Dan64

5 hours ago, tidaldreams said:

Well, Pitney Bowes and Ebay are large corporations that can cover $$$ in case anything goes wrong. I would certainly trust the person if I've dealt with them before, or they have a lot to lose in case anything goes wrong (e.g., I've sent Z&G hundreds of cards, but he has a large youtube channel, literally shittons of customers, etc.)

This is just some random guy with no public presence who decided to make a (super buggy) website.

Also, I find it kind of strange that he's posted multiple times in this thread since yesterday, but hasn't addressed any of these questions 

Happy to answer the questions you think I missed, please let me know and here to address such. While I thought I addressed many of them, do write the questions and happy to answer.

To who am I: 

My name is Dan Allegra, I hosted the Video Game collecting Podcast for last 18 months. I like walks on the beach, daisys, candle lit dinners  

But in all seriousness, I thank Wayde, Tom Curtin and others who have chimed in and gave their support. I have been heavily in the community outside of VGS for last 2 years. I collected for over 10 years but as I like to say, I never found the yellow brick road which was nintendo age and now this.

If you do not know me, thats okay. Watch the site and if I and our company are doing anything less than amazing- you will hear about it I am sure. Do not take my word, let us prove it in time. We will be a company that is in thick of it and I will come back here time and time again to address any concerns because I can be completely transparent. 

Please do list any questions you think I miss. It has been a crazy few days so looking through I am unsure what I missed but will answer the exact questions if you want to list them out. Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving!

8 hours ago, the_wizard_666 said:

While I see where it's awesome from the seller's perspective, the GSP is absolute trash from the buyer's perspective, to the point that I actively avoid any listing that uses it.  I'm also far from the only one, so if you're making a ton of sales internationally, think of how many more you'd be making if you took care of it yourself.  In the 15 or so years I've been buying/selling/trading online, I can count on one hand with fingers left over the number of issues I've had with the postal service, and only a couple more times where I had any sort of issue at all.  Based on my personal experiences, I feel the "risks" are massively overblown.  Especially when every problem I've ever had came from the US...

We do work with international buyers. We had two orders yesterday that the buyers reached out and we made sure we could make it happen. Of course with the seller, we are taking that risk rather than our seller. Really for us it is getting these processes right so we can ensure a seamless transaction. That takes trial and error. We were able to book 18 sales in 12 hours. We are ecstatic that people used the platform. We worked hard to ensure all shipping labels were sent out and I believe nearly all orders are heading to our headquarters or if a seller had the games here they are on way to buyer. Some buyers will be receiving their orders within 72 hours of purchase.

side note: International sellers we have them ship their games to us so we can ensure the turnaround times for our buyers are adequate. We do accept raw games that we send to the grading companies on their behalf. In time we hope to be able to list the raw games directly to the site for our clients but again have to get the process seamless before opening that up.

in total:

Thank you to everyone that has checked out the site, reached out, called, emailed, etc. We could not ask for a better launch. Was there issues on website, of course. But at end of the day people were able to use the platform. We are not perfect, but we will whole heartily listen and act on feedback. Thank you for the first 24 hours community -Dan

8 hours ago, acidjaguar said:

Looking great Dan!  Congrats on the launch!  

 

Can we get some CIB breakdowns on the main load page of the particular game for sale?  That would be spectacular.  Things like the Gradius 5 screw 7.5 CIB are a mystery as to what the subs are given there aren't additional pictures.

I agree 110% with this, I will make make sure that when a cib is entered the subs are listed out. Also if any major maps etc. It probably will take a week or two but consider it on the schedule. much appreciate the feedback 

3 hours ago, acidjaguar said:

Looking great Dan!  Congrats on the launch!  

 

Can we get some CIB breakdowns on the main load page of the particular game for sale?  That would be spectacular.  Things like the Gradius 5 screw 7.5 CIB are a mystery as to what the subs are given there aren't additional pictures.

I agree 110% with this, I will make make sure that when a cib is entered the subs are listed out. Also if any major maps etc. It probably will take a week or two but consider it on the schedule. much appreciate the feedback 

We are live, enjoy!

