Just released: Our latest Sports Collectibles Market Report!
Tomorrow at 12 PM EST, '1985 NES Super Mario Bros.' (WATA 9.8 A+ Seal) is set to IPO on Rally. The financials:
The Background
• Most NES-esary… The "Video Game Crash of 1983," which lasted from 1983 to 1985, saw global gaming revenues fall from $3.2 billion to $100 million, the result of market saturation and personal computing. While it's hard to wrap your head around that today, the future of gaming was in need of a savior. It came in the form of the 1985 Nintendo Entertainment System and its 17-game "black box" series which included the first pixelated 8-bit images of everyone's favorite plumber...
• "It's a-me, Mario!"… Today, we know him as a video game legend. But that wasn't always the case for Mario, who got his start as "Jumpman" in a cameo appearance in 1981's Donkey Kong arcade game. In 1983, Mario and his brother Luigi broke through with a game of their own: Mario Bros., an arcade game in which they exterminated creatures emerging from the sewers. 256 video games later, Mario is the best-selling video game franchise of all time. The Italian-American plumber, who was originally cast as a carpenter, has also appeared as a doctor, race car driver, tennis player, golfer, and boxer over the course of his career. A true renaissance man, there ain't nothin' Mario can't do!
• "Wa-hoo!"... Easily the most notable of the aforementioned 17 initial NES games was "Super Mario Bros.", Mario's first feature non-arcade game (only Duck Hunt truly stands out among the other 16). With over 40 million copies sold, the game changed the industry forever and led to Nintendo's ability to emerge among its competitors into the video game juggernaut we know it as today. Mario saved Princess Peaches ("Princess Toadstool," at the time), and with her the video game industry as a whole. Did we mention there's nothing he can't do?
The Takeaway
• Retro Rising... Rally purchased Super Mario Bros. (WATA 9.8 A+ Seal) on April 22, 2020 for $140,000 in a private sale. They note this is 1 of 14 copies in equally "exceptional" condition. On July 10, 2020, an individual purchased Super Mario Bros. (WATA 9.4 A+ Seal) for $114,000 from Heritage Auctions, the record for a public sale. Note: There is a difference in the WATA rating of the 2 sales. Vintage sealed video games have risen sharply in 2020. In purchasing shares of this asset you are banking on this trend continuing given the underlying asset was purchased at the current all-time high.
• Memorabilia as a Sector... Video game memorabilia is a new category for Rally, so there is nothing trading on the secondary market indicative of how this asset might perform. Other non-sports memorabilia items that have IPO'd on Rally include the 1999 Pokémon Complete Set (a similarly nostalgic offering) and the Apollo 11 Crew-Signed NYT, which just traded on the secondary market for the first time and went up 19.06%. The Pokémon Complete set is probably the best comp. It broke the Rally record for engagement and investment-velocity and the $125,000 Market Cap offering sold out in just over 2 minutes, but has yet to trade.
To jump at shares and collect your Mario coin, make sure you're logged into Rally at 12 PM EST tomorrow.
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