WATA Games & Heritage Auctions

[bmoc]

I heard about this much earlier in the week but haven't had the time to watch the whole video until today. I gotta say this is pretty damning. It certainly looks like WATA Games and Heritage Auctions are in cahoots with each other to artificially raise graded video game prices (which has a ripple effect on retro game prices in general)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvLFEh7V18A

This is video is quite thorough and seemingly well researched. I highly recommend giving it a watch.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Not surprised at all that this is scammy. Although it had some really good collecting resources, I didn’t even like NintendoAge’s focus on value. That the site was purchased by people attempting to make money by artificially inflating the price of video games just makes the hobby worse for everyone.

[o.pwuaioc]

Not surprised at all that this is scammy. Although it had some really good collecting resources, I didn’t even like NintendoAge’s focus on value. That the site was purchased by people attempting to make money by artificially inflating the price of video games just makes the hobby worse for everyone.

Seconded. There's a good AtariAge discussion on this, too. Seems everyone except the media (who are of course non-experts) knows this already.

Add this to another reason why graded/sealed collecting is actually detrimental to this hobby.

[Gunstar Green]

It was pretty clear to any collector that this was exactly what was going on and it's great to see Karl Jobst really tear into it with his investigation.

Having some of the same players as the 80's coin collecting bubble should be really eye-opening to people. Hoping this grabs more media attention as it's been spreading pretty rapidly.

[prfsnl_gmr]

I was hoping it was something more interesting, like the laundering of drug money, but noooooooo! It has to be same old pump-and-dump collectible scams we’ve seen for decades…

[Blu]

Chances are these guys will face no repercussions either. The coin bubble bursting it seemed like Jim Halperin got a slap on the wrist.

Really discouraging that folks are in it for the money, instead of the love of the games.

If anything that's positive from this, it might mean a bubble bursting might make a few of these games across the board a tad more affordable.

I really liked the documentary though!

[Nemoide]

I'm definitely convinced by what that YouTube video was suggesting. I also thought it may have plausibly been money laundering or possibly idiotic billionaires who are so out of touch/don't know the value of products that they think $2 million is a reasonable price for a video game. But the sealed/graded games explosion has been absolutely cuckoo. IMO graded games are kind of a joke; I can understand why someone may want an authenticated nearly-perfect condition of a game, but I don't understand why some shrink wrap might boost the value several thousand times over.

Comic books and other collectibles have seen a price explosion as of late too, but at least that's a hobby with decades of history and you could reasonably expect a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 to be much higher than it was years ago. This was clearly and obviously some sort of funny business in the realm of games. I'm hoping this causes some sort of ripple effect/crash in the market and I'll be able to afford Sega Saturn and Dreamcast games again.

[marurun]

All it will take is someone suing Heritage and WATA, really. Any lawsuit will involve a discovery process, and what comes out could entice the FTC to take a closer look. I don't think the FTC would bother without a private lawsuit kicking things off, though. And that means some investors or big collectors have to get shafted, first. I do think that, given the involved parties' histories, any penalty would be more significant. Honestly, the reason they're taking on video games is they assume all the regular collectors are clueless rubes.

[PretentiousHipster]

Good thing I'm spending my money on tattoos now and will care about games again in a few years. Maybe the potential crash will happen around then.

[Gunstar Green]

Comic books and other collectibles have seen a price explosion as of late too, but at least that's a hobby with decades of history and you could reasonably expect a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 to be much higher than it was years ago.

Not just the usual suspects either. A lot of 90's comics that were worthless just a few years ago have gone from pennies to hundreds of dollars.