GPX

I think this situation happens a lot more than we think. Particularly if the interest is a highly niche market like the rare items, you are bound to know a fair few of the similar types of collectors. Unfortunately, if you’re chasing after the same thing and they pop up once every few years, more “backdooring” is likely to occur than the common variety. Greed is certainly a factor, but also the drive to complete a set can make some people do funny things.

Why would you assume A? He’s a definite collector, selling all top-tier CIB items. What made it even more sour was that I had bought a game from that ass prior to purchasing the bundle. First transaction went smooth. Second transaction I got insulted for calling out the games were in poorer condition than as described, dead bug or otherwise! Btw, he didn’t give me a “good deal”. He just jacked up the price and lowered it to a reasonable market value deal. There were only a couple of the uncommons, but nothing outrageously rare. I bought the bundle for a handful of condition upgrades.

Watching that Twinbee 3 review really gave me a nostalgic hit with that classic Konami charm. All mixed with inventive enemies, bosses, backgrounds and Japanesey tunes. @T-Pac, I recommend trying out Parodius on the SNES if you haven’t already played it. Very similar kind of charm.

Estil you little… Easter drunken thread?

That’s not the point. Firstly, the listing was arguably deceptive. If the game(s) come in poorer condition, and included a dead bug with some cart rot, the seller needs to take some responsibility. Instead I got called “petty” without that ass even wanting clarification from what I meant by “dead bug found in cart”. The pic was later shown to him via the eBay refund process, and no apology given whatsoever by him. The seller is likely the type to pull other dodgy stunts as in the theme of this thread.

Rare game missing vs common game with a dead bug. Still in keeping with the theme shonky sellers and big lots!

My general advice for new members is to show a bit of passion. Members will likely respond if you have the right passion in gaming/collecting. We’ve been through a lot of pain by dodgy resellers and scalpers, so if we feel you’re one of those types, we’re less likely to want to communicate with you. Also, don’t be put off by some negative attitudes, it’s part of the online environment. By the same token, if you give positive vibes, you’re more likely to get responders.

Too many shady bulk deals I’ve encountered over the years. The latest one was a purchase of roughly 30 Master System games. Was listed in very good condition and no pics showing the back of the manuals and no mention of any obvious flaws. When I had received the bundle and after inspection, there were 2 notable flaws: 1. Some manuals had store prices written on their backs (not mentioned in the listing) 2. One game was in appalling condition with tatty manual and a dead bug among the pins, with rust. Yep, a damn bug! When I wrote asking for a small partial refund. He didn’t ask for proof of what I was saying but abused me and called me petty, as he felt he already gave me a good deal. In collecting terms, that seller was a downright dick! I returned the bundle, got my refund through eBay and I never bothered to reply to him again.

I think it’s a reflection that more people’s played a Sonic game than a Streets of Rage. Particularly when a lot of the Sonic games were sold as console bundles.

I usually only regret when I buy a “near mint” or “mint” item, and then the seller packs in a care-free manner such that the item becomes a downgrade “VGC”. Particularly annoying when they charge maximum dollars for postage fee. You assume they’d do a stellar job with the packing but only to be disappointed with the game received inside a plain padded envelope and nothing else.

Ghouls’n Ghosts was an early title that showed the Megadrive’s potential. Gunstar Heroes ramped it up a few notches, and was probably the best example of the console’s abilities. Both must-haves for arcade lovers. The rest of the poll are all deserved of being top 10 Megadrive games. Some unbelievable nostalgic memories! Love those 16-bit pixels!

Einhander is my personal fave. It has great replay value with trialing different weapon combos, and finding all its secrets and bonus features. Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga are both excellent arcade quality shooters. Parodius is a hidden gem. R-Type and Raiden were earlier arcade classics that I loved.

Sealed + NES + dentist + HA + WATA = winning formula

Likely to be a half-truth, with the other part being to suck more money out of customers. It’s clear that their service was primed at getting maximal profit and in a massive hurry.

I don’t dunk on any collectors because I rather use my time better to game, collect and to post whacky threads for fun. Admittedly, my patience isn’t the same as where it was around 10 years ago. Newcomers who only asks questions (eg. prices? are these reseals?) without contributing to the forum, I don’t bother to reply these days.

I think we all can agree there was a hell of a lot of deception and unethical practices. The key question is how much of this translates into actual illegal acts and fraud. I can see that your argument doesn’t hold quite true on some issues: - agreed that you or anyone on VGS can say an item is worth whatever they think; but when you have a position of authority and making a false estimate on value AND making it known to the entire world, this is where minor deception becomes an exponential major deception. - Deniz may not benefit directly from giving estimates, but there was definite indirect benefits regarding the benefits of his company staff, company association (HA) and his own personal collection would likely gain in value. - agreed that the buyers should be smarter in learning about market values, but this doesn’t detract from the fact that WATA should also stick to service rules and legal principles.

I’m talking generally from all The CIBs I’ve collected from carts to discs. Particularly when looking at just the pics from the seller listing.

Also the big thing for me from the recent news, is that they were grading games from their own staff or board members, while making the claim they were too busy to keep up with the customer’s demands and hence the long waiting times. Well gee, how about grading the customer’s items first before grading the staffs’ inventory? That would probably help to reduce the waiting time.

It really irks the crap out of me when I see a repro game listed as “brand new”. My general tip is to seriously question authenticity if the game/box is mint but missing the manual. And if it comes in CIB form, then look at the manual because that’s what I feel is the hardest to do a reproduction on.

I seriously doubt VHS tapes and iPhones were going at 7 figures. While sports cards and comic books had many decades of establishing their top-end markets. Then you have HA/WATA teaming up, and then an item magically transforms 100 times more than it’s going rate within the space of 1 year. Now we also have a lot of evidence that there is a lot of hanky panky going on, which you seem to have conveniently ignored and rather, to focus on “most other collectibles were going up too!” I’m sure there is market manipulation in all forms of market, but most of us here are likely to focus on the games market because…it’s a games forum!

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t much of a music fan when back in the 90s, particularly when it came to the gaming. Most of the music I’ve heard from games I can barely remember but I did enjoy Streets of Rage, Revenge of Shinobi, Sonic and Castlevania Symphony of Night. Up until more recently, I came upon a clip on YouTube: When I saw this video, I could instantly recall the music from the title screen, to the varying stages of the characters Balrog, Guile and Ken. It was like I was instantly time warped into the past! The impacts of the sounds and music never really hit me up until now, and no doubt had played a crucial role in me having such fond memories of this game.

A pioneering YouTuber to dump roms from his own physical copies, and to play from said roms! You are indeed a pioneer!

I think there’s some sense to the madness. I mean, I can see people trying to get a nice grade on some of their favorite movies. I’ll be more interested if any of the graded DVDs end up being a million bucks and to see if @Gulag Joe agrees with the prices.

There is a serious false logical fallacy going on over the years, which is.. - people had received extra government financial assistance (true) - the people above are contributing to the bidding of 6 to 7 figures on HA (false) What some members on VGS were banging on previously weren’t the rise in market values, but more so the rapid trajectory, that it became obvious something was dubious. We just never really could tell the extent of this dubiousness. That is up until recent times, when actual lawyers and peed off clients are digging their teeth into the fine prints of the “what really went on”.

I think there are 2 separate issues here. Graded collecting was definitely a thing, even prior to the pandemic. It was never really a thing of 6 to 7 figure proportions. I would argue though that in time, natural organic growth of the market may well lead to those sorts of values. However, the inorganic manner such was the hype train from WATA and HA, promoted scam artists into participation rather than encouraging prior genuine graded collectors to collect.