Super Mario Bros. 3 (Nintendo NES) — Live Deals & Price Guide

Super Mario Bros. 3 shipped on the US NES in February 1990, almost two years after the Japanese Famicom original, and became one of the best-selling NES titles in the catalog. Designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka at Nintendo, the cartridge ships in the standard NES grey shell and is one of the most-listed retro carts on eBay every day. The feed below pulls current listings that match the original 1990 US-NTSC NES release, filtered to authentic-claim sellers with a meaningful feedback history. Pick a condition chip — All, Loose, CIB, or Sealed — to scope what's shown; the editorial explains what each tier should actually include and what to verify before clicking buy.

What the feed shows you (and what it doesn't)

The deals on this page surface the original 1990 US-NTSC NES release of Super Mario Bros. 3. They deliberately filter out:

• Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 — the 2003 Game Boy Advance remake of SMB3. It carries the same "Super Mario Bros. 3" title text in eBay listings and is the single most-confusing same-name cartridge for buyers on this page. Different hardware, different cart, different asking-price market. The feed excludes advance / GBA / Game Boy Advance / SMA4 so it doesn't dilute the NES surface.
• Multi-cart bundles — "Super Mario Bros. 1, 2, 3 trilogy" lots, "1 & 3 duo" pairs, and console-plus-game bundles. These price as bundles and skew per-cart asking; the feed excludes lot / bundle / trilogy / duo and the most common multi-cart sequences. If you specifically want a multi-cart bundle, search separately.
• Reproductions, aftermarket-shell rebuilds, and bootleg carts. SMB3 has an active reproduction-cart market given the title's high visibility; the feed excludes self-disclosed repro / reproduction / aftermarket / bootleg / counterfeit / knockoff / homebrew listings, but a dishonest seller listing a fake as authentic still reaches the feed. Verification work is on you; see the spotting-reproductions section below.
• PAL / European boxed copies. PAL Super Mario Bros. 3 trades in its own market and asks differently from the US-NTSC release; this page scopes to the US release so the asking-price percentiles stay honest.
• Standalone manual-only and box-only listings, the Nintendo Power Vol. 13 strategy-guide magazine, the SMB3 boxart promotional flag, and the 550-piece SMB3 puzzle. These are real collectible items but trade in their own markets and would muddy the cartridge asking-price percentiles.
• Accessories and merchandise that match the title text — the 1990 Nelsonic SMB3 LCD wristwatch, plush figures, posters, stickers, soundtrack vinyl, Funko Pop and similar merch.
• Parts-only / not-working / untested listings. Listings whose title self-discloses for parts, not working, broken, as-is, or untested are excluded — untested rejection is intentional because uncertain working-state listings ask differently than tested-working ones.
• Refurbished-suffix conditions (Good - Refurbished, Excellent - Refurbished). Refurbished work — board cleaning beyond contact cleaner, replacement pins, reshell, pin-connector swap — is a yellow flag for asking-price discipline on a non-battery cart; the page's standard pool reflects authentic-original carts. If you specifically want a refurbished cart, search separately.

Asking prices in the live feed reflect what sellers are asking in this snapshot. Actual sold values can run lower (especially after offer negotiation on CIB tier) or higher (on the rare-variant top tier where graded sealed first-print listings trade).

Loose vs CIB vs Sealed for this title

Loose for Super Mario Bros. 3 NES is the bare cartridge — no box, no manual, no dust cover. SMB3 is one of the most-produced first-party NES carts of the era; loose authenticated copies are abundant and trade at one of the most discovered asking-price tiers of any NES title. The loose-tier spread comes from cart-label variant (Left Bros vs Right Bros — see the variants section below), shell screw count (5-screw vs 3-screw), label condition (sun fade, scuffing, sticker residue), and authenticity claims. Super Mario Bros. 3 does NOT have battery-backed save memory — the cart is a non-battery design with no in-game save feature, so there is no save-battery question to ask, which simplifies loose-cart verification relative to titles with on-cart save chips.

