GPX

Wow, 25 frickin’ years! The only Zelda I’ve actually completed was Wind Waker on GameCube. However, the Zeldas on N64 (OOT and MM) are some of my favourite items among my personal collection. Will aim to finish them one day.

You need to differentiate the greed and scum in the hobby as opposed to the passion of a graded collector. 2 completely separate entities, which I feel some on here are treating it as the same. No difference really if you take the greed and scum of the CIB scene and the passion of genuine CIB collectors.

Pre-death scene vs death scene? Does Ryu actually get cut in half if the counter goes to zero? I’m genuinely curious about this now.

Grading of games was initially a US thing and it started with VGA. This caught on gradually about 10 years ago over to UK and Europe and you can see plenty of VGA Pal games currently on eBay of Europe. The last few years most of the attention is towards the US again because of the WATA entering the market. Most of the WATA collectors are currently from the US. I would say VGA is still the preferred option over in the Pal regions for the sealed collectors. UKG a popular choice mostly for UK people.

You really hate graded collecting that much? Or more the malpractice by certain groups associated with the hobby?

I agree with your post. I really haven’t thought about it too much, but will keep this in mind when I finally be bothered to do the inventory.

That’s the beauty of games, they look good whether you’re playing them or displaying them. And looking at a wall of games, graded or not, is a thing of beauty to me.

Mortal Kombat probably has some of the most creative deaths with the fatalities. Ripping out spines, slicing bodies in half vertically or horizontally, body implosions. Just to list a few ways to die.

Is there a chance you might care after you complete your SNES guides or whatever your current goals are? I respect you for being resolute with your current goals though.

It’s now the era of “post-pandemic”, with Covid-19 still being a nuisance but on a much less deadly scale. People are going back to their usual routines, less public agoraphobia, and if you happen to come on this forum, likely to still be collecting games. Overall, have your perceptions on graded games change in 2023? This thread isn’t necessarily about your views on any individual grading company, but about your love/hate/love-to-hate relationship with graded games in general.

I don’t have an inventory list of my collection. So I have no idea about this alphabetical categorization. Off the top of my head, I think Z would be the least of the titles. Conversely, what would be the most likely to be at the start of titles? I’d say S or T. S - lots of SNES games I can think of that starts with “Super”, but this word also comes up in various other platforms. T - lots of titles I can recall with “The” as the starting title.

Younger me: play to win. (Only had the pocket money to buy 1 console game every 2-3 months). Emulator me: play to win as much as I can (particularly the arcade games), and try as many of the popular games as I can (eg. RPGs, survival horror games) Current/time-limited me: play in short bursts, hi-score gaming sessions mostly, hardly much variety nowadays. TLDR - I think my gaming objectives have changed over the years without necessarily a lessening of the passion for games.

I think it’s a fair assumption to think that gaming will generally improve over time. Particularly if you think of a simple formula: - retro console - X enjoyment - modern console - X + Y enjoyment (modern consoles are technically all backwards compatible, and can all produce 8 to 128 bits of gaming)

I have been stuck at X360 and not advancing further with newer consoles. This is mainly because I don’t have the time to invest in modern games while having no room for additional consoles. Also, I think there’s a certain age range that makes nostalgia kicks you really hard and grabs you by the balls, such that your affinity to modern games becomes low. Once I buy a bigger home though, I see myself buying a Switch and probably one of the latest Xbox/PS consoles. Will never dismiss playing an ultra cool game if ever I get the chance to play it.

Another take is if we flip it around, and eBay prices suddenly go 10-100 times that of general going prices from yesterday. If these prices aren’t found as high in any other selling platforms, how would we believe the eBay market now?

I honestly think this was a lame excuse to validate the 7 figure worth. Why aren’t the same people combining their wealth and buying up all the stuff on eBay or other selling platforms?

Rare Nikemon sweatshirt variant?

I see 13 fruit flies, a dentist, a dog, Hypdra and 3 million bucks of vidya games.

I think a neck guard seems to be the logical thing to apply for safety measures. Though when it comes to contact sports, there’s always the risk of general injuries, and that freakish rare event of a mortal injury from time to time.

Thank goodness I forgot to suggest a pic! I’m short on cash! But damn, how did I forget to do a pic request!?

I joined NA in the very latter years so don’t know much about Deniz. I do remember a thread where he was actively seeking feedback and questions to potential consumers on his new company. It was marketed as a grading company something of the motto “for the collectors and with transparency”, hinting that VGA wasn’t being transparent about their business. Somewhere along the journey, the collectors who he was trying to engage, isn’t the same group of collectors who WATA is focusing on since HA. The transparency issues have been even murkier than that of VGA, and it seems he’s forgotten the initial motto or there was some BS in the initial promotion back on NA.

There’s a chance some of those scratches are on the acrylic casing. Not always easy to tell on the pics. It’s very hard to get a VGA90 on a 90s era disc-based game from my personal experience with VGA. Even for PS2 games (early 2000s) that I’ve sent for grading, any scratches on the seal I’ve never got a 90 grade.

I think a WATA 9.8 A++ is the rough equivalent of a VGA90. I agree with you that there shouldn’t be much discrepancies in the prices between the 2 graded companies with the high end condition, yet the difference is > $1 million dollars in the case of the Mario 64 9.8 A++? Which doesn’t make any sense in a collecting/investing logic. Though there are separate issues going on: - how sus are the overall HA bidders with the 6-7 figure bids? Are they all legit buyers? - how sus are the associations between WATA and HA and how much was it smart marketing versus illegal market manipulation and outright lies?

I don’t think anyone here is saying the game experience is “always 100% software”. I believe most of us are basically saying the same thing, that it can range from anywhere between 10-100% depending on the circumstances. I think the major disagreement is that a game can or can't provide 100% of the gaming experience. I can attempt at arguing that 100% can be provided by the software, where situations such as a tough stage or a boss fight where you need to give it the full attention. If external factors are not in your line of thought during those moments, then that’s 100% from the software/game.

When you’re talking about a cut at the carotid artery, then you really need a vascular surgeon in an operating room condition. This isn’t something that can be fixed by doing a simple stitch on the skin surface. Unfortunately, unlike any other area of cut wounds, a full wound compression here isn’t going to do the trick. Because full compression of the carotid artery would lead to a stroke and death within minutes.