660K Mario - what is going on?

[GPX | 1,369]

I think this deserves a topic thread of its own. I have so many questions to ask, but mostly thinking "WTF is going on?" , and "who is bidding such out-of-this-word prices?"

I'd love to ask the winning bidder some questions too, but mainly "WTF is going on?"

[YOURTURN | 1,256]

I had to look up what you were talking about.  So here is a link for those who need to do the same thing: https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/super-mario-bros-game-breaks-auction-record-sells-660k

In all cases I am literally wondering "Why?" since the only difference is that the grade is a 9.6/A+ mid-production with a hangtab. As opposed to be a 9.4/A++ early production with a glossy (or matte?) sticker. And it is Wata! By now people should know that both VGA and CAS (or just VGA since nobody listens to me) would have graded the box alone a lower grade. At least that is what others are saying here.

But yeah... This is a new example on why I am happy being an Aspie. I can make bad financial decisions when it comes to collecting. But I am also willing to be fiscally responsible enough to know this should not be a thing. 

[tidaldreams | 654]

Someone wanted to funnel their GME profits into something more tangible.

[Code Monkey | 2,005]

The buyer will make $200,000 profit on this before the end of the summer.

[Brickman | 3,983]

I haven’t understood it from the start. The 100k Mario was crazy enough. 

If one day an article came out about HA and collusion I wouldn’t be surprised one bit. Same with criminals funnelling money through collectables.

[GPX | 1,369]

4 minutes ago, Code Monkey said:

The buyer will make $200,000 profit on this before the end of the summer.

Can I ask where are you getting these predictions from? GVN? Pawn Stars segments?

How is anybody going to know what the next bid will be? Serious question (as serious as I’m likely to ever be on this forum).

[CIB_Wholesale | 418]

with historic levels of demand will come a historic wave of new supply ---- I'm excited to see the new games come up

[OptOut | 8,881]

It's only a money thing, it's nothing to do with the games, not really anyway. The games are a token, representing a financial investment, nothing more.

Good luck to em, but it ain't my hobby.

[GPX | 1,369]

And just to add some fun, it seems a Mario sealed in near-mint to mint is going at 5x increase for every 6-12 months. So I predict, by the power of extrapolation, that by the end of this year, a Mario NES sealed will be worth 4 million big ones!! 4,000K, what a bargain!

Edited April 4, 2021 by GPX

[GPX | 1,369]

11 minutes ago, OptOut said:

It's only a money thing, it's nothing to do with the games, not really anyway. The games are a token, representing a financial investment, nothing more.

Good luck to em, but it ain't my hobby.

Who’s hobby is it currently for? That’s another big question of mine.

[OptOut | 8,881]

3 minutes ago, GPX said:

Who’s hobby is it currently for? That’s another big question of mine.

A bunch of big swinging dicks with too much money, too little sense, and ZERO knowledge of video games, by the looks of things!

[Code Monkey | 2,005]

58 minutes ago, GPX said:

Can I ask where are you getting these predictions from? GVN? Pawn Stars segments?

How is anybody going to know what the next bid will be? Serious question (as serious as I’m likely to ever be on this forum).

I watched the same thing happen with Action Comics 1. It's just item A from your childhood, it has memorable art on the front and it's the pinnacle version of the item.

I also saw it happen with the Ferrari 250 GTO, it sold for $12,000,000 and people thought that was mad until that guy resold it for $40,000,000. Top Gear had the car on their show but couldn't drive it because their insurance wouldn't cover it.

You can deny it all you want but this is just collectible Z in the long list of collectibles, people will pay Action Comics money for this game one day. Remember that people thought the $100,100 sale was crazy 2 years ago and that was a more desirable copy than this one. If that one went to auction today, it would be over a million. This one that sold yesterday is a fifth print I think. I'd have to look at it again.

Edited April 4, 2021 by Code Monkey

[CIB_Wholesale | 418]

16 minutes ago, GPX said:

Who’s hobby is it currently for? That’s another big question of mine.

