NWC Gold listed on eBay for $1,000,000 Graded by WATA.... but something doesn't look right.

[O.G. CIB | 415]

Nothing wrong with asking for a cool million but the Super Glue on the front label and noted by WATA.... I don't recall ever seeing one with super glue like this but I could be wrong. 

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1990-NINTENDO-WORLD-CHAMPIONSHIPS-GOLD-CARTRIDGE-WATA-5-0-VIDEO-GAME-NES-NWC/184313884445

Edited June 2, 2020 by Mr. CIB

[Deadeye | 1,596]

Someone was ready upset about that label lift and took matters in to their own hands

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

Nice. Glad to see one of these in the spotlight again.

Still, anyone who owns one of these should always be suspect of its provenance. While it's not a trivial skill, it doesn't take too much effort to fake one of these with a grey cart.

[Tulpa | 3,490]

Didn't one have a missing label that the owner replaced with a fake? I remember a thread on NA about that.

Don't know  why they'd use superglue, though.

[Nes Freak | 584]

dang...  1m  i couldn't afford that even if i sold my house.   it was graded by wata  i think that would be hard to fake.  so its likely legit.  i havent seen a gold cart in years so that cool to see.  but i doubt any will buy it for that price.

[Sir Centroid | 79]

Holy! Any chance that someone would give me a small loan of a million dollars?.. Anyone? No? Fair enough! I wish that this was instead an auction. I would love to see how much it would go for.

Edited June 2, 2020 by Sir Centroid

[Amermoe | 150]

The guy selling it (smpratte) is a very well known Pokemon card collector, so I doubt there is any foul play with the glue. He uploads weekly videos on youtube, I've included a link to his channel below.

I'm honestly surprised he even had it - then again, not really cause he owns just about every major collectible - Micky Mantle rookie, Michael Jordan rookie, etc. He's also a major MTG collector, and one of only a handful of people to own a signed BGS 10/9.5 QUAD Alpha Black Lotus. If anyone doesn't understand what that is, it's the equivalent to the Holy of Holy Grails for MTG collecting. Some people value the card at just under $1 million, similar lower grade copies generally sell in the 6 figures at auctions.

Should give you some perspective on who he is. Oh, and did I mention that he's the 2nd/third largest Pokemon collector in the world? He doesn't come off like he's well off, but his collection is valued well into the several millions.

https://www.youtube.com/user/smpratte/videos

 

Edited June 2, 2020 by Amermoe
spelling/grammar

[docile tapeworm | 4,198]

that guy with the jax avatar was smart snatching these up back in the day. 

remember when $20k for these was outrageous

[O.G. CIB | 415]

24 minutes ago, Amermoe said:

The guy selling it (smpratte) is a very well known Pokemon card collector, so I doubt there is any foul play with the glue. He uploads weekly videos on youtube, I've included a link to his channel below.

I'm honestly surprised he even had it - then again, not really cause he owns just about every major collectible - Micky Mantle rookie, Michael Jordan rookie, etc. He's also a major MTG collector, and one of only a handful of people to own a signed BGS 10/9.5 QUAD Alpha Black Lotus. If anyone doesn't understand what that is, it's the equivalent to the Holy of Holy Grails for MTG collecting. Some people value the card at just under $1 million, similar lower grade copies generally sell in the 6 figures at auctions.

Should give you some perspective on who he is. Oh, and did I mention that he's the 2nd/third largest Pokemon collector in the world? He doesn't come off like he's well off, but his collection is valued well into the several millions.

https://www.youtube.com/user/smpratte/videos

 

Thanks for pointing this out and he mentions he paid 100k for it here 

 

 

but that doesn’t mean something is up with that label...... maybe it’s just me. 

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

1 hour ago, Tulpa said:

Didn't one have a missing label that the owner replaced with a fake? I remember a thread on NA about that.

Don't know  why they'd use superglue, though.

It was lagenfeld and he bought it from a notorious guy, Nick Morgan. After the whole debacle he was discouraged from the hobby and sold everything he had...the guy had everything for the NES and more.

Today though, he (Nick Morgan) seems to be in touch and well connected with a lot of the high ballers and WATA. But it seems to be a “keep your enemies closer” kind of thing?

Ill be honest, I still don’t know the full story about that guy but if he paid his dues and debt to society then I think he deserves a chance.

I think he also runs VGDB.com

[DarkTone | 984]

Sending that out...... that's brave. 

[JamesRobot | 5,790]

Reminds me of that episode of Pawn Stars...

 

[imanerd0011 | 10]

To think, I can remember when DreamTR bought one years ago for $6,000, and everyone thought he was mentally insane!  Before that sale they were selling in the 2-3k range, and the grey NWC were selling for around $800.  If only I had money back then! lol 

[a3quit4s | 4,096]

I mean with free shipping included it’s only about 999,980!

Holy $100,000 eBay fee though. Is there a max fee they can charge?

edit: this seems to fall under the $750 max cap but I could be wrong. 
 

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/selling-fees?id=4364

Edited June 2, 2020 by a3quit4s

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

9 hours ago, DarkTone said:

Sending that out...... that's brave. 

