arch_8ngel

1 minute ago, Vectrex28 said:

All this talk about the Carolina Collection, and yet...

When will my collection back home be recognised as the "Swiss Stash"? Can't really go for the title of "Tokyo Tape Treasure Trove" yet, grumble grumble...

That would be @fcgamer with the "Taiwan Tower of 'Tender Tapes"

1 minute ago, captmorgandrinker said:

He did?

Was that a hoax?

5 minutes ago, ExplodedHamster said:

Jordans and Charizards (both of which have certainly have exponentially larger populations than video games btw), which were already parts of established markets, have also gone nuts. Video games basically skipped established and went straight to insanity, but I believe that’s more a function of timing than anything. Had WATA opened in 2006, this would not have happened as it has.  

2 minutes ago, phart010 said:

Becoming an advisor in an official capacity and giving advice are two separate things. Although they can become intentionally conflated for marketing purposes. I think Wata could have used Dain’s advice and slapped a label on it to enhance the company’s credibility early on. 
 

Probably should just take Dain’s response at face value since he’s here replying now.

Completely agree.

The most obvious explanation is that Wata puffed up their early marketing by overstating how involved some people were in their early days. 

At the time, it may not have felt like as much of an overstatement to Deniz (and he very well could have been hoping for/expecting ongoing advice/help at that time) -- but in hindsight, it's definitely a bad look for Wata.

I'm inclined to chalk Deniz's apparent misstep at that time to naivete and enthusiasm, though.

And given the other history in other collectibles -- my current leaning would be that if anyone acted "diabolically" and with ill-intent, it mostly falls on HA's doorstep.

For pretty much everyone else, it is very very easily chalked up to a form Hanlon's razor.  (where I would generously replace "stupidity" with core participants not ever really grasping the gravity of the inherent risks of the apparent conflicts of interest)

@Dain Glad to see you around and doing well, despite the crazy circumstances.

Wow... what an evening.

Just now, Estil said:

Because...?  Dude seriously they really need to get vaccinated; the sooner the better.

"three little kids" -- i.e. would assume he means under age 12.

41 minutes ago, osg said:

 

Oh boy, journalism law is my favorite! Is Dain a Private Citizen or a Public Figure? Someone can be considered a public figure if they are "famous" enough, even if they don't want to be, even within a narrow band of interest. Merely discussing a person on the internet to a sufficient level can make someone a public figure. It's basically just anyone with pervasive notoriety. This is the part where whoever is reading this comment has to decide for themselves if this is the case.

 

Would be an interesting question for our resident lawyers.

I had the distinct impression you had to inject yourself into the situation to become an involuntary public figure (which Dain has certainly attempted to stay well clear of).  Though it may be a fair argument that his long-time involvement as the head of NAge gave him the status, by default, in context.

Still -- if I were him, I'd be a bit annoyed, at the very least.

Just now, Californication said:

Mmm leaving out all the pump and dump meme stocks, there is a strategy for AMC and GME, the fact that the strategy is disconnected from it's fundamentals does not discredit it.

Remains to be seen.

And whether there is, or there isn't, something legitimate to encourage some intelligent people to get into those two in particular -- the VAST MAJORITY of people buying them don't know anything about anything with respect to investing.

Point is -- there is an epidemic of irrationality right now, across the board, and it is no surprise to me, at all, that it spilled over into sealed games.

5 minutes ago, Gulag Joe said:

"Building a bubble" is market manipulation. Market manipulation is a crime. A whole bunch of people got in trouble a few years back by breaking the law by building a bubble that caused the entire world to go into a recession. 2008 wasn't that long ago.

Do you live in a different timeline?  Almost nobody got in trouble for 2008...

1 minute ago, CodysGameRoom said:

 

He didn't really drag Dain into it... he mentioned him for context mostly.

Naming a private citizen, who you haven't received any permission from, in a massively public video of generally negative tone definitely fits my definition of "being dragged into it".

4 minutes ago, OptOut said:

I'm not saying WATA or HA or whoever are buying these games, or that the bids are fake or anything like that.

It's worse.

It's idiots. 

We're in a reality where people are paying hundreds-of-dollars-per-share for Gamestop and whatever silly money AMC is going for right now, amongst a dozen other meme-stock contenders  -- the world is full of idiots right now who clearly have more money than sense.

Zero surprise to me, at all, that it spills over to a mania in collectibles.  (just look at sports cards with the store-stockers being stalked/harassed on their store runs)

This is ultimate-Hanlon's-razer going on.

Just now, BriGuy82 said:

Let's say hypothetically, down the road someone tries to sue wata or heritage or whom ever. I'm not saying he personally committed a crime, but what I'm saying is because of his former affiliation he could end up getting dragged into it somehow. You never know. That's what I meant by unscathed. 

If I were him, I wouldn't be concerned about that, at all.

And if I were Karl, I would have done a shitload more due diligence before dragging Dain into it.

2 minutes ago, OptOut said:

 

I am absolutely certain that none of the demand in this market is driven by anything else other than solid market fundamentals and rational, long-term growth minded investors! 

100% pokepark on Wii will still be worth 20k in five years, right? People will still be spending 200k on copies of FF7 and not even the first print or whatever, in like 2026, right? 

