Heritage Auctions Thread

[Dain | 193]

30 minutes ago, Alder said:

 

Is "I am a member on the Advisory Board of Wata Games" not considered to be "part of WATA"? Dain said he was "legally" done with WATA in 2017, so is the "Advisory Board" just slang for being a friendly advisor, or is there a legal interpretation with that phrasing?

When I joined WATA, I was originally going to be the CTO, helping to get the tech side of things going, which is why I was listed as an executive on the first SEC filings in 2017. I was also going to be an equity stakeholder in the company and eventually would be receiving a salaried position. That all fell through, and my email leaving WATA was me leaving my equity stakeholder and CTO positions: I no longer had any skin in the game.

The advisory board position was basically Deniz asking a personal favor of me to stick around in that capacity to lend credibility to the WATA name. I did advise on two issues, however: I participated in the best test program, and made some suggestions to that process; I also sent an email with some constructive feedback on the new website. I was never in a paid position and never received compensation for anything.

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

1 hour ago, charleybrown3 said:

My guess is you will see a lot more of these coming up for sale. Who knows how many are in the queue at WATA? People never thought they would be worth 50k let a lone for 1.5 million. Percentage wise 1000 is a small number considering the production run. 

I think this is the most important part of your post, as I recall reading somewhere on here yesterday (in a different, but forum-adjacent thread) that someone had been waiting more than a year for their games to be graded, having submitted them last June.  I think one of the major issues that nobody is talking about with WATA is the fact that it seems like they're letting every Tom, Dick, and Harry skip line so long as they're willing to pay up for the higher price tiers.  How long do the slower tiers have to sit neglected in a not necessarily as climate controlled warehouse as folks would like before getting graded versus a constant, consistent crush of "rush" orders?  Even if everything else brought into the spotlight by the reports of the last couple of weeks truly shook out as clean, this type of shit is still shady as hell, as there's zero reason that anyone's stuff should have sat for longer than a calendar year while others are showing how they submitted stuff 2-3 months ago in the rush category then gotten their games back without issu

31 minutes ago, Alder said:

Is "I am a member on the Advisory Board of Wata Games" not considered to be "part of WATA"? Dain said he was "legally" done with WATA in 2017, so is the "Advisory Board" just slang for being a friendly advisor, or is there a legal interpretation with that phrasing?

Yeah, I think that's a really important clarification that needs to be made.  The term "board" generally leads people to believe that it's some sort of officially sanctioned position with the company, whether it's compensated for or not.  The fact that Dain was advertising for them at the end of March 2018 muddies the waters he worked so hard to clear and drops him clearly back into the soup, all the while casting doubt on everything he's said to this point and potentially going forward.  Excellent catch, @B.A..

[GPX | 1,370]

10 hours ago, Dain said:

When I joined WATA, I was originally going to be the CTO, helping to get the tech side of things going, which is why I was listed as an executive on the first SEC filings in 2017. I was also going to be an equity stakeholder in the company and eventually would be receiving a salaried position. That all fell through, and my email leaving WATA was me leaving my equity stakeholder and CTO positions: I no longer had any skin in the game.

The advisory board position was basically Deniz asking a personal favor of me to stick around in that capacity to lend credibility to the WATA name. I did advise on two issues, however: I participated in the best test program, and made some suggestions to that process; I also sent an email with some constructive feedback on the new website. I was never in a paid position and never received compensation for anything.

Hi Dain, I joined NA 4 years ago and you weren’t really around by then. Just good to see you responding lately, and to give more closure to what went on with NA and your WATA connection. 

Can you give us an indication of why you decided to cancel your position at WATA? Any answer would be greatly appreciated!

Edited September 2, 2021 by GPX

[Gloves | 11,800]

4 minutes ago, GPX said:

Hi Dan, I joined NA 4 years ago and you weren’t really around by then. Just good to see you responding lately, and to give more closure to what went on with NA and your WATA connection. 

Can you give us an indication of why you decided to cancel your position at WATA? Any answer would be greatly appreciated!

He gave a brief version here: 

 

[Crystalis88 | 30]

25 minutes ago, Dain said:

When I joined WATA, I was originally going to be the CTO, helping to get the tech side of things going, which is why I was listed as an executive on the first SEC filings in 2017. I was also going to be an equity stakeholder in the company and eventually would be receiving a salaried position. That all fell through, and my email leaving WATA was me leaving my equity stakeholder and CTO positions: I no longer had any skin in the game.

