jonebone

1 hour ago, inasuma said:

to be fair, mint game boy games are damaged in wata holders too. i sent in a game that got 9.8 and i can clearly see the holder has damaged the corners.  Others have reported the same thing, both in and out of the holder.  

I've cracked out a couple of Wata games from holders now and I haven't noticed any damages from taking them out of the case.  

10 hours ago, inasuma said:

just got this. in very good shape. although sadly like many pc games, the jewel case and paperwork inside just flies around lol

I've been doing a lot of sealed PC myself over the past couple of months and sent my first PC games to VGA.  I'm really enjoying it at the moment, good tastes!

9 hours ago, AnimalHouse said:

Anyone notice Heritage accepting VGA graded games now? I was looking at upcoming games and noticed VGA, VGA, VGA. Example: VGA 95 Mint Super Mario Land Series Lot of 3, Search: VGA

Whats next: UKG, RGS, IGS, P1, VGG or LG??

An official HA rep announced this about a month ago on social media. I'm sure you'll see CGC enter the fray too.  The rest of those grading companies are not credible and I don't any legitimate auction house would sell them.

Speaking of IGS, saw a thread where someone posted an N64 game that is actually getting damaged in the IGS case because of the inner plastic spacers that have sharp edges.  You can see on both sides of the back of the game where it has cut into the seal and the seal is starting to peel on both sides at the inner plastic moldings.

9 hours ago, Code Monkey said:

Do you have any evidence of orders actually shipping back in their expected timeline? I've seen them go into post-grading much faster but haven't heard of anyone stating they got them back on time. If that's the case, I have some more to send.

I don't count the actual business days, but yes the Cali orders are shipping much faster.  Speed Runs from Denver were hitting around 5-6 months from door-to-door and Cali has been around 3 months.

1 hour ago, darkchylde28 said:

Saw it and yet...it just seems to cement the point I was making.  New business goes to CA, and is beginning to hit turnaround times.  Old business seems to primarily have stayed in CO, and still aren't moving remotely like they should.  So what's the magic holdup that's allowing games for the same system to ship out consistently for new customers out of the new location but still be locked into a seemingly forever quagmire at the old one?  And how does any of that illustrate that WATA actually places value and appreciation on their existing/old customer base when those are arguably the ones getting shafted the most due to their games not shipping?

You are wrong everytime you state new customer. You should be stating new order.

Many of us have new orders hitting times and old orders that are stuck at Denver. It's not a big deal unless you're pressed on reselling it, otherwise there is no financial impact other than having patience. The people who seem to have the biggest complaints are the ones sitting on the sidelines anyway.

Long time no see and congrats on the progress!  I always applaud people in any life alterting decision to improve themselves, whether it's losing weight, exercising more, quitting a bad habit, etc. 

You definitely hit plateaus in everything so great to hear you're still finding ways to improve.  Best of luck with the journey!

4 hours ago, darkchylde28 said:

Care to elaborate?  If they don't value new business over old, then please explain how it is that all new submissions aren't automatically going to the end of the queue versus the beginning, and people who have been waiting months, if not literal years to get their stuff are still waiting.

Did you not read my post?  Cali is clearing out games way faster than Denver, and they were only able to move so many Denver games over to Cali.  Cali games are hitting posted times, Denver games are graded and taking much longer to return ship.  

1 hour ago, inasuma said:

how the fuck are you all getting orders shipped. my august speedrun must be buried at the back or something lol

I've had orders ship out of order too.  Speculation on my part but it appears that order after some date (Nov? Oct?) all got transferred to Cali while the other backlog stayed in Denver.  I can tell when I get a return shipment from Denver or Cali as they are packed different.  It's clearly two separate facilities clearing it all out until Denver is finally closed for good after backlog complete.

What's the odds that the reddit post is even made by a lawyer.  50/50 at best? 

9 of 10.

It's a superior game to Goldeneye technically, meaning better weapons (plus secondary modes that turns stuff like the laptop gun from a badass automatic to a killer sentry gun), plus the single player multi-player.  Playing with bots and doing the multiplayer challenges was amazing at the time and added a ton of replayability.

However, for whatever reason, the single-player story isn't as great or memorable and none of the levels really hit the wow factor for me.  Best one was probably Pelagic but you can rattle off a ton of great Goldeneye levels like Facility, Silo, Bunker, etc.

Great game that pushed N64 to the max with expansion pack but not 10/10 perfection.

17 hours ago, iLikePssys said:

Just received my first ever submision to wata!

 

Have to say I am a bit dissapointed on Wata's assembly quality lets say, there is some clear marks on the case I suppose for the way the assembled it, and also the wata info tag is a bit misplaced... This week should arrive another order that just passed customs, hope they are better....

 

Those are normal Wata cases and if you recased it 100 times you'd get 100 with some type of subtle flaw.  They won't be for you if you are expecting 100% perfection.

I will say that the Wata cases I've gotten in the last 3 months are noticeably clearer (less milky) than the original batches they used for the first couple of years.  I'm assuming they'll do a full case redesign after the PSA buyout, but time will tell. 

