Heritage Auctions Thread

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Just now, ExplodedHamster said:

Please do not apologize, what is happening right now in collectibles is objectively insane lol. Trust me, I pinch myself and I don’t understand the extent of my good fortune either. 

I know what would bring you back down to earth! Buying my stuff!!! 

Mario Kart Hotwheels, 4 for 20 bucks, can't beat THAT on Heritage Auctions! 

[guitarzombie | 924]

2 minutes ago, ExplodedHamster said:

Please do not apologize, what is happening right now in collectibles is objectively insane lol. Trust me, I pinch myself and I don’t understand the extent of my good fortune either. 

I couldn't read every part of this thread, but the impression I got was the issue was not YOU, but perhaps Heritage was shilling the game, (as apparently they have in the past?) in order for them to collect more money than they normally would have.  Hoping to create FOMO

[Frost271 | 22]

9 hours ago, Gulag Joe said:

VGA has never provided pop data. I submitted games to them right when they first started accepting them. I'd love to see this alleged data though,it would be very helpful as VGA specifically told me that they don't provide that data on multiple occasions.

You are an idiot. Just reading your comments over the last two days makes me feel like I read stupid.  You new to the hobby?  Most of the guys you been talking ‘idiot to’ have been around since before your balls dropped. Waaay before WATA was even imagined. VGA gave population reports at least up to 2016. 

Who let this guy in here?

Edited July 13, 2021 by Frost271

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Just now, guitarzombie said:

I couldn't read every part of this thread, but the impression I got was the issue was not YOU, but perhaps Heritage was shilling the game, (as apparently they have in the past?) in order for them to collect more money than they normally would have.  Hoping to create FOMO

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. It doesn't necessarily require for the SELLER to be involved if someone is trying to pump a market, just a couple of interested parties with big bucks to put in.

I also need to reiterate, as I always have, that anyone selling INTO this market right now is doing the right thing, and should be applauded and congratulated. It's the buyers who are taking all the risks and making all the unusual decisions.

[broncofantd793 | 138]

Heritage and WATA's business venture still seems like utter trash to me.  eBay doesn't let you bid on your own items. Doctors do not operate on themselves or immediate family.  Lawyers must disclose.  Organizations have non-compete clauses.

What do all of those have in common? Ethics!

We want a little ethics in this hobby! FWIW, EH could simply be the lucky winner of a windfall that Heritage and WATA use to screen their *alleged* debauchery. 

[Dumars2001 | 164]

14 minutes ago, ExplodedHamster said:

Please do not apologize, what is happening right now in collectibles is objectively insane lol. Trust me, I pinch myself and I don’t understand the extent of my good fortune either. 

Thanks bro for being so understanding. I genuinely am so happy for you and your family. You must be on cloud nine.

I also want to say thank you so much for coming on here and ending all the speculation, falsehoods, innuendos, rumors, conspiracy theories, etc.

It took a lot of guts to come out of the woodworks (and safety of you and your family with people possibly finding out about your new found riches) and take on the Lynch mob (myself included) because you certainly didn't have to (I don't think I would have had the courage to go public) and could have stayed completely anonymous and laughed all the way to the bank with your money in your hand. I am sure I speak for others also. Thank you so much. I think the hobby has/will gain(ed) back the credibility it had lost since that record breaking sale. 

Edited July 13, 2021 by Dumars2001

[Frost271 | 22]

14 hours ago, jonebone said:

1996, Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Game Cartridge, Super Mario 64, NTSC:

U95+(1), U95(2), 95(4), U90(3), 90+(4), 90(14), 85+(12), 85(14), 80+(5), 80(1), 75+(2).

 

There's 62 from VGA, as of 4 January 2016.  All "red label" and by the way, I've collected N64 since before that was even a terminology.  Never heard that phrase until 2019, it was always called "Non-PC" or "1st print" in collecting groups.

 

Your pumping Wata pops and using Wata terminology so that tells me all I need to know.  There's countless raws out there too, hence why my number was in the several hundreds confirmed, and easily so.

