MinusWorlds.com debuts Tuesday- Thank You!

[OptOut | 8,883]

9 minutes ago, tidaldreams said:

Again, if you really have the data that can help you determine which games are undervalued, I don't understand why you're not using it for monetary gain

Imagine being interested in video games for anything OTHER than financial gain!

**Shudders**

[tidaldreams | 654]

2 minutes ago, OptOut said:

Imagine being interested in video games for anything OTHER than financial gain!

**Shudders**

Haha, yes this makes sense ofc! I merely called that out because he is constantly bringing up the fact that he could get games in the three figures that would otherwise sell for four (or maybe even five figures) elsewhere. I mean... if this was really possible then why wouldn't you? This is basically a money printer.

[tidaldreams | 654]

7 minutes ago, RETRO said:

Here's what I saw:

• WATA is referred to as a grading house, and VGA as a mere "authenticator." That is false.
• VGA's grading scale is misrepresented as relating to "authentication," while WATA gets two lengthy box-checking filters for the entirety of its grading rubric. By comparison, VGA gets a single slider (I'll put aside that the two grading houses aren't listed alphabetically or by age or by volume of games graded—any of which would have put VGA first—but by the site's clear preference for WATA).
• When you search for VGA graded games, even if you check the box, nothing comes up. WATA games come up just fine.
• There are three times as many WATA games as VGA games (and when the site first went up and I formed my opinion, it was about 10x WATA games), even though VGA has—over 13 years—graded substantially more games than WATA has in its 3.5 years.

You could argue that The Jackals simply prefer WATA because the Jackals hyped the market for WATA games to the point that WATA games always sell for more—that's why they (and WATA) push the preposterous idea of "crossing over" games needlessly; the only reason to do this is to sell your product for an artificially inflated price because it's WATA-branded (the sort of tautological reality that market manipulation is intended to create)—and that MinusWorlds.com is simply getting most of its up-charged product from Jackals, but that kind of proves my point. The whole milieu that birthed this site is a series of high-end resellers who act as WATA fanboys and shills for the sake of personal financial profit.

Edit: In the Knowledge Center, VGA is properly presented as a grading company. I'm referring to the most important part of the site: the game search.

Half of these things are the result of the site being glitchy AF currently. The reason you saw 10x as many WATA games as VGA when the site first launched is likely because the people they asked to sell their games before the site launched only had WATA games to sell.

If it makes you feel any better, I will be uploading tons of VGA games (in addition to WATA games) to the site.

[inasuma | 1,203]

8 minutes ago, tidaldreams said:

Haha, yes this makes sense ofc! I merely called that out because he is constantly bringing up the fact that he could get games in the three figures that would otherwise sell for four (or maybe even five figures) elsewhere. I mean... if this was really possible then why wouldn't you? This is basically a money printer.

unshakable ethics will prevent anyone from exposing a financial opportunity, though. i mean, there's no way business people would dare expose financial opportunity. 

5 minutes ago, tidaldreams said:

Half of these things are the result of the site being glitchy AF currently. The reason you saw 10x as many WATA games as VGA when the site first launched is likely because the people they asked to sell their games before the site launched only had WATA games to sell.

If it makes you feel any better, I will be uploading tons of VGA games (in addition to WATA games) to the site.

just to add to this... i seriously doubt the prevalence of one grader or another has any sort of bearing on malicious intent. dan only just launched his startup's product/service... if he were to (quietly) declare preference on which grading vendor is shown, it would actually detract from dan's business. so, great feedback for @Dan64I guess to get that vga filter working again.  

[Dan64 | 66]

13 hours ago, tidaldreams said:

Yeah, I thought this was pretty cool. It's pretty glitchy though (like most things on this site atm lol), it doesn't actually fill out for a few games I tried and when it does the date sometimes comes out as nonsense. 

The console list is pretty disorganized, it looks like just a random list, would be nice if you could alphabetize it.

Yes, that has been on bug list for a bit, it drives me nuts when listing a game as well

[Dan64 | 66]

10 hours ago, CIBWholesale said:

my listings were deactivated because I didnt provide 6 pictures and the pictures were not quality pictures

 

that makes sense and I agree with the policy, however other sellers had the same issues but were not pulled

i'll wait to see automated standards but went from excited to ---- immediately getting a king vibe

 

 

 

This was a one off because games that this user listed at 800k and 1.5 billion dollars were blurry and not at a professional manner. 

