captmorgandrinker | 1,649 Administrator · Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 33 minutes ago, Silent Hill said: While I've personally never gotten a message like this in my 14 years on eBay, I know there are some wild ass people out there. That said, wouldn't you think that they'd just buy the game low to acquire more copies and guarantee their manipulation? Especially something that's a few hundred bucks... Depends how low it's priced. If it's ridiculously low, they'd probably just buy it and then that sales point would get tossed out as an anomaly (seller didn't know what he had). If it's just a decent deal, then they don't want it selling at all at that price point so their held items don't start trending downward. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodysGameRoom | 2,008 Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 2 hours ago, Tanooki said: Because if this is real they’d be buying it cheap ruining the public record they want to create where it costs a lot more. If they want X at 500 and someone sets a paid value hundreds less it hurts their price fixing. No idea how that went over my head, lol 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kell | 102 Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 2 hours ago, Tanooki said: Because if this is real they’d be buying it cheap ruining the public record they want to create where it costs a lot more. If they want X at 500 and someone sets a paid value hundreds less it hurts their price fixing. Get your point. But assuming it is listed as a BIN, it’s can’t be used as a good gauge of the actual market value. Cant count how many times I’ve seen really low BINs over the years that were immediately bought. Shouldn’t affect market value unless there is enough of them to satisfy demand. An outlier shouldn’t impact it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamW | 713 Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 1 hour ago, ICrappedMyPants said: I get what you’re saying. My biggest issue is that WATA has the ability to highly influence the market landscape in providing values because there isn’t much of a competitive market for their services like the example you provided. Also, they are telling the world the value on a game that they graded versus providing a value to a customer. This is why I’d argue that they cross the line where conflicts of interest become problematic. One thing that would make it less problematic for me, actually, is something that hasn't been discussed much yet - a universal grading scale. AIUI, comic and card graders all grade on more or less the same scale (out of 10, with pretty much the same claimed meanings for each grade). An interesting thing on the coin story for me was that all the coin graders were supposed to be following the same scale (out of 70), and so it was possible to pretty conclusively establish that Halperin's company was overgrading, because there was a wider definition and understanding of the scale they were grading on. If there was a universal scale in games, defined and understood on a wider level than any one grading company, I think it'd be much easier to discuss "wrong" grading. As it stands, it's hard to claim that a WATA grade is "wrong" because there's no external definition or understanding to compare it to. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3rdStrongestMole | 430 Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 44 minutes ago, GPX said: You can argue that the intention was to plant a seed jn the seller’s mind, and ultimately to make the seller raise prices in all of his inventory. My take is that the message is representative of greed promoting greed. It isn’t just simply to corner a market for one item. You'd think it'd be something more along these lines, cause who in their right mind would waste this much effort bumping up a CIB of all things to 270. This is a tremendous amount of scheming for such a cheap item. Not to mention even if it sells for cheap, if this person thinks they have that much of a stranglehold on the remaining $270 CIB game () then just let it sell. In half a year it'll be ancient history. Then they can cash in for a HUGE PROFIT. Like, $300 or something... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woobie | 46 Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 I am just going to start messaging other sellers on ebay and ask them to raise their prices so I can sell my stuff at market faster. Its win win Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crystalis88 | 30 Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 2 hours ago, guillavoie said: I love the 'we wish you well' overall tone of this, lol! That's crazy to send a message like that, let alone the fact he's just hoping to pump a game at $270. BTW, no chance that it is rarebucky, not his style at all. Low priced sealed games? Market manipulation? Any chance this eBay account name started with an m ended with an h and had an s in the middle lol? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICrappedMyPants | 302 Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 23 minutes ago, AdamW said: One thing that would make it less problematic for me, actually, is something that hasn't been discussed much yet - a universal grading scale. AIUI, comic and card graders all grade on more or less the same scale (out of 10, with pretty much the same claimed meanings for each grade). An interesting thing on the coin story for me was that all the coin graders were supposed to be following the same scale (out of 70), and so it was possible to pretty conclusively establish that Halperin's company was overgrading, because there was a wider definition and understanding of the scale they were grading on. If there was a universal scale in games, defined and understood on a wider level than any one grading company, I think it'd be much easier to discuss "wrong" grading. As it stands, it's hard to claim that a WATA grade is "wrong" because there's no external definition or understanding to compare it to. I think this, combined with more qualified competitive grading options would go a long way to structuring the industry in a positive manner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkKobold | 190 Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 3 hours ago, Zach said: RareBucky is that you? Dude, this seems so fake to me. And to add to it, the guy who posted/made the story up, is legit TRYING TO PROFIT OFF IT. Your alarm bells should be going off about the legitimacy, not the content. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hammerfestus | 3,846 Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 24 minutes ago, Crystalis88 said: Low priced sealed games? Market manipulation? Any chance this eBay account name started with an m ended with an h and had an s in the middle lol? Mash? Mush? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avatar! | 1,811 Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 Anyone hear of this company? I have seen some of their graded games in auctions, but I don't know anything about them beyond this cheesy youtube video... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICrappedMyPants | 302 Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 18 minutes ago, DarkKobold said: Dude, this seems so fake to me. And to add to it, the guy who posted/made the story up, is legit TRYING TO PROFIT OFF IT. Your alarm bells should be going off about the legitimacy, not the content. Yeah, I don’t like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CIB_Wholesale | 418 Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 (edited) 5 minutes ago, ICrappedMyPants said: Yeah, I don’t like that. monies Edited September 3, 2021 by CIBWholesale Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CIB_Wholesale | 418 Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 11 minutes ago, avatar! said: Anyone hear of this company? I have seen some of their graded games in auctions, but I don't know anything about them beyond this cheesy youtube video... slim 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zach | 186 Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 (edited) 3 hours ago, avatar! said: I'm sure this message is 100% real. Same thing happens in ALL collectibles including coins, books, comic books, you name it... I recently bought something on ebay, not a video game but a rare vintage 80s toy store display, the seller had it listed for 1000, no one bid....relisted at 750, no one bid, I made an offer of 500 and could pick it up locally and he agreed. When I met the guy he SHOWED me on his phone a crazy message from someone saying "I can't believe you sold this to someone for 500, are you STUPID?! I sell these for 2 grand all day long! You're running the value of these things selling this so cheap!" and it went on and on like that. This was last month by the way. Had another one kinda like that recently where I bought a bunch of really rare 80s metal records at a flea market and did a big bundle where I basically got them all for 10 bucks a piece and the seller actually tracked me down again and begged me not to let any of the other vendors know what he sold those to me for, like he was afraid they would find out and get mad at him Edited September 3, 2021 by Zach 3 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacepup | 2,404 Administrator · Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 That kinda stuff happens a lot unfortunately. Many times backdoor attempts (and those can and do work on people). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zach | 186 Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 2 minutes ago, spacepup said: That kinda stuff happens a lot unfortunately. Many times backdoor attempts (and those can and do work on people). Ebay has made it harder to do that. The story I just mentioned about meeting the guy in person... whenever I messaged him, ebay would not let me send ANY private messages to him because their algorithm thought I was trying to back door a deal. All I was doing was telling him "hey I'll give you 500 and pick it up in person" and ebay wouldn't even let the message go through. I tried giving him my email address and they don't let you do that either. I had to do some sleuthing and find his personal email address just to contact him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YOURTURN | 1,256 Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 36 minutes ago, avatar! said: Anyone hear of this company? I have seen some of their graded games in auctions, but I don't know anything about them beyond this cheesy youtube video... Their labels look like a mash-up between what CGA, UKG, and CAS do. And their website does not offer any details on their grading system (beyond something that sounds like a variant of what CGA has created), does not offer a UV upgrade option, and it also does not currently offer a means to see how their own submission process works. Plus, I am now wondering if they are selling their own graded games as a way to finance their business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GPX | 1,369 Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 (edited) 53 minutes ago, Zach said: I recently bought something on ebay, not a video game but a rare vintage 80s toy store display, the seller had it listed for 1000, no one bid....relisted at 750, no one bid, I made an offer of 500 and could pick it up locally and he agreed. When I met the guy he SHOWED me on his phone a crazy message from someone saying "I can't believe you sold this to someone for 500, are you STUPID?! I sell these for 2 grand all day long! You're running the value of these things selling this so cheap!" and it went on and on like that. This was last month by the way. Had another one kinda like that recently where I bought a bunch of really rare 80s metal records at a flea market and did a big bundle where I basically got them all for 10 bucks a piece and the seller actually tracked me down again and begged me not to let any of the other vendors know what he sold those to me for, like he was afraid they would find out and get mad at him Can also confirm that messages like “your game is worth 10 times more than the sold price” exists, in the hope to change the mind of the seller. I’ve been involved with these kinds of scams both as a buyer and seller. As a seller, I knew that my sold price was reasonable market value and the message was simply BS. I laughed it off and ignored the message. As a buyer, a message like that was sent to the seller of an item I won through auction. The message suggested to him he undersold by 1/10 of market value. Which is BS, what auction can let you get away with that kind of huge profit? My fair assessment was that I might have got it at 1/2 of market value (at the time). In the end, I had to pay 2.5 times more to get the item I already had won.. Edited September 3, 2021 by GPX 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tidaldreams | 654 Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 5 hours ago, Zach said: RareBucky is that you? Why doesn't the seller just buy that person's copy if he thinks it's underpriced or wants to corner the market? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Pac | 7,548 Graphics Team · Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 Maybe I'm just bitter, but I think investing in collectibles is inconsiderate to hobbyists... Investors should stick to stocks, cryptocurrency, etc. - things that people don't actively participate in and derive personal value from outside of a purely speculative/financial context. And as a selfish aside, my biggest gripe with this whole grading / auction scandal is that it's putting too many eyes on the hobby. Just like with the "mini consoles" wave, bandwagon collectors see these YouTube videos and news articles, then rush into the hobby on a whim, feeding price-spikes across the board by increasing demand on everything from loose to sealed / graded games. I liked it better when nobody cared what game collectors were doing... -CasualCart 7 1 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bearcat-Doug | 5,105 Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 4 minutes ago, CasualCart said: I liked it better when nobody cared what game collectors were doing... I'm guessing that the majority of gamers would agree with you. 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BriGuy82 | 768 Posted September 4, 2021 Share Posted September 4, 2021 On 9/2/2021 at 10:35 AM, Crystalis88 said: There’s a similar thread on the cgc forums and bronty is (indirectly)requesting them to close the thread down. Why is everyone so in love with censorship these days? Boy, I actually went over there and read a little bit of the back and forth. You have people actually defending Mark Haspel! Haven't seen that here yet. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brickman | 3,986 Posted September 4, 2021 Share Posted September 4, 2021 (edited) 2 hours ago, Zach said: Ebay has made it harder to do that. The story I just mentioned about meeting the guy in person... whenever I messaged him, ebay would not let me send ANY private messages to him because their algorithm thought I was trying to back door a deal. All I was doing was telling him "hey I'll give you 500 and pick it up in person" and ebay wouldn't even let the message go through. I tried giving him my email address and they don't let you do that either. I had to do some sleuthing and find his personal email address just to contact him. For future, photo of email address still seems to work through eBay messages. Edited September 4, 2021 by Shmup Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zach | 186 Posted September 4, 2021 Share Posted September 4, 2021 3 hours ago, CasualCart said: Maybe I'm just bitter, but I think investing in collectibles is inconsiderate to hobbyists... Investors should stick to stocks, cryptocurrency, etc. - things that people don't actively participate in and derive personal value from outside of a purely speculative/financial context. And as a selfish aside, my biggest gripe with this whole grading / auction scandal is that it's putting too many eyes on the hobby. Just like with the "mini consoles" wave, bandwagon collectors see these YouTube videos and news articles, then rush into the hobby on a whim, feeding price-spikes across the board by increasing demand on everything from loose to sealed / graded games. I liked it better when nobody cared what game collectors were doing... -CasualCart that's what we've all been saying for the past 10 something years and by "we" I mean everyone who doesn't collect sealed and/or graded games 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now