The advisory board position was basically Deniz asking a personal favor of me to stick around in that capacity to lend credibility to the WATA name. I did advise on two issues, however: I participated in the best test program, and made some suggestions to that process; I also sent an email with some constructive feedback on the new website. I was never in a paid position and never received compensation for anything.

Capitalism at its finest?! You were just a cog and they utilized you and spit you out. They even bought your collection, had a pedigree assigned to it and paid you a pittance in relation to what it sold for. This happens in business all of the time but rarely gets exposed like this. I’m sure you have some info that could bury Deniz and Jeff but I suppose you’re one of the nice guys. 

[Gulag Joe | 584]

47 minutes ago, Crystalis88 said:

Is there another hobby where a new grading company hit the scene and immediately became the authority. And that same grading company is in bed with arguably the most prominent pop culture collective auction house. And that the owner of this auction house bought an item froM his own auction for a substantial sum and then did a press release on this sale like it was special? 
 

and is there an executive from a grading company that has a god damn eBay store selling all high grade items? If this same phenomenon is occurring in another hobby please let me know!

Yea it was called PSA and it happened 20 years ago and made regular cards that were once worth $50 in Mint condition to instantly become $500-$1000.

[Crystalis88 | 30]

Just now, Gulag Joe said:

Yea it was called PSA and it happened 20 years ago and made regular cards that were once worth $50 in Mint condition to instantly become $500-$1000.

Different time. We’re in the Information Age. Harder to get away with stuff hence why all of this is coming to light so quickly.

[AdamW | 713]

1 hour ago, Gulag Joe said:

The point is its happening across all collectible arenas. But here on VGS, 100 some pages of comments later, only the video game hobby is subject to the big lie and we're not allowed to talk about it any other way because it's not fair because this forum is for video games only!

You're allowed to talk about it however you like. Other people are allowed to disagree and put mean reacts on your posts. That's the kinda lawless frontier we live in around here.

[Alder | 243]

2 hours ago, Shane7951 said:

Are there back ups of the old NintendoAge, with the old data or is it just completely gone? Curious if there'd be even a minute chance of that surfacing. Forgive me if that's already been answered, I wasn't keeping tabs when all of that went down. 

I remember talk about downloading the whole site and zipping it up to work offline. Does anyone know if that ever happened?

[phart010 | 1,708]

18 minutes ago, Alder said:

I remember talk about downloading the whole site and zipping it up to work offline. Does anyone know if that ever happened?

I think I remember someone claiming to have done that. I don’t remember who it was though 

[AdamW | 713]

1 hour ago, Crystalis88 said:

Capitalism at its finest?! You were just a cog and they utilized you and spit you out. They even bought your collection, had a pedigree assigned to it and paid you a pittance in relation to what it sold for. This happens in business all of the time but rarely gets exposed like this. I’m sure you have some info that could bury Deniz and Jeff but I suppose you’re one of the nice guys. 

I mean, Dain was probably in a position to negotiate for what he considered a reasonable price for his own video game collection. I hear he's kind of an expert on them thar Nintendo tapes.

[Crystalis88 | 30]

3 minutes ago, AdamW said:

I mean, Dain was probably in a position to negotiate for what he considered a reasonable price for his own video game collection. I hear he's kind of an expert on them thar Nintendo tapes.

I’m aware lol. I wonder if he was in a position to negotiate the grades like someone else probably did.

Edited September 1, 2021 by Crystalis88

[Dain | 193]

15 minutes ago, Crystalis88 said:

I’m aware lol. I wonder if he was in a position to negotiate the grades like someone else probably did.

I've never owned a WATA-graded game, so no. The only graded games I owned were VGA-graded. 

[Crystalis88 | 30]

2 minutes ago, Dain said:

I've never owned a WATA-graded game, so no. The only graded games I owned were VGA-graded. 

That was my point. The person who bought your collection is an alleged opportunistic scumbag and I don’t doubt for a second that they may have had a hand in grading the collection.

[3rdStrongestMole | 430]

1 hour ago, Alder said:

I remember talk about downloading the whole site and zipping it up to work offline. Does anyone know if that ever happened?

