CGC Video Games Grades Rare Barbie: Groom and Glam Pups for the Nintendo 3DS

While innocent in nature, this traditional rarity can be a killer to obtain, fetching thousands of dollars at auction due to its low print run.

Posted on: 2/27/2023

CGC Video Games™ recently certified a sealed copy of one of the rarest Nintendo 3DS games in the console library — Barbie: Groom and Glam Pups. Also the first Nintendo 3DS game by CGC Video Games, this sealed Barbie: Groom and Glam Pups (2013) has a special notation as the "1st Nintendo 3DS Game Graded" and received a grade of CGC 9.0 A+.

The Nintendo 3DS succeeded the overwhelmingly popular Nintendo DS in 2011. It was seen as a significant improvement to the original Nintendo DS family of consoles and is still one of the most popular handheld consoles in use today due to its extensive library of games and loyal fans.

While the 3DS has more than 200 games in its library, some are harder to find than others. Barbie: Groom and Glam Pups is one of the most scarce 3DS games in the entire library, and even appears on the Nintendo 3DS Traditional Rarity list in the CGC Video Games Reference Guide. The Barbie game originally came out in November 2010 for both the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS. Two years later, Nintendo re-released the game for the Nintendo 3DS.

Barbie: Groom and Glam Pups allows players to choose a dog to groom, change their hair color, pick outfits and other accessories for them and take pictures. The game was not well received by audiences, which limited its production run. With so few copies released to the market, Barbie: Groom and Glam Pups became a scarce title that many collectors seek to complete their collections. The game can reach thousands of dollars at auction, such as an example that sold for around $3,400 in an eBay auction in December 2022.

CGC Video Games began accepting video game submissions in October 2022. Since then, the company has already graded thousands of games from the world's most popular console libraries, including Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Microsoft, Atari and more, with all authentication, grading and encapsulation services backed by the CGC Guarantee. To learn more about CGC Video Games, click here.

To learn more about rare games, check out our guide to the rarest PS2 games.