This is 100% accurate. I have a similar report for Mario 3s. Now is a great time to sell out. Guarantee you, just like the Mario 3s, nothing but high grade Mario 64s for the next 2-3 years on Heritage Auctions.  Mario 64 is very much common in high grade just like Mario 3s. There is a shit ton of them in collectors’ hands.  

People are going to flip all their Mario 64 VGA titles to WATA after what just happened. 

I personally don’t believe this million dollar sale. Thats just stupid. You could put up a ‘want’ ad in these forums or on Instagram and get a gem mint copy for a fraction of that.   Anyone would have taken a crazy offer like $100k. Not anymore though. 

Edited July 13, 2021 by Frost271

[ExplodedHamster | 404]

1 minute ago, Dumars2001 said:

Thanks bro for being so understanding. I genuinely am so happy for you and your family. You must be on cloud nine.

I also want to say thank you so much for coming on here and ending all the speculation, falsehoods, innuendos, rumors, conspiracy theories, etc.

It took a lot of guts to come out of the woodworks (and safety of you and your family with people possibly finding out about your new found riches) and take on the Lynch mob (myself included) because you certainly didn't have (I don't think I would have had the courage to go public) to and could have stayed completely anonymous and laughed all the way to the bank with your money in your hand. I am sure I speak for others also. Thank you so much. I think the hobby has/will gain(ed) back the credibility it had lost since that record breaking sale. 

I don’t keep much of anything nice in my house and am pretty well known in the sealed community anyway, so not much hiding I could do if I wanted to. I honestly don’t even think I can personally do much to change that many minds, it will take the buyer coming forth or other buyers in the future. 

[sp1nz | 612]

1 minute ago, OptOut said:

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. It doesn't necessarily require for the SELLER to be involved if someone is trying to pump a market, just a couple of interested parties with big bucks to put in.

I also need to reiterate, as I always have, that anyone selling INTO this market right now is doing the right thing, and should be applauded and congratulated. It's the buyers who are taking all the risks and making all the unusual decisions.

Thousand times this. But anyway the Super Mario 64 sale made most non-collectors, most collectors and even bunch of old school sealed collectors eyes roll. The ones that aren't surprised that much seem to be heavily invested in the market and have absurd expectations for the market already, so to them it's just natural progression or the way the hype machine they created was aimed to go. Crazy things can happen even in legitimate sales with no collusion or shady things in the back. And sure there is some classism with tiers of collecting, many people grew up with the game collecting from its inception, so the love for a medium being turned into a financial vehicle more and more and big investors buying up things they have no attachment to doesn't gel that well with old collectors but of course smart investing isn't about emotions - and it's jealousy / grumpiness for the rest, for market gaining steam or not being able to own what others own. Also when looking at some people talking like they know stuff, when it's apparent they don't, it will grind people the wrong way.

Anyway congratulations on the sale, hope the buyer comes through.

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2 minutes ago, Frost271 said:

This is 100% accurate. I have a similar report for Mario 3s. Now is a great time to sell out. Guarantee you, just like the Mario 3s, nothing but high grade Mario 64s for the next 2-3 years on Heritage Auctions.  Mario 64 is very much common in high grade just like Mario 3s. There is a shit ton of them in collectors’ hands.  

People are going to flip all their Mario 64 VGA titles to WATA after what just happened. 

THIS is going to be the most interesting and most telling thing to happen in the coming months and years. There is, as we have now established, PLENTY of copies of Mario 64 sealed in high grades.

With this sale out there now, there will be a GLUT of people falling over themselves to SELL into the market. We can guess, based on this sale (and ASSUMING the bidding was legitimate on the part of all bidders), that there is at least one more person out there willing to bid a copy over 1 million dollars. BUT... What about the 3rd sale? The 4th, 5th, 6th? How many high grade Mario's would have to sell before you ran out of people with a million dollars to spare willing to bid em up?

