Heritage Auctions Thread

[WalterWhiteJr. | 1,162]

22 hours ago, AdamW said:

BTW, I take back my "not much happening in Pokémon sales after the HA auction" from earlier...in the last few hours half a dozen boxed copies sold over $500, red, blue, yellow, firered. And a crystal CIB for $2000. Two fairly high grade sealed copies (a firered and an emerald) that were previously up at super high BIN prices have been taken down and listed for straight auction with low starting bids, so they could go anywhere. Looks like the crazy ride continues...

I don’t see any of these on eBay sold

[Code Monkey | 2,011]

7 hours ago, GPX said:

Yes, but with that, some of the bidding (particularly average condition CIB Mario) is evident that some of these end buyers have ZERO clue as to what a video game should be worth.

Understanding the basics is important to chuck in bids, lesson 1:

A CIB Mario in average condition is possibly the commonest game you can find. 

 

 

If they buy that game for $1000 and sell it for $2000, they're not the fool.

[MiamiSlice | 3,095]

13 hours ago, avoin said:

gotta say we've seen some doozies, but 455 dollars + shipping + taxes for an average cib copy of SONIC THE FREAKIN HEDGEHOG!!!!!! might be the dumbest thing i've seen yet.

that being said i have a similar copy ill be taking offers starting at 1000 dollars, it is of the "salvation army" pedigree.

Doesn’t Heritage have some responsibility to curate worthwhile items in each lot? Why would they accept an average CIB copy of Sonic the Hedgehog??? It should have been rejected...

[AdamW | 713]

53 minutes ago, WalterWhiteJr. said:

I don’t see any of these on eBay sold

Here they are:

Crystal for $2000: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Pokemon-Crystal-Version-Game-Boy-Color-Nintendo-Authentic-CIB-Complete-Inserts-/254905137117?nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true
FireRed (third print) for $499.95: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Pokemon-Firered-Game-Boy-Advance-GBA-Complete-in-Box-with-wireless-adapter-/133707699819?nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true
Blue #1b (without a manual or player's guide offer...) for $510: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Pokemon-Blue-Version-Game-Boy-1998-Authentic-/284237138957?nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true
Yellow #1 for $550 (nice condition, to be fair): https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Pokemon-Yellow-Special-Pikachu-Edition-Authentic-Complete-CIB-Great-Condition-/284237132703?nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true
Red #1 for $501: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/POKEMON-RED-VERSION-Nintendo-Gameboy-Authentic-complete-In-Box-CIB-NM-near-mint-/284237144803?nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true

edit: BTW, I use the same tactic as pricecharting to find the true sold price for listings which were BIN with offers accepted, so all the prices should be accurate.

Edited April 6, 2021 by AdamW

[AdamW | 713]

19 minutes ago, MiamiSlice said:

Doesn’t Heritage have some responsibility to curate worthwhile items in each lot? Why would they accept an average CIB copy of Sonic the Hedgehog??? It should have been rejected...

Responsibility? To who? Why? They're a business. Their job is to make money. They'll sell whatever they reckon will sell for enough money to be worth the effort of selling.

[sp1nz | 612]

1 hour ago, MiamiSlice said:

Doesn’t Heritage have some responsibility to curate worthwhile items in each lot? Why would they accept an average CIB copy of Sonic the Hedgehog??? It should have been rejected...

43 minutes ago, AdamW said:

Responsibility? To who? Why? They're a business. Their job is to make money. They'll sell whatever they reckon will sell for enough money to be worth the effort of selling.

I gave that example but mentioned it was eBay sale and someone mentioned 5.5 Wata Sonic selling for $300+ also on eBay but the prices are symptoms of Heritage hype nevertheless. Would've been more fitting for the "Look at these prices...unreal right ?". No idea if how low grades Heritage sells on their auctions but the Thunder Force II on last page was some overgraded poopee.

[OptOut | 8,884]

11 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

Graded Mario/Pokeman collecting is like a different hobby from collecting video games. People are just looking for a token to park money into. You can get pretty amazingly collectible games for $1000. One might even say more collectible than a poor condition CIB Mario. 

You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about dude! I couldn't think of a SINGLE better use for a thousand dollars, inside OR outside of the hobby!   

[OptOut | 8,884]

1 hour ago, Code Monkey said:

If they buy that game for $1000 and sell it for $2000, they're not the fool.

This is true, but only to a point. We will find that fool eventually, the longer this crazy money train keeps on chugging. Where is the end of the track? Nobody knows, until THEY turn out to be that fool...

Whenever I think about this whole thing, the only image that goes through my mind is this:

 

[GPX | 1,370]

2 hours ago, Code Monkey said:

If they buy that game for $1000 and sell it for $2000, they're not the fool.

