ExplodedHamster
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Posts posted by ExplodedHamster
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24 minutes ago, BeaglePuss said:
Bronty didn't trust VGA to grade Rarebucky's stuff objectively because he submitted too much lol.
I don’t want to speak for Bronty, but I think he was simply using it as evidence that it would be impossible to create a grading company that could not be potentially perceived as having a conflict of interest. I don’t think he was suggesting anything untoward was actually happening, just highlighting someone could always potentially cite to something.
Everything I’ve seen from Bucky has been fairly graded, as far as I’m concerned. That dude is too much of a stickler to buy shit to begin with. He always makes his games on Ebay look like they have serious flaws, then you get them and need to take out the magnifying glass to find any issues.
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12 hours ago, doner24 said:
The optics on the document above aren’t very good if that is indeed the same GoCollect Jeff. It essentially means he likely gave a cash investment for equity in the company, now being an “owner” he is having them grade his personal Carolina Collection which are being sold by someone else attached to the company.
I’m a big fan of Kenneth and Deniz, I sure hope they have controls in place during grading if this is the case to ensure no bias.
There’s no way around it looking bad. I think there is still a way to have controls in place, even where pedigrees are concerned (I’m sure there must be and there are in comics), but this is something Deniz might consider addressing from a PR perspective, especially after NA got gutted.
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9 minutes ago, Br81zad said:
Fixed it*
People pay crazy money for all sorts of shit. Cars they never use, coins, comics, cards, stamps, houses, pinball machines, etc. I don’t understand it, but who am I to tell people what makes them happy? Everyone seemed thrilled for Bronty, as am I, but I gotta be honest, I could not possibly be less interested in game art. I’d rather have a sealed Contra than the original Contra art and the price difference could possibly buy a house.
Why do people like art, anyway?
(No offense, Bronty!)
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1 hour ago, BeaglePuss said:
This is akin to owning Chipotle stock and eating there as well, no?
Bro, before this came to light, your brother actually suggested that WATA putting HA fliers in their packages was something untoward and abnormal. That’s the kind of BS I was responding to, citing that as evidence of anything is garbage and you know it. I was never comfortable with the presentation of the SMB sale and absolutely agree HA had a moral obligation to disclose their investment in it, but in the end the market will speak for itself. You still need buyers.
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17 hours ago, Grondorr said:
Why is everything WATA?
CL is a major comic auction house, so presumably they want to keep things consistent with that grade scale for crossovers.
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Don’t forget the Sonic movie!
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16 minutes ago, spacepup said:
If you read through the conversation - he was talking about different types of conflicts of interest - and explaining that the legal conflict (like he referenced) was NOT the kind he was referring to regarding WATA. Read the conversation before and his post, and you'll see what he's getting at.
Ah yes, I see. I misread it, I thought he was listing off conflicts he saw, not laying them out. Sorry about that!
Bronty did the same thing above, too, and I missed it
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48 minutes ago, BeaglePuss said:
Oddly enough, WATA wasn't too busy to remove Jonas from the advisory page.
36 minutes ago, Andy_Bogomil said:I find it bizarre how we got to this point so quickly. There is no way this was an organic or genuine change to the hobby so I'm not sure how long it'll be sustained. I agree that some sealed games were probably due for an upward adjustment but it's hard get behind how this all came to fruition. I also think WATA got greedy by grading anything under the sun and now the fact that they are boosting prices to deal with their incompetencies is absolute insane to me but I guess they can get away with it as long as the customers continue to make a significant profit from their services.
As someone who doesn't have a horse in the race it is at least interesting to watch and discuss.
I think it’s far more natural of an upward adjustment than you’re giving it credit for because whenever there is this transition to “true collectible,” there’s often kind of spike. The transition usually occurs when an established community of really rich people get interested in something and start competing for it. So the money just kind of explodes overnight. These people have far more to spend than they have now, as well, so it’s due for more spikes if it maintains their interest.
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5 hours ago, jonebone said:
A couple more examples of conflict of interest:
Conflict of interest from a legality perspective. Example, I cannot own Boeing stock and then negotiate a $500M military purchase on behalf of the US Govt. People go to jail for that.