I think Dain(?) commented earlier on having all that info at hand.  The comment's buried in this thread somewhere...

[ExplodedHamster | 404]

1 hour ago, Crystalis88 said:

Different time. We’re in the Information Age. Harder to get away with stuff hence why all of this is coming to light so quickly.

Quickly? It’s all been public for like 3 years lol. There was a thread on NA in early 2019. I don’t think anything being “reported” has been hidden.

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

Since Deniz and Ken were longtime, well known NA members, they must know what happened to NA and also know that we ended up here. 
 

Curious if they feel any sort of feeling inside their gut that they “should” come and at least tell their own side or something. Definitely dont owe us anything.  I understand that when a lot of money is on the line, keeping quiet is better however. Especially being so “community and hobby focused” I would feel it would be in my best interest. Then again, I never would probably be in this situation because having shitloads of money isnt a main driver in my life. 
 

But I also believe that if you are honest you really have nothing to hide. 

Edited September 1, 2021 by MrWunderful

[Jeevan | 8,915]

1 minute ago, MrWunderful said:

Since Deniz and Ken were longtime, well known NA members, they must know what happened to NA and also know that we ended up here. 
 

Curious if they feel any sort of feeling inside their gut that they “should” come and at least tell their own side or something. Definitely dont owe us anything.  I understand that when a lot of money is on the line, keeping quiet is better however. Especially being so “community and hobby focused” I would feel it would be in my best interest. Then again, I never would probably be in this situation because having shitloads of money isnt a main driver in my life. 
 

But then again, I also believe that if you are honest you really have nothing to hide. 

probably not allowed to and they got purchased, so legally probably can't...

[Pats1717 | 62]

On 8/30/2021 at 10:35 AM, captmorgandrinker said:

Luckily on that site, once you deleted your PMs they were gone for good.

You aren't the only one that had that thought (as private sales deals might be exploited), so lots of us deleted our entire inboxes.   And if I recall, took down the site for short periods as we did so.

Yes sir I deleted a crap ton of messages 20,000 plus and crashed the site. 

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

Just now, Jeevan said:

probably not allowed to and they got purchased, so legally probably can't...

What come and say

”I didnt do it”

or 

“please be patient, the truth will come out”

 

people are allowed to defend themselves to some extent lol

[Jeevan | 8,915]

14 minutes ago, MrWunderful said:

What come and say

”I didnt do it”

or 

“please be patient, the truth will come out”

 

people are allowed to defend themselves to some extent lol

maybe, but i wonder if they lawyered up......or maybe their "law" department told them not to do so?

[AdamW | 713]

25 minutes ago, ExplodedHamster said:

Quickly? It’s all been public for like 3 years lol. There was a thread on NA in early 2019. I don’t think anything being “reported” has been hidden.

The things that I think are new are Karl's establishing of the dates when Jeff was a director of WATA (and definitely establishing that he was one when the Carolina Collection was graded), and Seth's establishing that Mark has been selling graded games while being listed as part of WATA's "Executive Team" with a watagames.com email address. I don't recall those facts being established previously.

[Gulag Joe | 584]

2 hours ago, AdamW said:

You're allowed to talk about it however you like. Other people are allowed to disagree and put mean reacts on your posts. That's the kinda lawless frontier we live in around here.

I'm thankful for the frownie faces. I'm thankful that they truly believe PSA and CGC, both being nearly billion dollar companies each, billion with a B, are entering the video game market at the worst possible time and all of it is going to completely devalue. That's optimism right there! Frownie face optimism! 

[AdamW | 713]

25 minutes ago, Jeevan said:

probably not allowed to and they got purchased, so legally probably can't...

At the point where words like "FRAUD" and "FTC" started getting thrown around, they will almost certainly have been strongly advised not to say a darn word that CU's legal and PR people have not signed off on.

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

43 minutes ago, Jeevan said:

maybe, but i wonder if they lawyered up......or maybe their "law" department told them not to do so?

I'd say this is the case and wager a guess that somebody got hog tied to a chair while someone else hid all their electronic devices after that "nope, just checked the back room and no corruption or collusion in there" statement/comment that got made immediately after the video hit.  I don't remember exactly where it came from, but I do recall someone griping about how they are able to muster the manpower to thoroughly investigate corruption in their own company within 20 minutes but hold peoples' games hostage, ungraded, for a year.