A Sack Of Cash Buys One Of The Rarest Nintendo Cartridges


Three years ago, J.J. Hendricks (pictured right) of Denver paid $US17,500 for a rare Nintendo cartridgeNintendo World Championships, one of about 26 copies of a game for a promotional tournament more than 20 years old. About a year later, he opened negotiations to buy a cartridge even more rare.

The game in question is Nintendo PowerFest, which, like World Championships, was a suite of games modified for competition play. The competition was held in 1994 at more than 100 locations in the US and Canada. Competitors had six minutes to play Super Mario Bros: Lost Levels, Super Mario Kart and Ken Griffey Jr Baseball. Winners advanced to a final round held in San Diego.

The cartridges were supposed to be returned to be destroyed. Only one was known to exist before Hendricks was contacted with an offer to buy a copy of the game, which came from the early rounds of the competition.

Hendricks finally bought the cartridge, but not without arranging a summit in a Vermont hotel and paying with a purple sack containing $US12,000 in cash. If it sounds like something out of a film, well, Hendricks has a gift for that type of narrative (as we learnt in the Nintendo World Championships purchase.) Best to just tune in and enjoy the ride.

How I Got Nintendo PowerFest 94 [PriceCharting/JJ Hendricks]


The Cheapest NBN 1000 Plans

Looking to bump up your internet connection and save a few bucks? Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Kotaku, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Comments


5 responses to “A Sack Of Cash Buys One Of The Rarest Nintendo Cartridges”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *