Jim Jimmer

7 hours ago, Gulag Joe said:

Less than 5 days left on the Goldin Auction and it looks like the prices are in line with HA prices at this point, at least for the most part. Stunned at the SNES Mortal Kombat sitting at 39k. No games in the millions yet but Mario and Mario 64 are pushing toward 500k. Exciting!

Id argue the vga95 mario 64 is still criminally « undervalued » especially when comparing to the 9.8 A++. 
 

other than that pretty strong all across yes!

38 minutes ago, Gulag Joe said:

I think I saw in the heritage thread that someone said a sealed ps1 Resident Evil Long Box is going to be in the next heritage signature. I think that comment got buried though. I still do not see it in the HA search. I just wanted to know if that was still true and if it was, and you know any history on it, I'd be very interested in hearing about where and when that piece was found because that has been a game I've been looking for for a very long time.

Yes it has been graded 9.6 A+ and will likely be the front page if the catalogue. I dont know the story to it but i know there was a lot of sealed ps1 longboxes sent to HA raw and were subsequently graded (re1 being one of them). 
 

will be an interesting auction thats for sure. 

Just now, Jim Jimmer said:

Hi,

 

I own a copy identical yo tour LTTP.
it was indeed given to employees and resealed by nintendo.

wata will grade it and mention its a first party reseal. Very nice piece.

 

heres mine for reference

Wouldnt let me upload 2 pics..

Hi,

I own a copy identical yo tour LTTP.
it was indeed given to employees and resealed by nintendo.

wata will grade it and mention its a first party reseal. Very nice piece.

Here’s mine for reference. it has the same shrinkwrap with the large venthole in the back

3 hours ago, karljobst said:

https://goldinauctions.com/1996_N64_Nintendo_64__USA___Super_Mario_64__Sealed-LOT107330.aspx

Do these types of auctions usually see the greatest activity at the beginning? Or will we see a surge right before it ends?

Also noticing the huge discrepancy with the Wata and VGA sm64's, with the VGA version still sitting at minimum bid. 

That VGA copy needs more promotion as the only thing everyone is talking about at the moment is Wata

lots of action early and towards the end as other pointed out. The 30min rule prevents snipers so that people that bid on an item can bid in the 30min extension. I guess you can see budding wats at that time but id assume that rule is there to keep people « honest » so that you dont end up trying to snipe dozens of items at the same time, for potentially hours

1 hour ago, charleybrown3 said:

Estimated 12 million of these Mario 64 carts produced? Out of those do you think its possible that 1000 people kept a sealed one in pristine condition? I would be surprised if there weren't at least 1000 9.8 mario 64's. There would probably be more but the employees of WATA only have so many friends

1000 9.8 sm64? Are you out of your mind?  Game has been out for 25years this month and so far there are 3. Three!

unless you mean players choice? Maybe there are pallets of those in a warehouse somewhere.

but the thing people forget with popular games is that most were ripped open to play. My general rule of thumb for n64 is that if a game had a players choice release its because most red labels copies were sold and they stopped that print and filled the store shelves with PCs.

im not saying that there arent more mint sm64 laying around, but claiming 1000 is far fetched, especially in 9.8 ….

heck even SMB3, one of the most common sealed game doesnr even have close to that graded total. Ive heard of 2 9.8 A++.  Not tens or hundreds. Its a hard grade to get (so are vga 95s). 
 

and to your point about 3 showing up in a short time frame, it is to be expected when the sale figure reaches such a high amount. The real question is what hap’ens after these 2?  2 more? And then likely crickets for a while. It took 2 years for HA to auction a 9.4 and 2.5 years to auction a 9.8 .  It would have been a big $ game way before last signature (admittedly not remotely close to the 1.56M figure obviously). Yet they didnt show up. 

On 8/30/2021 at 11:09 PM, OptOut said:

Serious question to @Jared_Goldinauctions, why schedule two Mario 64's head to head in the same auction? If there is a preference for one copy over the other, won't the underbidder eventually just settle on one and let the high bidder sneak off with the other for less than they would otherwise?

