Bronty

How would you feel if you started a business, spent 3 years of your life on it, were compensated in no way except through grading (ie NOT compensated by auction results), and had people calling you a thief and saying you weren't worthy of trust. Its so easy to sling rocks. (and to commit libel I might add). You don't have to like it, and you don't have to like Wata, and you don't have to like Deniz. But words have meanings and so far as I know Deniz is no thief. Its so easy to be less than careful with what you're saying and its so unfair to the other side. Whether we are talking Wata, VGA, or Pizza Hut.

Kiss it and love it and hug it and call it George.

Your PERCEPTION of the methodology.

Like you said, you were no pillar of morality trying to ‘help the community’ or anyone except yourself (and I have no issue with that). You made the most you could at the time you decided to sell and as I recall, at the time you flexed pretty hard about about what a real estate mogul you were becoming. Good. I hope you do great at it. But the hating on others and their motivations and the errors in the record as you see it get tiresome. Never saw you as a hater. Why start now?

Yes. Now people usually come to these kinds of discussions with pretty entrenched views and IMO, as I said earlier, at its root all collecting is materialistic folly. That being said - everything is always changing. Nothing stays the same and as a hobby video game collecting is at a point where it either has to get bigger now or slowly fade away. I'd find it depressing if NES collecting ended up like atari collecting. I'd rather it got more attention and stuck around for a long time and stayed fresh as a result, even if that comes with some negatives.

We are all so busy protecting our egos in this thread but you know, collecting is collecting. The guy that spends $10 on a loose barbie cart he will never play, the guy that spends $100 on a CIB, the guy that spends 5k on a sealed? They vary only in degree. Nobody NEEDS physical copies of any of this stuff. The underlying collecting behavior is the same. Some of the guys at the top end don't want to admit it because they don't want to feel like they are the same as the guys looking for dollar carts, and some of the guys at the bottom don't want to admit it because they don't want to perceive themselves as being at the bottom, but at the end of the day we are all much alike - collecting stuff we categorically do not need because of some connection, deep or shallow, to the source material but more importantly because of some common connection to the act of collecting. At the end of the day, its all materialistic bullshit and absolutely no one needs ANY of it. Now, if you want the hobby to grow and be more like the bigger hobbies you'll like what wata has done and if you want it to stay where it is you won't like what wata has done. But neither one's opinion nor one's wallet (fat or thin) makes them a saint. We're all going around the same hamster wheel here, engaging in the same ridiculous behaviour. (and at the same time, enjoying the same wonderful hobby. But collecting, in general, is materialism. And that's true whether you are spending 100 or 100k.)

I can’t take credit for it; a link was posted onto the game art Facebook group. Once you look at them that way you can’t unsee it. You can see the layering of the paper if you look.

Pins are a lot of fun. I hated them growing up (too hard, I'd lose my quarter in thirty seconds if that) but as an adult I've come to love them.

Yeah posting the whole story on the FB groupie a little more problematic. I will post the piece there though at some point

Agreed. thise have to be worth the ask price no? 65 isn’t really much if those are vintage POP

I have Addams and Monster Bash. Lots of good choices. congrats on your first pin.

Yes, my wallet's still not talking to me LOL. The former owner was a collector who was interested in Ocean's releases for smaller consoles. As a result, he has artwork for a number of small Euro titles. This small Euro title however had art used on a major release in North America.

that's really kind, thank you. You never know, there might be some art on display at some point, and Adam has pretty much annual displays now. Sure, you have to travel to Cleveland, but they do happen! Actually I think he may also set up in philly at TMG next year. At some point I'm sure I'll do something like that as well but no firm plans.

Woot!

Oh and sorry but that’s not something I can help with. I don’t own the IP so it would still be illegal and I’m not tbh a fan of reproduction boxes in general .. I like it when things are simple and there are no reproductions or fakes. I know that ship has sailed and I don’t begrudge other people who are into it but it’s not for me personally

LOL okay I love how the new badge for admins is a crown Ruler of all ye survey!

Thanks LOL yes so I can kiss it and hug it and squeeze it

its easy to miss!

thanks so much. The 80s pieces tended to be smaller and the 90s pieces larger. Not a hard and fast rule, but earlier usually = smaller. I suppose this is the 2nd largest purchase for a single item - there was a 350k sale in January that was mentioned on NA by Adam and three separate 145-150k ones as well.

Thx. It would be a number in the low thirties somewhere, although I’ve had a few pass through my hands . I think Adam has a similar number. Doesn’t sound like much, but then most of the artwork just isn’t available. After all this time there’s still less than 100 known. So many were Japanese and or destroyed and or photos and or logos and or this that or the other. When you apply all the filters it’s only a small minority that do exist.

Look for a red WAK

^ I mean it’s just a ‘guy buys thing’ story, I’m not saving orphans here, but thanks for that

Thanks everybody. Favorite target? So hard to answer. Don’t know 100% of what’s out there or what it would look like in person, etc. And many of the ones I’d want aren’t possible. A couple of my favorite games are gradius and ghosts n goblins. Those would be very cool also, as would many others TBH. I’m not really a ‘I found a nice piece so I can stop’ guy - if that was the case I would have stopped 10 years ago

Thx Corey for the last bit especially. A little bit about the artist Bob Wakelin. https://www.exotica.org.uk/wiki/Bob_Wakelin He clearly had an awesome sense of humour if you roll thru his comments on his work . He has passed away.