monetizing an object that has remained unused for decades, and basically, if he had to end up in the hands of a true passion.