 

Let's take a couple steps back and recognize that the most logical explanation for the insane prices, across the board, is a flood of crypto-money and meme-stock-money from people cooped up in their mom's basement for the past year.

And let's take a few moments to consider that if WATA did, in fact, successfully complete their sale to a major company, that the buying company would have thoroughly audited their books and probably would have been turned off / turned away by self-dealing that might be construed as borderline fraud.

7 minutes ago, Jeevan said:

Jeff is listed on the last one, so is he lying then?  He said he stepped down, but nothing has been added etc.

Forgive me as i dont know anything about SEC rules and when they have to refile etc.  So does that mean Jeff still is a part of wata because it wasn't refiled?  Just asking really because if that is the case and wasn't refiled, then he is still on the wata list right?  

Seriously just wondering as i dont deal with this and i do want to know.......

Pretty sure those filings have nothing to do with registering corporate leadership or board members.  They are solely for selling shares in a company with an exemption from Regulation D.

The only information they provide is how much money people invested in the company under that exemption, and the supposed corporate leadership at the time of filing (but not before, and not after)

3 minutes ago, BriGuy82 said:

I would be upset for Dain too. I'm sure he's a good guy from all the accounts I hear about him. And hopefully he was smart enough to cut his ties from wata early enough to come out of this squeaky clean. But from an objective stand point... the optics... they aren't looking to good. I mean those other guys could be fucked...But Dain, he might have a shot to come out unscathed. I'm sure he must be thinking about lawyering up if he hasn't already. 

I'm missing something -- what "scathing" would Dain suffer from any of this beyond the annoyance of harassment from the uninformed public?

The only lawyering Dain would need is suing Karl for defamation that led to subsequent harassment.

What I've been seeing on the Heroquest facebook groups is speculation that they'll pump out the release at an upcoming convention.

Latest official newsletters have shown the completed expansion pack parts.  So they are getting close.

8 hours ago, Nintegageo said:

Yep! The board game with the crappy video lol. Good thing you don't watch it to play the game.

It was great! Though had to read the instructions several times and not sure with some rules at this point. We got the hang-ish o it though so hoping to play again now that we understand it.

My sister and I used to watch that VHS tape WEEKLY, back in the day.  It was part of the Saturday morning ritual for us.

I was much bigger into Heroquest, but enjoyed some of the added complexity of Dragon Strike.

But I will say -- I found the differences between the prototypes (in the pictures and on the box) and the actual parts to be HUGELY disappointing.  Not just mold-quality issues -- but completely different poses.

The board game?

1 hour ago, TDIRunner said:

That doesn't make it impossible to refute his findings, so my sarcasm still stands.  

Well, it sounds like CU hired a PR firm to respond on their behalf

9 minutes ago, TDIRunner said:

It's a shame that there are absolutely no avenues for WATA or Heritage Auction to reply themselves and refute Karl's findings.  

If the sale to CU has already gone through, they likely aren't allowed to talk about the company publicly without approval.

If it hasn't gone through, then they'd be foolish to risk the sale by speaking publicly, anyway.

11 hours ago, BriGuy82 said:

@arch_8ngeldid you happen to see this? 

I haven't.  

What is the summary that led to the @ mention?

EDIT:  I've "seen this" in the context of being aware that this discussion is going on.  I'm just not big, at all, on watching web videos, so I haven't watched this one, either.

15 minutes ago, FireHazard51 said:

So does anyone think that this might be a real life Darwin effect that will show it's effect in future elections due to most anti-vax/anti-mask being of the GOP political side of the isle?  You'd think the GOP would be concerned about their voter base being killed off.  Not like they got room to spare in Texas and purple states.

Maybe if we had fully representative and high voter turnout, in the first place.

What we really end up with here, is a situation where it becomes a question of which side is more motivated to show up to vote based on how events turned out.  A bunch of "R" voters dying -- well, if that fires up their base and they build the right narrative around it could have the opposite impact of what you describe.

On 8/8/2021 at 1:34 PM, vb337 said:

The new buyers entering the video game market include large financial institutions and billionaires. These recent prices, which seem unfathomable to gamers, are a drop in the ocean to these folks.

I doubt that "Large financial institutions" are spending their time buying a video game for $1MM+ at an open auction.

Because you're right -- it's a "drop in the ocean" to them, and not remotely worth their time to pursue, because it doesn't scale, at all, even if they were right in their valuation.

The only involvement "large financial institutions" likely have in the hobby are when private equity buys out an existing company like CLCT.  They're making their money selling the proverbial shovels for the hobby, not participating in it directly.

13 minutes ago, OptOut said:

Without knowing who the buyers are, it's not possible to know how old the buyers are, where they got their money from, or what their motives are for purchasing these games at such ludicrous sums.

 

Sure - but if we're talking about someone spending $1MM+ with what we assume is relatively little knowledge/research -- I would think it makes a whole lot more sense that they are some young, dumb, got-rich-quick type of person.

Maybe it's not crypto money.  Maybe it's some wave of high earning sports stars, that in a previous generation would have pissed it away on supercars. Who knows.

I just think it is more likely, than not, that they're too young to have grown up on classic SMB.