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

[tidaldreams | 654]

31 minutes ago, RETRO said:

I admit to being confused by this statement. In May 2018, then-WATA CEO and President Deniz Kahn told the media that WATA was ready to release pop reports for all games, on all systems, across all grades and conditions, and across all game types (sealed and CIB), and now, three and a half years later, you're saying that the reason the head of the company's estimate was off by three and a half years is because the head of the company was unaware how big a task what he publicly promised would be? And you're implying that WATA has been working on this project for three and a half years ("[this] is why it has taken them so long") when we have absolutely no evidence that that is true, and even none of the WATA fanboys with a backchannel to Deniz (and no compunctions about shilling for WATA) say it's true?

What?

Why don't we stick to the facts. WATA just went through the worst PR scandal of its existence, and was bought out by a new parent company. That new parent company—both as a way of building good faith with customers (who are waiting 5x to 10x longer for their products than they paid for) and as a way of reversing course from the now-demoted Kahn's policy of doing absolutely nothing to release pop reports (and unethically manipulating the sealed-and-graded games market on TV)—decided to start its pop-report project for the first time.

Because it's a big project, the company is starting with one subset of data from one console. It likely didn't announce its intentions until it had gotten most of the way through this effort, which would have begun shortly after WATA was bought out in July. So while we may be able to say that it has taken them months to get their data into shape—and the poor shape of the data is of course the company's fault, and negligence, and may be part of the reason Kahn was demoted—we cannot say that they have been working on this all along, that any issues they're facing now weren't foreseeable three and a half years ago, or that WATA is to be given any credit for doing the absolute rock-bottom least it can possibly do to get itself out of the business ethics and consumer-confidence hole it willfully created for itself and is in right now.

I don't know what Deniz said in 2018, but it is possible that what he said has been misconstrued to what he actually meant. Anyway, I was just saying because of how terrible their data seems to be in general and the combination of letter and numerical grades (in addition to the multiple variations of a single game), this is not a simple task to implement.

I'm not a WATA fanboy. In fact, I'm not a fan of any company. I am a fan of money though, and as long a company continues to make me money I will continue to do business with them.

Also, not sure what him being demoted has to do with anything. I couldn't care less about that.

Forgot to mention that some random guy on youtube ranting is far from a PR scandal. All he did was bring up a bunch of facts that have been in the public domain for years and made it into a digestible format for the masses. I'd say I knew at least 75% of what he mentioned already and I don't even follow this endeavor too closely.

Oh, and sorry if my writing is not as eloquent as yours. I'm not a Harvard lawyer after all

Edited November 20, 2021 by tidaldreams

[Seth | 166]

2 hours ago, tidaldreams said:

I don't know what Deniz said in 2018, but it is possible that what he said has been misconstrued to what he actually meant. Anyway, I was just saying because of how terrible their data seems to be in general and the combination of letter and numerical grades (in addition to the multiple variations of a single game), this is not a simple task to implement.

I'm not a WATA fanboy. In fact, I'm not a fan of any company. I am a fan of money though, and as long a company continues to make me money I will continue to do business with them.

Also, not sure what him being demoted has to do with anything. I couldn't care less about that.

Forgot to mention that some random guy on youtube ranting is far from a PR scandal. All he did was bring up a bunch of facts that have been in the public domain for years and made it into a digestible format for the masses. I'd say I knew at least 75% of what he mentioned already and I don't even follow this endeavor too closely.

Oh, and sorry if my writing is not as eloquent as yours. I'm not a Harvard lawyer after all

I don't consider myself eloquent and I don't think there's any need for eloquence on a discussion board. You can watch the video yourself; in it, Deniz clearly explains to the interviewer how the WATA app (never released) is going to work when released in June 2018, and explains that it will be able to access the "matrix" that has been on all WATA cases since the beginning—uselessly, given WATA's failure to carry out what it promised its customers on that score. Deniz says that the matrix will have population report data on it.

I don't know how his words could be misconstrued, but I'm not saying and didn't say you're a WATA fanboy. And of course you have every right to do business with a company that makes you money, even if they would make you a hell of a lot more money if they were a better business—and only pressure from their customers will force them to be a better business.

