Nintendo World Championships cartridge exceeds $30K on eBay

A Nintendo World Championships cartridge for the Nintendo Entertainment System — one of only 116 ever manufactured — is up for bidding on eBay after a longtime Nintendo collector decided to part with most of his video game collection.

The 116 cartridges were made for an event held in 1990 that ran across 29 cities in the U.S. Called the Nintendo World Championships, the competition was based around scoring the highest in Super Mario Bros., Rad Racer and Tetris within a time limit of 6 minutes and 21 seconds. The three games were put on the game cartridges that were designed specifically for the contest, many of which were given away to competition finalists.

The eBay listing states that the cartridge is pre-owned and in acceptable condition. Part of its front label has been torn off, which makes it difficult to identify the cartridge's number. At the time of writing, bidding has passed $30,000. Other Nintendo World Championships cartridges have been auctioned in the past, many of which sold in the tens of thousands of dollars. In 2007, one such cartridge sold for $21,400. In 2008, a cartridge went for $15,000, and another the following year for $18,000.