AnimalHouse

On a game such as this, the 2% insurance charge by Wata could be as high as $31K (based off the last SM64 sold $). Do you have that kind of amount lying around? Most folks don't. If your a high roller, then nvm my post. Another option besides the HA route, would be to sell it as-is ungraded on ebay. To determine the value, you can list it as auction and let the bidders decide. OR you can sell it fixed price for 2/3rds what the 9.8 grade sold for. Giving the buyer some wiggle room to have it graded themselves at there expense. Thats what I would've done had it been my game. After reviewing your photos, I see a number of potential imperfections. Box: -3rd photo - left edge of barcode - is this glare or dent? -16th photo - right edge of barcode - same glare or dent. Cellophane: -4th photo - left side bottom - light scratch marks. -17th/18th photo - Mario's body - light scratch marks. -27th photo - lower left - light scratch marks under letter "M".

This is a similar copy/paste response I rec'd and posted here on Monday. I hope the shipment they receive isn't depleted soon or we'll have another looooooooonnnnnnngggggg delay. Side note: can anyone guess where these plastic prison cases are made from and what could be causing the unexpected delay? (i.e.: Midwest forest fire, covid fear, quarantine, etc.)

---> ebay link

That is hilarious but sucks for the employee. This reminds me of a incident I witnessed a long time ago in a galaxy far far away....While shopping inside of a Bestbuy store, I noticed a employee in the tv section using a forklift putting away bluray players on the high out of the reach shelves (3 or 4 levels high) like in the gif. The next time he went up, he forgot to stop and the forklift hit a very large pipe. Releasing what it looked like black water or sludge and it poured onto him like a waterfall. The smell was terrible, all the shoppers had to exit the store as it was immediately closed. I heard from a friend who worked there that the black water or sludge flooded the back half of the store (spanning across 3 depts) and everything that came into contact with it had to be thrown away. The store was closed for a week and the estimated damage was over $100K. Unfortunately, the employee was terminated. Not sure if he was billed for anything.

I noticed on ebay, many listings that I watch happen to end and switch to auction. Does this happen automatically or does the seller do this (manually)?

Here is a auto msg I received from Wata, "Dear Wata Customer, You had recently placed an order with us that contains at least one game requiring a DVD-sized case (i.e. Wii, WiiU, GameCube, Xbox, Xbox 360, or PlayStation 2). Unfortunately, we have run into shortages and delays for cases that accommodate your games. We are expecting that these issues will be resolved the week ending August 27th. Please know that your game(s) is/are graded, and safely stored in protective crates at our warehouse. As soon as we receive the cases, we will finalize the games and ship them back to our customers. We apologize for the inconvenience. Thanks for your continued patience. Please note, if you have other questions, you can send us an email to info@watagames.com. If you already sent us an email on this matter, it will be closed for you. Thanks, The Wata Team" I placed an order back in Apr, I wouldn't call that "recently." Then I asked Wata CS when they will be including Xbox One games to the submission page and there response was, "I know we do plan to do it, but I'm not sure when. Follow us on social media and sign up for our newsletter https://www.watagames.com/learn/newsletter. We use those channels to let our customers know when we expand our capabilities. Thanks, The Wata Team"

My parents bought mine from Canada when we were on vacation there a LONG time ago. Looking back, I wish I could've told myself not to open it! Oh well, its DMG P ML (10605).

This applies to SMB only or all sticker seals/early print nes games?

I've seen this before, the seller has 2 accounts. Many of the top nes games are head scratchers. I think with the recent spike in HA sales. People think there games are worth the price point.

ebay link Could someone shed light as to why this particular variant sold so high? Do you suppose someone overbid because they really want this for there collection or believe they can flip it? Do 4th print variants have no info on side flaps or was this an error misprint? Thank you

I guess this should tell pple how HA's quality control is...I mean for all we know this could be an isolated incident or it could be normal but were now finding out because someone is complaining on social media or where ever the person is complaining on. The 9.4 copy could be sitting somewhere in HA warehouse or some other HA customer has it. If its the latter and the person is unable to be reached. Do you suppose HA will compensate the price difference out of there own pocket? On a side note, I wonder how many HA employees fudge up like this on a monthly basis and what are the consequences? (example: slap on the wrist, warning, deduction of pay, termination, etc.)

Does Nintendo not keep information (variations, codes, etc.) on vintage platforms for pple to lookup? Example: Library, Wikipedia, etc.

I learned it from Wata's nes black box variant pdf guide. Nonetheless, I appreciate the info. I learn something new everyday.

Last year, a new ebay seller with 0 feedback was selling a factory h-seam sealed early copy of SMB2. It was in near mint condition. The sellers BIN price was $1K but was willing to come down to $950. At the time, I went over my budget and didn't want to be in the CC companies pocket paying those interest. Looking back now, knowing what I know about the market. I would've gladly spent the $1K. The seller ended up closing the listing because someone locally wanted to buy it. As for CIB, a Pepsi Invaders Atari 2600. There was an ebay auction back in Jan. At the time, I went over my budget again. Reassuring myself I'd find a better copy later (like I do with other platform games). I decided not to bid and it sold for $1K. After doing research, I realized I could've saved money had I bought it than because another copy had sold for $1825 in 2005. Only 125 copies was produced.

