How Much The Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! Game From Pawn Stars Is Really Worth
Original copies of Nintendo games, and especially original copies of rare Nintendo games, can go for obnoxiously large amounts of money. In fact, copies of games in pristine condition can pull in thousands upon thousands of dollars. One customer in Pawn Stars knew just how much money these games can sell for, and on the latest episode of the hit History reality TV series, he brought in his copy of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! for Austin "Chumlee" Russell to appraise.
The copy of the game, a boxing sports fighting game developed for the Nintendo Entertainment System and released in 1987, was an original and was still sealed. According to the seller, Brian, the game came from a collection with a single owner — and on the exterior of the plastic protective covering were outstanding ratings from Wata, an "expert video game grading" company that "empowers collectors to collect sealed games, CIB games, loose cartridges, and many more video game collectibles" (via WataGames). Brian's copy of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! earned a seal rating of A+ and an overall rating of 9.4, making it one of the best preserved copies in the recent market. It even still had the original tag from Kmart, listing its 1987 price at $34.97 — roughly $81 in 2021 cash.
Brian told Chumlee that he was looking to get $100,000 for the game, but Chumlee needed some expert insight before making any kind of offer. Thus, he called in Deniz Kahn, the founder and president of Wata and a video game collector himself, to the shop for help. Kahn valued the copy of the game at $70,000 to $80,000.
But, as Kahn said, it's hard to value something that's so difficult to find — and this well-preserved copy of the Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! was exactly that. However, there are some pretty comparable recently sold copies of the game that give a pretty good idea about its real-world value, and what people are willing to pay for it.
The real value of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
According to Price Charting, a website that specializes in video game collection data, the NES version of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! has sold for major bucks in the past year. The most expensive version of the game sold in its records had a Wata score of 9.4 with an A seal rating. While the copy seen on Pawn Stars had a better seal rating, this was the closest condition the game has been on the market for since at least 2018. This copy sold for $44,211 on eBay in June 2020. Apart from that sale, another copy of the game sold for $20,100 in July 2020; however, that copy only had a 9.0 Wata rating.
Judging by Price Charting's data, copies of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! drastically lose value if their Wata ratings fall below 9.0. It's also worth mentioning that an A+ seal rating, which hasn't been seen on the market in years, had a huge impact on the game's value from Kahn. While $100,000 might have been a bit high of an ask from Brian, it wouldn't be far-fetched to say the game would pull in at least half of that in a sale.
If you're not ready to shell out thousands of dollars on old NES titles, you can always use the Nintendo Switch emulation to play through dozens of the classics.