CIB ("Complete In Box") for the original 1990 NES Super Mario Bros. 3 means the original outer cardboard box, the cardboard inner tray that holds the cartridge, the cartridge itself, and the instruction manual. Standard Nintendo paperwork inserts of the era (consumer-precautions card, Nintendo Power / Fun Club subscription material, registration card) shipped alongside, though the specific insert set varied across print runs and is not load-bearing for a basic "CIB" claim. CIB asking sits a tier well above loose because (a) the 1990 cardboard box is fragile and 36+ years of attic / basement / garage storage have eliminated clean examples, (b) the inner cardboard tray is frequently missing or torn from otherwise-complete listings, and (c) variant identification (Left Bros vs Right Bros label, 1st-print product-code callouts, the Challenge Set retailer-exclusive packaging) drives a meaningful asking-price spread within the CIB tier.

Sealed for Super Mario Bros. 3 NES is almost exclusively graded by WATA / VGA / CGC / PSA at this point. Raw factory-sealed copies of a 36-year-old cardboard box game essentially do not exist outside graded slabs; a raw sealed listing at a market-rate asking price without grading-house authentication should be approached with skepticism. The chip filter on this page allows headroom for graded sealed copies, but top-grade investment-tier sealed copies (WATA 9.4+ for first-print Left Bros sealed or the NFR Challenge Set sealed variants) trade well into auction-house territory and may exceed the surface here. The Sealed bucket will frequently be thin in this snapshot; high-grade NES Super Mario Bros. 3 sealed is a small, active-listings-sparse market.

Variants: Left Bros vs Right Bros, 5-screw vs 3-screw, and the Challenge Set

This is the part of the page where variant identification translates most directly into dollar differences within the loose and CIB tiers.

• Left Bros vs Right Bros is the most-discussed Super Mario Bros. 3 cart-label variant in the collector community. The cartridge label artwork places the "BROS." text in one of two horizontal positions relative to the Mario character art; "Left Bros" copies have the "BROS." text positioned to the left and are the earlier-print variant, while "Right Bros" copies are the later-print and more-common variant in collector circulation. The Left Bros variant commands a meaningful asking-price premium at the loose tier and a larger premium at the CIB tier (when paired with the appropriately-matched earlier-print box). The variant is straightforward to verify from a clear photo of the cart label — sellers who claim Left Bros without showing a clear cart-label photo are worth messaging before paying the variant premium.

• 5-screw vs 3-screw NES shell is the standard NES cart-shell variant: launch-era 1985–1987 first-party titles predominantly used the 5-screw back-panel shell with a separately-inserted PCB, and later production runs (most carts after early 1988) used the revised 3-screw shell with integrated molded supports. Super Mario Bros. 3 launched in 1990, after the 3-screw transition, so authentic Super Mario Bros. 3 carts are overwhelmingly 3-screw in collector circulation. Listings that explicitly call out "3 Screw" are flagging variant-aware buyers; a claimed "5 Screw" Super Mario Bros. 3 listing would be unusual and worth scrutinizing against the rest of the cart's authenticity signals before paying.

• Challenge Set is a 1990 retailer-exclusive variant package for Super Mario Bros. 3 — the eBay listing vocabulary uses "Challenge Set" specifically to flag this packaging. Challenge Set listings have alternate outer-box artwork and ask their own tier within the CIB pool (typically above standard CIB asking). The specific bundle contents and the retailer-exclusive distribution channel for the Challenge Set are documented variably across collector references — if you're paying Challenge Set premium asking, verify the listing photos against a known-authentic Challenge Set reference before clicking buy.

• NFR (Not For Resale) copies were promotional / demo / Nintendo-distributed units marked as such on the cartridge and packaging. NFR sealed copies (when found graded) ask well into investment territory but are extremely rare in circulation; the feed excludes the NFR whole-word token by default because the volume of these listings is small and conflating them with retail copies would skew the page's asking-price view. If you specifically want an NFR variant, search separately.

• Canadian Mattel Variant refers to Canadian-distributed copies of Super Mario Bros. 3 — Canadian NES distribution was handled by Mattel before Nintendo Canada took over, and Mattel-distributed boxes have distinct packaging text (typically including bilingual French / English packaging copy and Mattel distributor credits). Mattel-variant carts play identically on US-NTSC hardware (NTSC-shared region) and trade in their own collector tier; you'll see them surface in the feed when they pass the other excludes.

• NES-UM-USA-1 product codes and "1st Print" callouts. The product code stamped on the cartridge label includes a revision suffix; collectors use the "1st Print" / "1990 1st Print" callout in listings to flag earlier-revision carts. The codes themselves are visible on the cart label; specific physical identifiers per revision are well-discussed in collector references but vary across sources. Treat "1st Print" listings as variant-aware sellers signaling toward the early-production tier; verify against a known-authentic reference photo of the specific label revision before paying premium asking.

