Wata to release initial pop report later this month - NES only, no seal ratings

[tidaldreams | 654]

1 hour ago, ExplodedHamster said:

It was definitely 2 as of the time of the 1.56 auction (Heritage even said so during the auction) and I know of one other that came about after. 

Of course someone is dumping their 9.8 right after that sale lol. The fact more have not surfaced is actually quite telling imo.

That begs the question how the hell did Sophia know the pop report That seemed super sus to me...

[OptOut | 8,899]

34 minutes ago, tidaldreams said:

That begs the question how the hell did Sophia know the pop report That seemed super sus to me...

Heritage knows the pop report for the items they auction. Their tongue is so far and so firmly up WATA's ass they can TASTE the A++ seals! 

Anyway, Super Mario 64 9.8 A++ can't be rare when they've been grading fresh ass case packs of the game.

@ExplodedHamster just needs to tell himself that so he can sleep at night on his giant pile of blood money! 

[tidaldreams | 654]

1 minute ago, OptOut said:

Heritage knows the pop report for the items they auction. Their tongue is so far and so firmly up WATA's ass they can TASTE the A++ seals! 

Anyway, Super Mario 64 9.8 A++ can't be rare when they've been grading fresh ass case packs of the game.

@ExplodedHamster just needs to tell himself that so he can sleep at night on his giant pile of blood money! 

In that case, she definitely let that one slip. There's no way she would say something like that on purpose right...?

[OptOut | 8,899]

1 minute ago, tidaldreams said:

In that case, she definitely let that one slip. There's no way she would say something like that on purpose right...?

Yeah, of course they said it on purpose, to hype the auction!

It's the auction house and auctioneer's job to get the highest possible price for the crap they're hocking, they have no duty of care to the truth or to common rational sense.

They will say and do whatever they need to get as much money through the doors as they can. They're basically carnival barkers in more expensive suits.

[inasuma | 1,215]

Fuck it, I'll indulge

2 hours ago, RETRO said:

More specifically, WATA was very, very aware that RETRO was not only a persistent critic of WATA not releasing pop reports but that RETRO had begun releasing extremely popular, widely read "market analyses" intended as a stop-gap until WATA began releasing pop reports.

I've seen this question asked of you several times on multiple platforms now, but I just want to ask it again.

In what way was your "market analyses" anything close to a stop-gap until pop reports came about?

They're completely different. One provides sales data over time. The other tells you how many of a game exist in specific grades. To claim a sales report can get remotely close to communicating what a pop report does is so absurdly disingenuous, I'm forced to question your sanity.

I'm saying this as a recommendation: you should really stop pumping your sales analyses as having anything to do with pops. 

2 hours ago, RETRO said:

It was debate over these very analyses that caused me to decide to leave the Unofficial WATA Games Facebook Group, which changed its by-laws to ban any link to these market analyses. 

Subscription promotion was banned solely because of how pompous you treated criticism of your content. You were actively calling members Wata shills, claiming they were complicit in market manipulation to make money, and just generally bashing folks for participating in the market. Even if those half the things you called them were true, you were essentially attacking the community instead of having an earnest, nuanced conversation about the state of sealed game collecting. 99% of the folks in the hobby aren't evil slime-ball suits, which is essentially how you treated anyone giving you feedback counter to your content and claims.

2 hours ago, RETRO said:

The RETRO market reports that WATA (and its fanboys, many of whom are friends with Deniz) have been so upset about? Guess what they cover? NES games. Box condition only. Feel free to draw your own conclusions from this sequence of events. Maybe it's a coincidence, or maybe WATA grades games from many, many, many different consoles, so the decision to release only NES-game pop reports and box-condition-only data is pretty... specific. 

Correlation doesn't equal causation.  An investigative journalists doesn't lead readers (including people here) to unprovable conclusions. Also, simply saying "draw your own conclusions" here doesn't relieve you of looking narrative-hungry and self-congratulatory. Investigative != promoting conspiracies.

2 hours ago, RETRO said:

 (FWIW, Deniz also knows I'm a big NES collector personally.) If you think WATA is mature enough to not be vindictive in this way... well, that makes one of you.

I mean this with the utmost respect - no one cares. Your personal connections mean nothing to someone (Deniz) running a startup. At best, you're an annoying gnat in his field of vision walking the line of libel lawsuits. I guarantee it. Keep in mind I have a lot of the same criticisms of Wata as you. The difference is I'm not shilling my substack, trying to take credit for Wata's product roadmap.

2 hours ago, RETRO said:

 P.S. A less salacious explanation would be this: 

It is not.

2 hours ago, RETRO said:

WATA knows that the data it's releasing is already public at a high-traffic publication (RETRO). in fact, it's available there in much more comprehensive form than what we're about to get—so WATA isn't really "losing" anything by publishing this info.

How do you function with delusions like this?

Look my guy, I'm not saying you're untalented or a bad person, or anything else like that. Just stop with the blatant misrepresentation of facts. Critics of Wata are ripe for transparency and facts. You have a whole community of folks here who would probably subscribe to your content if you provided something that didn't reach to borderline comical conclusions and attempt to aggrandize your own platform at every corner.

