Nintendo World Championship Fever!

Ever since the NWC $100K fiasco a couple of days ago, anything Nintendo World Championship related has become a hot, hot item. I will be your guide on this wonderful, overpriced adventure.

The cord looks so sloppy in that case.

NWC-branded 2nd player NES controller (VGA graded 85+) plus a bunch of official paperwork and even a VIP pass sold for $4,700 on eBay. The NWC game itself could only be started by pressing START on the second player's controller to prevent false starts. These NWC controllers surface occasionally but the 2nd player controller is much more uncommon than the 1st player one.

This sideways image is straight from the listing.

Waiting to pay $500 for a 25 year-old NWC semifinalist t-shirt, now's your chance. Straight from the original owner, this collector's piece is extremely eclectic. These are actually really hard to come by since they ran out of them later on in the 29-city tour and were only handed out in a few cities, a real interesting piece.

Another NWC has come out of the woodwork and was quickly snatched up for $17,500. This copy is in much better condition than the "Mario" cart and was sold by Matt and Mark Nolan. These brothers took advantage of the current media hype and used the money to invest in a duplex to rent out to make even more money. These guys are shrewd, shrewd buyers and sellers in the collector's market so kudos to them for turning a quick buck.

The third NWC cart to show up on eBay in the last week. This one was formerly owned by one of Nintendo "Game Play Counselors", these were the people who manned the extremely profitable Nintendo tips hotline during the 80's and 90's. This copy is also in the best condition yet. It is currently at $11K and has five days to go. Make sure to keep an eye on this because even though it won't go for $100K, I'm sure it will fetch a great price.

The gold NWC is one of the rarest, most valuable games in existence and one of them is currently on eBay. Given away to 26 lucky winners of the mail-in sweepstakes from the back of Nintendo Power #14, this cart is identical to the grey version in every way except it is in a shiny, gold housing. They are actually made from the grey versions and are supposed to have a special label on the front but the seller alleges that it fell off this copy. The seller also claims to have found it in a box of games purchased back in '94. Collectors are currently questioning the authenticity of this piece since it is extremely easy to "upgrade" a grey version to a gold version by just taking a Zelda cartridge, removing the label, and cutting a hole in it to display the dip switches in the corner. The current consensus is that it is legit but who really knows. This is also a huge spectacle. It is currently at $100K with 9 days left. Even if this auction is rife with shill bidders, this might be the first "Million Dollar Game".

This is a Nintendo Powerfest '94 cartridge and it is for sale on eBay right now for the low, low price of $4,800. This cartridge was used at a series of events leading up to the 1994 Nintendo World Championships, yeah, there were more than one Nintendo World Championship. Around 33 of these cartridges were produced but only two are currently in the hands of collectors and both of those are different versions, the "1,000,000 point per run" version and the "10,000 point per run" version. This is the 10,000 point one. This is the only one in known existence. This is getting zero publicity and only the hardcore collectors know the story of this true Holy Grail of game collecting. Keep an eye on this auction and if you want to own something amazing and have some disposable income, I suggest you bid on it. This cartridge is more rare than both versions of the NWC. I am interested to see how much it will go for.

The whole NWC craze is insane and it is an exciting time to be in the game collecting community. This is honestly one of the few things that excites me in gaming anymore. To see all these rare and incredible items come out all at once is truly amazing. I can't wait to see what tomorrow's auctions hold.