Unopened 'Super Mario Bros' game from 1986 sells for $660,000

The video game was purchased as a gift, but then left in a drawer for more than three decades

This unopened copy of Nintendo's 'Super Mario Bros', purchased in 1986 and then forgotten about for decades, has sold for $660,000. AP

An unopened copy of Nintendo's Super Mario Bros that was bought in 1986 and then forgotten about in a desk drawer has sold at auction for $660,000.

Heritage Auctions in Dallas said the video game sold on Friday. The auction house said it was bought as a Christmas gift, but ended up being placed in a desk drawer, where it remained sealed in plastic and with its hang tab intact until it was found this year.

“Since the production window for this copy and others like it was so short, finding another copy from this same production run in similar condition would be akin to looking for a single drop of water in an ocean,” said Valarie McLeckie, Heritage’s video game specialist.

Heritage said it is the finest copy known to have been professionally graded for auction. Its selling price far exceeded the $114,000 that another unopened copy that was produced in 1987 fetched in a Heritage auction last summer.

In November, meanwhile, a sealed copy of Super Mario Bros 3 sold for $156,000.

"Not only is this the finest plastic-sealed copy with a perforated cardboard hang tab we've ever offered of any black box title, it is also the oldest sealed copy of Super Mario Bros we've ever had the opportunity to offer," Heritage said.

"This is only the fourth version of Super Mario Bros ever produced, and its window of production was remarkably short."

The first Super Mario Bros game was first released in September 1985, though the character featured in 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong under the name Jumpman.