[Dan64 | 66]

11 hours ago, RETRO said:

So Tom Curtin is going to create the sort of marketplace database RETRO is already doing for Intellivision and Atari and NES games, and which it has been doing for months, and which Tom publicly attacked me for doing.

I guess it all makes sense now. You guys really are sharks. Or perhaps some much smaller land animal.

In any case, I suppose you *can* do this work for free—instead of as one minor feature on a massive website that costs $2.90/month, like RETRO—when you're making money hand over fist as an unnecessary middleman in a market Tom helped inflate with years of bullsh*t, and when you work directly behind the scenes (as you say you plan to) with the very auction houses that also (like Tom) want these prices inflated.

God help us—or more specifically, buyers in this new market. Their actual advocates get steamrolled so that high-end resellers in bed with auction houses and grading companies can offer "free" services for the masses as they overcharge them by 25% to 50% for games. You guys made me feel like garbage for charging anything for hundreds of hours of research; little did I know that you were going to do the same work but make it free because you're making 1000x my monthly sub rate via up-charging.

I never was a shark like that. Didn't have the bloodlust for it.

This community gets what it deserves, candidly. It doesn't demand better, so it gets this. I'll continue buying the same games for three figures (sealed and graded) that you're selling for thousands. Make sure that when you tally thousands of sales at Heritage and 24 other markets (as I already have at RETRO), you leave off what things sold for. You don't want people seeing that at Heritage games go for half of what they're going for at MinusWorlds.

Hey Seth, Dan Allegra here. Your anger is miss placed. Tom Curtin was kind enough for me to use his handle when i asked because I thought the name was perfect for this but this project is mine and mine alone. Clearly state I am the sole owner.
 

Since I became more involved in the community aspect of video games 2+ years ago, Tom Curtin has been nothing less than a great friend to me going above and beyond. I feel questioning his values is unjust being I have never experienced anything less than a passionate collector that truly cares about this community. 

 

 

Edited November 27, 2021 by Dan64

[Dan64 | 66]

11 hours ago, RETRO said:

Multiple people told me Tom is involved in this project. Again, if Dan wants to say that Tom has had no role of any kind whatsoever, I'll believe it about as much as I believe WATA saying Richard Lecce had no role in WATA but I will accept it.

As for the FB nonsense, I'm not going to let Dan pitch here as a valuable public service the same research that his crew elsewhere implied was without value. I lost sleep over those attacks—a lot. Seeing an idea I put into action months ago and got slammed for pitched here as a fresh, honorable contribution is not something I can or should let slide.

By all means, if Dan wants to say his crew was dead wrong about RETRO and that they want to build on my idea for widely available marketplace research on sealed-and-graded games, they can—but linking to a Reddit tool that is now offline and making no mention of RETRO while cribbing from it is BS and needs to be called out.

Seth, let me clearly state this is 100% my own effort. Your anger for Tom is miss placed. There is no conspiracy theory. Happy to chat with you on the phone or post your questions here

Edited November 27, 2021 by Dan64

[Dan64 | 66]

10 hours ago, RETRO said:

Here's what I saw:

• WATA is referred to as a grading house, and VGA as a mere "authenticator." That is false.
• VGA's grading scale is misrepresented as relating to "authentication," while WATA gets two lengthy box-checking filters for the entirety of its grading rubric. By comparison, VGA gets a single slider (I'll put aside that the two grading houses aren't listed alphabetically or by age or by volume of games graded—any of which would have put VGA first—but by the site's clear preference for WATA).
• When you search for VGA graded games, even if you check the box, nothing comes up. WATA games come up just fine.
• There are three times as many WATA games as VGA games (and when the site first went up and I formed my opinion, it was about 10x WATA games), even though VGA has—over 13 years—graded substantially more games than WATA has in its 3.5 years.

You could argue that The Jackals simply prefer WATA because the Jackals hyped the market for WATA games to the point that WATA games always sell for more—that's why they (and WATA) push the preposterous idea of "crossing over" games needlessly; the only reason to do this is to sell your product for an artificially inflated price because it's WATA-branded (the sort of tautological reality that market manipulation is intended to create)—and that MinusWorlds.com is simply getting most of its up-charged product from Jackals, but that kind of proves my point. The whole milieu that birthed this site is a series of high-end resellers who act as WATA fanboys and shills for the sake of personal financial profit.

