Heritage Auctions Thread

[Jayleonis | 16]

15 minutes ago, tidaldreams said:

For a CIB one? Those are common as dirt.

If you bought all the raw cibs on eBay right now how many you think would score 9+? Highly likely the answer is 0.  

[tidaldreams | 654]

5 minutes ago, Jayleonis said:

If you bought all the raw cibs on eBay right now how many you think would score 9+? Highly likely the answer is 0.  

Maybe, but if a 9 is 2400, how much is an 8 worth? 1500? 1000? Either way, a helluva lot more than it was before today.

[DefaultGen | 5,401]

Imagine grading a complete Sonic 1. You probably did it what, 1-2 years ago, whenever people were on the Sonic 1 CIB hype train for some reason. It takes you a year to get your game back because what are you going to do, pay $200 to grade a CIB Sonic? The CIB hype dies down because... it's Sonic 1 CIB. You consign it the Heritage Auctions, it sits there for weeks, and a couple days before your lot comes up for sale, a copy of Sonic sells for $400,000. Lol, some people have all the luck.

Edited September 22, 2021 by DefaultGen

[sp1nz | 611]

I wouldn't pay 4 figures for a 10 grade of any variant of Genesis Sonic 1 CIB and I'm the Sega fanboy here.

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

5 hours ago, Gulag Joe said:

It's not even the first appearance of Batman and it's not even close to exceptional condition. And just because something has been around longer than another thing doesn't mean that the older one should be more expensive. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

Age doesn't have anything directly to do with popularity, but it does give a hell of a lot more people a hell of a lot more time to become fans, leading to a much larger recognition/fan base for older, "mature" memorabilia.  No, it's no the first appearance of Batman...it's the first appearance of The Joker (and Cat Woman).  Also the first issue of an iconic book, Batman's own series (one that he never took over from other characters/stories, like with Detective Comics).  And 8.0 for an 80+ year old book is pretty fucking fantastic, especially given that nobody took them seriously in those days, with most kids reading them and throwing them away, not to mention parents, etc.

It's far, far, far less surprising that such an iconic and recognizable book with an only slightly more iconic and recognizable main character would go for high dollars versus a 25 year old game that wasn't remotely the first game or appearance of it's nowhere-near-as-recognizable-as-Batman main character.

My grandmother doesn't give a fuck who Mario is, but she sure as hell recognizes Batman.  Plenty more older folks are in the same boat, many who collected such comics over the years but don't know or care who a video game plumber is.  But go right on ahead telling me how dumb I am and how I know nothing about the popularity and recognition of pop culture characters.  Then go back to hanging out under your bridge.

[DefaultGen | 5,401]

2 hours ago, tidaldreams said:

Tonight's big winner! I'm not sure which is more impressive, this or the Bioshock Infinite for $1k 

They're pretty close! The sellers probably paid what, $50 for Sonic and $15 for Bioshock Infinite which translated into $2400 and $1000? I think the fact that Bioshock Infinite has no historical relevance and you can still get it new on Amazon for $7 shipped makes Bioshock Infinite more impressive IMO, 10/10 sticker or not.

[AdamW | 713]

4 hours ago, Driftwood said:

A cib 9.0 sonic just sold for 2,600$

that’s a cib, it’s not sealed. 
seriously wtf?

it's less than 1% of the price of a sealed copy! That makes it a bargain!

No, I haven't checked eBay prices, why would I do that? I'm too busy shovelling my money into this fire here.

[AdamW | 713]

2 hours ago, Jayleonis said:

If you bought all the raw cibs on eBay right now how many you think would score 9+? Highly likely the answer is 0.  

It wouldn't be that hard to get close, because it's a sturdy clamshell plastic case. There are a zillion carts out there cheap, not hard to find one that would grade well. The manual is the hardest piece but you can get to 8.5 at least even with a meh manual. And you can probably track down a 9.0 manual if you're waving four figures around...:D

[Dumars2001 | 164]

2 hours ago, tidaldreams said:

Maybe, but if a 9 is 2400, how much is an 8 worth? 1500? 1000? Either way, a helluva lot more than it was before today.

A month ago, A WATA 9.2 Sonic CIB sold for $3,000 (positive feedback given from seller and buyer), so maybe this 9 is the going rate now?!

Sonic the Hedgehog #1 Sega Genesis WATA 9.2 CIB Gorgeous NES RARE + Pristine! 10086010091 | eBay

[Gulag Joe | 582]

5 hours ago, darkchylde28 said:

especially given that nobody took them seriously in those days, with most kids reading them and throwing them away, not to mention parents, etc.