Are there REALLY more people wanting to BUY Super Mario 64 for a million dollars than there are people who want to SELL it for that much? SOME people in here seem to think that number of people wanting to BUY is high enough to absorb all the high grade copies that we KNOW are out there... I am not so sure and time will tell...

[Dumars2001 | 164]

4 minutes ago, ExplodedHamster said:

I don’t keep much of anything nice in my house and am pretty well known in the sealed community anyway, so not much hiding I could do if I wanted to. I honestly don’t even think I can personally do much to change that many minds, it will take the buyer coming forth or other buyers in the future. 

Well, I definitely believe you to be 100% credible and transparent. 

[ExplodedHamster | 404]

16 minutes ago, Frost271 said:

This is 100% accurate. I have a similar report for Mario 3s. Now is a great time to sell out. Guarantee you, just like the Mario 3s, nothing but high grade Mario 64s for the next 2-3 years on Heritage Auctions.  Mario 64 is very much common in high grade just like Mario 3s. There is a shit ton of them in collectors’ hands.  

People are going to flip all their Mario 64 VGA titles to WATA after what just happened. 

I personally don’t believe this million dollar sale. Thats just stupid. You could put up a ‘want’ ad in these forums or on Instagram and get a gem mint copy for a fraction of that.   Anyone would have taken a crazy offer like $100k. Not anymore though. 

VGA N64 games below 90+ generally do not cross over well to WATA (many N64 games have manufacturer’s flaws near the opening flap that VGA does not dock but WATA does), so I would not assume too much. A bunch of those probably already have been crossed, as well. In the end, you MIGHT get 10-12 9.8/A++ total. That is far from common in the collectibles world, and anyone describing that as common is not putting it in proper context imo.

I’m sure you won’t believe me, but I got 3 150k plus offers in February on this game from well known collectors within probably 10-15 minutes of posting it on IG. I made it known clearly I wasn’t gonna sell it outside of auction.

Did I envision anything remotely like this at that time? Hell no. But I did get those offers and turn them down.

Edited July 13, 2021 by ExplodedHamster

[Brickman | 3,993]

Congrats on the sale. This thread isn't as exciting now without the conspiracy theories

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Just now, Shmup said:

Congrats on the sale. This thread isn't as exciting now without the conspiracy theories

Why do you think I'm trying to shift the momentum to my sales thread? It's ALWAYS a party over in OptOut's Wicked Deals and illicit substances shack! 

[sp1nz | 612]

It's possible that red strip Super Mario 64 in 9.8 A++ is a white whale but there will be so many sealed copies near the top condition that many people will settle for 9.6 A++ or lower and it might be hard to keep the value at this level for the top condition ones. Well the future depends on these young high net worth people with the nostalgia for it or how well the investment is being kept propped up by investors with no nostalgia for it. But what will be a soft ceiling for a video game price and after how many years? This rate of growth won't last long and the market will get some corrections. I personally don't think the buyer made a sound investment but the world is too mad, so I guess I'll be wrong in the end.

Edited July 13, 2021 by sp1nz

[Dumars2001 | 164]

14 minutes ago, OptOut said:

THIS is going to be the most interesting and most telling thing to happen in the coming months and years. There is, as we have now established, PLENTY of copies of Mario 64 sealed in high grades.

With this sale out there now, there will be a GLUT of people falling over themselves to SELL into the market. We can guess, based on this sale (and ASSUMING the bidding was legitimate on the part of all bidders), that there is at least one more person out there willing to bid a copy over 1 million dollars. BUT... What about the 3rd sale? The 4th, 5th, 6th? How many high grade Mario's would have to sell before you ran out of people with a million dollars to spare willing to bid em up?

Are there REALLY more people wanting to BUY Super Mario 64 for a million dollars than there are people who want to SELL it for that much? SOME people in here seem to think that number of people wanting to BUY is high enough to absorb all the high grade copies that we KNOW are out there... I am not so sure and time will tell...

