A Wisconsin warehouse find has produced 97 copies of an unreleased Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt cartridge variant, all apparently preserved for decades and now headed toward the collectibles market. The discovery turns one of the most familiar Nintendo game packages ever made into a surprisingly serious piece of gaming history.
According to IGN Southeast Asia, the cartridges were found in Waukesha after a seller brought a box to a local shop roughly six years ago. The seller said the games came from a grandfather who had worked for a precious-metal recovery service, adding an unexpected industrial backstory to what looks like a Nintendo collector’s dream haul.
These Are Not The Ordinary Mario Duck Hunt Cartridges
Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt were commonly sold together as a two-game NES cartridge, a familiar piece of American gaming history documented by the Smithsonian Institution. The Wisconsin batch is different because it represents an unreleased production variant rather than the standard retail version most players remember.
Each cartridge was individually wrapped and included a manual attached to the back. The paperwork dates the cartridges to late 1993, while a sticker on the box says it was shipped on December 1, 1995, offering a rare glimpse into a batch that appears to have been manufactured but never made it onto store shelves.
IGN Southeast Asia reported that Claire Shelton estimated the cartridges could land in the four- to five-figure range, depending on the individual copy and the final auction demand. That is a dramatic leap from the ordinary used-market value of a common Mario and Duck Hunt cartridge, where the rarity is in the production history and condition—not simply the character on the label.
PSA Graded Every Cartridge In The Wisconsin Find
Professional Sports Authenticator authenticated, serialized and encapsulated all 97 cartridges, including their manuals. PSA’s own video-game collecting guidance says grading can add scarcity, protection and status to older games, which helps explain why this one-time warehouse discovery is being treated more like a coordinated collectible release than a loose lot of retro software.
The grading breakdown is unusually strong: 60 cartridges received a 9.8, 31 received a 9.6, five received a perfect 10 and one received a 9.4. The numbers matter because these were not merely rare copies; many also survived in condition that collectors would consider exceptional after more than 30 years.
Three Cartridges Will Lead The Auction This Summer
Goldin Auctions is scheduled to begin offering three of the cartridges on August 12, with the broader sale tentatively set to end on September 9. The first results should provide the clearest public test yet of how much collectors are willing to pay for a Nintendo variant that was never supposed to become a retail memory.
The find also illustrates why retro-game collecting has become increasingly focused on tiny production differences, packaging details and documentation. In the NES market, a label variation or manufacturing mark can be the difference between a familiar childhood game and an artifact that suddenly commands serious attention.
For now, 94 of the 97 cartridges remain outside the auction spotlight, still grouped together as one of the most unusual Nintendo discoveries to emerge from Wisconsin. A box that sat quietly for years has become a time capsule—and, soon, a bidding contest over who gets to own a piece of Mario history that Nintendo never officially released.