Right here you are making an argument for sealed video games as most kids ripped open the boxes and played them and then as they got older, their parents either threw those games away, sold them at yard sales, or the kids themselves traded them all in for the next gen. Thanks for proving the point behind the high prices being paid for video games.

But why you would sit there and type out 5,000 words supporting the idea of someone paying $1.47 million dollars for a less than exceptional comic book that has 30+ more copies out there (not even rare nor the best existing condition with a KNOWN pop report no less!) other than maybe because you dress up like Heath Ledger every Halloween is really reaching. And I don't know why you brought your grandma into this, she ain't no millionaire that's gonna spend millions of dollars on Heath Ledger books.

[jonebone | 1,307]

6 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

Imagine grading a complete Sonic 1. You probably did it what, 1-2 years ago, whenever people were on the Sonic 1 CIB hype train for some reason. It takes you a year to get your game back because what are you going to do, pay $200 to grade a CIB Sonic? The CIB hype dies down because... it's Sonic 1 CIB. You consign it the Heritage Auctions, it sits there for weeks, and a couple days before your lot comes up for sale, a copy of Sonic sells for $400,000. Lol, some people have all the luck.

It's not luck.  I have a 9.0 Sonic 1 CIB because I knew Sealed was impossible and I'd be priced out by time one came to market (I was right).  They are easy to find but not easy to find in high grade as the carts are usually scratched and the manuals usually have dog ears.  But yes, I paid over $100 to grade something I bought under $100 and knew it would be wise.

I actually expected the Sonic to go about $3500, so I'd say $2500 wasn't that bad.  I wouldn't sell a 9.0 Sonic for less than $5k personally.  

By the way, a 9.6 Final Fantasy VII CIB (yes on PS1) sold for even higher than these Sonic prices we're talking.  It's being marked up on eBay around $7k I believe (no one is going to bite there) but people are paying high prices on graded CIB as hard as that is for some to believe. 

Edited September 22, 2021 by jonebone

[Gulag Joe | 582]

6 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

Imagine grading a complete Sonic 1. You probably did it what, 1-2 years ago, whenever people were on the Sonic 1 CIB hype train for some reason. It takes you a year to get your game back because what are you going to do, pay $200 to grade a CIB Sonic? The CIB hype dies down because... it's Sonic 1 CIB. You consign it the Heritage Auctions, it sits there for weeks, and a couple days before your lot comes up for sale, a copy of Sonic sells for $400,000. Lol, some people have all the luck.

I have a 9.2 of this

$25 for the game in 2010

$55 for the grade that took almost 2 years to get back

A "thousandaire" for a cib was a real thing in my mind because sealed versions of this are impossible to find. Ironically, HA has 2 sealed sonics coming up in the next auction so this might get even more sloppy.

[Dumars2001 | 164]

22 minutes ago, jonebone said:

It's not luck.  I have a 9.0 Sonic 1 CIB because I knew Sealed was impossible and I'd be priced out by time one came to market (I was right).  They are easy to find but not easy to find in high grade as the carts are usually scratched and the manuals usually have dog ears.  But yes, I paid over $100 to grade something I bought under $100 and knew it would be wise.

I actually expected the Sonic to go about $3500, so I'd say $2500 wasn't that bad.  I wouldn't sell a 9.0 Sonic for less than $5k personally.  

By the way, a 9.6 Final Fantasy VII CIB (yes on PS1) sold for even higher than these Sonic prices we're talking.  It's being marked up on eBay around $7k I believe (no one is going to bite there) but people are paying high prices on graded CIB as hard as that is for some to believe. 

I did the exact same thing that you did and over the past year, I looked on Ebay every day, for the best Sonic cart, manual and box that I could find (I actually found 2 great complete Sonics with a mint box, cart and manual during that time period), because I also knew this day (dreading, lol) was going to happen/come with a sealed one hitting the market.

The big Sonic sale was the last auction to end that night. I thought it was going to end at $190,000 and at the last second, someone put in a bid and that kept happening during those extra 30 minute extension all the way to $350,000, so I am pretty sure that 2 collectors/investors got into a bidding war for it.

It will be interesting to see where the one on the up-coming Heritage Auction one ends at. I won't lie, it stung pretty badly to see it go for so high but it's all good, I am healthy and satisfied with where I am financially in life.

[Gulag Joe | 582]

14 minutes ago, Dumars2001 said:

I did the exact same thing that you did and over the past year, I looked on Ebay every day, for the best Sonic cart, manual and box that I could find (I actually found 2 great complete Sonics with a mint box, cart and manual during that time period), because I also knew this day (dreading, lol) was going to happen/come with a sealed one hitting the market.

