Super Mario RPG (SNES) — Price Guide & Live Deals

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars came out on the Super Nintendo in 1996. Square developed it and Nintendo published it, and it arrived late in the console's life. It was Mario's first full role-playing game, and it's why Paper Mario and the Mario & Luigi series exist. The cartridge is one of the SNES RPGs collectors actively chase. It sits below Chrono Trigger and EarthBound on price but well above an everyday first-party cart like Super Mario World.

The feed below shows current eBay listings for the original US Super Nintendo release. It only includes sellers with at least 50 feedback and at least 99% positive. Use the condition chips (All, Loose, CIB, Sealed) to narrow what's shown. The sections below explain what each tier should include and what to check before you buy.

What the Super Mario RPG feed shows (and what it doesn't)

The feed shows the 1996 US Super Nintendo cartridge: loose carts, complete-in-box copies, and graded sealed copies. It drops the listings a buyer on this page could realistically confuse with it:

• The 2023 Nintendo Switch remake. It's also called Super Mario RPG, it's a new physical release, and it's cheap, so it floods any "Super Mario RPG" search. Any listing that mentions Switch is excluded. If a Switch case turns up anyway, it'll be obvious from the photo.
• Japanese Super Famicom copies listed as "SNES". Many Japanese carts are titled "Super Mario RPG SFC Super Famicom SNES", and they ask a fraction of the US price. Listings that say Super Famicom, SFC, SHVC, Japan or Japanese are excluded, and so are sellers located in Japan.
• Paper-only listings. Manual-only, box-only, booklet-only and strategy-guide listings are excluded. This includes the Nintendo Player's Guide and the third-party guides, which are a separate market. The price floor also drops cheap manual listings whose titles don't say "only".
• Multi-game lots, console bundles, broken or untested carts, self-declared reproductions, and merchandise (figures, keychains, and so on).

One trade-off: listings that pair the cart with a strategy guide are also excluded, because the title wording can't be separated from guide-only listings. Prices in the feed are what sellers are asking. Sold prices, especially on CIB after offers, often come in lower.

Super Mario RPG: loose vs CIB vs sealed

Loose is the biggest bucket and the cheapest way to play on original hardware. Loose prices vary with label condition, whether the seller says they tested it, and whether they say saves hold. Carts described as "cart and manual" or "with manual" usually land here too, somewhat above bare carts.

CIB ("complete in box") should mean the original cardboard box, the cardboard inner tray, the manual, and the paper inserts the copy shipped with. The box is fragile, which is why CIB asks run several times the loose price. Crushed corners, spine fading, price-sticker residue and a missing tray explain most of the gap between CIB listings. Some sellers include a fold-out poster in their CIB photos. Treat each extra as "what this seller shows" rather than a fixed list, and ask about anything that isn't photographed.

Sealed copies are almost all graded (WATA, VGA, CGC or PSA) and ask far more than any other tier. The Sealed chip is effectively a view of the graded market. Price depends mainly on the grade and the seal rating. Treat a raw "factory sealed" copy at an ordinary price with suspicion.

Super Mario RPG variants and look-alikes

• US retail release. This is the cart this page tracks: an English-language SNES cart with Legend of the Seven Stars on the box.
• Japanese Super Famicom release. Same game, different product. The cart shape is different and it won't fit a US SNES without an adapter. The text is in Japanese and the back label uses the SHVC- prefix, where US carts use SNS-. There's nothing wrong with it, but it isn't the US cart, and some listings don't make that clear.
• Rental copies. Former rental-store carts (Hollywood Video and similar) turn up with store stickers or stamps on the label. They're authentic Nintendo carts and they do pass the feed, but the stickers affect cosmetic value. Check the photos if label condition matters to you.

Super Mario RPG verification checklist by condition

Loose

• Check the cart shape against a US SNES cart. A smaller, squarer shell is a Super Famicom cart.
• Check the product code on the back label. US carts start with SNS-, Japanese carts with SHVC-.
• Check the back screw. It should be the original Nintendo security screw. A Phillips head means someone has opened the cart. That could be an honest battery swap, a reshell, or a bootleg, so ask the seller which.
• Compare the label with a high-resolution photo of a known-authentic Super Mario RPG label. Printing that looks too sharp, too glossy or too new on a 30-year-old cart is a warning sign.
• Ask whether saves were tested across a full power cycle, not just whether the game boots (see the battery gotcha below).

CIB

• Confirm the box is original, not a reproduction. Reproduction SNES boxes are sold specifically to people assembling "complete" copies.
• Confirm the cardboard inner tray is there. It's the part most often missing from "complete" listings.
• Confirm the manual is an original, not a reprint. The feed already filters listings that call themselves reproduction manuals, but a reprint inside a CIB listing won't be labelled.
• If you're paying toward the top of the CIB range, ask for photos of all six sides of the box. Corner and spine damage is usually on the side that wasn't photographed.

Sealed (graded)

• Check that the grading house is a recognized one and that the grade and certification number are readable in the photos.
• Look up the certification number on the grading house's website before paying.
• Be very cautious with raw sealed copies. SNES boxes can be re-shrink-wrapped, and graded sealed prices make that worth a scammer's time.

Super Mario RPG buying gotchas

• The Switch remake is the biggest source of noise. New Switch copies of Super Mario RPG sell for a small fraction of a real SNES cart, and a "brand new sealed Super Mario RPG" at a low price is almost always the Switch game. Check for the SNES cart shape or the SNES box before buying.
• "SNES" in the title doesn't mean it's a US cart. Japanese sellers routinely include "SNES" in Super Famicom titles. Look at the cart shape and the back-label prefix, not the title.
• Battery and saves. Super Mario RPG saves to battery-backed memory on the cart. It's a long RPG, so a cart that won't hold a save is a real problem. The original save battery is a flat coin cell, and cells this old often fail, so plan on a battery swap whatever the seller says. "Dry battery" listings still play, but they can't keep a save through a power-off. Battery-replaced carts that sellers list under eBay's "Refurbished" conditions don't appear in this feed, so check eBay directly if you'd rather buy one that's already been done.
• "Cart and manual" vs CIB. Many mid-priced listings are cart plus manual with no box. That's a good middle option, but check the listing isn't priced as CIB.
• Low-feedback sellers. The feed drops sellers under 50 feedback or 99% positive. On a cart worth counterfeiting, that's a reasonable rule to follow outside this page too.