Edit - Nevermind, I can’t read good.
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47 minutes ago, rorsch said:
Oracle, Cisco, Whirlpool, Berkshire Hathaway, Hilton Hotels, 3M, Canon - companies that focus on quality products/services versus gimmicks.
The Golden State Warriors played for ten years in the Oracle Arena. The Warriors and the NBA benefitted from their money and Oracle benefitted from the advertising. Oracle’s logo was plastered everywhere in the building, alongside the NBA’s and the Warriors’s. We agree this was not a conflict of interest, correct?
I’m sure owner of the Warriors either invests or sits on the advisory board of companies with products places all throughout the arena, as well. Hell, Mark Cuban invests and often takes advisory shares of companies he advertises and sells products for in his arena on Shark Tank every week.
People have cited similar relationships between WATA and HA as evidence of conflict of interest in this thread.
I mean I get not liking grading and the influx of comic people and all that, and the press release from HA following the sale of SMB was kinda gross, but let’s not go overboard and start citing everything as a conflict or untoward when it isn’t. Some of the stuff cited as “conflict” here is kinda ridiculous.
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33 minutes ago, Bearcat-Doug said:
Pretty much all of Ninja Gaiden III for me. I can beat the first two games without any real trouble, but I couldn't ever get good at NG III, even though I was finally able to beat it.
Everyone says NGIII, but what’s weird for me is that I got through NGIII fairly easily, but had a hell of a time with 1 because of 6-2.
When I was younger, I could roll through all of MTPO, including Iron Mike himself. I probably played through without getting knocked down at all like 20% of the time.
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9 hours ago, jonebone said:
Eh, with stock articles you're required to put a disclosure. You know, Joe Schmo writes some article on Yahoo saying how XYZ is the best company ever, they're undervalued, profits are increasing, yadda yadda yadda. Then they end the article, "Disclosure: Joe Schmo is long XYZ" or "Disclosure: Joe Schmo does not have any position in XYZ stock and does not plan to start one in the next 30 days".
This is more like Joe owns company X and buys game Y who is affiliated with company X and then hypes up games sold on his own website. All of which isn't really explicitly disclosed, and only the people "in the know" can connect the dots. It's either accidentally omitted due to ignorance or intentionally omitted to obscure things.
Either way, obvious conflict of interest but nothing illegal in my eyes. The fact that some people deny the conflict of interest only further exacerbates the issue. People aren't dumb.
If you're talking about the original SMB sale, I 100% agree there should have been full disclosure in the article.
As to the rest, however, there's really nothing that's been abnormal. People being on the board, the companies advertising one another, news articles, there's no conflict whatsoever. It's entirely normal business practice. A lot of that has been cited as conflict and it just plain is not.
10 hours ago, rorsch said:Right. You can. I could still think you are a shill and be turned off by that marketing style. Leaves a bad taste doing business that way.
Turned off by what? What is the alternative marketing style? Again, I understand with regards to the initial SMB sale, but aside from that. Why would someone who owns stock in a company promoting it be a shill? That's how all businesses are run, people who have a vested interest in a company want to see it succeed.
I'll put it another way: Using your standards, which businesses do you like?
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On 11/5/2019 at 8:05 AM, rorsch said:
I love you Mark. This was exactly my argument.
What is the argument, though? That businesses are trying to promote their own businesses and help create a market? In the end, it’s all about whether that market forms. It’s no different than any other product.
I can own Chipotle stock, buy Chipotle products, promote it to others, and sit in on shareholders’ meetings and boards because I am invested in the company and want them to succeed. This morning I wore an officially licensed NBA team hat with a Budweiser logo on the side. Two companies with mutual interests cross marketing and promoting one another.
So what? That’s literally what business is, and exactly what they should be doing. In the end, the risk for them is people don’t buy into what they’re selling and they close doors. Or people do and they profit. Again, that’s business.
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On 11/4/2019 at 5:53 PM, Link said:
‘83 Video game crash: market flooded with crap. High amount of speculation by publishers (“people will buy anything”)
90s comics crash: market flooded with crap; high amount of speculation and investing on new items by individuals (“I have to buy everything”) and publishers obliging
Current video game grading trend: high amount of speculation and investing on vintage items by individuals
With way less stock. It’s not remotely comparable because of that major part of the equation, and the issue is more likely to be sealed games run out and people lose interest than there are too many.
