Magazine Speculation Part 6: Nintendo Power
Parts of this post originally appeared in the Comic Book Scalping video series, “This week in Speculation.” Excerpts from this article originally appeared in episode 9. This video and more can be found on our youtube channel.
One magazine that I would like to spotlight in my Magazine Speculation series is Nintendo Power magazine. The first issue of Nintendo Power Magazine was published in July of 1988. Nintendo Power was the first and only official Nintendo publication released in North America. The first issue of Nintendo Power featured preview images of Super Mario 2 and various gaming tips and tricks for games on the NES platform. The magazine evolved with every new console released by Nintendo. The last issue, issue 285, was published on December 11, 2012. Nintendo Power eventually “came back” in December of 2017 as a podcast.
The first issue of Nintendo Power in low to mid grade sells for $40 to $60 while Near Mint copies have sold for $100 to $150. There are two versions of the first issue of Nintendo Power Magazine. The regular edition you could purchase at stores and sample copy variants. The regular edition came with a Poster while the sample copy covers have “Free Sample Copy” above Mario’s head and no poster. You would get sample copies by mailing off an insert that was inside the Nintendo Entertainment System Action Set Games and Console bundle. This was to help persuade Nintendo customers to subscribe to the magazine. There were approximately 500,000 copies printed of the sample variant and the regular version of Nintendo Power has an approximate print run of 3.5 million.
The first fifteen issues of Nintendo Power sell for well over $10 each and the second and third issues are very desirable, both selling for $30 to $50.
One other noteworthy issue of Nintendo Power is issue 285. This was the last issue of the Nintendo Power magazine run – a run that ended because of low sales. This magazine had a low print run and is very desirable. Selling for $30 to $40 in its factory unsealed condition.
Thank you Adam and Jon for pointing this out – one undervalued issue of Nintendo Power is issue 6. This issue features the first published artwork of J. Scott Campbell from a art submission contest.
Parts of this post originally appeared in the Comic Book Scalping video series, “This week in Speculation.” Excerpts from this article originally appeared in episode 9. This video and more can be found on our youtube channel.
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Big Video Game magazine collector here. It wasn’t long ago a collector could buy a high grade Nintendo Power #1 for around $20 to $40. In the past four or five years that has all changed! Solid Near Mints are almost impossible to find! On Ebay anyway, the average high grade that comes up for sale is usually in the VF range, sometimes as high as VF/NM and they do go for $150, sometimes more! Even those in VF don’t come up all that often these days. Seems the average “higher” grade for this issue is around a Fn+. Anyway, the prices have gotten crazy! The rare times a true NM- to solid NM (9.4) come up for sale they have sold in the $250 range, easy! Seems most Nintendo collectors really don’t care which version they have as long as they get at least one. The price for the lower printed Sample version does usually sell for more than the standard cover but not by as much as would be expected.
netendo power #6 is a key issue.it features the first published artwork of j. scott cambell. and has a tmnt cover but for j.s.c. fans this is his first published work jimmy is big pimping love you all blind adam out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq3TZRWoiog