ExplodedHamster

Picked up Shining Force for the first time in many years. One of my favorite games of all-time, but it's tough to sledge through with little kids lol. I made it to chapter 2, though!

Shining Force III (all three scenarios) took me nearly 18 months with one kid, now I have two, so let's see how it goes...

Hmmmm...

Wellll, my ego says I should answer the question, but my wallet thinks otherwise...

What to do, what to do...

Ok, fine.

Barbie.

NES, Genesis, Game Gear, NeoGeo, you name it. All Barbie, all the time.

30 minutes ago, Lincoln said:

Examples?

The original Megaman did on the manuals for the oval versions, but I think that was to denote it added the seizure warning. The boxes didn’t have them on the flaps, though.

One of my favorite games as a kid, and increasingly difficult to find:

25 minutes ago, austin532 said:

Meaning they don't plan to make any more changes to the box or manual. I'd say that's not that hard for a company to figure out. In this particular case they had to have known Tyson's contract was ending soon so they made this box the final.

I suppose it's possible the star means it's promo but from what I've seen (and I've seen a lot) the star means final revision of that manual/box IMO.

Yeah, I'm just wondering why like they didn't think Rev-A Tyson was gonna be the last, for example. Or on Megaman.

26 minutes ago, DK said:

I saw that auction with 4 min to go, I thought it would go for much more.

That seller is a total dumbass. Sorry that happened to you.

Ended at like 10AM on a weekday, which didn’t help him. 

8 minutes ago, austin532 said:

Wait...since when does a star code mean it's the promo release? I'm pretty sure the star means it's the final revision. Given the fact that this is the oval seal version it probably came out in 89/90 right before Mr. Dream's Punch-Out!!

How could any company ever know if something is a final revision, though?

I saw this auction, and also thought you did well. Sorry this person did this. Coincidentally, I insta-BIN'd a different Tyson like 2 weeks ago and same exactly thing happened. Then a week later, same seller messaged me and asked if I was still interested lol. He similarly got negged.

4 hours ago, Romiked2689 said:

@fcgamer super cool find on the sega prototypes! I’d have interest in a couple of you ever move on from them. 
 

also I seen your post on the dead forum the question should you grade them. I wouldn’t personally but some will want that for them to spend money. 

You also can’t for a while, as WATA does not have Genny cart only cases, at least not for now.

Third party stuff is unaffected, so Nintendo must have been involved somehow...and I’m not quite sure why, at least as it pertains to older stuff. The number of Mario 3s available went from 175 or so to 25ish. So the approved sellers list as of now is pretty short.

37 minutes ago, TheBiRD said:

My tough about that is that sealed mint guys will go sealed less mint or cib mint guy... then these prices are going up, so cib mint guy will have to move to cib bad condition or cart only...

my guess is that it’s false to think that only sealed stuff prices are or will be affected.

Sure, but we’re 15-20 years into this hobby, if people only care now about a first print Zelda and not before, for example, I’d think it’s actually BECAUSE of the WATA effect. In that case, it’s not like people were actually harmed; in fact, WATA would have piqued their curiosity and contributed to their excitement about games. The other rare items have been going up forever anyway. 

14 minutes ago, GPX said:

I can see this vantage point. The world of rich people doing whatever the hell they want, until the top of the crop runs dry on money, or they end up getting bored.

However, I think the majority of opinions are seeing not so much the value of the games increasing, but more the rapid rate of price hikes and the self-promotion of "news articles" which ties in with HA, WATA, and random people with decent dollar. There is a certain level of disingenuous about the whole affair. Then you couple this with the owner of HA buying up a WATA graded item, to then sell WATA graded games, with the addition of a questionable background in business affairs. Altogether, there is a certain level of fishiness that is hard not to imagine, whether it's being realistic or purely delusional.

