Young 'Antiques Roadshow' guest says 'thank you, dad' after hearing the value of her video games
Video games may not fit into a list of antiques alongside paintings, precious jewelry, and furniture, but classic consoles and titles have gained vintage status. Guests on “Antiques Roadshow” are usually adults, but on a rare occasion, a young lady showed up with a couple of video games that her father had gifted her. The guest seemed like she was in her early teenage years, if not younger, and thanked her father for gifting her two video games valued in the thousands.
The guest claimed that the two games were from the 1980s, which were created for Nintendo consoles. They were Super Mario Bros. 3 and Double Dragon. The expert, Travis Landry, was impressed with her knowledge about the time period during which the games came out. He also said that the Nintendo Entertainment System revolutionized video games. Until a few years ahead of the time of taping, there wasn’t a market for vintage games, which made things a little uncertain.
Landry then stated that both games were second prints, and first prints would have been more valuable, but these two were still worth a lot of money. They were both in their original boxes, unopened. The guest revealed that her father was gifted these games when he was younger, but had never opened them since he already had them beforehand. After all this was done, it was time to place a value on them.
When the expert asked her if she had any idea how much the games were worth in the present, she said perhaps $100. However, the expression on her face was priceless when the expert revealed that the pair could sell for $3,000 to $5,000 in a retail setting. “Oh my gosh. That’s surprising,” she said. Landry then revealed that a first edition version of the Super Mario game could sell for $150,000.
Kids on “Antiques Roadshow” are rare, but it has happened more than once. On a different episode of the show, one young man came in with a painting that he had purchased for a couple of dollars after making his father wait in the heat for an hour. The expert, David Weiss, said that the guest was perhaps the youngest collector he’d ever seen. The guest agreed with that assessment.
He claimed that he liked to collect items made of glass and sterling silver, and works of art. The expert was impressed with the fact that his young guest kept up with the fluctuating prices of silver, as he liked to sell a lot of the items he found for a profit. The painting that he brought to the show was made by the Dutch painter Albert Neuhuys. When asked about its present value, he guessed it to be $150.
However, the expert said that Neuhuys' watercolor pieces at auction could bring $1,000 to $1,500. This was a lot of money, and the young man’s mind was blown. He even made a gesture showing that that was how he felt.
