MinusWorlds

11 hours ago, spacepup said:

That's really unfortunate and I'm sorry to hear that. 

It's definitely difficult for most people to imagine spending anything near that amount on any video game (myself included) - and frankly, most people simply just don't have anywhere near the means to do so.  So perhaps some of it is just jealousy or resentment, along with the anti-sealed high-price-trend sentiment out there.  

Regardless of any of that though, it's your money and your decision.  It was a transaction on an open market and a fair auction where the highest bidder won.  

The only thing I could really see people cringing or criticizing is the fact that the article Reed posted highlights a quote from the other bidder about it being flippable to a 250K game.  That is the type of price-hype speculative pumping commentary that led a lot of people to hating the WATA craze.

And @Tyree_Cooper I don't believe he was referring to you.  Some of the other commentary he's gotten is absolutely hateful and nasty - it isn't just referring to people who aren't worshipping him or the game.

I appreciate that very much dude. I get it, it’s so much money. That fact isn’t lost on me. The $250k thing def I can see why it would rub people the wrong way for sure. It wasn’t me, and I don’t think Frank meant any harm in it. And, he’s likely not too far off. But, I can see why people look at it as price pumping and we’ve seen enough of that. It’s one of the main reasons I went with CGC. Everyone knows I like me some Wata games, but I tried to avoid any negativity around this game. It’s just too special to me. 

You are correct, my comments weren’t directed at anyone here. I feel like this is an extension of NintendoAge and that was my safe place to geek out for many years. I may not post here often but I have nothing but love for this site. 

13 minutes ago, Tyree_Cooper said:

Imagine if every first game every mum bought was 90,000 usd coz of nostalgia or something.

Imagine?

2 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Hey @MinusWorlds you're famous

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/adventure/after-a-23-year-quest-collector-manages-to-grab-a-rare-castlevania-copy-for-dollar90100-all-because-it-was-the-first-game-my-mom-ever-bought-me/

Lol. Thankfully not. The hate is honestly hard to deal with. Not from here, but I see what people say elsewhere. I’ve been deleting comments on my IG all day. Overall it’s been great tho and I wouldn’t change a thing. 

9 minutes ago, RegularGuyGamer said:

That makes sense. Coming from looking at mostly graded cards, 10s are always on the table. But w the grade scale of Vidya, I get why it's not the highest grade no matter the circumstances given a particular circulation of the game.

 

Put me in that camp! That's was the first thing I said. With grading on my mind, I saw that and dismissed a good grade right away. I know w cards that depending on the size of the crease, you can't get an otherw ise mint card over a 7. Tbf, idk how those translate to the video game grade scales. A 9.4 is a hell of a grade for what my eyes look away from those last two pics. I thought there were decent creases on the top too with those low quality pics.

Good eye. The gamble definitely paid off.

Dude that’s funny cuz I, for the life of me, cannot figure out card grading. 
Is Vidya that AI assisted software?
 

Peep this. 
 

22 minutes ago, avatar! said:

Ah, wow! Congratulations

I was being facetious when I said in the original post Alright, who here at VGS purchased this??

Thank you, avatar! 

12 minutes ago, avatar! said:

I think any combination of what you said might be the case. If I had to guess, I would say someone with a good amount of disposable income (a millionaire) who remembers playing the NES and Castlevania, and decided this was a great investment opportunity.

As to whether 3 is a better game (it sure is), that does not factor into the price because this is the ORIGINAL Castlevania, one of the most influential games of all time. I would absolutely say Castlevania is "historic" and "pivotal" -- I could walk down the street telling people how important Our Town is to the American zeitgeist and why Thornton Wilder is a genius... and people will stare blankly. But, for better or worse, everyone will know what Castlevania is...  Anyway, while I think Castlevania III is fabulous, it's like saying "I think Mickey's Christmas Special is much better than Steamboat Willie" -- that may be the case, but Steamboat Willie is the first appearance of Mikey Mouse and will always be the more valuable and scarce collectible. 

100% agree with this!

1 minute ago, RegularGuyGamer said:

I appreciate the insight. Not just w this one particularly but these raw high dollar games in general.

With those, raw gets you a ton of top tier items for $90k. 90k gets a sealed booster box of 1st edition shadowless 

Maybe it's that NES is in a stage I haven't comprehended yet. Big card prices are for 10s, at least the ones I follow. NES carrying a premium and not be 10s doesn't connect in my mind yet. 

Oh gotcha. I misunderstood.  So I guess I long-winded the answer, but for me I love raw auctions. Like I said I just need some pics and I feel comfortable knowing where it will grade. On this particular game I’ll tell you precisely what I saw:

Sharp corners, no corner pokes, no tears in the cellophane, excellent shape to the box with no corner dings. Light scuffing to the seal, factory flaws, and one pic that most people believed to be a crease. I knew it wasn’t. 

