Wata NES pop report now available

[Gulag Joe | 584]

12 minutes ago, DoctorEncore said:

I wonder how many hundreds or thousands of sealed NES games are in process right now. I bet this list will look drastically different in just a year.

Define drastically- like hundreds of more games for each title a year from now? How much do you want to bet?

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

2 minutes ago, Gulag Joe said:

Define drastically- like hundreds of more games for each title a year from now? How much do you want to bet?

I guess I mean like doubled or tripled amounts. Still low numbers overall, just higher than what's there due to their insane backlog.

I remember from that Ars Technica article a while ago that sealed NES games are very low in number when compared to other collectibles. I don't know much about collectible investing, but I was really surprised at that. I always figured games were pretty common, but I guess it's a heck of a lot easier and cheaper to manufacture a million cards than a million cartridges.

"In sports cards, for instance, population reports show only 318 known Fleer Michael Jordan rookie cards rated at a perfect 10 by grading service PSA. When it comes to Pokémon cards, only 122 first-edition Charizard cards have received that same perfect rating."

[Gulag Joe | 584]

2 minutes ago, DoctorEncore said:

I guess I mean like doubled or tripled amounts. Still low numbers overall, just higher than what's there due to their insane backlog.

I remember from that Ars Technica article a while ago that sealed NES games are very low in number when compared to other collectibles. I don't know much about collectible investing, but I was really surprised at that. I always figured games were pretty common, but I guess it's a heck of a lot easier and cheaper to manufacture a million cards than a million cartridges.

"In sports cards, for instance, population reports show only 318 known Fleer Michael Jordan rookie cards rated at a perfect 10 by grading service PSA. When it comes to Pokémon cards, only 122 first-edition Charizard cards have received that same perfect rating."

I can agree with that, though I don't think tripling the population of certain titles like Double Dribble a year from now necessarily means that 60 sealed copies classifies as an abundance, especially compared to NWC. The media attention from the million dollar game over the summer probably generated a bit of a boom, but I'm speculating that the vast majority of sealed games in Excellent-Near Mint condition or better that have not already been sent to Wata or VGA are not out there waiting to be discovered on a secret pallet and are not out there in ample supply. That's obviously my own personal speculation derived from experience looking for some of these titles for so long and will continue to be a subject of debate.

[Mijael | 347]

About the SMB3 : Some people at youtube are saying that 237 is a big number , they are saying that there are many more in the back log and they are even suggesting that there are "undiscovered  cases" . The fact is that if you google search right now how many SMB3 copies where sold around the world the number is 17 million . I don`t know how many of those 17M  are Americans but i guess many millions between USA , Canada and Mexico . So believe me;  even if the graded number grows to 1000 or even 5000 copies its still nothing compared with the copies sold . For those who believe that there is not enough demand , the "sealed games niche" is growing everyday and more and more people are interested and spending lots of money to own one of these rare birds 

Edited December 2, 2021 by Mijael

[Gulag Joe | 584]

12 minutes ago, Mijael said:

About the SMB3 : Some people at youtube are saying that 237 is a big number , they are saying that there are many more in the back log and they are even suggesting that there are "undiscovered  cases" . The fact is that if you google search right now how many SMB3 copies where sold around the world the number is 17 million . I don`t know how many of those 17M  are Americans but i guess many millions between USA , Canada and Mexico . So believe me;  even if the graded number grows to 1000 or even 5000 copies its still nothing compared with the copies sold . For those who believe that there is not enough demand , the "sealed games niche" is growing everyday and more and more people are interested and spending lots of money to own one of these rare birds 

People are spending this money because they are rare, there's no way around that. Comparatively, 20,000 PSA graded Fleer Michael Jordan rookie cards are out there and they all command a very high price, always at least 4 figures. Twenty. Thousand. Jordan hasn't played basketball in nearly 20 years, but the popularity is still there. Sure he might be the GOAT. Mario 3 is arguably the NES GOAT. It's just all dependent upon demand. Will Mario 3 be able to command that type of popularity in demand? Time will tell.