Deniz was demoted because the business was doing bad things, and was a year behind schedule on fulfilling orders, and was manipulating the market in a way that led to terrible press and actually kept a huge volume of buyers away from buying your/anyone's product in this new, volatile, vulnerable market. By contrast, pop reports are coming out because Karl Jobst did something very good. So no matter who is making you money, your priorities and credulousness are profoundly misplaced if you are giving Deniz a pass on everything (which candidly you are) and calling Karl a "random guy on YouTube ranting." Talk about misdirected sentiments. You're getting the pop reports Deniz kept from you because of Karl, maybe some gratitude is in order.

Incidentally, the reason more people don't do the right thing in this world is because those who do get derided while those like Deniz who don't get a pass. My two cents, anyway—your values are your values and you are entitled to them.

Edited November 20, 2021 by RETRO

[tidaldreams | 654]

27 minutes ago, RETRO said:

I don't consider myself eloquent and I don't think there's any need for eloquence on a discussion board. You can watch the video yourself; in it, Deniz clearly explains to the interviewer how the WATA app (never released) is going to work when released in June 2018, and explains that it will be able to access the "matrix" that has been on all WATA cases since the beginning—uselessly, given WATA's failure to carry out what it promised its customers on that score. Deniz says that the matrix will have population report data on it.

I don't know how his words could be misconstrued, but I'm not saying and didn't say you're a WATA fanboy. And of course you have every right to do business with a company that makes you money, even if they would make you a hell of a lot more money if they were a better business—and only pressure from their customers will force them to be a better business.

Deniz was demoted because the business was doing bad things, and was a year behind schedule on fulfilling orders, and was manipulating the market in a way that led to terrible press and actually kept a huge volume of buyers away from buying your/anyone's product in this new, volatile, vulnerable market. By contrast, pop reports are coming out because Karl Jobst did something very good. So no matter who is making you money, your priorities and credulousness are profoundly misplaced if you are giving Deniz a pass on everything (which candidly you are) and calling Karl a "random guy on YouTube ranting." Talk about misdirected sentiments. You're getting the pop reports Deniz kept from you because of Karl, maybe some gratitude is in order.

Incidentally, the reason more people don't do the right thing in this world is because those who do get derided while those like Deniz who don't get a pass. My two cents, anyway—your values are your values and you are entitled to them.

I'd argue that I can perform better in this market if population reports were not available, at least for the games/systems I'm familiar with (so NOT NES and definitely NOT Atari ), so I'm in no real rush to get them. 

I'm not that immoral though, so I definitely advocate for them. Just thought I'd mention that because I'm sure there are others out there with the same thought, even though they'll never admit it publicly.

Oh, and the slow turnaround time is a completely valid point. I'd doubt anyone would argue that I rant about WATA all the time, and they definitely pull a lot of shit. But all legit grading companies have slowed to a halt all of this year so any alternatives would not be much better. The only ones with a decent turnaround time are the sketchy ones formed out of people's basements.

Edited November 20, 2021 by tidaldreams

[inasuma | 1,203]

On 11/19/2021 at 6:56 PM, RETRO said:

Deniz was demoted because the business was doing bad things, and was a year behind schedule on fulfilling orders, and was manipulating the market in a way that led to terrible press and actually kept a huge volume of buyers away from buying your/anyone's product in this new, volatile, vulnerable market.

do you have a source for deniz being demoted at least in part because wata was “manipulating the market in a way that led to terrible press and actually kept a huge volume of buyers away from buying your/anyone's product”?

also a source in deniz being demoted would be good too. Haven’t heard of that either

Edited November 21, 2021 by inasuma

[3rdStrongestMole | 430]

@RETRO good point about the matrix. I don't know shit about computers, but I'd have to assume if they have each game paired with a QR code then they must be databased in depth somewhere. 