No joke.

Something like that, I'd require full insurance on shipping it both ways and ask for a separate certificate of insurance from Wata themselves with the cartridge and myself added as additional insured. Maybe even go as far as get a secondary policy on my own through something like Lloyds of London.

[Nintegageo | 582]

I'd consider hand delivery to be honest.

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

For a million bucks one of the parties can spring for a plane ticket. 

[kell | 102]

Also has a few Pokemon cards priced a seven figures... I had no idea, but I should have.  Pokemon has such a crazy devoted fan base.

[Armageddon Potato | 124]

On 6/1/2020 at 7:29 PM, ThePhleo said:

It was lagenfeld and he bought it from a notorious guy, Nick Morgan. After the whole debacle he was discouraged from the hobby and sold everything he had...the guy had everything for the NES and more.

Today though, he (Nick Morgan) seems to be in touch and well connected with a lot of the high ballers and WATA. But it seems to be a “keep your enemies closer” kind of thing?

Ill be honest, I still don’t know the full story about that guy but if he paid his dues and debt to society then I think he deserves a chance.

I think he also runs VGDB.com

Nick Morgan(burnambill) scammed users of NA and on other sites multiple times. He even got banned a 2nd permanent time selling fake Section Z inserts.(Dain bought one from him and realized he was selling fakes he made the whole time he had them posted on NA and other collecting sites.) He's had a repetitive history of scamming collectors with fakes and other related nefarious deeds. He didn't really show any remorse when called out either, he just made some rude comments and accepted the ban. I always wondered what happened to that label-less NWC gold...

[captmorgandrinker | 1,649]

26 minutes ago, Armageddon Potato said:

Nick Morgan(burnambill) scammed users of NA and on other sites multiple times. He even got banned a 2nd permanent time selling fake Section Z inserts.(Dain bought one from him and realized he was selling fakes he made the whole time he had them posted on NA and other collecting sites.) He's had a repetitive history of scamming collectors with fakes and other related nefarious deeds. He didn't really show any remorse when called out either, he just made some rude comments and accepted the ban. I always wondered what happened to that label-less NWC gold...

Well, I wouldn't say "permanent" since he snuck back in again and Dain knew full well he was there.

[RH | 4,898]

Here's a different question-- how does WATA properly grade an item like this.  I mean, theoretically, what would/should a 10.0 look like?  IMHO, a 10.0 needs to factor in that these things were, in fact, hand made.  Maybe I'm wrong but the point I'm making is that Nintendo basically hacked these things together and used a Dremel-like tool to cut a hole in the cart.  A "prefect" specimen is going to be imperfect because the process used to makes these was imperfect... and my example doesn't even talk about the fact that these things had cheaply glued (or taped?!) labels.  Basically, how do you grade the condition of an item that looks like a kick originally hacked it together for a science fair project for High School in the 90s where it's "original condition" would have to be the gold standard for what's "perfection".

So, TL;DR, how doe WATA/VGA effectively grade this and is a 10.0 even theoretically plausible considering how it was made?

[captmorgandrinker | 1,649]

49 minutes ago, RH said:

So, TL;DR, how doe WATA/VGA effectively grade this and is a 10.0 even theoretically plausible considering how it was made?

I would say a 10 (or even a 9) should be impossible due to how these were made as you pointed out.   

Same thing with baseball cards- you'll never see a Honus Wagner 10, but the guys buying those take that into account and if they see something like a 7 ever pop up they'd go bananas for it.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,104]

1 hour ago, captmorgandrinker said:

I would say a 10 (or even a 9) should be impossible due to how these were made as you pointed out.   

Same thing with baseball cards- you'll never see a Honus Wagner 10, but the guys buying those take that into account and if they see something like a 7 ever pop up they'd go bananas for it.

I've been away from the vintage baseball card hobby for a few years, but it seemed to be fairly common knowledge that the PSA 8 T206 Wagner was hand cut from a proof sheet and later trimmed down to the standard size (there was even a book written about it) and the last time it sold, it still brought $3 million and was sold to the owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks if I recall. People with that kind of money do strange things.

[captmorgandrinker | 1,649]

54 minutes ago, Bearcat-Doug said:

I've been away from the vintage baseball card hobby for a few years, but it seemed to be fairly common knowledge that the PSA 8 T206 Wagner was hand cut from a proof sheet and later trimmed down to the standard size (there was even a book written about it) and the last time it sold, it still brought $3 million and was sold to the owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks if I recall. People with that kind of money do strange things.

That's what pedigree will do for ya.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,104]

45 minutes ago, captmorgandrinker said:

That's what pedigree will do for ya.

Exactly. As far as I know, the top two legit copies were a PSA 5 with a miscut qualifier and a PSA 4. The story goes that PSA knew the 8 was altered when they graded it, but it would make their grading company by having it in their holder. I'm not saying that NWC gold isn't legit because it has glue on it, but it's good that people don't just blindly accept these items as authentic because a grading company said so. As Ronald Reagan once said, "Trust, but verify".

Edited June 8, 2020 by Bearcat-Doug