[CIB_Wholesale | 418]

18 minutes ago, Mijael said:

About the SMB3 : Some people at youtube are saying that 237 is a big number , they are saying that there are many more in the back log and they are even suggesting that there are "undiscovered  cases" . The fact is that if you google search right now how many SMB3 copies where sold around the world the number is 17 million . I don`t know how many of those 17M  are Americans but i guess many millions between USA , Canada and Mexico . So believe me;  even if the graded number grows to 1000 or even 5000 copies its still nothing compared with the copies sold . For those who believe that there is not enough demand , the "sealed games niche" is growing everyday and more and more people are interested and spending lots of money to own one of these rare birds 

a lot of NES games are 1 games but for example nintendo made a lot more versions of mario 3 than the left and right bros

 

if a item maintains value it's about the ppl who bought mario 4 advance as their first time seeing mario 3 will want to buy mario 3 for nes. it's rare for a hobby to do that but i think it's very serious for mario 3

[ExplodedHamster | 404]

Regarding the backlog, I don’t think grading itself is the issue anymore. It’s supplies and encasing/shipping. So the question is whether these numbers include all the games in “post grading” status.

[retro.magnus | 136]

1 hour ago, Mijael said:

About the SMB3 : Some people at youtube are saying that 237 is a big number , they are saying that there are many more in the back log and they are even suggesting that there are "undiscovered  cases" . The fact is that if you google search right now how many SMB3 copies where sold around the world the number is 17 million . I don`t know how many of those 17M  are Americans but i guess many millions between USA , Canada and Mexico . So believe me;  even if the graded number grows to 1000 or even 5000 copies its still nothing compared with the copies sold . For those who believe that there is not enough demand , the "sealed games niche" is growing everyday and more and more people are interested and spending lots of money to own one of these rare birds 

As others have said before, it's not about how many copies are left sealed. It's about how many buyers or sealed collectors are there who would be in the market to buy said game. Both of those we will never know for sure. We can all believe different things. 

I personally sit somewhere in the middle. I do believe sealed games are "rare", but not 100% sold on the pool of buyers continuing to exponentially grow. 

[ExplodedHamster | 404]

1 minute ago, epiczail said:

As others have said before, it's not about how many copies are left sealed. It's about how many buyers or sealed collectors are there who would be in the market to buy said game. Both of those we will never know for sure. We can all believe different things. 

I personally sit somewhere in the middle. I do believe sealed games are "rare", but not 100% sold on the pool of buyers continuing to exponentially grow. 

We won’t know until a celebrity or athlete posts one on IG, which is inevitable with Goldin now a major player. A little heavy for Logan Paul’s neck, but maybe he can do it to flex his delts, bro.

[inasuma | 1,203]

14 hours ago, guitarzombie said:

This hobby has really turned me off.  Im glad I got my shit and left.

I agree with spacepup here... there's a ton of stuff in the hobby to enjoy. I'm sorry it's putting a bad taste in your mouth though. I can see where you're coming from.

9 minutes ago, ExplodedHamster said:

Regarding the backlog, I don’t think grading itself is the issue anymore. It’s supplies and encasing/shipping. So the question is whether these numbers include all the games in “post grading” status.

Yeah this is fair. From what I've heard, warp zone still only takes a couple days to get into post-grading at most, and speedrun orders are in post-grading within ~20-25 business days. It really appears to be the dang encasing / supplies.

Edited December 2, 2021 by inasuma

[OptOut | 8,889]

2 minutes ago, inasuma said:

I agree with spacepup here... there's a ton of stuff in the hobby to enjoy. I'm sorry it's putting a bad taste in your mouth though. I can see where you're coming from.

Just get into OG XBOX and 360, it's cheap as they come, sealed is easy to find if you're into that, and the games are absolutely fantastic!

OG XBOX and 360 are no joke for gamer and collector alike, it's the perfect balance of price, availability and gaming bang for buck, honestly.

[doner24 | 1,196]

15 minutes ago, OptOut said:

Just get into OG XBOX and 360, it's cheap as they come, sealed is easy to find if you're into that, and the games are absolutely fantastic!