The plan was to launch around noon which is still the plan. We are spending the morning working with developers to ensure functionality when pushed live. Will post here when live. thanks!-Dan

1 hour ago, OptOut said:

Lol, Nolan Bushnell, Jesus Christ! Is there anyone he WON'T give an interview to?! You get him to help you pack other people's shit into "custom" boxes for you too? 

 

Actually @Dan64 I think you are pretty clever. Put a site together with a couple of mates to sell off a bunch of your own graded/sealed games while the market is high and make a KILLING, and maybe, if it catches on, you can attract more sellers and turn it into an ongoing concern...

I mean, if the site is launching on Tuesday, then I am ASSUMING the initial offerings will be those belonging to you and your friends, correct?

Nolan Bushnell was very nice to sit down and talk over games. 

To be clear of your assumption, I am the only owner of the site. Many good people of the community offered seed money but I wanted to make sure I can do things how I thought was best overall regardless of profit. 
 

We are allowing veteran sellers to list games now so the site will have inventory when it launches. We have reached out to people with strong reputations in the community. We are accepting seller applications so do not hesitate to reach out. 

The value will be different for different people. 

Sellers not having to deal with buyers or scammers. They sell a game, they get a prepaid label, ship and set. 

Buyers get a company on their behalf to make sure they get their item, a clean custom box that is a great experience. 

The convenience for both buyers and sellers is something I believe people will come to love. Maybe it isn't for everyone and that is okay. I am not here to convince people, let us prove it. 

I really set out to create this process that would be best for everyone. 

Right now a new collector that is entering the hobby I feel is a daunting experience. Where do you go to learn about variants, seals etc?  If Ebay does not have a game they looking for, where do they go?

While we are starting with graded games, this is just the start. Raw brings more complications but we do have plans to open the site to such in time. But to start, we want to do it one step at a time to make sure we are doing all our processes as we set out to. 

In total, we are a video game marketplace that we hope provides a valued service to the community. We have many great things in the works to bring to help the community and this is simply step one. Tuesday you will see interviews with Nolan Bushnell, Tom Dubois, etc. Will be a lot of fun to show you what we been working on.

1 hour ago, OptOut said:

You know, the more I think about this, the WORSE it seems to get from a business perspective... (I mean disregarding how SCREWED the buyer gets out of the deal, having to foot basically ALL your unnecessary fees and extra postage costs.)

Let's think about this for a second:

So you are making your money on a pretty meagre 15% charge on top of the games you sell, out of which all other business expenses are going to have to be paid. You don't hold the stock yourself UNTIL it is sold, at which point an unnecessarily convoluted chain of shipping, processing, checking and packing, and reshipping needs to occur, before the transaction is fully completed and you can actually BANK the money.

If only ONE link in this relatively complicated chain breaks, your VERY fine profit margin is going to be COMPLETELY wiped out...

• If either the buyer OR the seller backs out of the sale before the transaction is complete, you are screwed.
• If the item arrives at your warehouse in a different condition to that described, by the seller, after you have already sold it, you are screwed.
• If the item arrives at your warehouse and it is subsequently damaged or misplaced while in your possession, you are screwed.
• If the item gets lost in transit, or damaged by the courier, (and remember we are at LEAST doubling the amount of postage involved compared to other sale methods), you are screwed.
• If the buyer simply wants to return an item after they bought it, which they have a LEGAL right to do, you are screwed.

I really don't see where the business logic makes sense, you are assuming practically ALL the risk of very large sales, while leaving a TON of extenuating circumstances to fate, and then taking a really small cut of the overall sale to make it all worth it!

It's no wonder you are hoping to start by offering items in the multiple hundreds of dollar range, boost the raw numbers you are taking in revenue... But, those items sell slowly and irregularly and in small numbers, and honestly you are just MAGNIFYING the risk when something DOES go wrong.

Ebay and other sales sites make up for the inevitable losses of business through sheer SCALE and riding the odds of most transactions being successful. Smaller businesses tailor their products and their pricing to mitigate the harm losses can do to their bottom line. You have NEITHER scale, NOR direct control of your products and pricing...