Spotting reproductions and bootleg carts

Super Mario Bros. 3 is high-visibility and the loose-cart asking tier is high enough to motivate an active reproduction market. The most reliable physical tells, in order of how confidently you can use them from a listing photo alone:

• Label printing quality. Authentic Super Mario Bros. 3 labels have crisp small text and consistent print registration. Bootleg labels often show noticeably blurry small text, off-color background tone, peeling adhesive on label edges, or text alignment that drifts from the bezel edges. Compare against a high-resolution photo of a known-authentic cart label before paying.
• Shell color and finish. Authentic NES grey carts use a specific Nintendo grey-plastic blend that has a characteristic look under good lighting. Reshells in off-shade greys or in non-Nintendo aftermarket shell colors (transparent, gold, red, etc. — visibly non-original) are easy to spot. Listings showing carts under poor lighting that obscures the shell finish are harder to evaluate; ask for a clear photo under indirect daylight if the listing photos are ambiguous.
• Back-of-cart security screw. Authentic NES cartridges use a Nintendo security screw on the back panel (the specific screw size is the standard Nintendo retail-era spec — for verification against a reference photo of a known-authentic NES cart). A Phillips-head screw on the back means the cart has been opened — by a previous owner doing internal cleaning, by a reseller doing board work, or by a bootlegger. A Phillips-back cart isn't automatically a fake, but it's no longer in factory-original condition and warrants extra scrutiny on label and shell authenticity.
• Shell seam tightness. Authentic Nintendo shells fit together with no visible seam gap. Loose-fitting shells with wavy seams indicate a reshell or a bootleg.
• Asking price sharply below the loose-cart median. A "Brand New Super Mario Bros. 3 cart" at $5 is essentially always a counterfeit regardless of seller authenticity claims. Authentic Brand New 36-year-old NES carts don't exist outside graded slabs. Sub-median asking is the strongest single repro-or-misrepresentation signal short of the seller disclosing the situation.
• Title-screen behavior on real hardware. Authentic carts boot to the standard NES title sequence and the Super Mario Bros. 3 title screen. Sellers who can show a video of the cart booting on a real NES give you the strongest single authenticity signal short of opening the shell.

Beyond direct counterfeits, watch for reshells — listings where the original PCB has been transplanted into a non-Nintendo shell (sometimes in a colored or transparent aftermarket shell, sometimes in a custom-painted shell). The PCB may be authentic but the cart is no longer in factory-original collector-grade condition and the asking price should reflect that. The feed filters explicit custom shell / aluminum shell / reshell disclosures, but a dishonest seller may not flag the reshell in the title.

Per-condition verification checklist

Loose

• Confirm the cart is an authentic 1990 NES Super Mario Bros. 3 cart — not a GBA Super Mario Advance 4 (GBA carts are physically smaller and a different shape; sellers usually flag GBA platform clearly but cross-listings happen), and not a Famicom-form-factor Japanese cart cross-listed as "NES" without disclosure.
• Look at the shell screw count if the listing photo shows the back of the cart — 3-screw is the expected shell for this title; a claimed "5 Screw" Super Mario Bros. 3 is unusual and worth verifying against the rest of the authenticity signals.
• Check the cart label for the Left Bros vs Right Bros print position; this affects asking price meaningfully within the loose tier and the listing photo should make it clear.
• Verify the label is sharp, the grey shell is consistent in color, and the label edges are flat without peel or curling.
• "Tested working" should mean the seller can confirm the cart boots and plays through the early levels — message and ask if "tested" is the only word in the description.
• Treat a Super Mario Bros. 3 cart asking sharply below the loose-cart median as the strongest single repro-or-misrepresentation signal short of the seller disclosing it.