You're kind of diluting the bidding pool with two basically identical copies selling at the same time, IMO. If I had consigned one of those two Mario 64's I'd be pretty pissed, tbh, might even pull it entirely if I truly believed it to be worth over a million dollars.

I think it’s fair to assume that the person who consigned one of those mario 64 first is pretty pissed off that another showed up. 
 

however they should be taken for what they are: 2 mint games graded by different companies. Both are likely the highest grade anyone can hope to put in their collection. The 95+ is unlikely to go anywhere for a very long time so 95 is the highest that will be available period. Just like the 9.8 A++ is likely to be the highest available.
 

A lot of people think vga95 is a better grade (and i an in that camp) but some people won’t touch vga and some won’t touch Wata. The results will speak for themselves but it seems like its the first time a « high end » VGA game will hit public auction since Heritage started offering games. 

The end result will be highly influenced by the marketing/education of goldin to the new investor/speculator crowd that VGA is as viable as wata for graded games. From what we’ve seen so far the wata is definitely getting a preferential treatment, which is too bad but understandable given July’s sale. It is still early and i’m sure Goldin will promote both.

Ultimately it will be beneficial to everyone if they BOTH do well. As someone pointed out if only Wata does well then people will cry foul/manipulation/scam etc. if they both do well then it will be good for VGA obviously, but especially for goldin since they will be auctionning a LOT of vga games in the future.  This would help increase excitement for consigning vga games and will allow them to offer games that have never been offered at HA because wata doesnt grade certain consoles.
 

So yeah we will see but this is definitely a very, very interesting showdown. 

16 hours ago, Archangel3090 said:

umm tidal... have you not been following the news? Heritage/Wata is in deep trouble

How so? I haven't seen anywhere that they’re in trouble.

getting bad press yes, but that likely wont impact either company. 

On 8/16/2021 at 6:27 PM, Doc.Stalk said:

Hey Guys and Girls, 

What’s happening, I have a Beautiful copy of SM64 Sealed(link to pics below, to big to post here), I collected sealed games a while back and I’m looking at getting this one graded, I’ve used VGA in the past, however from the looks of it WATA has seemingly become the grader of choice these days, as they have the partnership with Heritage. I’m located in Canada which means shipping it, this aspect scares me as I have lost games In the mail cross border before (forever my heart hurts for you mint sealed Pokémon Emerald)

1) So who’s from Canada and shipped high value items cross border before, which courier did you use. Even if from the states, have you shipped from states to Canada, maybe the same courier/shipper can be used. You can’t hand deliver the item can you? 

2) How does one insure the item during transport. 

3) WATA makes you pick a $ amount for the game, what would one put for this particular one, as you can see in the link below the game is mint. They also only let you go to 100k.

4) WATA charge you a % based on the game value, if they determine the value after the fact, why do you have to pick a value at all? Would you pick any other options with the service? 

5) If planning to sell would it be worth contacting Heritage first, I’ve heard they can help you get it graded? Is this true? 

6) What’s some things to be aware of, what would you have wished you known prior to sending in to Wata to get graded? 
 

Link to Photos: https://imgur.com/a/kGGMp9Q

Thanks for the info in advance! 

Hello,

im from canada and have shipped numerous high $ packages to the us. That includes wata vga ha and private collectors.
 

1- i use canada post xpresspost. Never had an issue.  Sometimes people will request another carrier which is fine, but its at their own risk.

2- you cant insure it. It will raise a LOT of suspicions at customs if you insure for 100k for example.

i know in the us there are 3rd party insurers that insure for damage done during transit. You can thus have a low declared value for customs and get it correctly insured by the third party. Perhaps you could have a friend kn the US help you out with that.

3-hard to say but id guess you’d be close to the high end lf the 100k range. Its a nice copy even if not perfect!

4-i would only war’zone this with 100k value.

