Price Check/Interest Check: The Rare, Gold, N64 Controller from Nintendo Power competition. Comes with original game winning Polaroid

[RH | 5,414]

Well the title says it all.  Can someone tell me what this is worth? What makes this NP controller special is two things—it’s in fantastic shape but better than that, it has the original Polaroid that was taken to win the event.

Can anyone who’s well versed in these things give me a fair high/low for this item, especially with the provenance?

 

Edited February 10, 2024 by RH

[O.G. CIB | 423]

Nice piece there! @jonebone any idea what one of these run?

[RH | 5,414]

Anyone? 

[Splain | 2,876]

I remember this NP "contest." You could enter the raffle as long as you completed 3 laps of Mario Raceway in under a minute thirty. I had a Polaroid just like that one but I didn't win the drawing. A friend of mine mastered the trick where you jump the wall in the middle using a mushroom, and his total time was under a minute. He was mad that he didn't win, but it was never about getting the best time.

Bad news is there doesn't seem to be any stickers or anything to identify the controller as unique from the gold controllers you can find on eBay for 30-40 bucks, aside from the story. It's like an NFR cart with a ripped sticker on the back. I'm sure the story isn't fake but it could be faked easily. So I personally wouldn't pay more for this than one of those 100th-issue gold controllers with the sticker, even though this is more special/rare.

Someone might though. You asked for someone who's well-versed and I'm not lol. Do you know the name of the contest winner and was it maybe published in an issue of NP?

[RH | 5,414]

29 minutes ago, Splain said:

I remember this NP "contest." You could enter the raffle as long as you completed 3 laps of Mario Raceway in under a minute thirty. I had a Polaroid just like that one but I didn't win the drawing. A friend of mine mastered the trick where you jump the wall in the middle using a mushroom, and his total time was under a minute. He was mad that he didn't win, but it was never about getting the best time.

Bad news is there doesn't seem to be any stickers or anything to identify the controller as unique from the gold controllers you can find on eBay for 30-40 bucks, aside from the story. It's like an NFR cart with a ripped sticker on the back. I'm sure the story isn't fake but it could be faked easily. So I personally wouldn't pay more for this than one of those 100th-issue gold controllers with the sticker, even though this is more special/rare.

Someone might though. You asked for someone who's well-versed and I'm not lol. Do you know the name of the contest winner and was it maybe published in an issue of NP?

There is a difference.  All others, except from this one set, are stamped “Made In China”. 

[RH | 5,414]

@Splain See this blog post.  You can read about the rare, gold controllers.  The section titled “Made in Japan” explains this specific controller.  Only 2,000 were made and 1,000 were given out in the US and the rest in Japan in a similar competition.

https://consolevariations.com/blog/was-this-the-first-golden-n64-controller

 

Edited February 11, 2024 by RH

[Splain | 2,876]

49 minutes ago, RH said:

@Splain See this blog post.  You can read about the rare, gold controllers.  The section titles “Made in Japan” explains this specific controller.  Only 2,000 were made and 1,000 were given out in the US and the rest in Japan in a similar competition.

https://consolevariations.com/blog/was-this-the-first-golden-n64-controller

 

Oh word, that's legit. I wondered why you had a pic of the top. The sky's the limit then.

[jonebone | 1,335]

I don't see this commanding a big value either, no provenance.  Same with the "Mario Party glove" that was a direct form Nintendo thing when kids were getting blisters in their palms from joystick rotation.  Someone tracked down it was just a plain white glove and hard to prove.

I believe Japanese controllers have the Made in China thing and could be frankensteined too.  That used to be a way to verify an e3 controller, the Made in China top but counterfeiters caught on with the swapping as well.

 I don't doubt it's legit, I just find it hard to believe someone would pay more than a couple hundred bucks since it's niche and not really proveable. 

[RH | 5,414]

1 hour ago, jonebone said:

I don't see this commanding a big value either, no provenance.  Same with the "Mario Party glove" that was a direct form Nintendo thing when kids were getting blisters in their palms from joystick rotation.  Someone tracked down it was just a plain white glove and hard to prove.

I believe Japanese controllers have the Made in China thing and could be frankensteined too.  That used to be a way to verify an e3 controller, the Made in China top but counterfeiters caught on with the swapping as well.

 I don't doubt it's legit, I just find it hard to believe someone would pay more than a couple hundred bucks since it's niche and not really proveable. 

I’m not sure I follow the Frankensteing bit for this controller.  I mean, it’s either a gold controller or it’s not and it’s either stamped with “Made in Japan”, or it’s not.

You can’t take a MIC unit and swap any readily accessible part out there to make this controller.  Now the Black/Gold E3 controller, yes, I have heard of that being forged and, frankly, I always thought that was problematic with this controller, but I do want to understand how you think someone could fake this, apart from trying to spray paint a controller.

[a3quit4s | 4,528]

I don’t know if it’s the potato photos or how VGS and our forums software scale down images but it just looks like a regular ass gold controller with an even worse Polaroid of some scores that don’t even have the controller in it. What exactly is being shown here? I guess the Made in Japan thing is cool vs the other made in Chinas and if you were hardcore about controller collecting you’d dig it, but it really has no other indications of being made for a special event? Lame

Edited February 11, 2024 by a3quit4s

[OptOut | 9,261]

Cool, where'd you get it from? Did you enter the contest yourself?

[RH | 5,414]

2 hours ago, OptOut said:

Cool, where'd you get it from? Did you enter the contest yourself?

Nah, I wish I won it but I do recall entering this competition, as well as one that I think was for “A race with Koopa the Quick” in SM64.
 

The was a local pick-up but it was from the original winner.

[read | 20]

Where does the number for 1,000 given away in Japan come from? On this Japanese flyer for the contest, it says that 10,000 were given away, so that would seemingly make this controller 10 times more common than originally thought.

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