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9 hours ago, guillavoie said:
CLU CLU LAND, MATTE STICKER SEAL TEST MARKET, HANGTAB (NES) WATA 5.0
That one is kinda tempting, I mean, there's a tear on the box, but it's barely noticeable.
A small number of stickers have those from when people ripped the sticker off lol. Must have caught part of the box and continued to rip.
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Might as well add this thread here, as well. Less than a week left on the November auction. Some pretty nice stuff:
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On 10/31/2019 at 12:06 PM, fcgamer said:
I found a few more goodies yesterday. Since I had to take my brother to the airport, I was able to beg for a day off work, and got it!
After he went through security, I left the airport and spent the rest of the day exploring the area. I managed to sniff out a few carts, and also found two that I was almost able to purchase, but sadly had to let sit (the guy had literally lost the key to the display case, so we couldn't get them out...). It's a shame, although I already had those two carts, a member from NA had been looking for one of them since April.
Overall, I found a few unlicensed original games, a few bootlegs, and a few Sega Genesis prototypes yesterday. Overall it was a decent find.
Sent you a PM as well haha. You’re pretty popular
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My favorite SNES game by far, and in my top 3 ever:
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The auction last night seemed to suffer from the timing. Except Golf lol. I sure hope that’s not permanent.
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How the hell did Raven make the cover lol?
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Catch-all HA thread! Let’s kick it off..
Ok, so last week the games went at 6PM, which was a few hours early. This week, it looks like 1AM or so. They had been consistently in the 8-9PM timeframe, which was great, wonder what the heck is going on. There needs to be some consistency.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS, COURTESY OF @Shmup
General HA auction results discussion- Mainly discussions around the surprising results and/or crazy prices.
Page 1-6
SNES-CD prototype sold along with a few other standout games
General HA auction results discussion along with the start of people questioning the rise of prices so quickly and fake bids. Some highlights: $9K Atari Spiderman, $3K God of War (apparently not first print)
Page 8- 10
Hot Slots reproduction WATA graded and put up on HA. First reproduction in HA?
Page 11-12
Auction results, people noticing holes, rips & scratches on high graded games. Highlights: SMB 9.4 A+ (sixth print variation) $114k. $20k Goldeneye. CoD Finest Hour 9.8 A $330
Page 13
Auction results discussion. Highlights: A cut hangtab Sega Genesis Michal Jackson’s Moonwalker getting a 9.4. GTA San Andreas PS2 9.6 A++ sells for $990.
Page 14
Auction discussion, continuing of questioning of suspicious activity. Start of Pokemon craze. $84k Pokemon Red & $78k Pokemon Yellow.
Page 15-19
Mario Kart 64 VGA 85 with mold sells for $6k, 9.4 Tyson Punchout on Pawn Stars with Deniz appraising the value. Seller wanted $100k.
Page 20
Auction results. Pokemon Blue 2nd print $6k, Red 1st print $60k, Yellow first print $15k, crystal 9.8 A++ $75k. Genesis Madden $50k.
Page 21-22
9.6A+ Super Mario bros sells for $660k
Page 23
General HA discussion, discussion of fake bids. Faded Thunder Force 2 scoring a 9.8A+ and selling for $2.6k. 9.8A++ Sonic 2 sold for $21k but has a hole in the seal along with plastic down the side showing marks.
Page 24-26
DefaultGen’s 7 Steps for Identifying First Print Games.
Page 27
Auction results, CertifiedLink Auction results (about on par with HA).
Page 28-30
The start of the $1.5mil 9.8A++ Mario 64 discussion. This is where it all starts!
Page 31-32
$870k second print Legend of Zelda
Page 33
Discussion of the rise of prices, fake bids, video game investing and HA
Page 34-35
Sale of $1.5mil 9.8A++ Mario 64!
Page 36
Discussion of SM64 sale, conspiracy theories, fake bid talk, sale isn’t real, money laundering, Gulag Joe argues with members about how many Mario 64 9.8A++ there really are.