I've been trying to sell zelda 90 and pokemon red 90 for 2 years. From my opinion it looks like the only way to get 10x valuation on your items it to have it sent in for grading with WATA and consigned to Heritage. Collectors dont like VGA --- that's worth a lot less

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Code Monkey | 2,005]

4 minutes ago, SealedWholesale said:

I've been trying to sell zelda 90 and pokemon red 90 for 2 years. From my opinion it looks like the only way to get 10x valuation on your items it to have it sent in for grading with WATA and consigned to Heritage. Collectors dont like VGA --- that's worth a lot less

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I thought you had an offer on it.

[CIB_Wholesale | 418]

1 minute ago, Code Monkey said:

I thought you had an offer on it.

it's rarer than a ht mario so what should I ask for it now that so many HT Mario examples have come up?

I just want to match 1 of my items to a Heritage price. That's all i'm asking for but no where close. I get ebay price matching offers for the last 20 years

[GPX | 1,369]

22 minutes ago, Code Monkey said:

I watched the same thing happen with Action Comics 1. It's just item A from your childhood, it has memorable art on the front and it's the pinnacle version of the item.

I also saw it happen with the Ferrari 250 GT, it sold for $12,000,000 and people thought that was mad until that guy resold it for $40,000,000. Top Gear had the car on their show but couldn't drive it because their insurance wouldn't cover it.

You can deny it all you want but this is just collectible Z in the long list of collectibles, people will pay Action Comics money for this game one day. Remember that people thought the $100,100 sale was crazy 2 years ago and that was a more desirable copy than this one. If that one went to auction today, it would be over a million. This one that sold yesterday is a fifth print I think. I'd have to look at it again.

I think you're mistaken if I'm denying there isn't a boom happening. What I'm denying is that this is a genuine market going at a genuine market-demand pace. There is a lot of dodginess happening that we all can sniff it, but just that we can't prove it.

Regarding your examples in the Action Comics 1 and the Ferrari 250 GT, they are different scenarios. For starters, I can imagine there is a genuine market of high demand for the rare comics/cars. But this demand and market was likely to have built over several decades, where most collectors in those fields would be in general agreement of the rarities and accepable price increases. With the current video games scene, there is no unison in agreement about these end prices, and a lot of the high end collectors are jumping out rather than jumping in.

Lastly, do we actually know how many sealed Mario exists? What happens if in 1-2 years, there is found to be 100-200 in existence, all in rare condition. Would you think the price would increase or drop then? The market is still in too much uncertainty for such crazy high prices to occur, or rising the way it has been. There is a HUGE risk to take, my genuine advice.

Edited April 4, 2021 by GPX

[OptOut | 8,881]

3 minutes ago, SealedWholesale said:

it's rarer than a ht mario so what should I ask for it now that so many HT Mario examples have come up?

I just want to match 1 of my items to a Heritage price. That's all i'm asking for but no where close. I get ebay price matching offers for the last 20 years

It's because you're not part of their little cabal dude. These guys are all in each others' pockets, it's plain as day.

Personally I'm GLAD of that as nothing I'm doing in my collecting and gaming hobby is affected.

But, I can definitely see how it might be frustrating for you.

[CIB_Wholesale | 418]

1 minute ago, OptOut said:

It's because you're not part of their little cabal dude. These guys are all in each others' pockets, it's plain as day.

Personally I'm GLAD of that as nothing I'm doing in my collecting and gaming hobby is affected.

But, I can definitely see how it might be frustrating for you.

I got it a long time ago and said "i'll never sell it" but after the 100k Mario HT sale I thought - should atleast get some offers. It's weird it's like if samson carts started selling back to back for 10k and you put your copy up on forums and social media and people start yelling at you 'the only way to get 10k is to put it on ebay and have it in a vga slide out case !!! and your label has a 1/100 cm tear only the no tears get 10x'''''

 

 

[GPX | 1,369]

14 minutes ago, SealedWholesale said:

I've been trying to sell zelda 90 and pokemon red 90 for 2 years. From my opinion it looks like the only way to get 10x valuation on your items it to have it sent in for grading with WATA and consigned to Heritage. Collectors dont like VGA --- that's worth a lot less

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is another big point against the current sales trends on HA. If people are fair dinkum after the best of the best condition and rarity, then why just choose to only buy in WATA form and sold only through HA. Wouldn't any sensible collector expand on their field of buying to increase their chances of obtaining such rare items? Even a sensible investor might think this too?