The big Sonic sale was the last auction to end that night. I thought it was going to end at $190,000 and at the last second, someone put in a bid and that kept happening during those extra 30 minute extension all the way to $350,000, so I am pretty sure that 2 collectors/investors got into a bidding war for it.

It will be interesting to see where the one on the up-coming Heritage Auction one ends at. I won't lie, it stung pretty badly to see it go for so high but it's all good, I am healthy and satisfied with where I am financially in life.

Finding a sealed sonic 1 is arguably more difficult that finding a sealed Nes Mario or Mario 64.

I saw a Sonic cib 8.0 sell on ebay for $3,000 a few months back

Edited September 22, 2021 by Gulag Joe

[Dumars2001 | 164]

1 minute ago, Gulag Joe said:

Finding a sealed sonic 1 is arguably more difficult that finding a sealed Nes Mario or Mario 64

I agree with you 100%, especially it being much more rare than Mario 64.

With this big sale, it might bring more out of the woodwork/collector's hands, only time will tell, but I do think that a sealed Sonic is going to be rarer to find than a sealed Nes Super Mario Bros. So, why did I sell mine 10 years ago for $400!?!

Mario is the Michael Jordan of video games but Sonic is the Lebron James, lol!

[Gulag Joe | 582]

22 minutes ago, Dumars2001 said:

I agree with you 100%, especially it being much more rare than Mario 64.

With this big sale, it might bring more out of the woodwork/collector's hands, only time will tell, but I do think that a sealed Sonic is going to be rarer to find than a sealed Nes Super Mario Bros. So, why did I sell mine 10 years ago for $400!?!

Mario is the Michael Jordan of video games but Sonic is the Lebron James, lol!

If I saw your sealed sonic up for sale 10 years ago at $400 I would've passed on it! I thought games would be collectors items like everything else but didn't imagine these prices. I would've dropped 400 on a Mike Trout first and that card is like a million bucks now!

[Dumars2001 | 164]

40 minutes ago, Gulag Joe said:

If I saw your sealed sonic up for sale 10 years ago at $400 I would've passed on it! I thought games would be collectors items like everything else but didn't imagine these prices. I would've dropped 400 on a Mike Trout first and that card is like a million bucks now!

I couldn't agree with you more. I remember at the time, being so happy that I sold it for $400 (on ebay to a guy from Germany, of all places). I bought it for $200 a few months before I sold it off for $400, so I doubled my money with the sale, lol.

Of course now, I obviously wish I didn't sell it, and to be honest, I wish that I never owned it at all in the first place, because then I wouldn't even care about the sale.

Funny (sad) to think about it now, but like you said, I never in a million years would have dreamt the prices would be where games are selling for for these days. In life, you win some and you lose some. At least, I will always have this nice little (cringe) story to tell people.

As of now, (the price could go higher in the future) it wasn't as bad as what happened to this guy. I am from Michigan (but living in Taiwan) and I came across this nice little article yesterday. Leave it to the Lions to ruin it for this poor guy.

https://www.si.com/betting/2021/09/21/bettor-loses-16-team-parlay-packers-beat-lions

https://sportshandle.com/lions-packers-betmgm-726k-parlay/

Edited September 22, 2021 by Dumars2001

[Gulag Joe | 582]

13 minutes ago, Dumars2001 said:

I couldn't agree with you more. I remember at the time, being so happy that I sold it for $400 (on ebay to a guy from Germany, of all places). I bought it for $200 a few months before I sold it off for $400, so I doubled my money with the sale, lol.

Of course now, I obviously wish I didn't sell it, and to be honest, I wish that I never owned it at all in the first place, because then I wouldn't even care about the sale.

Funny (sad) to think about it now, but like you said, I never in a million years would have dreamt the prices would be where games are selling for for these days. In life, you win some and you lose some. At least, I will always have this nice little (cringe) story to tell people.

As of now, (the price could go higher in the future) it wasn't as bad as what happened to this guy. I am from Michigan (but living in Taiwan) and I came across this nice little article yesterday. Leave it to the Lions to ruin it for this poor guy.

https://www.si.com/betting/2021/09/21/bettor-loses-16-team-parlay-packers-beat-lions

https://sportshandle.com/lions-packers-betmgm-726k-parlay/

Lol I thought the Lions were gonna win too when they went right down the field on the opening drive and scored. Obviously the large payout was based on the Lions winning, even still, I wonder what it would've paid out if he took the Packers instead. 