Edit: In the Knowledge Center, VGA is properly presented as a grading company. I'm referring to the most important part of the site: the game search.

Let me answer these questions one by one, sorry for multiple posts but a lot of different posts to respond to and will try to go back and condense them to one post. 
 

Referring to VGA as an Authenticator is nothing more how I use grading company and Authenticator interchangeably. 
 

the Sliding scale was simply to save space. Their grading scale is much easier to represent and saved us from making the filter box too long. 
 

search for vga graded: are you typing by title? This is working on my end . If you type VGA or Wata, neither come up because not in title. 

we have a section for VGA grading company that we worked with VGA to use materials from their site to show their grading scale and break down their label. 
 

regarding the number of VGA games, sellers put up their games. If you want to list a hundred VGA games to level it out, I welcome you to

We look forward you trying our services in time. If any questions, I am transparent because I can be so ask away. 
 

thanks and take care

[CIB_Wholesale | 418]

36 minutes ago, Dan64 said:

This was a one off because games that this user listed at 800k and 1.5 billion dollars were blurry and not at a professional manner. 

thanks for calling me a 1 off

 

It's a serial number. Who is the grader? the buyer? or the grading company? The serial is in clear view and the verification happens at your facility correct? what exactly is the service you're offering?

 

 

 

like I said i agree with you about the 6 pics and them being clearly visible. What i dont agree with is other sellers not being held to that standard and the response I got about how to handle it. Like a instaban vibe

 

also.... the minor details are very upsetting because I asked for a billion, not 1.5. but who cares about minor details?

 

Edited November 27, 2021 by CIBWholesale

[Dan64 | 66]

11 hours ago, RETRO said:

Of course they're friends. Everyone knows that. That's not my point. My point is that RETRO was contacted 2+ months ago by someone who is in this crew and they said that Tom was pushing "his new brokerage" hard in private conversations—and began doing so not long after falsely attacking my market research. Dan writes "we" repeatedly on MinusWorlds and mentions that he spoke with Tom about the project, so until Dan comes here to say that Tom has had no role whatsoever in this project besides lending his handle to it, I'm steamed.

Your sources are wrong. 

I wanted to write the clearly because if you care for truth you would never trust that "source" again. 

I state "We" a lot because we have employees at Minus Worlds and its a company. 

Clearly state, 

Tom has had no role whatsoever in this project besides lending his handle to it. 

[MinusWorlds | 193]

Seems the Harvard curriculum doesn’t include English 101. What a shame. Would have saved a bunch of us time not having to read through another 1634526 words of utter bullshit. 
 

I explained my involvement with MinusWorlds several pages back Beth. There’s nothing more to it. I realize you make a living off of your conspiracy theory diatribes but maybe peddle that BS elsewhere. 
 

This is the last time I’m going to address you @RETRO. Unless you have the testicular fortitude to man up and reach out to me directly so we can discuss your concerns. 
 

You have constantly brought my name up as if I’m some evil overlord over the sealed community. The reality is I helped build that community over 2+ decades in here. I have put more into the video game hobby than you ever will despite how many characters you post all over the place. That is simply just a fact. I’m going to let you in on a couple of things and you can do with it whatever you want, but I’m done with you dragging me through the mud. 
 

The timeframe that you repeatedly allege I was helping pump Wata, inflate the market etc. I wasn’t even in the hobby. I took 2 years off to care for my mother who was sick. I literally built her a place to live with my fucking hands to have her close to me. She passed 2 weeks after we completed it. She was my best friend and I was lost. I needed something to do with that energy and I turned back to collecting. Wata had been around for almost a year at that point. I dove back in and got caught back up to speed and reignited my passion. It’s been fun and I hope I’ve helped people along the way. That’s what I care about. 
 

Also, whoever your “source” is, they quite frankly, suck. If you were even a tiny bit more astute you would have realized I haven’t been around for the last couple of months. Never mind “aggressively” pushing my brokerage business. Why is that you ask? Because one of my best friends in the hobby passed away and it’s completely deflated me. He was a close friend and we even collected games together and were working on some fun projects that I haven’t even been able to address without him. 
 

