It definitely pays to buy Nintendo games and hardware. Nintendo “Club Nintendo” members got this special pack of commemorative 25th Anniversary pins celebrating Super Mario. Last year’s prize was a Mushroom Kingdom figurine that I quite liked more, but hey, a free gift is a free gift for being a loyal customer.

In order to get this pin set, you needed to reach Gold or Platinum member status by collecting a ton of coins. Luckily for me, I was one of the first to receive the pins and posted them to Internet. Unfortunately for Tekunoloji, all the old posts are gone, so I’m revamping the page up for those looking for it.

To find out how Club Nintendo works, you can pay their website a visit. The prizes are a little “blah” for my tastes – I’ve only requested a few drawstring bags with an 8-bit Mario logo, a DS Lite case (that I use for a 3DS now), and a Mr. Game and Watch: Ball re-issue handheld. I’m not really fond of pencil cases or notebooks.

Other prizes include screensavers, and now you can even redeem old Virtual Console games.