Edited November 12, 2021 by inasuma

[OptOut | 8,899]

9 minutes ago, inasuma said:

Fuck it, I'll indulge

Oh Christ, I think we are ALL going to regret that! 

[3rdStrongestMole | 430]

2 hours ago, ExplodedHamster said:

It was definitely 2 as of the time of the 1.56 auction (Heritage even said so during the auction) and I know of one other that came about after. 

Of course someone is dumping their 9.8 right after that sale lol. The fact more have not surfaced is actually quite telling imo.

Haven't surfaced because they're in WATA warehouse or waiting for their Heritage Auction dates  

But anyways,  WATA can just ding a 9.8 down to a 9.6 during grading, and that solves the problem too 

Cause,  we're not mentioning the VGA ones, right?

[Seth | 172]

I really appreciate your good-faith feedback here, Inasuma, especially as you added the word "respectfully" just before calling me "pompous", "not earnest", "narrative-hungry", "self-congratulatory", a "conspiracy [theorist]," an "annoying gnat", "walking the line of [being] libel[ous]", and "delusional."

In any case, that's water under the bridge. Despite you being a presumptuous aggro prick here—and more importantly, re-enacting exactly how certain people in the community reacted the moment there was criticism from me, Karl Jobst, Pat Contri, Sean at Reserved Investments, or anyone else about how certain people (I guess you feel you're one of them) operate—I'll answer your questions in good faith.

1. As you/we all know, a population report is how many copies of each game title exists in WATA's computer system, and in what condition each title was adjudicated to be as it left WATA to either go to (a) a public market, (b) a private market, or (c) a private collection. A "stop-gap" measure in the absence of such data being released as it should have been, and as too few people militated for it be in activist terms over the last three years, would be an identical data-set—"how many copies of each title exist...and in what condition"—with respect to one of those three end-states, i.e. the public market. I explained this elsewhere and have explained it here, so there is no place you've been where I've been asked this and this answer wasn't given. You disagree with my answer—that's okay. And I'm not going to take your recommendation on how to talk about these market analyses because I won't misrepresent what they are just because you want me to. But that's okay, too—I don't usually take advice from aggro strangers, and you don't really expect me to.

2. I participate in this market as a buyer and collector—as you know. I have used WATA and I have praised WATA—as you know. When I have criticized people in the community, I have said their names and what they did. What happened in your little FB group (which I have seen suspend people's posting privileges for criticizing WATA) was that a lot of people whose names I'd never said, who I didn't know, and who I'd never criticized took criticism of WATA market manipulation as criticism of them. They took criticism of re-sellers hyping big sales to enrich themselves, which everyone agrees has happened, as criticism of them. I can't do anything about people seeing themselves in criticism that wasn't directed at them but at WATA and a small number of re-sellers who I did name, and rightly so, like Tom Curtin and Dave Robbins. I have never said "99% of the folks in the hobby are evil slime-ball suits" and respectfully you sound unhinged when you distort my comments in this way. You're acting like some sort of radical, but I can't tell what you think you're advancing or who/what you're defending, so it's unnerving.

3. You don't have access to my email. You didn't spend days emailing with Deniz's rep about how Deniz feels about your work. Don't tell me what I do and don't know about who did or didn't respond to my work in this way or that way because you don't have any information whatsoever on this score and no basis to talk about it—ever. To claim otherwise is to be a gaslighter.

On a side note, your use of the term "product road map" to describe WATA's response to credible allegations of corruption that were reported on domestically and internationally is legit the funniest thing I've ever read on this site.

Anyway, thanks for the "respectful" dialogue, and I think we can avoid one another from here on out.

Be well,
Seth

 

Edited November 12, 2021 by RETRO

[OptOut | 8,899]

18 minutes ago, RETRO said:

You don't have access to my email. You didn't spend days emailing with Deniz's rep about how Deniz feels about your work.

Oh man, PLZ share those emails!!! 

[Seth | 172]

1 hour ago, inasuma said:

Look my guy, I'm not saying you're untalented or a bad person, or anything else like that. Just stop with the blatant misrepresentation of facts. Critics of Wata are ripe for transparency and facts. You have a whole community of folks here who would probably subscribe to your content if you provided something that didn't reach to borderline comical conclusions and attempt to aggrandize your own platform at every corner.

I just saw that you updated your comment with this. It's appreciated. Look—I don't need the money. I don't mention RETRO because I need the money. I charge $5/month just because the site takes a lot of work and I want there to be a way for that to be nominally reflected. I mention the site here because I earnestly (whether you agree or not) believe it will help people in the community who are buyers/collectors like me (and probably some sellers, too). That said, subscribe or don't subscribe, either is fine and it's no skin off my back. I think people can read (but only if they want to! no hard sell!) what I have written at RETRO to decide if it is sourced and responsible. I'm not afraid to be judged by my work product, and if you've read it and still consider me all the names you called me, I'm sad about that—I want to be liked as much as anyone does—but I have to move on. Again, good luck to you and no hard feelings, I hope.