CIB

• The box should show all four sides clearly in photos. Look for crushed corners, water damage on the cardboard, color fade on the spine, indented original-retailer price stickers, and rips at the box-flap edges.
• If the listing claims a Left Bros first-print variant, the cart label is the verification surface — request a clear photo of the cart label if not already shown.
• If the listing claims a Challenge Set retailer variant, the outer-box artwork differs from the standard retail box; verify against a known-authentic Challenge Set reference photo before paying the variant premium.
• The inner cardboard tray needs to be present and intact. Reseller-fabricated trays exist; the original tray has the standard Nintendo printing pattern.
• The manual should be photographed open — back-cover wear and water staining are the common defects.
• Standard Nintendo paperwork inserts (consumer-precautions card, Nintendo Power / Fun Club subscription material, registration card) are nice-to-have completeness items but the specific insert set varied across 1990 print runs and isn't load-bearing for a "CIB" claim.
• Verify the cart inside the box matches the box's print-run variant. Reseller assemblies that mix a Right Bros cart with a Left Bros box (or vice versa) do exist; the photos should show both together.

Sealed (graded)

• Almost always graded — verify the grading slab is from a reputable house (WATA, VGA, CGC, PSA), the grade is readable in the listing photos, and the certification number is visible.
• Cross-check the cert number against the grading house's online lookup if you're paying meaningfully into the tier.
• Raw factory-sealed Super Mario Bros. 3 at a market-rate asking price is highly unusual and should be approached with skepticism, not enthusiasm. Counterfeit-PCB carts have been reshelled and re-sealed into convincingly-presented boxes for the sealed-grading market.
• For serious sealed buying at the high-grade tier (WATA 9.4+ for first-print Left Bros variants, NFR Challenge Set sealed), shop with auction houses that specialize in graded sealed games — those copies trade above what a deal-page surface should attempt to discover.

Buying gotchas specific to this title

• Super Mario Advance 4 confusion. The 2003 GBA remake is literally titled "Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3" — sellers don't always flag the GBA platform prominently. The feed excludes advance / GBA / SMA4 to keep the surface focused on NES carts. If you're shopping outside this surface, look for "GBA" / "Game Boy Advance" / "SMA4" / "Advance 4" anywhere in the title or photos before bidding.
• Multi-cart "trilogy" bundles. Super Mario Bros. 1+2+3 trilogy bundles, "1 & 3" duos, and console-plus-game bundles are extremely common for this title and price as bundles rather than per-cart. The feed excludes them so the per-cart view stays clean.
• Reproduction "Brand New" listings at $5–$15. Sub-tier asking with "New" / "Brand New" condition is essentially always a dropshipped counterfeit. Authentic Brand New 36-year-old NES Super Mario Bros. 3 carts don't exist outside graded slabs.
• Left Bros premium without verification. Some listings claim "Left Bros" without a clear photo of the cart label. The label position is easy to verify from any sharp cart-label photo — if a listing claims the Left Bros variant and the photos don't make the label position obvious, message and ask before paying the variant premium.
• Refurbished-suffix condition variants. Some sellers mark cleaned or board-worked carts as Very Good - Refurbished / Excellent - Refurbished rather than the standard Very Good. The feed treats Refurbished as a distinct condition not included in this page's standard pool — refurbished work (board cleaning beyond contact cleaner, replacement pin connector, reshell) is a yellow flag for collectors and the asking-price tier on this page reflects authentic-original carts. If you specifically want a refurbished cart, search separately.
• Famicom-version cross-listings. The 1988 Japanese Famicom release of Super Mario Bros. 3 is a different-form-factor cartridge that won't play on US NES hardware without a separate adapter. The feed excludes famicom. If a listing shows a small grey cart that looks unlike the standard NES cart, it's the Famicom version.
• Nintendo Power Vol. 13 vs the cart. Nintendo Power Vol. 13 (July 1990) was the Super Mario Bros. 3 strategy-guide magazine issue and trades as a separate collector item in its own right. The feed excludes strategy guide / nintendo power so it doesn't muddy the cart-asking view. If you specifically want the strategy guide, search separately.
• The Nelsonic SMB3 LCD wristwatch. A 1990 Nelsonic Super Mario Bros. 3 LCD watch exists as a collectible accessory and routinely cross-lists under SMB3 cart vocabulary. The feed excludes wristwatch / nelsonic. If you specifically want the watch, search separately.
• Seller feedback floor. The deal feed requires the seller to have ≥50 feedback at ≥99% positive. Low-feedback sellers with cheap Super Mario Bros. 3 listings are a recurring fraud vector on a high-counterfeit-volume title — the feed quietly drops them, but the same heuristic protects you if you're shopping outside this surface.