So Beth, you can continue to spout your BS at a frenetic pace like a fucking mindless robot. When the passion returns I’ll be back at the hobby doing what I love. You can think whatever you want about me, but the people here, on FB, IG and IRL know what I’m about. 
 

Your worthless degrees will never teach you how to be a good human. That much is clear. Any more questions, you can reach out to me directly. 
 

MinusWorlds

[Seth | 166]

1 hour ago, MinusWorlds said:

Any more questions, you can reach out to me directly. 

Tom, I have no problem seeing what you are. If others can't, that's on them. As a public defender for years, I saw every sort of vice known to humankind.

You're the sort of casual 1980s misogynist who calls me a woman as an insult—and does it multiple times to make sure I caught it. This would really offend me if I were six years old and it were 1982.

You're the sort of elitist and hypocrite who spends his life not doing public service—you're not a teacher, or an activist, or an artist, or a public interest attorney, or a journalist—but selling toys to multimillionaires, and who then brings up my education (repeatedly) to deflect from the fact that you contribute nothing to society beyond your own financial enrichment. I used the degree you despise so much to become a public servant across multiple decades and multiple roles in the public sector. I don't know what degrees you have and I don't care (nor do I care about my own degrees, which were merely a means to an end in trying to help bring more goodness and justice into the world); you use your skills to gouge middle-class buyers and flatter rich playboys. That's who you are and all you will ever be unless the attitude you've exhibited here changes dramatically and soon.

I don't know if you're a far-right lunatic, but you certainly talk like one—deriding proven political corruption as "conspiracy theory." I can't tell if this is a performance for your neo-fascist far-right clients domestically and abroad or a garden-variety ignorance about politics that should be embarrassing in a man your age.

No, I'm not going to "reach out directly" to a man who says it takes balls to email him. If we're going to talk like 1980s schoolchildren, it would have taken "balls" for you to stand up to your pals at WATA. It would have taken "balls" for you to even read the subtitle of a RETRO article you whined about ad nauseam on Facebook but inexplicably wouldn't click on let alone pay a pittance to read (even as you called the price "well worth it," which contradiction I will never understand). It would have taken "balls" for you to not repeatedly lie about the sealed video games market and the history of the market in your chat with Dave Robbins and Karl Jobst. It would have taken "balls"—and humility—to admit that you and the rest of the Jackals have done nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, to open this hobby up to anyone who can't enrich you personally.

You are a blight on this hobby and your presence in it threatens its future.

I am earnestly sorry about your mother and earnestly sorry about your friend. I lost my father during the pandemic and I am no stranger to loss generally. But the question is what we transmit that loss into, and I have seen enough from you to know the answer to that question.

That said, I have always been too credulous by half—even with strangers. If you and Dan both say you're not involved with creating market research reports identical to those at RETRO (and yes, transparently explained, at length, as market research reports), I'm going to choose to believe you. 

My hope is that when you return to this market, you will do five things:

• Spend thirty minutes talking or writing about gaming for every thirty minutes you talk or write about the graded video game market.
• Spend fifty minutes thinking about new entrants to the hobby who are buyers and collectors rather than resellers and investors for every ten minutes you think about the Jackals and the "community" of cynical, unethical market predators that "you" built on Facebook and elsewhere.
• Come clean about how unstable and senseless this market is right now, and your role in perpetuating that quite apart from any fanboying for WATA. (Note that I haven't made the sort of accusations about your involvement with WATA that you seem to think I have; I merely think you are an apologist for WATA, a shill for WATA, and someone who would, for instance, senselessly denigrate the VGA "qualified" scale as equivalent to WATA's CIB scale when literally the former involves new games and the latter used games. How obvious can the sycophancy be?)
• Openly militate for pop reports from the companies you have previously shilled for unofficially, and get on their case when they break promises or—as importantly—abuse their customers by not answering their customer service phones, inserting human and dog hair into their cases, selling subpar cases with bubbles in them, negligently scuffing and scratching cases before sending them out, allowing their website to misrepresent their known TATs, overcharging for services they don't provide, engaging in fake appraisals on television, self-dealing contrary to public policy, and worse. I know what kind of man you are by what you don't just forgive but enable, Tom. What "men" do, if that's going to be your frame, is stand up for the vulnerable and call out injustice. You can misdirect people with misogyny and irrelevant comments about my education, but your values are clear in everything you write and they are abominable.
• Take dramatic public steps to bring new blood into the hobby—and I mean middle-class buyers, not more well-heeled Saudis and Germans and Emiratis. You could do this by hyping up three-figure games and surprising finds; restoring the rarity component to the market, which makes more commonly appreciated and found games more affordable for all; and fighting the $1000-plus price-fixing philosophy of your Jackals at every turn. This would just be a start. But my God, if I have to listen to Dave Robbins opine one more time about how many new people are going to be coming into this hobby in the years ahead, when they already had decades to do so and didn't and when collecting high-end sealed and graded games (not games generally, as every gamer already collects games just by finding ones they like and buying and playing them) will always be wildly niche in part because people like him and you are trying to price everyone but millionaires out of it, I will puke.