OG XBOX and 360 are no joke for gamer and collector alike, it's the perfect balance of price, availability and gaming bang for buck, honestly.

I loved the 360, it’s what got me back into gaming after a decade. Lucky for me I always bought waaaaaay more games than I ended up playing, so tons of them are still sealed and now it looks like I will be rich after I grade them! 

[retro.magnus | 136]

18 minutes ago, ExplodedHamster said:

We won’t know until a celebrity or athlete posts one on IG, which is inevitable with Goldin now a major player. A little heavy for Logan Paul’s neck, but maybe he can do it to flex his delts, bro.

For sure, but even then we're still going to have the divisiveness we have now. Some will believe the pool of buyers is continuing to grow & others will say "Celebrity X doesn't know anything about Sealed Vidya Games". 

I think what's causing a lot of the arguments/back & forth is video games weren't necessarily intended as a form of investment (my personal opinion, please don't argue with me Gulag :). So on one side we have those folks who are collectors, on the other we have folks who are strictly investing, and many who fall somewhere in between. 

None of us can tell one another how to enjoy video games, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. As someone who falls in the middle of collecting & investing, I just try to observe things and keep myself as informed as possible. I equally enjoy learning from hardcore collectors as I do hardcore investors. 

Ok I've typed enough to hit my monthly quota, I'll go back to observing from the sidelines & reacting to y'alls bickering  

 

[hardstyletoaster | 50]

I don't have a horse in this race so to speak, but I wanted to comment

On 11/30/2021 at 9:23 AM, Gulag Joe said:

If you ever start up a grading company (since that's the new thing to do considering the hobby is exploding in popularity), don't lock up your graders in a basement like Jesse Pinkman.

That is quite possibly the funniest thing I've read in a hot minute, thank you.

[OptOut | 8,889]

7 minutes ago, doner24 said:

I loved the 360, it’s what got me back into gaming after a decade. Lucky for me I always bought waaaaaay more games than I ended up playing, so tons of them are still sealed and now it looks like I will be rich after I grade them! 

Interesting, I'm sorta the opposite. I always used to play the 360 at my friend's house, so I never owned one until like a couple years ago!

Now I'm buying all the games for like next to nothing and having an awesome time digging into everything I missed!

[doner24 | 1,196]

18 minutes ago, OptOut said:

Interesting, I'm sorta the opposite. I always used to play the 360 at my friend's house, so I never owned one until like a couple years ago!

Now I'm buying all the games for like next to nothing and having an awesome time digging into everything I missed!

That generation has an awesome lineup of games for sure. I really should go back and play a bunch that I skipped. 

[ExplodedHamster | 404]

1 hour ago, epiczail said:

For sure, but even then we're still going to have the divisiveness we have now. Some will believe the pool of buyers is continuing to grow & others will say "Celebrity X doesn't know anything about Sealed Vidya Games". 

I think what's causing a lot of the arguments/back & forth is video games weren't necessarily intended as a form of investment (my personal opinion, please don't argue with me Gulag :). So on one side we have those folks who are collectors, on the other we have folks who are strictly investing, and many who fall somewhere in between. 

None of us can tell one another how to enjoy video games, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. As someone who falls in the middle of collecting & investing, I just try to observe things and keep myself as informed as possible. I equally enjoy learning from hardcore collectors as I do hardcore investors. 

Ok I've typed enough to hit my monthly quota, I'll go back to observing from the sidelines & reacting to y'alls bickering  

 

Yessir, I agree with all of this! I feel caught in the middle myself, but 99.9% of the attention is currently on one side. The great thing is VGS and the internet, at large, houses many different forums with different topics, so there really ought to be room for both. I think too much energy is being spent focusing on one.

Games, of course, were originally meant for something else entirely, but that's basically the same as any collectible that's at least 10 or so years old (sports cards companies were losing popularity, so they started gearing things towards more of an investment setup). The best collectibles, imo, are the ones that are naturally rare because so many people used them the way they were originally intended to be used. It certainly makes the hunt more enjoyable.