Probably what happened is some newby edited the shared Excel doc thinking it was a downloaded copy... Been there before, guy

[Seth | 166]

Did anyone have "WATA is full of sh*t and they're not going to release pop reports in November" on their bingo card? I'll admit that I didn't—I felt (and to an extent still do) that they may find a way to get these reports out in the next 120 hours as promised (though really it's 36 hours, as I expect Monday midday is now the earliest it would happen).

I'm just astounded (and yet, why?) that after 3 years of not giving the reports they promised, they announced "November" and are now taking it this close to the wire. And that's with them only offering reports on one console, one type of game on that console (sealed), and one metric on that one type of game on that one console (box grade).

Is some exec doing eleventh hour shopping for raw sealed copies of MENDEL PALACE, or what?

WATA will never cease to amaze me.

[Gulag Joe | 582]

8 hours ago, RETRO said:

Did anyone have "WATA is full of sh*t and they're not going to release pop reports in November" on their bingo card? I'll admit that I didn't—I felt (and to an extent still do) that they may find a way to get these reports out in the next 120 hours as promised (though really it's 36 hours, as I expect Monday midday is now the earliest it would happen).

I'm just astounded (and yet, why?) that after 3 years of not giving the reports they promised, they announced "November" and are now taking it this close to the wire. And that's with them only offering reports on one console, one type of game on that console (sealed), and one metric on that one type of game on that one console (box grade).

Is some exec doing eleventh hour shopping for raw sealed copies of MENDEL PALACE, or what?

WATA will never cease to amaze me.

They have until next Tuesday at 11:59pm mountain time. That's 5 more days. Lots of time left to release it. Wata won't let us down!

[ExplodedHamster | 404]

I'd guess Monday. Pure speculation, but Goldin moved their auction to Tuesday the 30th, so it would make sense that the same parent company (CU) might want a nice lead in to its auction?

Edited November 26, 2021 by ExplodedHamster

[inasuma | 1,203]

On 11/26/2021 at 4:26 AM, Gulag Joe said:

They have until next Tuesday at 11:59pm mountain time. That's 5 more days. Lots of time left to release it. Wata won't let us down!

it's two business days at this point. I'm not particularly hopeful. But perhaps they're just using as much time as they have to squash the bugs.

[ApebitMusic | 130]

C’mon guys. I’m not a wata apologist, believe me, but the month isn’t over. I’d be shocked if they stiffed us after the pomp and circumstance of the announcement. The sh*tstorm that would happen if they did, however, would be pretty entertaining. Haha. 

[inasuma | 1,203]

1 minute ago, ApebitMusic said:

C’mon guys. I’m not a wata apologist, believe me, but the month isn’t over. I’d be shocked if they stiffed us after the pomp and circumstance of the announcement. The sh*tstorm that would happen if they did, however, would be pretty entertaining. Haha. 

All I'm saying is, Wata hasn't exactly demonstrated consistency. But we can cross that bridge if the month ends and the pop report is nowhere to be seen.  

[Link | 2,709]

Awright, place yer bets, folks, step right up and place ya bets! Will they or won't they? Two days ta deliver, several more gone, it all comes down ta this! Will they blow it? Or will they pull it out of th' baag? Have they at long last loined ta make a deadline? It's th' battle of th' century! Place yer bets right now, tha last weekend of th' mont' is over and tha countdown is onnn!

[OptOut | 8,883]

[GPX | 1,369]

I predict it will come out sometime between last day of November 2021 and Christmas 2022.

Oh, the suspense!

 

[AnimalHouse | 117]

If they're releasing it from CO, they have until November 30 at 11:59pm MST (Mountain Standard Time). If CA, they have until November 30 at 11:59pm PST (Pacific Standard Time).

Edited November 29, 2021 by AnimalHouse

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,104]

14 hours ago, Link said:

Awright, place yer bets, folks, step right up and place ya bets! Will they or won't they? Two days ta deliver, several more gone, it all comes down ta this! Will they blow it? Or will they pull it out of th' baag? Have they at long last loined ta make a deadline? It's th' battle of th' century! Place yer bets right now, tha last weekend of th' mont' is over and tha countdown is onnn!

[Gulag Joe | 582]

One more sleep!

[Link | 2,709]

hahahaaaa well, they did something.