Investor: What can I buy with $1000 that will likely bring profit of $2000? An average condition Mario CIB or maybe something else?

Gambler: If I bet $1000 and I make $2000, then I'm not a fool. If I bet $500,000 and I make $1,000,000 then I'm a genius!

Casual observer: yeah, I'd rather take advice from Investor from the above.

[GPX | 1,370]

4 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

This Thunder Force II is trash, but it scored 9.8 A+ and sold for $2600. Literally has half the ink faded off it and sharpie on the front. WTF Wata, lmao.

https://comics.ha.com/itm/video-games/thunder-force-ii-wata-98-a-sealed-gen-sega-1989-usa/a/7242-97219.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

Have to quote this post again and do a serious response to this.

Who is actually paying for these types of winning bids?

- collector?...who collects sun-faded items and would want to pay at premium, record-breaking prices?

- display purposes?...For a sun-faded item?

- investor?...9.8 seems pretty good, but..for an obvious sun-faded item, isn't exactly an investment item now, is it?

- the world's biggest thunderforce fan who must collect it in sealed condition? Ok, maybe..

- any other types?

[Gulag Joe | 582]

This 9.8 A++ Sonic 2 that just sold for 21k is an insult to true 9.8 A++ graded games everywhere. A hole in the seal on the back, the seal is falling off the box like a condom that's too big for it, and it has plastic warts down the side of it.

[OptOut | 8,884]

22 minutes ago, Gulag Joe said:

This 9.8 A++ Sonic 2 that just sold for 21k is an insult to true 9.8 A++ graded games everywhere. A hole in the seal on the back, the seal is falling off the box like a condom that's too big for it, and it has plastic warts down the side of it.

I literally just threw up in my mouth! 

[RH | 4,904]

25 minutes ago, Gulag Joe said:

This 9.8 A++ Sonic 2 that just sold for 21k is an insult to true 9.8 A++ graded games everywhere. A hole in the seal on the back, the seal is falling off the box like a condom that's too big for it, and it has plastic warts down the side of it.

Absolute disgrace and completely discredits the service. I have no proof of this but sometimes I wonder if they have "key accounts" that get higher grades fudged for them. When the business is low on cash, bump a game rating 1-3 times and send it to HA.

[RH | 4,904]

I also noticed early on that the serial numbers on games seem to have two sections of numbers. One is the customer ID, the other is the sequential number of the game they sold.

I noticed this pattern in the very early days when WATA games were showing up on eBay. The same 3-4 sellers had a unique number sequence at the front of the serial. The last 4-digits, I think, started with 0001 and went up. You could tell those sellers sent off a lot of games and was striking while the iron was hot.

At the time, I considered getting the lowest numbered game I could find by account and number (something like 100000030002 was on there) as an investment "early WATA graded game", but even then the prices were out of reach.

Taking this info, we could start cataloging serials on HA, taking notes on consistency for certain accounts and then try to sleuth who owns them. If (and I'm not saying they are) WATA and HA are cheating the system, this is probably some form of illegal activity that could be proved enough to file a class action law suit.

I'm not a WATA/HA hater, but IMHO, therr is so much fishy behavior, I think it should be looked into.

Edited April 6, 2021 by RH

[MiamiSlice | 3,095]

6 hours ago, sp1nz said:

I gave that example but mentioned it was eBay sale and someone mentioned 5.5 Wata Sonic selling for $300+ also on eBay but the prices are symptoms of Heritage hype nevertheless. Would've been more fitting for the "Look at these prices...unreal right ?". No idea if how low grades Heritage sells on their auctions but the Thunder Force II on last page was some overgraded poopee.

Ohhhh I thought the Sonic CIB was on HA

[AdamW | 713]

2 hours ago, RH said:

I also noticed early on that the serial numbers on games seem to have two sections of numbers. One is the customer ID, the other is the sequential number of the game they sold.

I noticed this pattern in the very early days when WATA games were showing up on eBay. The same 3-4 sellers had a unique number sequence at the front of the serial. The last 4-digits, I think, started with 0001 and went up. You could tell those sellers sent off a lot of games and was striking while the iron was hot.

At the time, I considered getting the lowest numbered game I could find by account and number (something like 100000030002 was on there) as an investment "early WATA graded game", but even then the prices were out of reach.

Taking this info, we could start cataloging serials on HA, taking notes on consistency for certain accounts and then try to sleuth who owns them. If (and I'm not saying they are) WATA and HA are cheating the system, this is probably some form of illegal activity that could be proved enough to file a class action law suit.

I'm not a WATA/HA hater, but IMHO, therr is so much fishy behavior, I think it should be looked into.

