MinusWorlds

Looks good to me. Not the best side seam I’ve seen but has plenty of good things going for it. Corner stretching, adhesive oxidation, roller marks, h-seam fold all present. Ask them if there are vent holes if you want but the rest is there.

Agreed. Vent holes are incredibly hard to replicate accurately. Looks legit to me. If you want to PM me and send some pics I can give you a more definitive answer.

Nailed it.

Well, no, because Wata doesn’t grade Stack-Up.

Sorry Gloves I saw this after I posted. I apologize Annie, er Curtis, umm Donkeypunch, ladybugpug, er CIBWholesale, or insert whatever username you go by now.

I had very little feedback until this week. You really want to put your experience and expertise against mine? Didn’t think so. In fact, Atwood has zero fb too. You want to put your collection against his? Bucky has 1… I could go on and on but I think you get the point. Actually, the more I think about it the less I think you will get the point.

Lol. Got a friend that I used to work with. We used to talk GoT every Monday. He was legit straight shook from that scene. Every once in awhile I send him a pic of the Viper going pop.

Well. I just had a deal with @tidaldreamsbut he backed out. I think you are safe.

I’m taking the Mountain. I seen what he did to the Viper. Bros head exploded.

Dammit

Hi

Yeah, you buying?

And my common, in an uncommon grade.

I will post some rares I have and a common, to please everyone. Two incredibly rare Gameboy games. The Bubble Bobble 2 is a first print Taito. The Bonks is even rarer in my opinion:

Yes it is.

I was thinking the same thing. If I were to guess I’d say it started as an A seal and has continued to rip since grading. Pure speculation however /\ See what I did there?

Couldn’t agree more. When I say rare to describe SMB3 sealed. I say it in relative terms, not to be manipulative, misleading, or anything other than stating a sealed SMB3 is rare relative to other collectibles. That’s just a fact. Now would I say SMB3 is rare compared to other sealed games? Of course not. But that’s where demand comes in. Also, couldn’t agree more with @OptOutthat SE is a huge pile of, well, you know. I have been very, very, vocal about that in the past. So to see a shift to what IMO is more rational market behavior with Zelda, Mario, Sonic et al spiking in value I get it. Others don’t because they agreed SE was king because it was rare. That’s what Seth wants you to believe too. I don’t see it that way. Like I would legit walk right past this to pick up that case of Soccer.

I don’t want to speak for Jonas, but it’s been my experience in knowing him since he’s started that he’s a collector. A diehard one. I don’t think he’d care nearly as much as you think he would if his collection value tanked. Because, like me, the pieces in his personal collection are for him. From a resell perspective it might hurt but I don’t think he would be untruthful or manipulative in any way. I will also say he’s been very critical of Wata in the past where he felt necessary. He and I have argued about Wata as well, with me being the pro-Wata guy. As far as him having the most, or close to, number of Wata graded games. No, not even close. There are many people that have far more Wata games than he does. Keep in mind he has a shit ton of VGA games too. Jonas and I didn’t speak for a number of years over a disagreement, but even in those days we didn’t talk I’ve only known him to be an honest person.

How so?

You’re right the same names in the articles, interviews etc. was frustrating for me too. While I was sprinkled in some of those I felt we needed more diversity. Especially from those old-timers you mentioned. Man I’d love to have heard from Braveheart, Robin, or Blarky from the beginning of the uptick. From that regard things felt very artificial. Like you said, it’s a small microscopic community. Everyone is going to know everyone. No real way to avoid that. So being on a first name basis with everyone should be expected. That’s not necessarily a sign of conspiracy or insider sketchiness it’s just a by-product of a small community. The vast majority of the new people I’ve met during the Wata timeline have been really great to get to know and talk with. A lot of them I’d put into the collector bucket too. They just have deep pockets.

Ehh no thanks. Karl is after the truth and what he feels is right. Seth is after his own agenda. My favorite part about some of this tho is my first interaction with Seth was when he posted his “pop report” for sale stating “pop reports will never be released”. My response was “yes they will, and what you’re selling isn’t a pop report”. For whatever reason that completely set him off. Even tho I said his data was valuable and worth the price of admission. Didn’t matter. I was the enemy and that’s all there was to it. Despite me now being proven right on both counts. Despite Karl and I disagreeing on some content he’s been nothing but cordial, polite and professional to me. He’s a reasonable person and I understand his motive. I enjoy our conversations very much. I have yet to have a reasonable discussion with Seth save for a couple of private messages not involving games. He’s clearly a very bright guy, but maybe too ummm…volatile?