All this added up meant I felt real comfortable pushing to, and over, the $100k mark. I thought worst case it would fall in-line with the 2nd and 3rd highest graded copies. At best I thought it would be the second highest graded. Once I saw it and had it in-hand I knew it was special. I left the sale thinking firmly it was a 9.4/A+. I was right. 

In general you are absolutely right, raw does mean less, and in this case I know that’s what kept it under $100k. So I still feel as though it did sell for less than if graded. We’ll see what the graded 9.2/A+ gets in May but I had it at $150k in that grade. So for me, I saw a lot of potential meat on the bone around $100k. With that said, the meat doesn’t really matter for me, it’s just a nice to know sort of thing. 

The only 10 NES game I know of is the Karate Kid. There might be one more but it’s not of a crazy desirable game. That’s across thousands and thousands of NES graded games. That’s nuts.

For a first print Castlevania the 90 is the highest and my goodness is it gorgeous. This raw (now graded) copy would be considered likely the second highest tho there is another VGA one I haven’t seen pics of. So, forget 10, 9.6 is likely the ceiling and based on there only being 6 you work down from there. So while not dead mint, it is still getting a massive premium for being one of the nicest copies. 

Hopefully that helps and this time I answered it more directly. 
 

10 minutes ago, RegularGuyGamer said:

Can anyone give me insight into how this price is reached? Like what factors play into it going to 90k?

2 or 3 to exist, so it's rare. 

Castlevania so cool?

A ton of money on the sideline from other HA auctions and switching into favorites or better long term holds?

Bitcoin went brrr so time to splurge?

Maybe a quick flip? Raw -> grade gets $110k?

Honestly curious. People saying they're not surprised by $90k but that's more than most grails in other sectors of the collectors markets. And those are for graded items. Pivotal game, sure but not historic in my book. 3 is a better game but I guess missing the hangtab factor? $90k is 3x $30k. Like, that's a proper amount of cash.

I feel people are numb to these huge numbers. It's $10k over $80k. That's nothing to stick your nose up at. It makes me think these purchases are with funny money from big profits pulled from other sales. 

I mean, I’m the buyer. Funny money? No. 

Which sectors? Because of the major ones $90k is nothing. Whether it’s MTG, Pokémon, sports cards, coins, comics…$90k doesn’t even get you into the tier 1’s in most of those hobbies. Forget grails. 

Why did we drop $90k on this? It’s without a doubt the #1 third-party hangtab, some argue, and rightfully so, that they’d rather have Castlevania than SMB. I’m one of those people and there were 5 other people thinking the same that were bidding over the $80k mark.

NES is the golden age of video game collecting. For sealed collectors Castlevania is a grail in the first print variant. As Jonas said earlier it’s a very desirable third-party hangtab. If any game should get scrutinized for selling for a massive amount this isn’t it. Most sealed collectors that I spoke to knew it was going over $75k. Others had it over $100k.

Also, from a high-level. There are 6 known copies. It’s the first time a first print has ever been auctioned. It’s in near mint condition. It’s a massive franchise. It’s cool AF.

On a personal level I’ve been looking for over 20 years for a first print. It was the first game my mom ever bought me. Nostalgia is powerful.

Lastly, raw or graded doesn’t mean much to me. I’ve been doing this for decades. With proper pics I can tell within a grade or so what it would get and if it’s authentic. Any more questions fire away.

3 minutes ago, Gloves said:

Sad to hear about the pup, they're truly our besties. I've got 3 black cat boys, it's funny how anyone seeing them for the first time is like "how do you tell them apart?" when they're all so different both physically and in how they behave and interact with us and each other. Such interesting animals.

That’s awesome dude. Yeah I’m sure you’re like how TF can’t you tell, like, “That’s Jim, he clearly is the intellectual, and that’s Buzzsaw, don’t look at him for too long or he’ll rip your face clean off.”  We got 3 cats and they are all unique, and same, 2 look alike and people get confused and I just sit there and think my friends are stupid. 

4 minutes ago, Gloves said:

I'm alright. Need a job but other than that just been chillin. Have a house and cats now, mostly playin' games, as ever.

I need minions. The pay is zero, but you can play all the games you want. All you have to do is fight off the Reddit crowd for me. It’s pretty easy. Just a bunch of infants that cry a lot. 
 

I also have cats btw. Lost my avatar buddy few years back tho

On 3/30/2024 at 9:54 PM, DefaultGen said:

Is he the guy who’s been illegally inflating the prices of Earthbound cartridges???

Fuck no. I quit that racket years ago. I’m on to my next MLM. You and 3 friends want in?

4 minutes ago, Gloves said:

Awesome. What’s up dude? How you been?

On 3/30/2024 at 9:34 PM, Hammerfestus said:

I saw on Reddit that it was @MinusWorlds who won this.  They don’t seem to believe that he’s a real person lol.

This is MinusWorlds. I am a bot. Beep boop beep. Fuck Reddit. Boop beep boop. The creator of Reddit owns many Wata games. Including the $1.56M Super Mario64. Boop boop beep. Oh the irony. Beep boop. Lolz. Beep boop beep. 
 