If you mean the WATA number, it's not about sales but graded items. If you sent WATA five games they'd be graded e.g. 123456-001, 123456-002, 123456-003, 123456-004 and 123456-005. It doesn't matter when, where or whether you sell them.

Now, if you're saying that for the same person, WATA will always use the number 123456, that is indeed pretty interesting and could be useful for some fun tracking! I'll have to keep an eye out for it. Of course if that person sends in 1000 things they're going to have to consider their position a bit

[CIB_Wholesale | 418]

2 hours ago, Gulag Joe said:

This 9.8 A++ Sonic 2 that just sold for 21k is an insult to true 9.8 A++ graded games everywhere. A hole in the seal on the back, the seal is falling off the box like a condom that's too big for it, and it has plastic warts down the side of it.

those poor vga 90s getting converted :(:(

[AdamW | 713]

Oh, and BTW, I've got no defence at all to suggest for paying $500 for Sonic, or those two apparently-shoddy grades, those definitely do look, uh, questionable.

[RH | 4,904]

10 minutes ago, AdamW said:

If you mean the WATA number, it's not about sales but graded items. If you sent WATA five games they'd be graded e.g. 123456-001, 123456-002, 123456-003, 123456-004 and 123456-005. It doesn't matter when, where or whether you sell them.

Now, if you're saying that for the same person, WATA will always use the number 123456, that is indeed pretty interesting and could be useful for some fun tracking! I'll have to keep an eye out for it. Of course if that person sends in 1000 things they're going to have to consider their position a bit

Yeah, those are the numbers.  I guess it could be an order number, and an item number, for within the order.  I just noticed that of the 3-4 Wata sellers on eBay at the time that had multiple listings that  fires xxxxxx number in xxxxxx-yyy were always the same, they were very low (but might have started with a 1 as the first digit) and the second number appeared to be sequential with their other items for sale, or very close.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

1 hour ago, MiamiSlice said:

Ohhhh I thought the Sonic CIB was on HA

The prices are crazy everywhere now.

[rainingcatsanddoge | 11]

I was most interested in seeing where the Final Fantasy 3 SNES and Kickmaster sold for this past auction.  Came across some sealed games at my parents house a couple years ago and finally got them graded last year.  I had thoughts of sending the FF3, Kickmaster and a Donkey Kong Country 3 to Heritage, but it took forever to receive my DKC3 back from them (paid for the slowest turnaround but still needed to email them cause it must have fell through the cracks) that I missed the September 2020 auction.  Now I am thinking I may have lucked out to a 3x value increase on the FF3 from what I thought I could have gotten back then.

[jonebone | 1,307]

5 hours ago, Gulag Joe said:

This 9.8 A++ Sonic 2 that just sold for 21k is an insult to true 9.8 A++ graded games everywhere. A hole in the seal on the back, the seal is falling off the box like a condom that's too big for it, and it has plastic warts down the side of it.

A++ isn't a perfect seal. It's a sliding scale, so think of it as anywhere between a 9.4 and 10 seal.  If you hold enough A++ stuff in hand you realize there's some variation in the grade.

If that's the only flaw, it's an A++.  But yes, their 9.8 A++ stuff leaves a lot to be desired.  If I buy a game in that condition then it should be one I don't want to upgrade, yet I've gotten some that I wouldn't mind upgrading.

[Gulag Joe | 582]

12 minutes ago, jonebone said:

A++ isn't a perfect seal. It's a sliding scale, so think of it as anywhere between a 9.4 and 10 seal.  If you hold enough A++ stuff in hand you realize there's some variation in the grade.

If that's the only flaw, it's an A++.  But yes, their 9.8 A++ stuff leaves a lot to be desired.  If I buy a game in that condition then it should be one I don't want to upgrade, yet I've gotten some that I wouldn't mind upgrading.

A++ is case fresh and is described as perfect. Here's the descriptor for A+ from their website, even A+ seals should not have holes.

[Gulag Joe | 582]

That Sonic 2 seal is A at best

[final fight cd | 186]

I’m sure this isn’t a hot take.  This is the first time I’ve followed HA. 
 

but is WATA and heritage changing what’s desirable to collect?  I watched some of the HA auction last night.  The Saturn nba game going for thousands because it features kobie.  Didn’t a beat up box and instruction manual for SMB (no cart and ungraded) go for 10k because it’s a first print?  Didn’t a sealed Jurassic park for the Sega cd go for around 1.5k a couple months ago?

this is bleeding over to eBay with a CIB early sonic going for hundreds. 

so if it’s a first, related to a popular move franchise or comic, and featuring a sports legend the money is gonna be big, right?

has these sales influenced anybody on what to buy?