A cartridge from what is considered the rarest Nintendo Entertainment System game ever available for purchase in stores sparked a flurry of competitive bids to claim top lot honors among 52 video games graded by Wata Games that were sold in Heritage Auctions’ Comics & Comic Art Auction on February 21-23, 2019, in Dallas.
The Wata-graded games brought in a total of $77,904, with Stadium Events: Family Fun Fitness Wata 4.5 Loose taking the top spot at $10,500. The cartridge is believed to be one of only 200 loose, complete in box, or sealed copies that have been known to exist, making a copy of this game in any grade highly sought-after. This rarity is due largely to how the game’s rights were bought out by Nintendo almost immediately after its initial release, at which point it was rebranded as World Class Track Meet – very few copies of the game under the name of Stadium Events ever made it to shelves, and even fewer were sold before the recall and rebranding.
“Video games are a popular collectible because they take people back to when they played the games, and a lot of people played this game under both of its names when they were kids,” Heritage Auctions Vice President Lon Allen said. “The demand for games like Stadium Events: Family Fun Fitness shows that we are just scratching the surface of how much the market for Wata-graded games will grow going forward.”
A number of collectors also bid on Halo: Combat Evolved Wata 9.6 A, and the game eventually brought in $9,000. This particular edition of Halo is considered the top prize among franchise fans, with the black label Not For Resale version of the inaugural title having only been made available to Microsoft or Bungie employees, and to specific game stores, as a promotional disc. Although more than 60 million copies of Halo: Combat Evolved sold worldwide, fewer than 10 sealed copies of the NFR version are known to exist, even by collectors who have sought the game in this pristine condition for more than a decade, and of the few known copies in existence, only one has a higher grade than this one.
Chrono Trigger Wata 9.4 A+ and Castlevania: Dracula X Wata 9.6 A both nearly doubled their preauction estimates, bringing in $8,400 and $4,080, respectively. Chrono Trigger is considered one of the greatest RPGs ever made, but fewer than 20 factory sealed copies are known to remain on the market; Castlevania’s low packaging quality makes it difficult to find in this kind of pristine condition.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Wata 9.6 A+ more than tripled its preauction estimate, realizing $3,600. Michael Dooley of Mirage Studios created the iconic box art for the Turtles’ home console video game debut. Dooley’s artwork was featured on the second printing of the comic’s fourth issue in spring 1987.
Other top lots in this auction included Zelda II: The Adventure of Link Wata 9.6 A+ for $3,360, Dragon Warrior (Prototype) Wata-Certified for $2,880, Mega Man 3 Wata 9.4 A++ for $1,920, and Super Mario Bros. Wata 8.0 A for $1,800. Wata-graded games will be featured in every Heritage Auctions Sunday Comics, Animation & Art auction as demand for these items continues to grow.