Excellent points! And this is exactly what happened to the PSA 10 Fleer Michael Jordan rookie cards. On January 31st, Goldin Auctions sold two PSA 10 Jordan rookie cards for a record price of $738,000. Well, those 2 sales brought the card out of the woodworks from card collectors that had them and there was literally a Jordan rookie PSA 10 being auctioned off every week all the way up to present day. I believe the PSA 10's are now selling for around $200,000, nothing to sneeze at, but down by over $500,000 in just 7 months time. 

Now, we do know that there are around 325 Jordan PSA 10's according to the pop report, but we don't know exactly how many SM64's are out there and if they are in 9.8 A++ grades (probably equivalent to a PSA 10), but I have to imagine there has to be considerably less than 325, so maybe, just maybe Mario 64 can sustain its value and possibly even go higher. 

Edited July 13, 2021 by Dumars2001

[broncofantd793 | 138]

I can't help myself, but I know there are so many people grinding their teeth that a Nintendo 64 game is now the highest sale of all time. My beloved N64.

THE NINTENDO 64 HAS ASSUMED IS RIGHTFUL PLACE ATOP THE VIDEO GAME PYRAMID!!! 

Just wait for Ocarina of Time! 

[YOURTURN | 1,256]

And stuff like this is why I am using CAS as my video game grading needs. Close to a year after their Principal, Ross Barr, told me that they started to grade video games.

I mean all grading does is give the owner an idea how "mint" is was (to the grader) prior to the moment they encapsulate it. Which for me means that instead of trying to find ways to protect both the inner and outer contents I have to take care of the acrylic that protects it. At least before I found out that the company I chose said that I should also keep my collection in a room that is between 59 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit, void of any humidity and moisture. As well as invest in Swifter products when dusting. Which means that I need to buy a dehumidifier alongside any cabinets when that time comes.

And is why I am forcing myself to stop buying both new/unused and sealed video games. Besides the fact I paid $183.36 for a sealed copy of Dragon Quest Heroes I & II before I found out that me getting the "first purchase" variant was not a guarantee, I did it because that is all I really wanted. Which meant I had to either jump on every preorder I could find or pay a hefty premium if I was too late. Something that gives me a clue on what some bidders are probably thinking when it comes to those who are not enthralled with the shit-end of the hype.

Oh... And Star Wars was the first mainstream 3D game. It might not have started doing this in color, but the video game end of the franchise did start doing it in 1983. 

Plus, I am not going to say anything about what is the "best" in anything. Because in the end anything is the best for those who can get the most out of it. And saying it is the best overall tends to land that claim in the outhouse.

[ExplodedHamster | 404]

4 minutes ago, Shmup said:

Congrats on the sale. This thread isn't as exciting now without the conspiracy theories

There are still some being floated around, for example that Mario 64 isn’t the greatest game ever. 

That’s the true grocery checkout magazine shelf crazy talk right there

[ExplodedHamster | 404]

1 minute ago, broncofantd793 said:

I can't help myself, but I know there are so many people grinding their teeth that a Nintendo 64 game is now the highest sale of all time. My beloved N64.

THE NINTENDO 64 HAS ASSUMED IS RIGHTFUL PLACE ATOP THE VIDEO GAME PYRAMID!!! 

Just wait for Ocarina of Time! 

 

[Californication | 1,477]

It's nice to know who the seller is, but that doesn't mean this wasn't bid up to pump up the market. 

[WalterWhiteJr. | 1,162]

N64 IS THE GOAT. No console is as fun to collect for. Fight me. 

[Californication | 1,477]

Just now, WalterWhiteJr. said:

N64 IS THE GOAT. No console is as fun to collect for. Fight me. 

PS1 kicks sand in the N64's jumper pack.

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[chuppy44 | 56]

FWIW I grew up with NES and SM64 to me was the most significant event in gaming history by a mile. It was like game design evolved 10 years into the future with a single game. There will never be anything like that again. It deserves top spot on the pedestal.

Not that I condone paying over $1mil for a piece of plastic wrap.

I still think the 9.0 Zelda was sillier. At least this was a legitimate mint game.