5- talk to HA and secure a deal of AT LEAST 0% seller fee if you consign. Try to get somE bp back too given the game in question.

they will grade it for you and you will pay for it using the proceeds of the sale. This is nice as its no out of pocket costs for you!

6-not sure i understand the question? I mean, id wish to know if you 100% intend to sell it. Perhaps you could trade it if youre after another grail etc. If you want to keep then id prefer in a vga case as they look better for n64 than wata. 

feel free to pm me if you have more questions/wanna discuss further. Congrats on this nice game!

Things have been quiet lately. Here’s my latest mail call!

On 8/8/2021 at 9:33 AM, Jared_Goldinauctions said:

Our deadline to consign is August 14th in building. 
After the 22nd you will start to see heavy advertising. 
Hope you guys enjoy - I've worked hard on this. 

Thanks for the update. 

21 hours ago, WalterWhiteJr. said:

I know several people who have had their games damaged at Wata by Wata. 

Yep me too. And this is much, much more of a concern for me than waiting a month or two extra to get an order back. With a grading company clients expect to receive their game in the same condition it was sent in, but in a slab. Nothing less. 
 

This kind of incident is the kind that shys customers away and they dont come back (justifiably so). 

Im bored tonight so i snagged a few pics!

Vga mail call today

Unfortunately with this kind of crease you’re probably looking at an 8 box. Good luck and nice game!

Provided there are no creases not pictured, and only the corner wear, i think 8-9 A/B+is a reasonnable range to expect. (Sorry its hard being more specific without better pics/holding in hand)

Though on your second pic showing the back what is it that looks like either a reflection/giant kind of crease? If its a reflection only then you’re looking at a good box grade and my range likely applies. If its a crease then, well , dont grade it if grade is important to you. An acrylic case will do the job  protecting it

I keep an updated google sheet with everything I own, condition, price paid, who i bought from, date of purchase and also price sold/date sold/person sold for games i sell.

i also update my collection through gameye for some reason. Its redundant with the aforementionned sheets but i like having it on the go for reference. Just a habit.

once a year during christmas vacation i take pictures/timestamps of my most valuable items for insurance purposes. Its usually quick and fun to get the games a bit of fresh air as opposed to letting them sleep on the shelves. I enjoy that part more than i initially thought i would.

I believe that people who have no problems with scalpers don’t have kids. Try to explain to your son he didnt get a ps5 on christmas (while his friends all did) because you didnt want to pay 2x and encourage scalpers. He won’t give a damn about your reasons and won’t appreciate the need to « be patient », and thats exactly this dynamic that scalpers exploit and im 100% against it. There are numerous ways to make a buck and ruining a kid’s christmas/birthday doesn’t need to be one.

as for the OP, i respect everyone that collects however they want with their own intent. The ONE thing i dont agree with and which annoys me as a sealed collector is people hoarding multiple copies of a title to force the price up. It annoys me because im getting priced out of some of my favourite games that i set a goal to collect and may never succeed in doing so. But that’s life and to each their own. Those people take big risk with their money and have my respect for that, but it doesnt mean i approve.

6 hours ago, Beam said:

Hey guys I own a few VGA graded games that I've picked up over the years but I've never sent in my own submission until now. At the beginning of the submission they ask which case style I'd prefer, classic or clear view. I just want the same standard case style as 99.9% VGA graded games I see, which based on the description sounds like clear view? If someone could clarify that for me I'd appreciate it.

Yep, confusing for sure. Clear view

^nice eye

2 hours ago, Gulag Joe said:

Lol either that's a regrade or you have 2 copies...I mean 2 copies is not unusual, 2 high grade sealed copies certainly is though!

Its not a regrade!

On 1/28/2021 at 4:57 PM, Jim Jimmer said:

Wanted to reignite the thread with a few recent pickups. January has been good for 16 and 64bits... thankful to the sellers!

I made a little change to this pic, can you spot the difference?

Wanted to reignite the thread with a few recent pickups. January has been good for 16 and 64bits... thankful to the sellers!