From the first moment you engaged with me, Tom, you have been uncouth and a liar. I know that, like all humans, you suffer and have human moments—and I'm sorry again for your recent losses—but I'll say again that it is what we do with grief that defines us.

S.

Edited November 27, 2021 by RETRO

[Seth | 166]

2 hours ago, Dan64 said:

I wanted to write the clearly because if you care for truth you would never trust that "source" again. 

As I wrote above to Tom, Dan, I accept your representation. Thank you for clarifying.

S.

EDIT: No—I owe you more than that, Dan. I owe you an apology. I confused you with the other Dan, who has at times been kind to me and at times taken the piss about my work at RETRO. I may think MinusWorlds.com is overpriced, but as I said above, that is neither illegal nor unethical. It is your right to charge (or let sellers charge) whatever you like on your site, and as someone who has built many sites I know how hard it is and I don't mean to make it even harder for you. I hope you go ahead with your project to collect market data; having done it, I know it is exhausting and thankless work that doesn't even end up being remunerative despite how much money it could save people. I applaud your commitment to doing it, and I apologize again for letting my anger toward Tom cloud my judgment in how I approached you, here, regarding your project. I wish you luck with it.

Edited November 27, 2021 by RETRO

[Dan64 | 66]

1 hour ago, CIBWholesale said:

thanks for calling me a 1 off

 

It's a serial number. Who is the grader? the buyer? or the grading company? The serial is in clear view and the verification happens at your facility correct? what exactly is the service you're offering?

 

 

 

like I said i agree with you about the 6 pics and them being clearly visible. What i dont agree with is other sellers not being held to that standard and the response I got about how to handle it. Like a instaban vibe

 

also.... the minor details are very upsetting because I asked for a billion, not 1.5. but who cares about minor details?

 

The situation was a one off. As stated you are welcome to list with Minus Worlds if you want to follow our standards. We are posting guidelines Monday

 

4 minutes ago, RETRO said:

As I wrote above to Tom, Dan, I accept your representation. Thank you for clarifying.

S.

 

I want to be clear that I (not Tom) am working to release sales data on Minus Worlds. 

We (minus worlds) will not be adding the service of dissecting the data but merely displaying it. Currently I am trying to work with the  auction houses to bring the 4 main auction houses data with the data of ebay to have a search function of sales data. We will represent Wata, VGA and CgC data points. We will not be disecting the data nor commenting on what it represents but just laying it out there in a digestible format for people to research and come to their own conclusions.

 

Your way may be better, and support you and others who provide any service or content in video games. Being a marketplace I am very cautious of how we represent data and want to really have a neutral hub to help buyers and sellers on their collecting journey. 

Any questions never hesitate. thanks-Dan

[CIB_Wholesale | 418]

1 hour ago, Dan64 said:

The situation was a one off. As stated you are welcome to list with Minus Worlds if you want to follow our standards. We are posting guidelines Monday

 

 

 

the issue isnt with the pictures it's with the system . Were the listings taken down for not having 6 pictures? or being too high in price? because 1 was valued with no comps so I used relative rarity compared to 9.8mario 64 to come up with the number. I documented other listings that were worse listed than mine. You referenced a 5k threshold for the higher standards but there were many examples of 2 pictures and bad pictures.

p.s. all of those issues could be resolved with automatic validation on the submit button....

the other 1 was competing with a higher priced wata graded item so if my listing was too high, the same game was higher by 40k

 

"follow our standards" is already been a fast moving target and so i'll wait a bit to see if the real collectors benefit because i didnt see much of older collectors benefit from the last boom

