Dumars2001

Oops, wrong thread. Please ignore.

As someone who owns around 170 sealed mainly Nes games (about 50 VGA graded and 5 WATA graded), I really want this sealed market to flourish and be real, but I still can't quite come to grips with how much these games have skyrocketed in value over the past year or so! It just isn't natural. The next time that I have time to fly back to the States (and not be required to be quarantined in Taiwan for 21 days, upon my return), I plan on bringing some of my games back (my carry-on) and cosigning about 15 of my games with either Heritage or Goldin. I need to to go through the whole process and see the money in my account to believe it, lol. (One question here for some of you who have sold on Heritage or Goldin, is there any way around the 28% Capital Gains Tax?) Aside from the occasional big sale on Ebay, you usually don't see the big ending prices anywhere, except on Heritage Auctions and now Goldin Auctions. Ceritified Link doesn't get the prices of the other two. So who are these buyers? Are they the same group of guys (investors) buying from the Auction Houses at inflated prices and then putting them up for sale again for the next auction and doing it all over again with each new big auction (setting new record prices for various games from different systems each time)? I also realize that these could all be legit buyers that only want to buy their games from a "reputable" Auction House and they are just filthy rich people and want to spend their money on whatever they choose and in this case, video games? Anyways, it has been months/a year or so now with this craziness and I still really don't know what to honestly think about what is going on with these 4, 5, 6, and 7 digit sales. I also believe that if some of these games that are selling for these record prices at the Auction Houses were listed for the same price that they sold for at Heritage, on Ebay, they would more than likely just sit and not sell. I have observed that almost all of the high end games on Comic Connect just sit there with no buyers. Why? You would think that they would all be bought up, if they were listed at or below what they are selling for at Heritage and now Goldin Auctions. anyways, i am just a very confused and conflicted person. My apologies:).

That my be true, but I do sincerely feel bad for the "Average Joe" collector in today's video game hobby. It seems like they are being priced out of the hobby. This guy (YouTuber/collector) seemed like a nice guy that was genuinely bummed out about the state of the hobby and not buying a single video game at a video game expo. Yes, you are right about the graded games just being there for marketing purposes. I did read somewhere that Goldin Auctions had a booth there with graded games to promote them for their second video game auction coming in the near future.

I came across this fun little video today on Youtube. Thoughts?

Heritage Auctions just opened the bidding for their Signature Video Game Auction and it appears there is going to be a ton of money spent on their games once again. My hot take (a no-brainer) is that the total amount of money that they generate from this auction is going to break shatter their previous record by a mile. There are still 22 days left and you have a Zelda sitting at $234,000, A Tyson's Punchout at $60,000, A Sonic at $60,000, Super Mario Bros at $276,000, A Super Mario Bros 2 at $31,000 and countless other games already in the $10,000 to $20,000 range. We all know that the real action starts at the end, so who knows where these prices are going to end up at?! It still boggles my mind to see this much money being spent on video games. Like I have said in the past, video game prices have already obliterated action figure prices in only this past year and video games are now comparable to many other high end hobbies. It has happened so fast, like an out of control freight train (shaking my head)! So many of these games could have been bought for pennies on the dollar (sigh), just 2 to 3 short years ago. It seems like the Karl Jobst video has done nothing to stop this video game madness and it may even have had the opposite effect on the hobby (bringing in even more people/collectors/attention/speculation/investors).