Yeah I had some immediate thoughts on that. IMO there’s a few reasons. I think here is a good example of when to separate the term investor from collector. I agree with Jonas about the tampering issue with VGA. I have personally seen a game swap done on a VGA case that was undetectable. Investors cannot take that sort of risk. For them Wata offers the only current solution. It’s a real problem for investors. Wata also was brilliant in their grading system. Not only did they separate the box from the seal grade but they used a system that is easily transferable to the new collectors they were targeting. It’s essentially a mirror of the systems used in cards and comic grading. VGA’s system, as you know, is not conducive to those collectors. And we all know a lot of the big spenders have come from those hobbies. Not all, but a lot. So there’s a pool of buyers who simply won’t touch a VGA a game regardless of grade. I think another piece is education. This stuff takes time to learn, if buyers care to learn it is another thing. If they don’t want to they can just keep buying Wata and feel warm and fuzzy. But I always say “buy the game, not the grade.” A lot of buyers don’t have the “eye” that seasoned collectors do. I think that was evidenced in the Sonic buy. That was 100% a grade buy. I agree. Whether it’ should have been an “A” seal is another discussion. As it turns out I believe the buyer was a first-time game buyer (It was a legit sale BTW). Buyers need to educate themselves and realize a VGA 95 is typically the better example, but they also need to know what to look for despite it being a 95 or 9.8 for that matter, which leads me to my next point. You are correct when you stated the VGA 95 could be a better example than a Wata 9.8/A++. More times than not it is the better example. In this case it wasn’t. That particular 95 would not have hit 9.8/A++. There was a tiny ding on the box. it would have been a 9.6/A++ and I think some buyers either knew that, or relied on the advice of others who did. Others, because of the reasons I stated above were never buyers on that game. A 95 should be closer price-wise to a 9.8 in most cases. I could see a 10-15% deviation either way making sense. But, it’s going to take time for buyers/investors to understand why a 95 should command the same, close to, or more than a 9.8. It’s also going to take some innovation, and marketing from VGA to get there. I think with them being acquired now as well we’ll see some changes. Hopefully then the gap will close. Right now the discrepancy is a bit irrational IMO. Couple all that with the fact that you had 2 massive buyers out of the equation with the 2 9.8 sales and it was bound to underperform. I hope that long-winded answer helps.

I get it man. I do. And like I said, I agree. Seth would have anyone believe I’m a greedy monster, sorry jackal, because I sell games. The truth of the matter is I’m a collector that truly cares about this hobby. I built a business around the hobby I love because I saw an opportunity. But, I care about this hobby much more than I should and I care about integrity, honest practices, and ethics. I think we’ll get to a much better place collectively through things like your videos, pop reports, disclosure, and transparency. Anyone doing it for the passion should want that.

It’s like we’re saying the same words, at the same time.

Karl, I don’t want to go down the rabbit hole too much on some of this, but Jonas (jonebone) does bring up some fair points. He’s also one of the most educated and knowledgeable collectors in our hobby. He has also been critical of Wata when he has issue with some of their practices. So he’s def not a Wata lemming either. I do agree that NA was first and foremost a forum/marketplace. I think you would have a very difficult time getting any of the regulars there to state otherwise. I 100% agree the data is valuable and it’s a shame it’s mostly unusable now, but it was never a pricing guide tool or a database first and foremost. Heck, Jonas and I and many others poured hours upon hours into creating educational content there. We were gutted too. I also noticed the lawyer in your video uses a lot of words like “maybe, possibly, could have” etc. That’s hardly saying there were 100% FTC violations. I totally get the desire to shed light on the situation, but we’re a long way from subpoenas and hearings. I applaud you for trying to get it right. I do. I’ve told you that before, but you also need to understand that even “little” inaccuracies to those who built this hobby and live it everyday and know all the minute details are going to take exception to incorrect statements. No matter how small they seem to be.