It's also fun to be able to tie one side into the other. When I started collecting, I knew that Genesis was my favorite system, but I had no idea I was only aware of like 15% of the entire library. The best part of collecting for me has been playing through these games I never knew existed and realizing how awesome they are. That, in turn, gives me motivation to collect those items. It's a vicious, if totally enjoyable, cycle. 

[ExplodedHamster | 404]

1 hour ago, OptOut said:

Interesting, I'm sorta the opposite. I always used to play the 360 at my friend's house, so I never owned one until like a couple years ago!

Now I'm buying all the games for like next to nothing and having an awesome time digging into everything I missed!

All you need is Oblivion and Skyrim and you're good for the next 3 years lol. 

Edited December 2, 2021 by ExplodedHamster

[AdamW | 713]

Here's a random data point: there are 8019 sealed NES games in this population report. You're welcome.

[AnimalHouse | 117]

13 hours ago, jonebone said:

I have the highest graded at 9.4 A+ on there.  On T2 I had to go with an SNES Judgment Day copy which is also 9.4 A+ and not easy to find.

How do you put a price on the game, given there aren't many past sales to go by or use as reference?

Terminator is a successful franchise; I wonder why there aren't more sealed games online? I searched active/sold on Goldin, CC, CL, HA, Goodwill, OfferUp, Mercari, MinusWorld, Microsoft Bing shopping, Google shopping and found nothing useful.

From the information I gathered (correct me if I am wrong):

Terminator NES: H-seam, made in Japan.

T2 Judgement Day NES: Unsure what the seam is since examples are hard to find, made in USA.

T2 The Arcade Game SNES: Third-party H-Overlap seam, Assembled in Mexico (Majesco). Unsure if there is a 'made in Japan' variant.

T2 Judgement Day SNES: First-party V-Seam, made in Japan. 

 

[AdamW | 713]

I mean, Terminator is a moderately successful movie franchise. The games, so far as I remember, were garbage, and they're not at all significant in the larger context of "the Terminator franchise". Nobody's making new Terminator movies or TV shows or whatever based on content from the ancient very meh video games.

And it's not like the franchise itself is going from strength to strength; just about everything associated with it since the second movie (in 1991!) has been, at best, okay. It's nowhere near the status it had right after T2 came out.

[AnimalHouse | 117]

4 hours ago, ExplodedHamster said:

All you need is Oblivion and Skyrim and you're good for the next 3 years lol. 

Good luck finding an affordable copy unless your wealthy than nvm. First prints are both expensive and hard to find because there are a lot of reseals that look genuine. But if you're a fan of Bethesda and their franchises, its a must have for your collection. Oblivion first print are the T rating ESRB and Skyrim first print is the art cover w/o the 10/10 award. 

[AnimalHouse | 117]

Did anyone notice Garry Kitchen's Battletank title missing from the pop report?

[AnimalHouse | 117]

21 minutes ago, AdamW said:

I mean, Terminator is a moderately successful movie franchise. The games, so far as I remember, were garbage, and they're not at all significant in the larger context of "the Terminator franchise". Nobody's making new Terminator movies or TV shows or whatever based on content from the ancient very meh video games.

And it's not like the franchise itself is going from strength to strength; just about everything associated with it since the second movie (in 1991!) has been, at best, okay. It's nowhere near the status it had right after T2 came out.

The recent one Resistance on Xbox One I thought was alright. It wasn't great nor bad either. It was somewhat non-linear. As far as the other games go, Ill agree. But as a fan of the movie franchise, I want to be able to collect everything. If the price is out of my budget, then I either wait for an opportunity to present itself or settle on a CIB.

What you said above can be said about the Alien franchise too.

[inasuma | 1,203]

8 hours ago, CartChartWholesale said:

a lot of NES games are 1 games but for example nintendo made a lot more versions of mario 3 than the left and right bros

 

if a item maintains value it's about the ppl who bought mario 4 advance as their first time seeing mario 3 will want to buy mario 3 for nes. it's rare for a hobby to do that but i think it's very serious for mario 3

This is the only reason I want an SMB2. I loved mario advance 1. Got a 9.6 A+ in the back as we speak.