The rapid rate of price hikes is nothing more than a rush of well off people competing and/or speculating, if it’s even fair to call it speculation at this point. The articles are a combination of sellers and the companies involved reaching out to promote everything, which is mutually beneficial. That’s normal and smart business practice. Rarity is also a somewhat relative term, because when you have a population of 10 sealed SMB, for example, sitting on Ebay, which has taken years to accrue, and all of a sudden 20 new serious buyers come in, availability changes incredibly quickly.

This happens in pretty much every hobby as it makes the turn into “collectible.” These discussions similarly happen across hobby communities, most recently MtG and comics. And sneakers, as Jone pointed out. 

I’m not even quite sure what the theory is here. If the accusation is the auction houses are inflating prices, how are they making money? In that case they are paying way above market. The only way is to get legit buyers to come in and pay high prices. Otherwise, nobody is profiting, and the model will quickly collapse. 

2 hours ago, MrMark0673 said:

WATA isn't Deniz and Kenneth though, it's also the advisory board like you, Bronty, Jim Halperin, and Dain.  It's HA and their ads that they ship back in WATA packages.  It's GoCollect and the "Carolina Collection".  It's the people hyping games that are both not uncommon nor previously desirable in even remotely the same capacity (like Spot games from the Omar days or TMNT now).

I don't think anyone sees WATA as those two individuals, nor should they in my opinion.  I think it would be incredibly unfair to use them as the names to point at when negativity is being projected at WATA while others get rich in increasingly suspect fashion, and those people are also officially associated with the company.

I think there is a reason their names haven't been used frequently, but instead the company mentioned, as WATA flatly isn't Deniz and Kenneth.

“Increasingly suspect fashion?” Because WATA, which has a business agreement with HA, advertises them and vice versa? Because people who are re-defining the market have different wants than you, and others, did? Because video games are now being pedigreed the same way collections in other collectibles are?

That’s your evidence?

Try and paint it as you not criticizing Deniz and Kenneth all you want, but you’re all but calling their business and their business partners scammers and frauds. There’s no other way to parse it, try as you might. I mean one of your main points of evidence was WATA advertising for HA...how else can that be read?

14 minutes ago, themisfit138 said:

 

My point being when big money speculators invade a hobby it prices out the true hobbyist who just want to collect cool items.  

Kind of true, but the main target here has been sealed games, which the “average game collector” never really cared about to begin with. The other stuff has been around for decades, either in abundance or rare and popular enough it’s been priced out of the average gamer’s range for years.

As of now, at least, a large majority of the market has been unaffected by WATA.

1 hour ago, BeaglePuss said:

Gotta disagree with you there. I’m certainly not in the “Games are meant to be played Camp,” and am certain most others aren’t either. 

Most of the resentment stems from questionable ethics/optics, and the fact that GC and related parties literally bought our home burnt it to the ground. We had to literally build another forum.  While WATA didn’t spearhead the movement, a lot of us believe they played a role in what ultimately became VGS.

While your post is well thought out and polite, it really missed the point of the majority of the pushback. 

Again, not everyone here is anti or pro WATA, and this site is ultimately the greatest “consequence” that could have ever happen. I can all but guarantee you’ll see a lot less excitement regarding anything related to WATA, GC, and HA here than you did over at the new NA. 

Ehhhhh, NA was bordering on dying before GC ever came in. NA had a handful of threads related to WATA in the forum itself, so I don’t really see WATA as being the catalyst for the slowdown there at all. People just weren’t discussing other things anymore to begin with. Can only have the same debate so many times, plus people have kids, use Social Media instead, etc. 

This forum is already a massive upgrade from what NA has been for years, mainly because it’s mobile-friendly. 

1 hour ago, BeaglePuss said:

I think one massive improvement seen here at VGS over NA is the ability to like post. When the constant pumping, and pumping, and pumping was taking place over at NA, it was hard to counter without it coming off as an attack. 