Page 37-41
ExplodedHamster comes out to reveal he was the seller of the Mario 64 and the Zelda! Congratulations given, general talk of the Mario 64 sale, ExplodedHamster answers questions
Page 42-46
DefaultGen’s Heritage Auction Results July 2021- they graded a fruit fly!
PSA bought WATA games & Goldin Auctions.
Page 46
Discussion of WATA & Goldin sale, HA discussion, Mario 64 sale discussion, general sealed collecting discussion
Page 47-48
PokerPark Wii 9.8A++ sells for $23k
Page 49
General sealed collecting discussion, general HA discussion, market manipulation. Xbox360 Bioshock Infinite 9.8A++ sells for $1k.
Page 50-54
Gloves posts Karl Jobst’s- Exposing FRAUD And DECEPTION In The Retro Video Game Marke Youtube video- This is where shit really flies off the handle and this thread makes VGS history.
Page 55
Discussion of the video, members happy to finally see this in the mainstream backing up what they’ve been saying for years. Discussion of how WATA/HA are market manipulators and happy Karl has done the hard work investigating it, questioning of Deniz’s involvement/character, some people questioning Karl’s agenda in the video.
Page 56-60
ExplodedHamster confirms payment of his high end sales (Zelda, Mario 64 etc.), people start questioning Deniz’s appearance on Pawn Stars and assigning values
Page 61
Continued discussion of Deniz/WATA’s & HA practices, market manipulation, shill bids.
Page 62-67
Karl Jobst reveals he emailed Deniz but never got a response. People arguing about WATA/HA not been given an opportunity to respond to Karl before the release of the video. Continued discussion about ethics of WATA/HA, manipulation.
Page 68-70
Jeff Meyer sends a Tweet to organize an interview with Karl Jobst
Page 71
Continued discussion on Karl’s Twitter screenshot in regards to contacting Deniz for comment, continued discussion of the video
Page 72
DefaultGen swoops in with the bombshell to reveal he was the person Karl was talking to in the tweet.
Page 73
Continued discussion of the video, ethics, Kotaku pickups story. Discussion of how much Dain was involved in and/or knew of what was presented in Karl’s video.
Page 74-79
Screenshot of Dain saying Karl’s timeline is wrong regarding what transpired after he was no longer associated with WATA.
Page 80
Continuted discussion of video, SEC filings, Dain’s involvement, suing Karl, arguments between members.
Page 81-84
ZeldaFreak posts screenshots that were posted in the VGSDiscord by Dain in regard to clarifying the SEC filing and timeline.
Page 85
Dain makes an account and posts to clarify his involvement, explain the SEC filings, posts a screenshot that he no longer wishes to be part of WATA (dated 18th September 2017) and answers questions from members.
Page 86-87
NA old timers reunion begins, Dain answers more questions, NAmemory lane, general banter that has nothing to do with HA or the video
Page 88-92
Karl Jobst makes an account and answers questions. CIBWholesale posts an email from Deniz from March 2018 saying Dain was on the advisory board (page 95), continued discussion of market manipulation and the video, Dain answers more questions,
Page 93-103
Argument regarding NA mods and what went down on NA.
Page 104-106
General banter, NA old timers make an appearance.
Page 107-117
Thread gets back on track, Karl Jobst mentions he will be doing a following up video in September, continued discussion about the video, WATA & HA, general banter.
Page 118-131
Karl Jobst links an article by Seth Abramson regarding Mark Haspel (WATA) running an eBay business selling WATA graded games.
Page 132
Discussion of the Seth Abramson article, continuing discussion of WATA & HA, general banter.
Page 133-134
Call of Duty Finest Hour PS2 9.8A+ sells for $22.8k
Page 135
Discussion of CoD Finest Hour, discussion of pop reports, continued discussion of WATA & HA, general banter.
Page 136-140
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5 hours ago, MrWunderful said:
You're ruining the hobby, comic nerd!
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Of course! Should the need for more arise, keep us in the loop!
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Subscribed!
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Wata - A year and a half after
in General Collecting Discussion
Posted
They moved offices, it’s not some shadow government grading company being run out of the bathroom of an eyeglasses store lol.