Holy Grail Alert! Gold NWC Cartridge Graded by CGC Video Games Offered in Goldin Sale

Talk about a golden opportunity! A seldom-seen cartridge from the 1990 Nintendo World Championships that is certified by CGC Video Games™ is currently being offered in the 2024 Goldin 100 Part 2 auction, and it's turning heads. Bidding for the Nintendo World Championships Gold cartridge for the Nintendo Entertainment System (1990) graded CGC 4.0 had already surpassed $150,000 more than two weeks before the end of the sale on August 17, 2024.

The Nintendo World Championships (NWC) was the first major eSports event to be held in the United States. A part of Nintendo's traveling PowerFest 1990 exhibition, the NWC pitted tens of thousands of players against each other across 29 major cities. The national competition culminated in the finals held at Universal Studios Hollywood, where 29 city champions faced off for everlasting digital glory. Players competed using a special cartridge that featured levels from various games — just over 300 of these cartridges were produced, and each finalist received a copy after the tournament.

While the NWC was touring, Nintendo ran a Player's Poll contest in Nintendo Power. One of the prizes offered was a special gold-plated edition of the NWC cartridge given to finalists. The gold shell was similar to the one used for The Legend of Zelda, and each cartridge also came with a unique hand-cut label.

Nintendo Power selected 26 winners, and each had their name and hometown printed on the label. The CGC-certified example was awarded to Patrick King of Cheyenne, Wyoming. CGC Video Games' experts worked with Goldin, the consigner and prominent members of the video game collecting community to establish the cartridge's provenance.

Out of the 26 copies produced, only 16 examples of the gold NWC cartridge are currently known to exist. One copy was destroyed in a house fire, while nine others remain unaccounted for. This makes the gold NWC cartridge one of the rarest items in the video game collecting hobby.

Also featured in the auction is a Splendid Genesis, Magic: The Gathering (1997) Richard Garfield Event Artist Proof graded CGC Gem Mint 10 and certified by CGC Signature Series as signed by Monique Thirifay. While rare on their own, these special Splendid Genesis cards were professionally cut from a sheet in the presence of a CGC Cards witness and signed by Thirifay, the artist who created the beautiful artwork on the card. Additionally, each card has a sketched version of the artwork on the back. Each card is numbered #/20, as only 20 examples exist that were signed by Thirifay. For more information about these cards, click here.

Finally, two other CGC-certified collectibles are being offered by Goldin as part of the sale: a Charizard, Pokémon (1999) "Disco" Holo Test Print graded CGC Gem Mint 10 and certified by CGC Signature Series as signed by Mitsuhiro Arita, and an X-Men #1 graded CGC 8.5.

About CGC

Since revolutionizing comic book grading in 2000, CGC has grown to include certification services for a vast variety of pop culture collectibles. These divisions include CGC Cards, CGC Video Games and CGC Home Video. CGC Cards provides expert card grading for TCGs, sports cards and non-sports cards. CGC Video Games is dedicated to video game grading for the most popular consoles, including Nintendo, Sega, Atari, PlayStation and more. The newest division of CGC, CGC Home Video, provides expert VHS grading in addition to other types of home media, including Betamax tapes, DVD and Blu-ray discs.