A rare Tom Brady crossover trade

In an eye-opening trade and one that represents the ultimate crossover of collecting, two unidentified collectors agreed to swap a 2000 Playoff Contenders Tom Brady Autographed #144 Gem Mint 10 for a 1990 Ninetendo World Championship Grey cartridge, a trade brokered by Metropolis Collectibles.

“In a nutshell, the rarest modern football card—featuring the greatest quarterback in NFL history—was traded for one of the rarest Ninetendo cartridges ever created,” Metropolis co-owner and COO Vincent Zurzolo said.

A similar (or is it the same?) Brady card sold for $168,000 in an auction by Heritage Auctions thereby establishing the value of the card—and in turn the Nintendo game. It’s said that setting a value on high-grade NWC cartridges is difficult because they rarely change hands.

Metropolis reported that the “cart” now holds the record for the world’s costliest video game, shattering the previous record of just over $100,000.

“The Nintendo World Championship Grey cartridge was created in 1990 expressly for Nintendo’s first traveling Power Fest tournament,” Metropolis stated. “It was never sold commercially or intended to last beyond the tournament. Over the years, only a few copies have surfaced, and most are in poor condition. This particular cartridge—graded 8.0 on a scale of 0-10 by the grading service Wata Games—is one of the highest-graded surviving copies.”

Zurzolo stated that each collector knew what the other had and wanted.

Jeffrey Maza of Metropolis explained to SCDhow the transaction went down:

“Client A, who was the owner of the Tom Brady card, is a high-end rare collector of all things pop culture. He recently started getting into video games and asked us if we could help him find an upgrade for his NWC grey cart. We reached out to a few of our video game clients and got a call back from Client B, who was the owner of the NWC grey cart. We set the two parties up for a meeting and they worked out the details of the trade rather quickly.

“They decided on the Tom Brady because Client B is a massive fan and Client A knew that it would take something of epic proportions to wiggle that game away from the owner’s grasp.”

Said Zurzolo, “It’s a perfect example of the rapid, expansive growth of the collectible video game market. It’s not just a fun, nostalgic hobby—it’s become a real investment opportunity.”