A rare prototype cartridge of Pokémon Red has sold at auction for $101,000, proving that Pokémon nostalgia is still worth serious money. The 1998 development cartridge attracted 20 bids through Goldin, with the winning bid climbing far beyond its original $25,000 starting price. After the buyer's premium and fees, the total came to $123,220.

Unlike the familiar red Game Boy cartridge fans grew up with, this prototype features a transparent casing, exposed circuitry, and a handwritten "Red P" label. It was described as previously undocumented, making it a particularly unusual piece of Pokémon history. For collectors, the appeal is less about owning a copy of the game and more about getting their hands on a rare artifact from its development.

The cartridge was authenticated by PSA, which managed to recover and examine the first 32KB of its data. That readable portion matched the final US release of Pokémon Red, with the differences limited to technical information in the cartridge's header. PSA couldn't read all of the available data because of technical limitations, so the entire cartridge couldn't be confirmed as identical to the retail version.

That means the $101,000 prototype hasn't revealed a secret Pokémon roster or a hidden version of the game, at least not from the data examined so far. Its value comes from its rarity and connection to one of Nintendo's most iconic releases, rather than confirmed unreleased content. For a cartridge that helped preserve a piece of gaming history, though, collectors clearly decided it was worth catching.