A 1981 Donkey Kong Poster Just Sold for $329,400, a New Record
Jumpman got a raise.
An original 1981 Donkey Kong poster just became the most expensive piece of video game art ever sold at auction. The promotional artwork, which shows the first public appearance of Mario, sold for $329,400 through Landry Pop Auctions (IGN).
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Why is this Donkey Kong poster so valuable?
It's the very start of Mario. Artist Leslie Cabarga drew it as an arcade flyer for Nintendo of America, and it shows Donkey Kong holding a barrel over his head while Mario climbs the building to save Pauline. Back then, Mario wasn't even called Mario yet, since the character was just known as Jumpman.
The poster also almost didn't survive. According to the auction house, former Nintendo of America employee Donna Darbous rescued it from a pile of materials that had been marked to be thrown away (whoever made that call is having a rough week).
What was the old record?
The previous record for video game art belonged to the original cover painting for Prince of Persia, which sold at Heritage Auctions in 2023 for $63,000. The Donkey Kong poster beat that by $266,400, so this one isn't close.
What else sold in the auction?
The poster headlined a whole sale called Jumpman: The Beginning of an Icon. Original Super Mario Bros. artwork of Mario and Luigi sold for $17,080, almost three times its $6,000 estimate. A piece of Goomba art went for $10,370, and a first-production 1985 copy of Super Mario Bros. graded 8.0 by PSA sold for $34,160. Even a Nintendo of America employee orientation VHS tape featuring Mario brought in $3,660.
"Long before Mario became the face of a multibillion-dollar entertainment franchise, he was a character on an arcade flyer," Landry Pop Auctions said.
Is video game collecting still booming?
It sure looks like it. Earlier this month, a retired decorator in the UK sold a Pokémon card collection for $2 million. In June, a copy of Super Mario Bros. graded 9.6 A++ by PSA sold for $3 million, which made it the most expensive video game ever sold.
My read is that early Nintendo art is now in the same league as rare comic books. If you have an old arcade flyer in a closet somewhere, maybe go check on it.
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All images are official Arcade Archives Donkey Kong screenshots from Nintendo and Hamster.
