And – although I wouldn’t have used these terms back then – I lost my shit. And I distinctly remember seeing the preview for Super Mario Bros.

While I wasn’t yet a subscriber (as I would become for years after), I did borrow friends’ copies of the magazine and I regularly browsed through the latest issue in the rack at the store. You got codes and maps (both of which were sometimes necessary to complete some of the era’s more frustrating titles), you got reviews and features about the latest titles, and you got a sneak peak of what was to come. While laughed off as a shameless propaganda machine today, back then NP was a go-to resource for Nintendo information. Here’s how you learned about video games “back in my day”: schoolyard chatter, gossip from the game rental store, television commercials and, of course, Nintendo Power. In need of a good, long-winded anecdote, I might tell them about the feverish hype and anticipation that surrounded the American release of Super Mario Bros. Given how almost everything in my life now revolves around being online, this might prove a challenge. Heritage's Comics & Comic Art Auction continues throughout the weekend and includes an internet session for comic books on Saturday and another video game session Sunday.If I have kids someday, I’ll have to explain them about how the world worked before the Internet. During the Heritage auction that closed Friday, two other sealed video games (Megaman and Mike Tyson's Punchout) sold for north of $100,000. Last month, an autographed Luka Doncic rookie card went for $4.6 million. A 1993 Magic The Gathering MTG Alpha Black Lotus sold for $511,100 on the site in January. In February, eBay announced that the trading card category on its platform grew by 142% in 2020, with over 4 million more cards sold compared to the prior year.

The following month, a scarce 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card sold for $5.2 million-the highest recorded card sale of all time. In December, an O-Pee-Chee Wayne Gretzky rookie was purchased for $1.29 million, setting the record for a hockey card sale.

The market for alternative assets such as trading cards and various forms of sports and entertainment memorabilia has skyrocketed over the past year.

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