Rare Donkey Kong Poster Saved from Trash Sells for $329K
A 1981 Donkey Kong promo poster rescued from a Nintendo discard pile just sold for $329,400, setting a new record for video game artwork at auction — and it marks Mario's first public appearance.
You know that old box of junk in your closet you keep meaning to toss? Maybe double-check it first. A rare 1981 Donkey Kong promotional poster — one that was nearly thrown out as garbage — just sold at auction for $329,400 (about 2.2 million RMB), and it's now the most expensive piece of video game artwork ever sold.
Why the eye-watering price? This isn't just any old arcade flyer. It's an early piece of Donkey Kong marketing, and more importantly, it captures Mario's very first public appearance. Yes, that Mario. The mustachioed legend's debut is right there on this thing.
Here's the wild part: the poster almost never made it. According to Landry Pop Auctions, which handled the sale, a former Nintendo of America employee named Donna Darbous saved it from a batch of materials that had been marked for destruction. One person's trash pile turned out to be gaming history.
The artwork itself was created by artist Leslie Cabarga and was originally used by Nintendo of America as a flyer to promote the arcade game. Fast forward a few decades, and that same piece of paper just shattered auction records.
In a press release shared with IGN, Landry Pop Auctions confirmed the $329,400 final price, making it the highest-priced video game artwork ever sold at auction. The previous record holder was the original cover painting for Prince of Persia, which went for $63,000 at Heritage Auctions in 2023. Yeah — this Donkey Kong poster more than quintupled that.
So next time you're clearing out old promo stuff, maybe think twice before you bin it. You never know what might end up being worth a small fortune — or what piece of gaming history you might be holding.
What's the coolest piece of retro gaming memorabilia you've ever come across? Would you pay six figures for a poster? Let us know in the comments!
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