I've been heavily active in the CIB market across many consoles ever since I started in 2008.  I wouldn't say the market is any more or less hot than it was over the last year or two (post-Wata).  When grading CIBs became possible, really Mint stuff (like Chrono Trigger) started pulled leaps and bounds above its past levels.  It's leveled off a lot though.  The high sales are usually one offs or when one seller lists a lot of similarly conditioned Mint / Near Mint CIBs all at open auction.  When that happens, many sales go above and beyond expectations.

5 hours ago, Gulag Joe said:

CGC had all this talk about launching a grading service and here we are all these months later and still nothing. Each day they aren't open is akin to that scene in Interstellar where every minute is 7 years.

Has any major company ever delivered anything on time?  CGC was launching in 2022... crickets.  VGA's pop report was imminent... 6 months later, crickets.  Wata, we know about the overpromising.  GameValueNow was supposed to have major changes and improvements... has pretty much died.

I fault people for believing everything they hear as factual more than the companies for overpromising.  That's what companies always do.

I remember you as well and can't believe you never got one   Good luck but I assume it's quite expensive these days.

Very nice!  I made a thread on NA back in 2009 talking about the NES / SNES games on Seinfeld's book shelf... Sim City and something else.  Good eye!

Goldeneye

5 hours ago, AnimalHouse said:

Idr the price for Warp CIB but I know Speedrun CIB is $170. I wish they revert back to $85. 

Depending on how many pple send x number of sealed and CIB games in.

I hope so. I am refraining from sending anything right now. I read CGC hired several pple and will open sometime in 2022 but not sure when. No idea what there slabs will look like. More akin to Wata, VGA or something else? I hope it isn't anything like VGG. The abomination.

Nah, they're well equipped to handle turnaround times now.  It feels like they could actually turn on more systems at this point believe it or not (DS? PS3? Etc.)  They have more resources than ever and are clearing out backlog faster than many people can handle receiving it back.  There's such a glut of games hitting the market and prices have cooled a lot since summer 2021... so some of those speculator only submissions have cooled a lot as well.  I suspect the turnaround times on new orders are going to be very spot-on for the recent foreseeable future. 

Well obviously the migration started around the 1st of the year and package redirect were at the beginning of February.  I'm sure it's just people resource contraints, you can only properly move a warehouse of inventory so fast (trucks, people, organizing, loading / unloading, etc.)  I can't speak in any official capacity, but I do assume there is some drop dead cut off date when they stop paying rent in Denver and everything has to be out.  Whether that's this month, next month, mid years, who knows. 

Ugh I'm not sure why this is still going.

For one, yes I knew Madden was manufactured in Taiwan.  Wata initially called the sealed clamshell versions (which I own), international versions due to Taiwan.  VGA never labeled them as such but Wata later removed that from their labels too.

For two, I never worked for Wata.  I was no more than a friend of the founders and they referenced my likeness on their page.  No different than being a mod on NA or a mod here originally, it doesn't give anymore more clout and it just reflects you being willing to give your time (for free) to help when asked.

And lastly, I followed up my "it's a reseal" with photographic evidenced of the authentic USA sealed verisons confirmed, which this is not.  I said maybe it's some type of distributor seal or Wata could authenticate as "NS" (No Seal), but it's nothing I would touch.  I never wanted to buy and never made an offer because I didn't trust the seal myself.

If you care about finding out a professional opinion, bring it back to the states next time you travel (I wouldn't ship that across borders, customs does open games), pay for it yourself (you almost all of your money back less shipping if it is a reseal) and if it gets authenticated, then congrats and you can send it to an auction house.

You have plenty of resources available so stop playing the woe is me card.  Don't tag me in anymore discussions and be adult here.  Thanks.

Yeah RIP Scott Hall.  Was in my top 3 fave wrestlers of all time (Hogan, HBK, Hall) and very sad news to hear.  He didn't take the best care of himself in late age but 63 is still too young.

17 hours ago, 3rdStrongestMole said:

When @jonebone sends games to WATA:

 

When I send games to WATA:

I send games every 2 to 3 weesk and have my share of delays, strange grades and other issues as well.  But I move enough to have a good feel when things are changing, and the shipping times are definitely improving.  I'm sure yours will make it through the queue sooner than later.

Also, grades are getting a bit tighter too in my opinion.  I used to have a lot of .2 up surprises (i.e thinking a game was 9.4 and it squeaking 9.6), but now I get a lot of .2 down surprises or even a whole half point sometimes.  I.e stuff I figured was 9.0-9.2 borderline going 8.5.  Just have to roll with the punches.

By the way speed runs are vastly improving.  I'm getting overwhelmed here, stuff coming back faster than I can move duplicates out!

Sweet I'd definitely be a buyer!

That was high on Spiderman yes, but the condition on it was exceptional.  My snipe there was $250 as well.

Yeah she's been selling awhile, the Tater did like $10k and people talked a lot about that.  I've only won 2 games from the seller personally, most prices are very strong as noticed.