Startyde

Some great games. 

Some comments: 

1. Saturn games are gorgeous slabbed. Burning Rangers was awesome back in the day, I had a thing for Tilis.

2. That Batman Returns VGA 90 is pure sex. Thanks for springing for for extra to AC the case, it deserves it.

3. Slathering marker on an item is damage, and VGA has always marked it as such. Let's play a game.

I have a marker and 3 copies of a game.

I let my 2 year old draw on one.

I let a store owner mark the second 19.99 on it.

I let the lead designer sign it.

Q: which one mucked up the cover?

A: All of them.

Many people find value on a signature and that is fine, but you're still artificially altering something with a chemical pen for an arbitrary reason and it should not be counted as just as pristine as a copy that doesn't have it.

Wata is free to do their own thing but they also don't count promo punch outs (see big ass holes) and even legit drill holes as damage in examples I've seen, so as a new company, I'm very suspect of their stances on condition.

On 4/15/2020 at 2:06 AM, Amermoe said:

I'm very curious about your statement on the Yakuza games. I bought mine at lauch preorder for PS2 and still have them sealed, and am aware of the Rosenqueen reprints Vs the originals. But both Yakuza 1 and 2 did not come with the security seal or at least I've never seen one, and not the ones I bought anyways. The difference between the 2 prints is still noticable though, and you can tell by the size of the font of the title on the edge of the case. The originals have the smaller font if I remember correctly.

I would be very interested to see any pictures of a Yakuza 1 or 2 with security seal.

I want to add, yes, absolutely agree with Zone of the enders, and many other games that got reprints 8 or so years after original print run. Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne comes to mind, and the price of that plummeted after the reprint. Hell, I think I've even seen a Final Fantasy X reprint without the holo seal, and have a hard time believe it's not fake.

I could be fully incorrect on Yakuza 1, as it was a late 05 release, so I apologize.  

3 hours ago, Chuckbiii said:

And now another raw copy just went up on eBay for auction with this later security seal.....something strange going on now all of a sudden these showing up..

He did change his item description and said multiple people have told him about the seal.  I asked him twice where he obtained the game and will not answer.  Just talks around it.

Could indeed be a later print or perhaps a third party reprint? Zone of Enders 2, the Yakuza games on PS2, they've all had semi official third party reprints made with official cases etc, but sans the holostrips they originally had. Maybe a similar sitch.

4 minutes ago, Chuckbiii said:

Yeah I have had horrible wata response times.  Yes hopefully that gets straightened out.  I think all the garbage CIB grading is bottlenecking the process.  But anyway.....

Here is a pic I received from the guy selling the VGA copies.  Hopefully he doesn’t mind.  The top 2 games are the combat evolved (with the later security seal).  The bottom 2 games have the correct seal.  The game you pictured has the earlier security seal.  The top 2 games with the later security seals were never present in 2001.   They didn’t show up until 2004 at the earliest to my knowledge and are present on everything Xbox 360 and newer.

Oooooh, I see, it's not the presence of the seal but the type. Oooph, looks like a potential VGA mega fail, especially for such a sought after game.

45 minutes ago, Chuckbiii said:

I’m going to chime in here.  This came up because of me.  This seller and myself bought 3 black label halo copies from another particular seller on eBay.  I sent mine to WATA and they will not grade these as they cannot confirm authenticity. The security seal on these did not exist in 2001.  They are only on the “greatest hits” variants of combat evolved.  I checked with the seller selling the VGA copies and confirmed he did indeed buy these from the same person I did.  We both believe VGA messed up and he does not want his seller rep tarnished for selling non-authentic items (even though VGA graded otherwise).

Now the more maddening part.  I paid for 10 day speed run on the copy I sent to WATA.  It took them almost 5 weeks to tell me this was not authentic and only after I emailed them a bunch asking where it was!! It took so long that I am outside of the ebay money back guarantee window of 30 days......the person we bought these from says he has no money to refund us.....

Wata has the most inept time tables in grading. My 5 day turnaround was twice as slow as my 10 day turnaround, and that one was almost 4 weeks late. One day they'll probably stablaize but yeesh.

Back on topic, are you sure halos don't have the strip? I'm almost sure I've seen them. Also Orta is from 2002 and clearly has them.

Halo experts, what say you on this auction? Did VGA fail hard or was this tampered with? The seller believes it's resealed.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/174242848277

3 minutes ago, The Strangest said:

It’s my understanding that masks don’t prevent a person from getting the virus, rather it’s to protect others if you have it? Am I mistaken?

Yes, but since 4 out of 5 people don't know they have it, it is still a prudent measure. More evidence that the CDC has fucked up the entire national conversation about this and has probably cost many lives. 

10 hours ago, Quest4Nes said:

I guess im one of the only ones who doesnt care about this at all. Yea definitely a shitty company, but if they want to be open for people to get some quick cash trading stuff in, then that should be allowed. If an employee doesnt want to work then let them not and come back when the ok is granted. If an employee wants to work and people want to come to the store, then they should be allowed to.

With all due respect, are you daft? The world is in the middle of a pandemic with no cure. Their entire business model is having a bunch of people crowd into a store to trade in plastic discs where the virus can live for days, and that's not mentioning the lack of cleaning supplies, medical personel to determine who is sick, or government policies in place to close all non essential stores.

16 minutes ago, arch_8ngel said:

Are they not planning to breastfeed?

If the mom can nurse, the baby doesn't need anything other than breast milk until you introduce solids between 4 and 6 months.

Good to have a backup in case the wife has nursing difficulties or the baby won't latch well, I guess.

It's not like turning on a switch, many have trouble breastfeeding. My wife tried for weeks and it wasn't working, so good formula is vital to many. These people are literally stealing from babies.