Imagine that in your best robot voice. 

I have a stack of these that I’ve just ripped off. I prefer the clean look myself 

9 hours ago, dogbowl said:

These just came back from their relaxing spa retreat

 

 

Love the green screen

Sealed hangtab Kid Icarus

2 hours ago, CIB_Wholesale_no_split said:

 

All that I’ve written and this is what you chose to point out?

I love how you completely ignore every point I’ve made and refuse to look at the evidence. Why don’t you just go and complain to a mod about me again and get over with it? You clearly aren’t here to be productive. 

1 hour ago, inasuma said:

no one is claiming wata is innocent. lol

EXACTLY! Deniz and Kenneth are my friends, yes, but I have been critical against Wata. Wata and VGA are still good options and CGC will likely bring some positives too. There is no reason other than lead time to use companies like IGS or P1. 
 

P1 is literally manipulating the market, grading and selling their own games, shill bidding and over grading. But, i GeT mY GaMeZ iN 2 wEeKs!

2 hours ago, CIB_Wholesale_no_split said:

 

 

 

you saw Karl Jobsts video on the state of the market correct?

 

Who is the arbiter of shill bidding? You? 

 

you can choose to trust auction sites or not and if there was proof of the claims you are making  then the appropriate shill bidding consequences follow the shill bidding

 

 

The case is fantastic and doesnt use any extra plastic

I wrote down the grade i thought it was before i sent it in and they all came back almost spot on

the turnaround was 3 weeks

 

what grading company should I use? Super excited to use the longstanding, ethical, accurate grade, good customer service grading company you are hiding from us!

 

 

 

 

 

Did I see the Jobst video? Is that a serious question right now? 

You do realize that I did a follow-up video with him, right? And that he mentions me and flashes a thumbnail of our video in his second video, right? 
 

If you aren’t going to take the time to look at the evidence how about you just leave quietly? You bring no value to the community panhandling for P1. You don’t even know if what is in the case is indeed factory sealed, but hey it sure does look shiny.
 

On 1/21/2022 at 10:46 PM, AnimalHouse said:

Do you know if Stanga is one of them? He is from Brazil and has a good selection of games. Mix variety of companies. There is another from the US, seller gradedgamesandvhs. Who sold over 90 P1 graded games. Could be speculation, idk. Other sellers who I recognize from eBay who uses P1 is drobgaming and gamekingdom69 (former utcgames, premogames).

Also, I see IGS. Though their niche seems to be centered around VHS than games. People spending hundreds to thousands on VHS tapes is a black hole that I do not want to get into. What's next, laserdisc? 

It is my understanding that Stanga is involved in the shill bidding. Oleg posted some pretty concrete evidence. 

gradesgamesandvhs is Tiago Hungria who owns P1 and sell his own games, while Stanga shills them up. Again, it’s all out there. 
 

@CIB_Wholesale_no_split- I love how you completely disregard all of what has been said and proven here and other places. You are doing a disservice to the community by continuing to ignore the facts and promote P1. But then again, you have always been out for yourself. Gross. 

On 1/9/2022 at 12:59 AM, VideoGameGradersLLC said:

Thanks @OptOut 

I would argue that your percentage of who cares about print runs and variants is wildly inaccurate. 
 

You couldn’t even accurately identify an IMP. That is a massive problem for any collector. 

Absolutely avoid. There is a huge write up that myself and several other sealed collectors put together. 
 

Cliff notes: 

The company was originally based in Brazil and flopped. Bad

They rebranded and changed to a US address

They grade and sell their own games on eBay. This is not speculation, it’s been confirmed

The owners reputation amongst other Brazilian collectors is not good. That’s about as nice as I can put it 

They have no experience grading games. They come from the telecommunications space

They have repeatedly dodged questions about their experience, ownership, and straight out lied when confronted with eBay ID’s and screenshots  

Their “grading“ is wildly inconsistent. They graded a Hagane 95 with at least 2 good size holes in the wrap and several box issues. When questioned about it they ignored the questions and changed the grade to 90. 
 

The evidence backing this up is on Facebook in the Sealed Games Club (SGC) group. Oleg Grigorov posted it. Ultimately it’s your decision but with all of the above I wouldn’t ever consider sending them anything. We have no reason to think they have the experience needed to accurately identify fakes, reseals, and ran when confronted. They reached out to me last Friday 1/7 asking if we could talk 1/10, I politely agreed but warned them the evidence is clear. They never reached back out.  
 

I understand that wait times are tough but that’s no reason to send a company like this your games. 

11 hours ago, OptOut said:

That's something QUITE different... 

Not really, I graded mine from middle school…

4 minutes ago, nick said:

Is that a population 1 of the sealed 4 1/2th print run with the no code version on the front, code on the back, yes code on the side, no sticker , TM, non-REV-A, 12 screw, no ham and cheese sandwich on the side release? WOW!!!! Now with that level of specificity... that's special.

That’s the one! Salami SOQ!

Pop 1 BABYYY!