I mean I could go on... the environmental costs alone of perhaps adding a couple THOUSAND MILE round trip on to the journey of an item sold between two other people doesn't seem right to me either, but I would imagine I've made my point by now!

Erm... Sorry! Good luck? 

Where to start...   

We are having items sent to us to ensure the the item for the buyer but also to protect the seller. 

With people backing out, lost packages, etc: We have insurances in place and procedures to ensure our default rate is microscopic. 

 We are a company to take on what you think is an impossible task. With all this, would say if we do perform as stated, heck of a service for the buyers and sellers right? That's the convenience and marketplace I we are. At the end of the day, it is a truly great service that is worth every penny. 

If we make a mistake, we will pay and not make excuses. I am writing this in a public forum because that is who we are and what we do. 

In total know we are here to make this a process in which we welcome new people and old in the hobby to an experience that serves them. I truly believe it will be a great service for those who choose to try our services and welcome you to try it.

-Dan

1 minute ago, SilverspoonGaming said:

@Dan64Where is your companies profit coming from then?  Youre obviously not going to do all this work without being compensated...

Our margin in the 15% (really closer to 10%) margin we markup the price from where the seller lists and where the buyer sees the price

There is a few different angles to go. We could arrange a service to pick it up and deliver it that handles this specific process or we can allow for delivery for pick up from our office if the seller chooses to leave it with us. 

We do allow sellers to send us bulk games in which we take pictures and put in their account for them only to have to price. This service is free at no additional charge

Also forgot to mention a note on security and such.

All packages are opened under camera. We have multiple cameras etc. 

 I hold ourselves to a high standard and we will do right by buyer and seller. Just wanted to throw that point in.

Thanks-Dan

We insure every game for full value. 

Shipping, we charge exact rates so shipping currently is $25-30 total for both labels.

Sellers we charge 0%. How we do this is the seller puts the "net" price they want to get. Say $500. Well they get paid $500, no worrying about doing math etc.

We add 15% to this so when it shows on the site, it will list at $575. This covers credit card fees, custom boxes/handling etc. This way the buyer has no surprise fees during checkout besides calculated shipping and local taxes. Resellers can submit their resale license and be tax exempt. 

Please do not hesitate to ask any questions, I am 100% transparent on all of this and always like feedback.

Sorry, I wrote that without wanting to post an advertisement but looking back I should of explained a bit for those who do not know me or the project.

Minus Worlds is a fixed price anonymous marketplace.

Sellers can list a game from the convenience of their home, snap a a few pictures of their graded game, and post for sale without the game leaving their possession or having people know its their game.

If and when the game sells, the seller gets a prepaid FedEx label that the game is shipped to our office in Santa Clarita, California. We get the game, inspect, and verify its the game sold. Seller is all set for most part, they fulfilled their order. Paid 14 days after delivered. 

We mail the game in a custom shipping box to the buyer. 

All set!

The convenience for the seller is really something I think many will come to enjoy. List a game for whatever price they choose and not have to deal with the buyers and 99.9% of problems.

Buyers get the item they purchased clean and quickly. Shop a marketplace 24/7 that will have a massive selection.

We hope to expand to signage, trophies and other items. Our reason for starting with graded games only besides a few testers is that we want to ensure the process is right. It really comes down to having processes that are best for buyer and seller. 

We have a knowledge center in which we made short videos on different factory seams, articles in collaboration with members of this community like Greg Pabich Action 52/ Cheetahmen II article. 

If you have knowledge and want to collaborate on an article, reach out. We take care of design. so do not hesitate, I look forward working with many of you to share knowledge. 

I personally look forward to feedback and hope you enjoy the site. 

 Hello Video Game community,

 I am happy to announce that MinusWorlds.com,  the video game anonymous fixed price marketplace, is ready to debut this Tuesday!

After over a year of hard work, we are ready to share our vision with you.

I started this journey out because I saw a void in our hobby. I spent a long time telling others someone should start a fixed price marketplace because I have seen how great it helps a hobby. In time I realized that it would probably be years if I did not step up and create it.  Over a year ago I set on this mission. I write to you to say we thankfully we are ready to debut. I did not realize the mountain ahead of us to do this right. But now I could not be prouder of where we are today and the future ahead of us. 