Correct me if I'm wrong but NES promo copy have a star code on the top side flaps? (see attached) Next time you talk to your friend, could you ask for a photo and attach it here? I've seen plenty of NFR on SNES but not NES.

I searched the title and found several current/sold ebay listings and 1 amazon listing. ebay link amazon link From the ebay link, it appears: gray = Dynasound, black = Hartzell. Hope this helps.

Why not bundle it into one? On ebay's auction, its very simple. Unless HA strategy is to be fair to bidders?

The first person who sold theres was a genius but for everyone else about to get in on the action is about to saturate the market and be stuck in a price war with each other. It seems the frenzy has spread onto other Xbox 360 titles: CoD MW and BO, GoW, Minecraft, Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Halo and w/e else people think is valuable. Many of these games are not hard to find. This reminds of someone who posted on the "wata turnaround times" topic having 10 copies of GB Pokémon red, blue and yellow; waiting to be graded. Then someone else responded something like plz don't flood the market all at once. Why assume this would hurt the market value? Those games are hard to find. Thats like saying if someone were to list on ebay, 10 factory sealed ungraded minty copies of SMB nes (any variation). Would people think this saturation hurt the market? I doubt it.

These TA times are getting so much worse... I remember when I sent my previous Turbo order in Dec. 2020. On the submission page, it read Turbo 45 BD est. then changed to 60 BD est. I emailed Wata about it in March 2021, I'll copy/paste our convo below but total actual wait time was 89BD. The Wata Team, "Thanks for reaching out. Your order has been received and we're working on getting items in your order graded. Please keep in mind that our turnaround timelines are estimates. The grading industry as a whole (and Wata in particular) has seen significant increases in demand. We are actively working to increase our grading capacity so that we can meet the demand and return to hitting our estimated timelines for grading our customers' games. In the next few weeks, we expect to see significant improvement in our capacity to grade games and get them back to our customers. Know that while customers' games are with us, they are safely stored in crates that are on racks. Please bear with us as we increase our grading capacity and get your collectibles moving through our process more quickly." My response, "Thank you for replying to my message. You said your working on getting my items in my order graded, which means the graders haven't started. Yes, I'm aware the turnaround times are estimates only. What would you say the current turnaround time are for each service level? Examples: Turbo 45 BD est. (currently at 65 BD) Speedrun 15 BD est. (currently at 25 BD) Warpzone 3 BD est. (currently at 6 BD)" The Wata Team, "I've actually moved all your games into the Speed Run line for you. Hopefully that will get it out a bit faster. My estimate would probably be the 25 business days, like you said, but that's just an estimate."

Not all sellers are proficient or collectors. Some don't realize how rough the shipping carriers can be when transporting precious merchandise. This is why I insert reminders. Like, "Hi. Please package carefully to prevent shipping damage. Shipping carriers can be rough with my mail. Thank you." More than often, I'll get a reply from a seller letting me know he/she will do that. Though if any arrives not exactly shown in the listing photos. Then I'll message the seller first and if he/she doesn't reply back in a timely matter. I'll open a return case.

I received a email from Wata, confirming A_Feisy_Pickle's was right. Here is the msg, "The final grader has already seen your order, and it's now in encapsulation. However, a shipment of parts we needed for encapsulation was unexpectedly delayed, and has not arrived yet. Unfortunately, that means that your games, while graded, are not encapsulated and ready to ship. As soon as the shipment arrives, we'll be encapsulating as many games per day as we can and processing them in the order they were received. We are very sorry for the inconvenience."

For a company that is constantly growing, they need to plan ahead. If cases are made overseas and the reason for the delay is the time it takes from point A to point B or covid restrictions at the US border. Then Wata (or the company that bought them) should invest in a manufacturer here in the states. If the delay is due to the backlog of submissions. Then they should close submissions off for a while until they catch up. Not jack the CIB prices. I am aware Wata has hired pple but is it enough to meet the current demand? I wish Wata (or the company that bought them) place a bulletin board on there website to give customers weekly updates (i.e. ebays selling announcements) instead of keeping customers in the dark.

Forgive me if this is not the correct category to insert this topic but whatever happened to the quality of Wata customer service? Last year and early this year. There was a Megan who used to answer my inquiries professionally, accurately and was always courteous. Besides submitting a game. If I was unsure about something, I would message her if she could ask a grader on there time off to take a look at my message and give there opinion. After March or April 2021, I noticed a sudden change in the quality of service. The people who respond are nameless, there replies are often vague and not direct. Which requires me to respond back and wait longer. I wish Wata had a dedicated support team that utilize instant chat. Edit: I wanted to correct myself, it was after Mid to late Feb. The last time I received an email from Megan. After that, it was "The Wata Team" that responds to my inquiries.

I sent Wata 15 games/same platform (Speedrun service) delivered Apr 21st. Unboxing began on Apr 23rd Grading ended on Jun 17th Been in Post-Grading stage for 32 business days now

All service levels are estimates. Real waiting period is x2 or more. So expect to be waiting 70plus business days. And with what inasuma mentioned above. Could be x3 that.