NORMAN, Okla. (KFOR) – The subject in his college course at the University of Oklahoma is Criminology.

Doctoral candidate Nickolas Membrez-Weiler is deep into a discussion of justice reform. His students are fresh off a quiz, every screen in the room is focused on the subject at hand.

It is only away from class, at a more relaxed spot like the Yellow Dog Coffee Company, that we spot a different ‘screen saver’ for Professor Nick, who spends (at his calculation) around 9 to 10 hours a week playing World of Warcraft on his laptop.

He’s always been really good at video games. As a 6-year old, it only took him a couple of weeks to break the code on his Super Mario set.

“I think I was just really good at seeing the patterns,” he explains.

Mom and Dand recognized talent when they saw it.

The tap lessons went on permanent hiatus and they started entering him in Nintendo competitions across the country.

He was a young, regional winner in 1990 which qualified him for the very first Nintendo World Championships in California.

Nick didn’t win that competition, but organizers did load him up with all kinds of cool items like stickers, T-shirts, and a special game cartridge made only for participants and never released to the general public.

He points out, “so there were very, very few of these things.”

Mombrez-Weiler credits his dad for saving his gamer stuff. It was buried in a storage unit for years until game collectors started reaching out to see if he still had it.

Offers to buy the rare game cartridge kept going up. The highest one, he recalls, “I had an offer for $150,000.”

It’s been a year now since he sent it off to curators, and to an auction house called ComicConnect specializing in pop culture collectibles.

There are 23 articles from his collection up for sale right now, the cartridge being the crown jewel.

We are, after all, products of our past, both good and bad.

Is Professor Nick better or worse for having played so many video games as a young boy? Who knows. But he will soon be much better off financially speaking.

“These are absolutely incredible figures,” he smiles.

To get a look at the auction items in Nick’s collection, visit this link.