 

Edited November 27, 2021 by CIBWholesale

[Dan64 | 66]

5 minutes ago, CIBWholesale said:

 

 

the issue isnt with the pictures it's with the system . Were the listings taken down for not having 6 pictures? or being too high in price? because 1 was valued with no comps so I used relative rarity compared to 9.8mario 64 to come up with the number. I documented other listings that were worse listed than mine. You referenced a 5k threshold for the higher standards but there were many examples of 2 pictures and bad pictures.

p.s. all of those issues could be resolved with automatic validation on the submit button....

the other 1 was competing with a higher priced wata graded item so if my listing was too high, the same game was higher by 40k

 

"follow our standards" is already been a fast moving target and so i'll wait a bit to see if the real collectors benefit because i didnt see much of older collectors benefit from the last boom

 

To state what you told me, you wanted to list games without taking pictures. We believe the buyers have the right to see the item they purchase.   If that is a deal breaker for you we understand and wish you the best.  

 

 

 

[CIB_Wholesale | 418]

1 minute ago, Dan64 said:

To state what you told me, you wanted to list games without taking pictures. We believe the buyers have the right to see the item they purchase.   If that is a deal breaker for you we understand and wish you the best.  

 

 

 

 There were plenty of pictures to see the game and serial number

 

[Dan64 | 66]

5 minutes ago, CIBWholesale said:

 There were plenty of pictures to see the game and serial number

 

Unfortunately we disagree. That is okay, I disagree with the best of my friends. 

We do not play gate keepers and are working to display our guidelines Monday via pdf so it is more clear on our standards for our sellers photos and the process.

Due to great feedback we are also adding "The Process" tab on top left of home page this week to do a better job explaining the site and the process. 

Thank you for your feedback and take care, Dan

[OptOut | 8,883]

6 hours ago, CIBWholesale said:

 There were plenty of pictures to see the game and serial number

 

Lol, did you really list a game for a BILLION dollars?!

Playing a little soft ball there, aren't you?! 

[ExplodedHamster | 404]

On 11/25/2021 at 3:06 PM, tidaldreams said:

When you go to advanced search -> sold, does that show all the solds or just the recent ones? Think this might be one of the most valuable things about this website if you are showing all solds and the actual sold price (not like the listed price when a best offer was accepted).

Interesting how a 9.8 A+ and 9.2 A+ Shinobi 3 sold for the exact same price... sucks to be the 9.2 A+ buyer...

The website is glitchy as hell lol

I know you know, but the 9.2 sold for 2k lol. Glitches are improving for me, seeing daily improvements.

[Code Monkey | 2,006]

8 hours ago, RETRO said:

Tom, I have no problem seeing what you are. If others can't, that's on them. As a public defender for years, I saw every sort of vice known to humankind.

You're the sort of casual 1980s misogynist who calls me a woman as an insult—and does it multiple times to make sure I caught it. This would really offend me if I were six years old and it were 1982.

You're the sort of elitist and hypocrite who spends his life not doing public service—you're not a teacher, or an activist, or an artist, or a public interest attorney, or a journalist—but selling toys to multimillionaires, and who then brings up my education (repeatedly) to deflect from the fact that you contribute nothing to society beyond your own financial enrichment. I used the degree you despise so much to become a public servant across multiple decades and multiple roles in the public sector. I don't know what degrees you have and I don't care (nor do I care about my own degrees, which were merely a means to an end in trying to help bring more goodness and justice into the world); you use your skills to gouge middle-class buyers and flatter rich playboys. That's who you are and all you will ever be unless the attitude you've exhibited here changes dramatically and soon.

I don't know if you're a far-right lunatic, but you certainly talk like one—deriding proven political corruption as "conspiracy theory." I can't tell if this is a performance for your neo-fascist far-right clients domestically and abroad or a garden-variety ignorance about politics that should be embarrassing in a man your age.

No, I'm not going to "reach out directly" to a man who says it takes balls to email him. If we're going to talk like 1980s schoolchildren, it would have taken "balls" for you to stand up to your pals at WATA. It would have taken "balls" for you to even read the subtitle of a RETRO article you whined about ad nauseam on Facebook but inexplicably wouldn't click on let alone pay a pittance to read (even as you called the price "well worth it," which contradiction I will never understand). It would have taken "balls" for you to not repeatedly lie about the sealed video games market and the history of the market in your chat with Dave Robbins and Karl Jobst. It would have taken "balls"—and humility—to admit that you and the rest of the Jackals have done nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, to open this hobby up to anyone who can't enrich you personally.

