Wisconsin store uncovers 97 never-before-seen Super Mario Bros. cartridges

A Waukesha game store turned up 97 pristine, individually bagged copies of a previously unknown Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt cartridge variant after collector Jason Ganos sorted through an old box of NES games in July. The find was so unexpected that the cartridges were first considered ordinary stock that might have sold for $10 to $15 each.

The cartridges were identified as a late-production variant of Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt that had not been seen by collectors before. Ganos called it a “once in a lifetime” discovery, a fitting label for a stack of untouched Nintendo history sitting inside a storage box in Wisconsin.

Store owner Kevin Braun had initially viewed the cartridges as low-dollar resale items, but the reaction changed once the significance of the variant became clear. The fact that the copies were individually bagged and described as pristine has made the group especially intriguing for collectors who track provenance, condition and regional oddities in NES-era releases.

Three of the cartridges are now headed to auction this month through Heritage Auctions, and the lots could fetch millions. That estimate fits a market that has already pushed rare Nintendo hardware and software into seven-figure territory, including a sealed Super Mario 64 that sold for $1.56 million at Heritage Auctions in 2021. A copy of Super Mario Bros. also sold for a record-breaking $3 million at auction in June 2026.

For collectors, the draw is not just the price tag. The cartridges add a previously unknown version of one of Nintendo’s most recognizable pack-in games, found in a Wisconsin store instead of a museum or a private archive. That kind of discovery is the sort of thing prototype hunters and preservation-minded fans spend years chasing, because it can rewrite what is understood about production runs, regional distribution and what survived in unopened form.

The story began with a box of old NES cartridges that looked easy to sort and easier to undervalue. It ended with 97 untouched copies of a Nintendo oddity, a discovery that could move from a Waukesha back room to the auction block without losing the mystery that made it matter in the first place.