A "sticker sealed" copy of Super Mario Bros. was recently purchased by a group of collectors. These copies are said to have been sold during the early NES test launches in New York and Los Angeles, and are sealed with a sticker instead of shrink wrap. The title was certified as authentic and graded by Wata Games, a company specializing in grading retro video games.
What's a bit odd about this is that it seems like a bit of circular publicity. You see, this sale was announced by a press release from Heritage Auctions, an auction house that auctions off retro video games. One of the buyers of the game is the co-founder of Heritage Auctions. Heritage Auctions makes a point of selling games that have been certified by Wata Games.
It's almost like this is a publicity stunt to get collectors excited about buying certified collector's items from Heritage Auctions.
(Wata Games does have some neat articles about obscure game releases though --
like this page about black box NES variants!)
Links:
Heritage Auctions Press Release