You are a blight on this hobby and your presence in it threatens its future.

I am earnestly sorry about your mother and earnestly sorry about your friend. I lost my father during the pandemic and I am no stranger to loss generally. But the question is what we transmit that loss into, and I have seen enough from you to know the answer to that question.

That said, I have always been too credulous by half—even with strangers. If you and Dan both say you're not involved with creating market research reports identical to those at RETRO (and yes, transparently explained, at length, as market research reports), I'm going to choose to believe you. 

My hope is that when you return to this market, you will do five things:

• Spend thirty minutes talking or writing about gaming for every thirty minutes you talk or write about the graded video game market.
• Spend fifty minutes thinking about new entrants to the hobby who are buyers and collectors rather than resellers and investors for every ten minutes you think about the Jackals and the "community" of cynical, unethical market predators that "you" built on Facebook and elsewhere.
• Come clean about how unstable and senseless this market is right now, and your role in perpetuating that quite apart from any fanboying for WATA. (Note that I haven't made the sort of accusations about your involvement with WATA that you seem to think I have; I merely think you are an apologist for WATA, a shill for WATA, and someone who would, for instance, senselessly denigrate the VGA "qualified" scale as equivalent to WATA's CIB scale when literally the former involves new games and the latter used games. How obvious can the sycophancy be?)
• Openly militate for pop reports from the companies you have previously shilled for unofficially, and get on their case when they break promises or—as importantly—abuse their customers by not answering their customer service phones, inserting human and dog hair into their cases, selling subpar cases with bubbles in them, negligently scuffing and scratching cases before sending them out, allowing their website to misrepresent their known TATs, overcharging for services they don't provide, engaging in fake appraisals on television, self-dealing contrary to public policy, and worse. I know what kind of man you are by what you don't just forgive but enable, Tom. What "men" do, if that's going to be your frame, is stand up for the vulnerable and call out injustice. You can misdirect people with misogyny and irrelevant comments about my education, but your values are clear in everything you write and they are abominable.
• Take dramatic public steps to bring new blood into the hobby—and I mean middle-class buyers, not more well-heeled Saudis and Germans and Emiratis. You could do this by hyping up three-figure games and surprising finds; restoring the rarity component to the market, which makes more commonly appreciated and found games more affordable for all; and fighting the $1000-plus price-fixing philosophy of your Jackals at every turn. This would just be a start. But my God, if I have to listen to Dave Robbins opine one more time about how many new people are going to be coming into this hobby in the years ahead, when they already had decades to do so and didn't and when collecting high-end sealed and graded games (not games generally, as every gamer already collects games just by finding ones they like and buying and playing them) will always be wildly niche in part because people like him and you are trying to price everyone but millionaires out of it, I will puke.

From the first moment you engaged with me, Tom, you have been uncouth and a liar. I know that, like all humans, you suffer and have human moments—and I'm sorry again for your recent losses—but I'll say again that it is what we do with grief that defines us.

S.

Why are you here if this makes you so angry?

[CIB_Wholesale | 418]

15 minutes ago, OptOut said:

Lol, did you really list a game for a BILLION dollars?!

Playing a little soft ball there, aren't you?! 

yes but it was not a joke because i use the same formula as years ago when there are no comps. Compared to stadium events, wagner card, jenny stamp, action 1,  and Mario 64 market it's a great deal

If another one comes up i'm happy to lower the price

Edited November 28, 2021 by CIBWholesale

[tidaldreams | 654]

1 hour ago, CIBWholesale said:

yes but it was not a joke because i use the same formula as years ago when there are no comps. Compared to stadium events, wagner card, jenny stamp, action 1,  and Mario 64 market it's a great deal

If another one comes up i'm happy to lower the price

What was it? A matte sticker sealed Mario?

[tidaldreams | 654]

1 hour ago, ExplodedHamster said:

I know you know, but the 9.2 sold for 2k lol. Glitches are improving for me, seeing daily improvements.

These pics look almost the same and the price was also the same, so I had to do a double-take lol.