The Exorbitant Price Of Mario Bros. Old School Game Allegedly Just A Fraud, Wata Games And Heritage Auctions Are The Perpetrators

The old Mario Bros. game, had sold for millions of US dollars. (photo: unsplash)

JAKARTA - The recent spike in the value of Nintendo retro video game cartridges is thought to be the result of fraud by rating firm Wata Games and collectible auction company Heritage Auctions. Throughout the year, mint copies of vintage games such as The Legend Of Zelda and the original Super Mario Bros. have sold at multi-million dollar auctions, breaking world records as soon as a new record was set.

The retro game's price boom started in March, where an unopened copy of Super Mario Bros. sold for over $310,000. After that, an early sealed NES R copy of The Legend Of Zelda broke the record for Most Expensive Game with a final price tag of $870,000 in July. Both games are for sale at Heritage Auctions, which has auctioned off priceless game historical relics such as the yet-to-be-produced prototype Nintendo PlayStation console.

As reported by VGC, journalist Karl Jobst recently posted a shocking video on YouTube claiming that Heritage Auctions had been part of a scheme to raise the price of old video game cartridges to increase profits.

He claims that Heritage co-founder Jim Halper and Wata Games president and CEO Deniz Kahn were the ones who led this fraudulent operation. Director Wata artificially increased the value of the games they had rated. In addition, very few games sold at Heritage Auctions are actually purchased by game collectors.

Heritage Auctions has since denied these allegations, with a spokesperson claiming that Jobst's video contained "many misstatements." A company spokesperson from Wata Games provided the following statement to Screen Rant.

"Wata Games is a trusted leader in collectible video game valuation and we are honored to play a key role in this fast-growing industry that we love so much.

We are humbled by the support from our thousands of customers who trust us to provide accurate and transparent assessments. The claims in this video are completely unfounded and defamatory and it is unfortunate that Mr Jobst did not contact us to give us the opportunity to correct them."

Heritage Auctions isn't the only auction house making headlines by selling copies of the famous retro video game. Earlier this month, another copy of the original Super Mario Bros. broke records with a final $2 million price tag following a bidding war on rival collection site Rally - not long after the Heritage's Legend Of Zelda auction. Shortly before that, eBay set a record asking price for game cartridges with a $1 million gold copy of the Nintendo World Championships.

The recent spike in late auction prices for old school games like Super Mario Bros and The Legend Of Zelda has taken many by surprise. If Karl Jobst's accusations are true, then it looks like some of the craziest stories to come off the game's auction circuit, like the record-breaking Legend Of Zelda cartridge, could be the result of a scam.