'Pawn Stars' guest brings a vintage video game and casually asks Rick Harrison for a million dollars

People who grew up in the 90s probably remember the era of classic games such as "Super Mario" and "Pac-Man" like it was yesterday. But decades have passed, and now these games and consoles that they were played on have all become rare collectibles. On an earlier episode of "Pawn Stars", a guest came into the shop hoping to sell an old "Super Mario" video game. Rick Harrison probably thought that it would cost a few thousand dollars, but the look on his face was priceless when the seller asked for a million bucks.

Of course, the Super Mario game he brought wasn’t just a regular one. The guest claimed that it was the first-ever sticker-sealed Super Mario Bros. title for Nintendo. Chum Lee checked it out and seemed quite impressed as well, but even he wasn't expecting that the owner would ask for a million dollars. “I didn’t know the market existed for six-figure games, much less a million-dollar game,” he said, still reeling from the shock.

The guest acknowledged that it was a lot of money for a video game, but didn't budge. “From all my research, WATA is the company that grades these. These are the ones you trust,” Harrison said, looking at the WATA sticker on the box. The game was in incredible condition, however, an expert had to be called in, and he was a part of the company. Deniz Kahn, founder of WATA, came to the show to check out the Mario Bros. Nintendo game. After observing it for a short while, he understood why the guest was asking for an astronomical sum of money. “This is probably the most significant piece of video game history that has ever passed through our grading company,” Kahn said. He then laid out the various aspects that made it such a valuable item.

“First, you’re going to see this sticker, so it’s not shrink-wrapped. It’s from the test market launch of the NES as far as we know, which was only in 1985 and 1986. No one even knew who Nintendo was, but back then, they were just another company. So once they started mass producing these and sending them across the country, they had to have something that would last on the shelves longer, which is also why seeing this in this condition, it’s just…it’s a complete anomaly,” he explained.

It was then time to learn if the game was worth a million or had the guest overestimated its price a bit too much. Kahn was not sure, and he said that he had seen bids worth $300,000 for it being turned down, and the price could only go upward from there. “There’s no ceiling, really,” he added. This made it an unprecedented playing field for Harrison, who wasn’t hoping to be proven half wrong.

“I’m literally a little bit shocked and a little bit speechless,” he said after the expert left. The guest was also encouraged not to back down from his asking price, and ultimately, no deal was struck.