[CIB_Wholesale | 418]

3 minutes ago, GPX said:

This is another big point against the current sales trends on HA. If people are fair dinkum after the best of the best condition and rarity, then why just choose to only buy in WATA form and sold only through HA. Wouldn't any sensible collector expand on their field of buying to increase their chances of obtaining such rare items? Even a sensible investor might think this too?

yes, it hurts to think about the wasted money going to buyers premiums. I can work out a deal with a buyer on a forum and save them up to 20%

 

 

unfortunately due to swiping only devices they would never be able to type video game sage . com

[OptOut | 8,881]

5 minutes ago, SealedWholesale said:

I got it a long time ago and said "i'll never sell it" but after the 100k Mario HT sale I thought - should atleast get some offers. It's weird it's like if samson carts started selling back to back for 10k and you put your copy up on forums and social media and people start yelling at you 'the only way to get 10k is to put it on ebay and have it in a vga slide out case !!! and your label has a 1/100 cm tear only the no tears get 10x'''''

 

 

It's because the people wanting to buy it off of you ONLY want it so they can immediately regrade it with WATA and resell it on HA as SOON as possible. And, moreover, end customer on HA want the sales to be as big and bold and public as possible, because the ONLY way they can convince people these items are worth so much is buy pointing to how much they paid.

There is ZERO organic demand for sealed graded games. Nobody is buying them because they want them. The only people interested in graded games are people who buy em to flip, or to hold as a long term investment.

[CIB_Wholesale | 418]

2 minutes ago, OptOut said:

It's because the people wanting to buy it off of you ONLY want it so they can immediately regrade it with WATA and resell it on HA as SOON as possible. And, moreover, end customer on HA want the sales to be as big and bold and public as possible, because the ONLY way they can convince people these items are worth so much is buy pointing to how much they paid.

There is ZERO organic demand for sealed graded games. Nobody is buying them because they want them. The only people interested in graded games are people who buy em to flip, or to hold as a long term investment.

i buy them because all the batteries and circuit boards have been exposed to oxygen so they aren't going to be here very much longer so what do you think the average collectors game life span is? 60 years?

 

so not zero but 1 is me . definately want a 10/10 cart for all the good games out there so the fun thing about collecting sealed is if the price goes crazy just buy a cart lol

[OptOut | 8,881]

3 minutes ago, SealedWholesale said:

so not zero but 1 is me . definately want a 10/10 cart for all the good games out there so the fun thing about collecting sealed is if the price goes crazy just buy a cart lol

You are a rare and noble exception, my friend.

[GPX | 1,369]

7 minutes ago, OptOut said:

It's because the people wanting to buy it off of you ONLY want it so they can immediately regrade it with WATA and resell it on HA as SOON as possible. And, moreover, end customer on HA want the sales to be as big and bold and public as possible, because the ONLY way they can convince people these items are worth so much is buy pointing to how much they paid.

There is ZERO organic demand for sealed graded games. Nobody is buying them because they want them. The only people interested in graded games are people who buy em to flip, or to hold as a long term investment.

No there is a genuine demand for sealed graded games. Just like there is a genuine demand for CIB or loose collecting. I can proudly state this as fact, as I'm both a CIB/sealed collector, where I'm proud of either collections I have. Some of which might be for investment potential, but lots of them were purchased purely for displaying and collecting fun. The ones who are paying up all the absurd prices are in a different league though. And these might be the ones with zero care factor, which is what you're implying.

[CIB_Wholesale | 418]

1 minute ago, OptOut said:

You are a rare and noble exception, my friend.

the supply side is very low for sealed games like some in the single digits.  sealed collectors are competing with all the collectors who want their favourite game in the best condtion and the way kids ripped into the nes games and lined up around the block. so over time there will only be more fans of mario  and more damaged copies of sealed nes games.

 

it's the dupe collectors that are really weird because they dont just want 2 copies they want all of them and i would just like the best condition cart and save money just me i guess