P.S. I will stop bolding text in my posts here. It is done out of habit and not to annoy people. I will cease and desist with that. I will also try to keep references to RETRO to a minimum—only when/if it is clearly relevant to the topic. I love collecting sealed and graded games, I do it avidly (if only at a low-cost level) and I want to be part of this community.

Edited November 12, 2021 by RETRO

[Seth | 172]

4 minutes ago, OptOut said:

Oh man, PLZ share those emails!!! 

They were pretty frosty on my end. I didn't like how Deniz's rep approached me, which was pretty hot (IMO) on the front end. That said, I'm a journalist, so I made additions to my article based on Deniz's representations through his agent. But I did not issue the correction Deniz had demanded, because it would have been journalistically irresponsible.

[OptOut | 8,899]

1 minute ago, RETRO said:

They were pretty frosty on my end. I didn't like how Deniz's rep approached me, which was pretty hot (IMO) on the front end. That said, I'm a journalist, so I made additions to my article based on Deniz's representations through his agent. But I did not issue the correction Deniz had demanded, because it would have been journalistically irresponsible.

I don't know what that means! DUMP THE MAILZ!!!! 

[Seth | 172]

9 minutes ago, OptOut said:

I don't know what that means! DUMP THE MAILZ!!!! 

LOL.   I don't publish private emails unless it's to defend myself against public misrepresentations by the other party in the exchange. Hope you understand. If you're thinking that the Chris Cuomo and Shia LaBeouf situations I wrote about previously on Substack reflected some sort of M.O. on my part, they really didn't. It takes an enormous amount of lying and betrayal for me to reveal private correspondence like that, and I don't think either Chris or Shia would disagree that they forced my hand.

Edited November 12, 2021 by RETRO

[Jeevan | 9,100]

3 hours ago, ExplodedHamster said:

It was definitely 2 as of the time of the 1.56 auction (Heritage even said so during the auction) and I know of one other that came about after. 

Of course someone is dumping their 9.8 right after that sale lol. The fact more have not surfaced is actually quite telling imo.

 

1 hour ago, OptOut said:

Heritage knows the pop report for the items they auction. Their tongue is so far and so firmly up WATA's ass they can TASTE the A++ seals! 

Anyway, Super Mario 64 9.8 A++ can't be rare when they've been grading fresh ass case packs of the game.

@ExplodedHamster just needs to tell himself that so he can sleep at night on his giant pile of blood money! 

They are all stuck in transit, aka the WATA grading queue in the move.  Someone used one as a clipboard and got permanent marker all over the shrink wrap whilst eating an old banana with fruit flies around.

[OptOut | 8,899]

6 minutes ago, RETRO said:

If you're thinking that the Chris Cuomo situation I wrote previously about was some sort of M.O. on my part, it really wasn't.

I have no idea who that is, lol!

[Seth | 172]

Just now, OptOut said:

I have no idea who that is, lol!

You're not missing anything! 

[OptOut | 8,899]

1 minute ago, Jeevan said:

 

They are all stuck in transit, aka the WATA grading queue in the move.  Someone used one as a clipboard and got permanent marker all over the shrink wrap whilst eating an old banana with fruit flies around.

I think SOMEONE accidentally posted all the WATA games to CHINA! 

[Jeevan | 9,100]

1 minute ago, OptOut said:

I think SOMEONE accidentally posted all the WATA games to CHINA! 

[Seth | 172]

4 minutes ago, Jeevan said:

Great GIF usage here

[Jeevan | 9,100]

Just now, RETRO said:

Great GIF usage here

if only you knew......

[Gulag Joe | 585]

What's the total sealed population of nes Double Dribble? Can I find that data on this blog?

[AnimalHouse | 117]

1 hour ago, RETRO said:

They were pretty frosty on my end. I didn't like how Deniz's rep approached me, which was pretty hot (IMO) on the front end. That said, I'm a journalist, so I made additions to my article based on Deniz's representations through his agent. But I did not issue the correction Deniz had demanded, because it would have been journalistically irresponsible.

How did he/she approach you?

[AnimalHouse | 117]

12 hours ago, inasuma said:

Interesting choice to do a slow-roll release like this. How do you all feel about it? 

My personal thoughts: Why no seal ratings? That aside, I hope we get the rest of it next year. It would be awesome to actually use the matrix after 2 years of nada. 

Here's the full newsletter:

 

Ugh I have a bad feeling there going to jack the FedEx shipping price up when they move to Calif. On the other hand, maybe Wata's new master might utilize a cheaper alternative shipping service -> USPS. 

 

Edited November 12, 2021 by AnimalHouse

[OptOut | 8,899]

7 minutes ago, AnimalHouse said:

Ugh I have a bad feeling there going to jack the FedEx shipping price up when they move to Calif. On the other hand, maybe Wata's new master might utilize a cheaper alternative shipping service -> USPS. 

There is no string of 4 letters in the English language more TERRIFYING to game collectors than U S P S... 

[AdamW | 713]

4 hours ago, RETRO said:

This is just puerile whining, Adam. If you're getting worked up about typography, the problem is with you. If you don't find the content of my posts helpful, ignore them. That's how discussion boards have worked for the last 25 years.

Puerile whining, you say?! Well, it is always nice to be recognized by an expert...