Graded game auctions logged 61 sales for $41,353 in the 30 days to October 19, after weeks of $1.6 million and $2.8 million in September and August

The auction houses' graded video game market runs in bursts, and the 30 days to October 19 were the quiet between them. What The Slab's retro game auction market report, refreshed October 23 with data through October 19, counts 61 graded sales at Heritage and Goldin in its last-30-days window for $41,353 realized, a $525 median and a $2,125 top sale, a Donkey Kong Country graded PSA 9.2 B+. The only auction week in that window is the week of October 5 at Heritage: 57 sales for $38,604, with the same Donkey Kong Country on top.

Set that against the two weeks before it. The week of September 7 brought 304 graded sales at Heritage and Goldin for $1,623,540, led by a Final Fantasy VII CGC 9.9 A++ at $185,303 at Goldin. The week of August 24 brought 191 sales for $2,763,772, led by the sealed first-production Mario Bros. PSA 9.2 A++ at $450,000 at Heritage. One Heritage week in late August realized 67 times what the whole following month did.

Where the money went

What The Slab's top 15 for the last 90 days is almost entirely those two weeks. From Heritage's August 29 session: Super Mario 64 PSA 9.8 A++ $225,000, Super Mario Land PSA 9.8 A+ $200,000, Mario Kart 64 PSA 9.8 A++ $187,500, GoldenEye 007 PSA 9.8 A++ $125,000, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time PSA 9.8 A++ $81,250, The Legend of Zelda PSA 8.0 A $62,500, Super Mario World PSA 9.4 A+ $61,250, Sonic the Hedgehog PSA 9.8 A++ $60,000 and Super Mario Bros. 2 PSA 9.8 A+ $57,500. From Goldin's September 10 close: Street Fighter II PSA 10 A++ $103,700, Resident Evil CGC 9.6 A++ $93,940 and The Legend of Zelda PSA 9.6 A+ $62,220. Goldin's August 10 close adds a Pokémon Crystal PSA 9.8 A++ at $75,640. Every one of the 15 is sealed. Between those sessions, the houses' graded game sales were 57 lots with a $2,125 ceiling.

eBay carries the weeks between

The weekly market does not stop when the houses are quiet; it moves to eBay. The Graded Games Report for October 6 to 13 tracked 698 settled graded game sales, 515 of them with confirmed prices, at a $355 median (up 13% on the week) and an $872 average (up 36%). The week's top sale was a sealed Pokémon Sapphire for Game Boy Advance, PSA 9.8, at $35,100, ahead of a sealed first-print Final Fantasy VIII PSA 10 at $25,000 and a sealed Final Fantasy VII CGC 9.8 at $20,000. The report's sale links point to eBay listings. In one week eBay moved more than 11 times as many graded games as the houses did in a month, and its top sale was 16 times the houses' top sale.

The next bursts have dates

Goldin's Pokémon 30th Anniversary Auction closed Sunday, October 25, with a run of sealed Pokémon games. On October 24 GoCollect read the live bids: a Pokémon Emerald PSA 9.8 A++, an early Made-in-Japan production, at $65,600, or $80,032 with Goldin's 22% buyer's premium, after 46 bids; a first-production Pokémon Red PSA 9.4 A++ at $41,480 after 17 bids; Ruby at $40,870 and Sapphire at $14,945; FireRed PSA 9.8 A++ at $19,500 ($23,790 with premium) after 10 bids; LeafGreen at $19,642 after 16 bids. Those were bids, not results; Goldin's site is closed to our tool and no outlet had reported the closing prices by Monday morning, so the results go in Wednesday's issue. If the Emerald closed anywhere near its Saturday bid, it is the largest graded game result since Goldin's September 10 session.

Heritage's Video Games Signature Auction #7455 runs November 20 and 21 in Dallas, with live proxy bidding open and $689,483 in bids from 1,746 bids on the sale page as of October 26. The catalog's named lots include a Red Sea Crossing Atari 2600 prototype with its EPROMs and development boards, a prototype of the unreleased Xcavator, a first-production Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, Zelda no Densetsu for the Famicom Disk System, the Star Fox: Super Weekend competition cartridge, a top-pop Mario Kart 64, the Japanese non-Shindo Super Mario 64 and a prototype of the unreleased Sonic Crackers. The pattern What The Slab's calendar shows says the week of November 16 will be the next spike, and the 30 days after it will look like the 30 days to October 19.

What to watch next

• Goldin's Pokémon 30th results, once published: the Emerald, Red, Ruby and FireRed closes set the sealed Game Boy Advance and Game Boy ladder for the quarter.
• Heritage #7455, November 20 and 21: the bid total on the sale page is the running measure until the floor session.
• What The Slab's next refresh, which should add the weeks of October 12 and 19 and show whether the houses' quiet stretch held past October 19.

Figures are as reported by the sources below on the dates shown. This is market data and commentary, not investment advice.

Sources

• What The Slab, Retro Game Auction Market Report (refreshed Oct 23, 2026; data through Oct 19)
• The Graded Games Report (GradedGames.io), Week of Oct 6 to Oct 13, 2026
• GoCollect, Auction Watch: Pokémon Games, Trophy Cards and Collectibles, Oct 24, 2026
• Heritage Auctions, 2026 November 20-21 Video Games Signature Auction #7455 (sale page, read Oct 26)