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Despite it being a scary idea that the 1990s ended a quarter of a century ago and we're closer to January 1 2050 than we are to the millennium, the '90s couldn't be bigger right now.
Retro tech continues to boom, and whether it be Beanie Babies, Pokemon Cards, or old CDs, you should check your collections before flogging them for cents or giving them to charity.
While your average scratched copy of Alanis Morissette's "Jagged Little Pill" won't be worth much, a rare copy of Prince's "My Name is Prince" can fetch a pretty penny. There's a massive market for '90s nostalgia, and with Logan Paul shelling out a jaw-dropping $5.2 million for PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator Pokemon card, some will pay insane sums to cash in on the decade of dungarees and Die Hard with a Vengeance.
As one woman showed when she bought up an entire garage sale of DVDs and sold them for a huge profit, you should always check before you slap your old media with a markdown sticker and put it in your front yard.
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Old video games have always had a lucrative resale value, but as the '90s seems like a distant memory, you could be sitting on an unexpected nest egg. Some of the most expensive video game sales of all time can be found in the '90s.
Nintendo largely has this corner of the market locked down, but in 2021, a sealed copy of 1991's Sonic the Hedgehog sold for $420,000. Another Sega Genesis giant that makes the list is a near-mint sale of 1990's John Madden Football, which made $480,000 in 2022.
If you want the big bucks, you might be surprised to learn that an iconic and common video game could be worth over $1.5 million.
In 2021, a sealed copy of 1996's Super Mario 64 went for an eye-watering $1.56 million and became the most expensive video game ever sold. Including a 20% buyer’s premium, The New York Times confirmed there were 16 bids on the rare copy.
What's even more impressive is that the title beat the record that had been secured by a copy of 1987's The Legend of Zelda that sold for $870,000 just two days earlier.
The unnamed buyer splashed out on the beloved game that brought Nintendo's portly plumber into the 3D world for the first time ever.
Super Mario 64 wasn't exactly hard to get hold of when it was first released or even now, becoming the best-selling N64 game ever.
There's also been the Super Mario 64 DS rerelease in 2004, as well as the game being repackaged as part of Super Mario 3D All-Stars for Nintendo Switch.
As it's been 29 years since Super Mario 64 was first released, we don't imagine there's a copy in a better condition than the one sold in 2021. As there's been no word on a resale, we also assume the buyer still has it tucked away somewhere.
Unfortunately for N64 fans, this isn't the most expensive video game ever sold. That honor goes to an unopened copy of 1986's Super Mario Bros., which (again in 2021) sold for a bank-busting $2 million.
While most of us will never own $2 million, let alone spend it on a video game, it'll be interesting if anything will ever top this record-breaking sale. We suggest you take a look in your grandma's attic just to be safe.