Atari 2600 WATA 8.0 Adventure sells for $80,000. https://www.ebay.com/itm/234076453709?hash=item36800b3b4d%3Ag%3AeCkAAOSwL4tgtsRJ&nma=true&si=mdOX%2BnMVPOWLIXF1d8vkNA2fV34%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Well that recent Heritage Genesis WATA Sonic The Hedgehog 9.0 selling for $2400 (and of course the big sealed sale) have increased the price on getting a nice game box, manual and cartridge in price ten fold and I don't see it coming back down anytime soon. Here is one that sold for $408 today (only a nice box and manual, with a terrible cartridge). https://www.ebay.com/itm/403161236057?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=mdOX%2BnMVPOWLIXF1d8vkNA2fV34%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc Here is nice box and cartridge that I bought about 6 weeks ago for $31 https://www.ebay.com/itm/384317870928?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649 Here is a solid manual that I picked up about a month ago for $10.49 https://www.ebay.com/itm/313632301653?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=mdOX%2BnMVPOWLIXF1d8vkNA2fV34%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc So, I got all 3 in great shape for a mere $41.49, while yesterday's (only 2 pieces) nice box and manual sold for 10 times more than what I paid for my complete Sonic 1 CIB. Gotta to love this wonderful hobby that we are all participating in. The word is out about Sonic 1 and the "investors" are out in full swing!

Oh boy, here we go! Chris Pratt, Jack Black and Seth Rogan have been cast in a new Mario movie scheduled for release on December 21st, 2022. I wonder if this is going to add even more fuel to the whole Mario/video game collecting madness!? Stock up on/Buy all things Nintendo before prices really go crazy, lol!!! Nintendo casts Chris Pratt as Super Mario for 2022 movie (yahoo.com)

I couldn't agree with you more. I remember at the time, being so happy that I sold it for $400 (on ebay to a guy from Germany, of all places). I bought it for $200 a few months before I sold it off for $400, so I doubled my money with the sale, lol. Of course now, I obviously wish I didn't sell it, and to be honest, I wish that I never owned it at all in the first place, because then I wouldn't even care about the sale. Funny (sad) to think about it now, but like you said, I never in a million years would have dreamt the prices would be where games are selling for for these days. In life, you win some and you lose some. At least, I will always have this nice little (cringe) story to tell people. As of now, (the price could go higher in the future) it wasn't as bad as what happened to this guy. I am from Michigan (but living in Taiwan) and I came across this nice little article yesterday. Leave it to the Lions to ruin it for this poor guy. https://www.si.com/betting/2021/09/21/bettor-loses-16-team-parlay-packers-beat-lions https://sportshandle.com/lions-packers-betmgm-726k-parlay/

I agree with you 100%, especially it being much more rare than Mario 64. With this big sale, it might bring more out of the woodwork/collector's hands, only time will tell, but I do think that a sealed Sonic is going to be rarer to find than a sealed Nes Super Mario Bros. So, why did I sell mine 10 years ago for $400!?! Mario is the Michael Jordan of video games but Sonic is the Lebron James, lol!

I did the exact same thing that you did and over the past year, I looked on Ebay every day, for the best Sonic cart, manual and box that I could find (I actually found 2 great complete Sonics with a mint box, cart and manual during that time period), because I also knew this day (dreading, lol) was going to happen/come with a sealed one hitting the market. The big Sonic sale was the last auction to end that night. I thought it was going to end at $190,000 and at the last second, someone put in a bid and that kept happening during those extra 30 minute extension all the way to $350,000, so I am pretty sure that 2 collectors/investors got into a bidding war for it. It will be interesting to see where the one on the up-coming Heritage Auction one ends at. I won't lie, it stung pretty badly to see it go for so high but it's all good, I am healthy and satisfied with where I am financially in life.

I watched this interesting video regarding that big Sonic sale on Goldin Auctions. This guy found a rip in the shrink-wrap on the front.

A month ago, A WATA 9.2 Sonic CIB sold for $3,000 (positive feedback given from seller and buyer), so maybe this 9 is the going rate now?! Sonic the Hedgehog #1 Sega Genesis WATA 9.2 CIB Gorgeous NES RARE + Pristine! 10086010091 | eBay

Tonight is the night, lol!

Well, I certainly feel/know your pain! Let's see where they both end up tomorrow. At least, you still got the VGA 90+ back (and a chance of resubmitting it to WATA for a possible 9.8 grade), I got a measly $400. The interesting thing is, I remember selling my Sonic to some guy in Germany.

