Par Online Games VIP Editorial
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A 1981 Donkey Kong poster featuring Jumpman sold for $329,400, setting an auction record for original video game artwork after nearly being discarded.
A 1981 promotional poster for Donkey Kong, featuring Mario in his early “Jumpman” identity, sold for $329,400 at auction. IGN reported that the result makes the flyer the most expensive piece of original video game artwork ever sold at auction.
According to IGN, the poster nearly ended up in the garbage before former Nintendo of America employee Donna Darbous saved it from materials marked for disposal. Landry Pop Auctions facilitated the sale and organized the event around early Nintendo artwork and memorabilia.
The sale gives a surviving piece of Donkey Kong history unusual financial significance. It also places attention on a period when Mario was not yet Nintendo’s established mascot, and when the character was identified simply as Jumpman.
A discarded arcade flyer becomes auction history
IGN reported that the artwork was drawn by Leslie Cabarga for Nintendo of America as an arcade flyer. The scene presents the central conflict of the original Donkey Kong: Donkey Kong raises a barrel above his head while Jumpman climbs a building to rescue Pauline.
Landry Pop Auctions said the flyer sold for $329,400. IGN identified that result as a record for original video game artwork sold at auction. The record had previously belonged to the original cover artwork for Prince of Persia, which sold for $63,000 at Heritage Auctions in 2023, according to IGN.
The difference between the two sales was $266,400. That comparison shows the scale of the result, but it does not establish that every category of video game collectible has experienced the same increase. It is specifically a comparison between the Donkey Kong poster and the previous auction record cited by IGN.
The poster’s condition, provenance, and complete auction terms were not detailed in the supplied report. What is confirmed is that Darbous rescued it from a group of materials intended for disposal, and that the surviving flyer later became the central item in a record-setting sale.
Why the Jumpman image matters to Nintendo history
The poster captures Donkey Kong before Mario had the name and status associated with him today. IGN described the character shown on the flyer as Jumpman, while Pauline appears as the captive figure behind Donkey Kong. The image therefore represents an early version of a relationship and visual setup that would become foundational to Nintendo’s arcade and console history.
Landry Pop Auctions framed the sale as evidence of how far Mario’s cultural and commercial importance has grown from his early appearance on an arcade flyer. That is the auction house’s interpretation of the result, rather than a separate measurement of Mario’s overall value or popularity.
For players, the most useful context is the distance between the object’s original function and its later status. The artwork was made to promote an arcade game, not as a museum piece. Its importance now comes from the combination of its age, its connection to Nintendo of America, its depiction of Jumpman, and the fact that it survived after being marked for disposal.
That survival also distinguishes the poster from modern digital game assets. A flyer is a physical artifact with a traceable history, and the story supplied by IGN gives this example a particularly clear before-and-after arc: it was nearly discarded, then became the highest-priced original video game artwork in the auction record cited by the report.
The auction was titled Jumpman: The Beginning of an Icon and included additional Nintendo-related material, according to IGN. The event featured original production artwork from Super Mario Bros., including illustrations of characters and enemies that would become familiar across the series.
Original artwork showing Mario and Luigi sold for $17,080. Landry Pop Auctions said that price was nearly three times its $6,000 estimate. Original artwork of a Goomba sold for $10,370, more than twice its $5,000 estimate, according to IGN.
The auction also included a first-production 1985 copy of Super Mario Bros. for the NES. IGN reported that the copy had an 8.0 PSA grade and sold for $34,160. A Nintendo of America employee orientation VHS tape featuring Mario sold for $3,660 against a $1,500 estimate.
These sales should not be treated as equivalent to the headline result. The poster was the record-setting item, while the Mario and Luigi artwork, Goomba artwork, graded NES game, and orientation tape represent different types of collectible. Their prices provide context for the breadth of the auction, but they do not create a single ranking of Nintendo history.
IGN also connected the result with other major game-related auctions. The report mentioned a United Kingdom collection of Pokémon cards that sold for $2 million and a PSA-graded 9.6 A++ copy of Super Mario Bros. that sold for $3 million. Those figures concern different collectibles and should not be confused with the $329,400 artwork record.
Analysis: Players are unlikely to experience this sale as a change to a game, console, or service. No gameplay update, new release, remaster, or preservation announcement is attached to the auction result in the supplied reporting. Its significance is cultural and historical rather than functional.
The sale may nevertheless change how older Nintendo material is discussed. The record emphasizes that the history of a game can extend beyond the software itself. Promotional flyers, production drawings, employee materials, packaging, and other objects can document how a character or series was presented before its long-term identity was fixed.
In this case, the distinction between Jumpman and Mario gives the poster particular value as a snapshot of an earlier stage. Players know the character through decades of games, but the flyer shows him in a more limited promotional role: a determined climber trying to rescue Pauline from Donkey Kong. The auction result does not make that image more playable, but it does make the physical evidence of that early period more visible.
The near-disposal story is also relevant to preservation. It suggests that historically important game material can be vulnerable when it is treated as ordinary promotional stock. That is an interpretation of the reported circumstances, not evidence that other specific Nintendo items are at risk. Still, the episode helps explain why provenance and survival matter so much in collecting.
It is also worth separating market price from historical importance. The $329,400 result demonstrates what one buyer or group of buyers paid in this auction. It does not establish an objective value for every Donkey Kong flyer, every Mario image, or every piece of original game art. Similar objects could differ substantially in authenticity, condition, rarity, ownership history, and presentation.
The catalog supplied for this coverage includes several playable games connected to the broader Donkey Kong and Mario history. They do not reproduce the auctioned paper artifact, but they offer a player-focused bridge from the collectible’s subject matter to interactive games.
The connection here is historical rather than a claim that any of these games contains the auctioned artwork or recreates its exact 1981 presentation.
What remains unconfirmed
The supplied report does not identify the buyer, the seller, the final bidding process, or the poster’s detailed condition. It also does not provide a photograph description beyond the illustrated scene, nor does it state whether the $329,400 figure includes any specific buyer’s premium or other auction costs.
The report confirms that Landry Pop Auctions facilitated the sale and shared the result in a press release, but it does not provide a full chain of custody for the poster after Darbous rescued it from disposal materials. Further auction documentation would be needed to establish that history in more detail.
There is also no confirmed follow-up about where the poster will be displayed, whether it will enter a public collection, or whether additional early Nintendo material will be offered in a future sale. Those are the next details worth watching because public access would determine how easily players, historians, and collectors can study the artifact.
For now, the confirmed development is narrower and clearer: a 1981 Nintendo of America flyer drawn by Leslie Cabarga, showing Jumpman, Donkey Kong, and Pauline, sold for $329,400 after nearly being discarded. IGN’s report establishes the auction record and the surrounding sales. The broader meaning of the result will depend on how collectors, institutions, and game historians treat similar surviving pieces of early video game history.