7 hours ago, Nintegageo said:

The irony being China provides healthcare to its citizens whereas the US doesn't. Not denying the Chinese government are monsters but I mean.. so are the US'.

Which Chinese citizens? The ones not imprisoned for religious beliefs, disappeared for not worshipping the government correctly or the ones harvested for their organs for convenience? I forget what constitutes a Chinese citizen these days.

Back to the topic of who is the most evil country on earth that people are willing to deal with, this story has come out about China bragging about successfully saving Corvid patients with organ transplants. The interesting part is how they can secure perfectly matched organs in days when the rest of the civilized world takes years.

It's literally like someone copied the US, took all the ambition but deleted the humanity.

https://www.the-sun.com/news/522114/fears-china-is-executing-muslim-prisoners-and-harvesting-their-organs-to-treat-coronavirus-patients/

8 minutes ago, Quest4Nes said:

One person 1 roll 2 weeks

2 people 1 roll 1 week

 

Seems like your math is the same

Except one is a tiny butt.

1 minute ago, Nintendopower4ever said:

On the front of the Wata case. All of the USA versions were Made in Japan

The Front and Back both Say Mexico. 

22 minutes ago, Nintendopower4ever said:

All 3 of these Latin American Made in Mexico versions of The Death and Return of Superman are wrong and listed as USA versions

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Death-and-Return-of-Superman-Super-Nintendo-SNES-New-Sealed-Mint-WATA-9-0-A/264662058993

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Death-and-Return-of-Superman-Super-Nintendo-SNES-New-Sealed-Mint-WATA-8-5-A-raRe/264582705765

https://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Death-and-Return-of-Superman-Super-Nintendo-SNES-New-Sealed-WATA-8-5-C-rArE/264559012623

 

These all say Made in Mexico, where do you see USA?

6 hours ago, austin532 said:

Well, let's just say I'm not impressed with WATA graded games and the people who inspect them...

Not the purpose of this thread bud. It's for perceived grading snafus and the discussion thereof.

17 hours ago, K.Thrower said:

Wata does not list first, second, etc prints on any games and only describes the variant as it is.  Including print info would be guesswork at best and only become outdated as new variants are discovered.  This game was released the year Sony stopped including security stickers on its cases, hence the reason why more than one seal type exists.  The seal type is described on the back of the label, separate from the box variant.

Thank you for replying Keith and for your confirmation. While this makes sense I think the distintion between original print vs non for PS2 games that had holostrips is important.

For example, reprints for certain games like ZoE2 and the Yakuza games were made years after original release, having been requested by third parties to meet a demand, and they look identical sans the original official Sony holostrip.  This also applies to boxset games like DMC. It's my personal opinion these should be noted as they are much later and can almost be considered third party. Perhaps as you say though, the answer is to simply list the original first print holostrip as first and that handles itself.

It's funny, if you were going to automate anything grading wise, it would probably start with BGS or PSA centering of cards, something that should not have one air of subjectiveness and even they don't do it (can't tell you how many times I've seen off-center 10).

TLDR: Jone is right, robots aren't going to do the dirty work for a long long time. The best thing to hope for is consistency. I love VGA, that will never change, bit also as Jone said, this 85+ would fall out of my standard deviation of agreement had it been mine. Then again I wouldn't have subbed a PS1 game with tears so it's moot.

This is the most horrific thing I've read in a long while. 

Sega does what Nintendon't...make charming MK clones with completely broken AI, haha. #Forever90s

8 hours ago, Magus said:

Yeah i think most people agree it's more of an 85. Funny enough i contacted VGA, sent them pictures of the game and serial, and they got back to me and said they stand by their grade and would grade it 85+ again. That the damage is out of the way on the sides and the rest of the game was excellent. So......idk. I think if i go with VGA it will be 90 and up if at all. 

Not to drag this out, but I'm kind suprised by this response from VGA as someone who has used them for 10 years. I've had VGA games in the past grade 85+ over minor scuffs and even crooked Staples on the manual of a PS1 game, something that I could not possible affect. I feel like this CC is 85 at best, likely a 80+. For comparison, here is an 85+ I just got back. It has a tiny corner poke in the wrap and nothing else. That warrents the same grade as your two rips? Something seems off.

Inspired by the CC 85+ and fake Wata proto threads, I figure this would be a great place to post our dubious questions regarding Wata and VGA's analysis.

First up:

This new Wata GoW1 auction caught my eye because this game was originally released as a holostrip title in the early PS2 game era (see VGA) pic. No where on the Wata copy does it indicate this is a second or even later reprinting, which will only serve to confuse the ignorant. Either Wata didn't know or didn't care, both of which are ominous for a company obsessed with first print nom rev oval seal etc etc nonsense.

I have nothing to contribute here except that I used to have an eye for mint CCs. Ciao!!

Some. I feel like big box PC are an untapped and unappreciated market since obviously PC moved away from physical way before consoles did, and today a physical PC game is a quaint rarity.

Im especially find of the era of the FMV, the half decade where we mastered cheap storage capacity but not cost effective poly crunching GPUs. 

Arcana. Hal is known for Kirby but their forte into the world of dungeon crawler was awesome and the music is among my favorite in gaming. In fact it was the first time I realized game music could be beautiful and not simply catchy.

1 hour ago, Magus said:

UPDATE-

Everything is back and running 100%. Collection tracker, console lists, individual games, etc. My admin tools are back up and running as well. 

Please let me know if you guys run into any issues. Again i apologize for the time it took. 

@Gloves I will bring this to their attention. They likely just aren't aware, and like you said this was coded this way before they even took over. Thanks



 

Magus, thank you for your efforts. I was curious what the roadmap for updating games in collection tracker is, if there is one? For example, there are PS3 games from 4 years ago that still aren't in there.