It’s different here though. Now, when someone brings up some objective criticism of WATA, HA, GC, etc, the community responds by giving visible feedback. There’s no need for mudslinging now, and the collective majority can see their opinion voiced by giving a simple “thumbs up” of sorts. 

You’re going to see some of the aggressive pro-HA rhetoric here still, but you’ll notice a general lack of approval (outside of the outspoken minority) in the visible feedback. You’ve already seen that in this very thread. 

I think it’s incredibly important to focus on the positive with this new site, but I’m extremely grateful that the feedback system has been implemented to show where others stand. I’m also grateful that NA and GC still exist. It gives some of the more aggressive and outspoken supporters a great place to discuss and promote HA and the like without much, if any, pushback.  

I agree, the feedback thing is a good add. But I’m not really sure about the whole WATA vs not WATA debate in general, because there’s is still plenty of place in both pools. There’s no need for mudslinging because if you’re anti-WATA, great, it really shouldn’t impact you much. If you’re pro-WATA, great, do your WATA thing. We’re really just back at the “games are meant to be played” debate. People arguing for the sake of arguing. 

I guess that’s kinda what message boards are for, to be fair...

On 10/28/2019 at 1:54 PM, MrMark0673 said:

Very few people have taken issue with the new collectors spending more money on things.  The complaints are the obvious conflicts of interest and deceitful tactics the company has used in tandem with all of the parties I have named.

No one cares about someone spending money on a game.  Over inflated sales where buyer/seller/grader/auction house are literally all one in the same is a load of dog shit and people don't have to walk on eggshells pointing out the obvious over here.

Again, when Jim Halperin can be a WATA advisor, a founder of Heritage Auctions, and part buyer of the $100k sale, people take notice.  That's fucked up and on the surface absolutely reads like a marketing ploy that boosts the stock of:

- Heritage Auctions

- WATA

- Owners of early BB games

How do you take it a step further?  Add puff pieces that make it sound like this isn't only normal, but this is just the beginning!  "It's probably the wrong move, to sell, long term" is the perfect quote to stir up ignorant money from deep pocketed comic collectors.  Sure, it's waaaaaay more than historical data has ever shown this game or group of games to sell for, but it's the wrong move long term!  Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuy!!!

Just flip things with a conscience.  These games are clearly valuable, the deceit is obvious and deplorable.

This isn't the only facet of the hobby that's done something similar, it's just the most obvious.

I had an absolutely incredible collection of prototypes.  Imagine if I traded one for a high ticket item to a friend, then used the value of that item to now claim that this proto (and along with it, all my others) are worth mid five-figures?  Imagine if I made sure a bunch of media outlets picked up the story, and talked about my "$XX,XXX prototype changes hands!".  What if I went a step further and made a documentary on protos and how crazy valuable they were and pumped it through the community?  With such a niche like protos, I bet I could have easily convinced the masses that my $2-500 protos were worth tens of thousands.

But...

I just sold them instead.

There’s nothing deceitful about this man, it’s simple supply and demand. Halpern and especially WATA aren’t forcing people to pay what they are for these games. Halpern being on the board is out in the open and not abnormal or shady at all from a business perspective, either. The point is to work together and model something that benefits both businesses. In the end, they’ve managed to market themselves into the high-end collectibles community, which has an ungodly amount of money being thrown around. 

If you look at the money thrown around in coins, stamps, comics, etc., then it’s pretty easy to accept a hard to find cult classic title like Killer Tomatoes is a four-figure game. The market has been defined within a certain limit for so long that people simply cannot seem to wrap their heads around it changing so rapidly. As I’ve been saying since January, forget the past 10-20 years and place video games in the context of true “collectibles” now. The values will make more sense, and appear low compare to others, if anything. Video games lag behind Magic the Gathering at this point, for instance...

Just now, VGD said:

Hi Joel you are very pretty. Shoot me a dm.

More like a DOUBLE dm <winkyfaceemoji>

nt