Updated

Updated · Yahoo Lifestyle UK · Aug 9

Five Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt Cartridges Earn PSA 10, 3 Head to Goldin on Aug. 12

Updated

Updated · Yahoo Lifestyle UK · Aug 9

Five Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt Cartridges Earn PSA 10, 3 Head to Goldin on Aug. 12

Q: Where did the missing three cartridges from the original box of 100 go, and who has them now?

No one knows where the missing three cartridges went, and there is no public evidence identifying who has them now. The box was labeled for 100 copies, but only 97 were inside when Kevin Braun and Jason Ganos opened it in Waukesha. Multiple accounts tied to the discovery explicitly say there is “no telling” where the other three went. The seller’s family story only traces the box to a precious-metal recovery business and later storage; it does not account for the missing units. What can be said is that the three likely disappeared sometime before Braun acquired the box, possibly while it was in the recovery business’s possession, in a garage for more than 20 years, or during later handling by the seller’s family. But that is inference, not confirmed reporting. So, based on the available reporting and statements from Ganos, Braun, and related coverage, the whereabouts of the three missing cartridges remain unknown, and their current owners—if they still survive—have not been identified publicly.

Q: Why did a metal recovery service abandon gold extraction, leaving millions in gaming history locked in storage?

No one publicly knows why the metal recovery service never processed the cartridges. The evidence in the reporting shows only a family story: the seller said his grandfather’s precious-metal recovery business received the Nintendo games to strip small amounts of gold from the board contacts, but the box was never destroyed and instead sat in storage or a garage for more than 20 years. What is clear is that the economics may not have favored urgent extraction. NES cartridges contain only tiny traces of recoverable gold, so the scrap value would likely have been modest, especially compared with the labor and handling involved. That makes it plausible the box was set aside, overlooked, or judged not worth immediate processing. But that remains inference, not confirmed fact. The documented record is stronger on what happened afterward. The shipping markings and labels suggest the box contained 100 “remanufactured” Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt cartridges, dated to the mid-1990s, with 97 still present when discovered in Waukesha. Collectors later confirmed they were a previously undocumented late-production variant, likely made in late 1993, with distinct labels, manuals, screws and circuit boards. So the short answer is that the cartridges survived because the recovery plan appears to have been abandoned or forgotten for unknown reasons. The service never explained why, and no direct statement from Nintendo or the recovery company has surfaced.

3 articles · Updated · Yahoo Lifestyle UK · Aug 9

Five of 97 newly discovered Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt cartridges received perfect PSA 10 grades, and three copies — including one PSA 10 — are set for Goldin Auctions starting Aug. 12.
Research on labels, manuals and manufacturing codes indicated the Wisconsin find is a previously undocumented late-production variant, with one code pointing to the 40th week of 1993.
The cartridges were found individually wrapped with pristine manuals in a Waukesha storage unit, after store owner Kevin Braun had nearly priced them at about $15 each before collector Jason Ganos examined them.
A shipping label dated Dec. 19, 1995 and a box marked for 100 cartridges support a theory that the games were remanufactured replacement stock that somehow escaped a precious-metal recovery operation.
Because no market price exists for this variant, the auction will test demand; estimates range from four figures to potentially five for a PSA 10, far below a separate $3 million sealed Super Mario record.