[captmorgandrinker | 1,649]

15 minutes ago, Gulag Joe said:

Lol I thought the Lions were gonna win too when they went right down the field on the opening drive and scored. Obviously the large payout was based on the Lions winning, even still, I wonder what it would've paid out if he took the Packers instead. 

Or better yet, he should have hedged, but I'm guessing someone tossing 25 bucks at a parlay can't magically get 300k in casino book credit.

[doner24 | 1,195]

1 hour ago, captmorgandrinker said:

Or better yet, he should have hedged, but I'm guessing someone tossing 25 bucks at a parlay can't magically get 300k in casino book credit.

The hedge on that bet was something like he needed to bet $600K on the Packers to guarantee a win of $98K. 

[captmorgandrinker | 1,649]

16 minutes ago, doner24 said:

The hedge on that bet was something like he needed to bet $600K on the Packers to guarantee a win of $98K. 

Oh yuck.  I figured with Rodgers laying an egg last week it wouldn't have been that bad.

[Tanooki | 4,932]

I'm more curious to see where the fallout from Sonic goes.  This just has to keep compounding the issues.  Scumbag WATA clown selling off discretely his sealed 2600 games in the 40-50K range and got caught.  The Jobst magnificent hit piece which is pretty on the nose they poo poo'd off as fabricated touting their greatness.

That Sonic looks miserable, I saw the images at least NintendoLife put up to have their WTF moment about it.  At least a couple rips and chew mark looking holes/dents into the wrap into the case maybe, and the wrap also is like aging into a haze...and it wasn't given like a 5 or something?? Why?  Money...money and stupid people to panic and take advantage of.

What is it going to take? I mean it didn't take much to get that psycho Jack Thompson all over games a decade ago. Is there no lawyer who grew up loving video games who want to take these clowns to task for clear cut cases of fraud, deceit, market manipulation, just outright scamming. It may not be criminally easy to nail down, but at a civil court level you just need to create only a shadow of doubt, create some pause to make a jury say — you pay, you're a crook (like criminal where it needs to be concrete.)

[GPX | 1,369]

4 hours ago, Gulag Joe said:

Right here you are making an argument for sealed video games as most kids ripped open the boxes and played them and then as they got older, their parents either threw those games away, sold them at yard sales, or the kids themselves traded them all in for the next gen. Thanks for proving the point behind the high prices being paid for video games.

But why you would sit there and type out 5,000 words supporting the idea of someone paying $1.47 million dollars for a less than exceptional comic book that has 30+ more copies out there (not even rare nor the best existing condition with a KNOWN pop report no less!) other than maybe because you dress up like Heath Ledger every Halloween is really reaching. And I don't know why you brought your grandma into this, she ain't no millionaire that's gonna spend millions of dollars on Heath Ledger books.

All the reasons for a collectible’s worth would be similar across the fields - games, comics etc.

Comics though have the benefit of a headstart, with collectors starting out way before game collectors, with the hobby spanning many decades. With this significantly longer time lapse, the pop reports for the comics are likely to be more absolute, as opposed to games (pop reports are likely to be adjusted for many more years). 

The other thing to consider is that how easy is it to preserve a comic of 60+ years to a 9.0 grade, versus a game of 20+ years to a 9.0 grade? The analogy to this would be like how easy is it for a 60 year old to run as fast as a 20 year old? The answer is likely to be “it can be done, but gonna be damn hard!”

[OptOut | 8,883]

44 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

What is it going to take? I mean it didn't take much to get that psycho Jack Thompson all over games a decade ago. 

Dude, try nearly TWO decades ago! Jack Thompson got big for leading a moral panic about GTA Vice City in like 2004, you old FART!

[Jayleonis | 16]

49 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

I'm more curious to see where the fallout from Sonic goes.  This just has to keep compounding the issues.  Scumbag WATA clown selling off discretely his sealed 2600 games in the 40-50K range and got caught.  The Jobst magnificent hit piece which is pretty on the nose they poo poo'd off as fabricated touting their greatness.

What is it going to take? I mean it didn't take much to get that psycho Jack Thompson all over games a decade ago. Is there no lawyer who grew up loving video games who want to take these clowns to task for clear cut cases of fraud, deceit, market manipulation, just outright scamming. It may not be criminally easy to nail down, but at a civil court level you just need to create only a shadow of doubt, create some pause to make a jury say — you pay, you're a crook (like criminal where it needs to be concrete.)

I know its so obvious that there is manipulation and illegal things happening yet no one who actually owns 4-6 figure+ WATA games actually care.  In fact they are continuing to buy!  Seems only the people who have no money invested are the outraged ones.  Strange how that is

Edited September 22, 2021 by Jayleonis