Well, the time has finally come! We are about a day out from the inaugural video game Golden Auctions ending. At this time, the SMB 64 WATA has a "mere" $300,0000 lead over the SMB VGA 95U. (The poor SMB64 VG80+ is sitting at a "meager" $6,000, an unreal discrepancy in price from the other 2, but it is, what it is) From what I have read, most people/collectors think that the VGA 95U is the superior copy to the WATA 9.8, but it appears the big dollar spenders obviously don't agree/think so. If the gap between the WATA 9.8 and The VGA95U is substantial (for me that would be more than 10 to 15%), I myself would have to grade all of my raw sealed games going forward with WATA and I would have no choice but to crack my VGA graded games and have them re-slabbed (what a pain) with WATA to be sold or auctioned off at any of these auctions, (Goldin, Heritage, Certified Link, etc.) if I ever wanted to sell them off, because this would clearly make more financial sense for me. We will all have a clearer picture when the dust settles in about 34 hours, but unfortunately, it appears that WATA graded (negative press be damned) games will garner the the highest prices/returns no matter what, when selling graded games on all platforms in the foreseeable future. This may never change. It is kind of like PSA cards selling for quite a bit more than BGS these days. The funny thing is, it used to be BGS out-selling PSA way back in the day, so I guess I should "never say never" about WATA being the undisputed kings at the moment, BUT, if the SMB VGA95U doesn't close the gap by the end of the auction, it will clearly be the case! On a personal note, seeing that first print Genesis Sonic WATA 9.4 going for so high (currently at $185,000 with the buyer's premium) is killing me! I am guessing that it ends up at around $500,000. Ouch! For all I know, that is my old copy, lol! I have mentioned in the "My biggest regret Thread" that I sold my mint sealed copy off about 10 years ago for $400!!!!!!

Ok, got it. Thanks for letting me know.

What was the grade for the one that sold on Comic Connect? If it was also a WATA 9.4, i have to imagine the one currently on Goldin will go for more, cuz of more publicity on it, Goldin's name and countless more people bidding on it.

You made some very good/logical points. I agree with you 100%. Bidders should try and win that VGA 80+ SMB64 (or even the uncirculated VGA 95 gem mint copy) on Goldin Auctions and you are going to save thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, instead of going for the SMB WATA 9.8.

A raw Sega Genesis Sealed Mickey Mouse Fantasia sold for $4327! I still can't believe the hobby has reached this point! It just boggles my mind. You could have bought this game sealed for less than $100 pre-covid! Fantasia Mickey Mouse Sega Genesis factory sealed brand new ! 10086010213 | eBay

Ha! This game (SM64) and many other "rare" games are coming up quite often for auction these days.

Don't sleep on that Nes first print (Black Seal) WATA 9.4 Super Mario Bros 2. It is sitting at $61,000. I expect in to go well north of a $100,000. We will see!

100% agree with you. Only a few more days left and then we we will see how this all shakes out.

Man, this is 100% unacceptable/scary. After watching this video, I would be scared to death to submit anything to them. I would be absolutely livid if this happened to me and my game. I just can't believe how WATA treated this poor guy. He was so patient with them and then to get back a much worse conditioned game than the one that he sent in months ago. I really don't know what else to say.

100% true! So, in their cases, it would have been better, if Heritage found another sealed collector whale to get the market to where it is today and then they unloaded their games now. I know Dain sold his whole collection, but I think Bronty still owns his almost complete Nes sealed collection, so he probably doesn't feel as bad as Dain does today. I am just assuming that they feel bad, but for all I know, Dain and Bronty are the happiest men in the world today and I hope that they are and everybody on this forum is. I do love this Denzel Washington's quote below. It really puts it all in perspective for all of us living today. "You'll never see a U-Haul behind a hearse. Now, I've been blessed to make hundreds of millions of dollars in my life. I can't take it with me, and neither can you. It's not how much you have but what you do with what you have." Denzel Washington