An eBay user by the account name of “frogie” has just put up for auction a poster for the Super Mario Bros. film, released in 1993, signed by Shigeru Myamoto and Takashi Tezuka, two of the architects behind the original Super Mario Bros. video game, as well as many of the subsequent games in the Mario series.
The Super Mario Bros. movie is famously terrible, but despite this (or more likely because of this, and the cult following it gained due to its notoriety) bidding for the signed movie poster is starting at a whopping $550.00. It’s even received one initial bid at that amount.
According to a brief story included in the item description, this unique piece of Mario franchise-unifying memorabilia’s origin story begins at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The eBay user, who is presumably named Lisa—which is the name to whom the autographs are signed—was working there at the time the park hosted the red carpet premiere of Super Mario Bros. Miyamoto and Tezuka happened to stop by the part of the park at which Lisa worked, and it was there that the two Nintendo legends signed the poster (which folds out into triple its initial size and includes the film’s entire credits on the inside) and gifted it to the future auction-starter.
Both men were thrilled to sign the autograph, according to the story. Given that this event took place during the film’s premiere, presumably before reviewers had a chance to publicly share their opinions about the movie, there’s a chance that Miyamoto and Tezuka were genuinely happy with the film. They very well may also have just been excited to see characters they created in major movie theaters worldwide, or simply to have been recognized for their hard work somewhere other than their country of origin.
Anyone hoping to snag this poster for themselves—and with the deep pockets to do so—has until Wednesday, October 16th, at which point the auction will end, and ownership will be transferred to a new Lisa (metaphorically or, quite possibly, literally).