While bugs will happen and we will evolve, this is just the beginning. We have so many great additions to the site in the works that this just the start.

But reason I wanted to write here before we kicked out:

Thank you to the people that have been in this hobby before it was cool, countless hours poured into figuring out variants and piecing together knowledge. The unsung heroes that help share knowledge and build this community because they believe in it. 

Knowledge is the foundation in which people can collect. 

If you are raw cart collector, neo geo, modern, sealed, and anything between- most of us are here due to a shared passion in video games and excited to be part of this community. I know video games have been important part of my life and many others here.

Thank you to those who came before in this hobby, are here now, and that will come after, this site is dedicated to you. 

a video game collector, Dan Allegra

How much for them rocks.... 

Only podcasts for now, I decided to stay away from video interviews so we could get interviews that would otherwise be closed off. 

Let me be clear about this podcast, it will never make a penny nor should it. It is simply a passion project to have the people in our hobby tell great stories and share information. Luckily there is amazing people in our community that are willing to help and share such. Always feel free to reach out with any suggestions. 

Thanks for checking it out

Hey, this is Dan of VGC Podcast.  Kenneth Thrower (Chief Grader of Wata Games) was kind enough to do two hours and thought good to share due to his deep knowledge and being part of community. Tom Curtin a.k.a Minus_Worlds contributes as well.  Hope you enjoy. 

thevideogamecollectingpodcast.podbean.com 

Also available on Spotify, Apple, Google, Amazon, etc

NEVER! Cremate me with the games!

I agree with the sentiment that VGA is here to stay for next decade or two unless a much different catalyst occurs. CGA/AFA have been their money tree. One can easily assume more games are being graded by VGA now than ever before due to the massive influx of new collectors in the space. Yes, Wata has a much bigger piece of the market but VGA probably doing better than ever. It wasn't like 7-8 years ago a lot of games got graded. 

Their grading system is probably here to stay. They have many divisions that use the same 10-100 grade scale, it would would be hard to imagine them to change one division. I prefer cgc 10 point scale but cant see them changing.

Wata/Heritage 10 point scale can easily be assumed it connected with comic book collectors that knew that grading scale and make confidence in graded games much easier. 9.8? Yea, tens of thousands of young comic collectors that grew up playing video games knew what that represents. 

Last part, regarding their promotion and publicity. CGA/AFA/CGA has never been one to put their necks out and this can be looked as a positive. I think them not teaming up with auction houses strengthens their third party position. Also I feel with grading it is best to quote the old saying "sometimes it is best not to know how sausage is made" or for that fact, who is making it the sausage or what their incentives. Some will argue transparency always is best but sometimes when something we want to think is set in stone like a grade, I do think it is best that the company keep heads down and stick to consistency. We are human but we live in society that expects absolutes. More a company shows their human side, it shows more how there is more conflicts of interests and less absolutes. 

There is no right or wrong answers, just perspectives. Just my 2 cents.

Whitelisting of API feeds is not unheard of or even charging for them. Data= Money. Gocollect is charging for this data, why shouldnt ebay? of course I want everything free but can't not blame ebay for companies for profiting off their data to charge for it

This goes farther back, PS2 was sold out hard for long time and demand was crazy but this was real demand and not the manufactured scarcity nearly every company pulls these days from concert tickets to sports cards..... 

New episode: Interview with Minus_Worlds      Hope you enjoy!

https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-wemns-efbb61

Hey everyone! I started a podcast for video game collecting that hope you enjoy. My goal simply was to get more content out here in a different platform. There are many people here more knowledgeable in many of the subjects but I try bring it all together to get quick video game history mixed with personal experiences so it is enjoyable for any of you. No commercials, ads or sponsors, doing this purely out of passion I have for video game collecting. Please do hit me up directly if you have any ideas or suggestions you think can help me on this quest. Hope you give it a shot! Take care!

thehuntcollectingpodcast.podbean.com

Available on Spotify, Apple, Google, Amazon, etc

Episode 7: Hawaii Collection and Singer Collection Released on 10/14!

That got sidetracked quick....