A seal carries a unique meaning for collectors.
Whether in the realm of wax boxes of cards, vintage toys or video games, there has long been a desire to own items in the same condition as they were first produced out of the factory.
The simple reason, of course, is scarcity. Boxes are meant to be opened. It’s the contents of the box that matter. How else could you pull a grail card or play your favorite video game if you didn’t open it up?
Since most follow that typical routine, sealed examples of all collectibles categories become extremely scarce — not least of all video games.
An original Hangtab Super Mario Bros. for the NES sold for $2 million due to its seal, one of a vanishingly few early prints still in its original box, unopened. That same game opened? Maybe $20 on eBay.
While the video games themselves are often the most talked about category in the sealed collectible world, there’s a niche within the sector that has caught the eyes of many: Sealed consoles.
If it’s rare to see a video game sealed after years or decades, that is doubly true for consoles, considering one could own a sealed video game while still enjoying other titles. When consoles remain unopened, there’s no way to play, period. Scarcity on steroids.
The most common sealed console to see sell at auction, especially in recent months, has been the Game Boy. While Game Boy Colors and special variations are highly coveted, it’s the original 1989 Game Boy that has carved out a spot as the poster child of this niche.
It shouldn’t be a surprise, after all, many of the children who grew up with the original Game Boy, now celebrating its 35th anniversary, are in their 40s and 50s — the prime age for collectors with money to spend and nostalgia to chase.
An original NES console, including two controllers, the Zapper light gun, R.O.B. and Gyromite and Duck Hunt games, sold for $120,000 at Heritage in November 2023, marking a record sale for any previously commercially available console. It cost just $128 in December 1986.
“It depends on the console, but demand has been relatively stable over the last two years,” said Valarie Spiegel, managing director of video games at Heritage Auctions. “However, rare variants of historically significant consoles have come to market during this time, which may give new observers a different impression.”
VGA, one of the leading video game grading companies, recently released a population report, including sealed consoles. As of mid-July, the report reveals less than 150 Game Boys in its census.
To get a pulse of the evolution of the market in recent years, it’s best to look at past sales at Heritage Auctions, which has been selling sealed Game Boys since at least 2020, the first of which were presented “raw” (ungraded). In November 2020, a sealed example sold for more than $5,000.
That was the sole sealed example the auction house sold in 2020. By 2022, five crossed the auction block, all but one graded by VGA. Nine were seen in 2023. This year, we’ve already seen five.
Prices have remained somewhat consistent, as early record sales — $21,000 for a copy in April 2022 — remain the high watermark. That’s likely due to the realization of collectors that these sealed consoles, while rare, are more common than originally thought.
So, just as video game collectors differentiate titles by print to indicate value, so too have console collectors, who have identified the first print Game Boy — “Green Screenshots” — as the grail. There are only around 20 in the VGA census, less than 20 percent of the population of the standard model.
Since Heritage began offering first production copies (identified in the lot listing as well as on the VGA label) in 2022, five have sold — each outperforming otherwise comparable examples from later productions sold around the same time. A VGA 85+ first production sold for $9,375 in May in the same auction as a VGA 85 later production fetched $4,250. That’s a premium of more than 100 percent for a game assessed to be less than a full grade higher.
Interest has remained high, likely due to a confluence of reasons, not least of which stems from the iconic design of vintage console boxes and their inherent display-ability.
“Space limitations often deter most video game collectors from making consoles their primary collecting focus, but collectors who focus on consoles are out there. They may be completionists, wanting one of every console ever made or each console made by a particular company,” Spiegel said.
Global searches for sealed video game consoles surged in 2023 on eBay compared to the prior year, with searches for “Sealed PlayStation Portable” up more than 60 percent, “Sealed Super Nintendo” up more than 50 percent and “Sealed Nintendo DSi” up nearly 20 percent. From January 1 to May 31, 2024, eBay users searched for “Game Boy Color” over 500 times per hour.
Prices have followed suit, with the average sale price of retro gaming consoles rising rapidly. Over the past few years — comparing 2019 to 2023 — the sale price of Game Boys rose more than 100 percent, per eBay data provided to cllct.
“For those of us who lived through the rise of consumer electronics, we look back on these friction points with fondness,” said Torin Herndon, CEO of ModRetro, a company producing rebooted tributes to the original Game Boy. “Each device had its own awkward interactions but distinctive charm. They defined a golden era where limitations were part of the adventure, making each experience intentional and memorable.”
Even modern consoles are seeing collectible intrigue as of late, with a sealed 1999 PlayStation graded VGA 80 selling for $4,500 in July at Heritage.
While the market remains choppy for these sealed rarities, the arrival of population reports and the increased availability of sealed and graded examples on the auction block, we might be witnessing the genesis of the next hot sector of video game and tech collecting.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.