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WATA Turnaround Times?


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1 hour ago, Caliboy24 said:

I don't know how I feel about that.  I also collect sports cards and comic books and both PSA and CGC have their own census numbers out.  I don't think it hurts the market, but it would bring into perspective whether that particular item in said grade is considered rare or common.  I'm also interested in knowing the highest graded copy too and if there are multiples in that high grade from a collector standpoint.  

Yeah, the census numbers can somewhat be manipulated due to the crack and re-sub approach, but with CGC for example, if you submit the cracked label back to them, they deduct it from their census numbers.  

That's because you use common sense. Their rationale has never made sense. All grading companies have always released census data, even their rival game graded VGA (until very recently). It's not Watas job to police and influence the free market, and they are also being underhanded about it because the census data IS shared with certain contacts who can inside trade and profit on the information. None of this is pro collector.

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3 hours ago, Startyde said:

That's because you use common sense. Their rationale has never made sense. All grading companies have always released census data, even their rival game graded VGA (until very recently). It's not Watas job to police and influence the free market, and they are also being underhanded about it because the census data IS shared with certain contacts who can inside trade and profit on the information. None of this is pro collector.

I think if they don’t release population data, then they shouldn’t be going around and claiming what the prices for certain games are going for. It’s pretty much like leading the blind and saying “trust me, I’ll lead you to where the gold is at!”

 

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I debated whether I should talk about this, but I recently listened to a video with a comic book dealer that mentioned something that shocked me for a minute, then didn't really surprise me - assuming it's true. He basically candidly said that he had a friend that worked for Heritage who told him that WATA is partly owned by Heritage...apparently it was a partnership.

Also said some some explosive things like Heritage buying tons of games to grade at WATA's inception, and putting them on auction to kickstart the company. Not certain if any of this is true, but make of it what you will:

Listen in at 2:31

 

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There's not an incentive for WATA to go faster.  There's incredible demand for a service predicated on a finite supply of sealed retro games.  This is not cards where there's a booming demand for current day players on cards being made today.  Is there anyone after a 9.6 A++ Mario Odyssey? 

Turbo is probably going to get paused. If it gets too silly, Speed Run will be $250 a game for 30 days and Warpzone will be $500+ for 15 days.

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46 minutes ago, broncofantd793 said:

There's not an incentive for WATA to go faster.  There's incredible demand for a service predicated on a finite supply of sealed retro games.  This is not cards where there's a booming demand for current day players on cards being made today.  Is there anyone after a 9.6 A++ Mario Odyssey?

Somebody paid north of $2k for a graded Pokemon Sword/Shield double pack a couple of weeks back.

You know. The one you can still freaking order from Amazon for retail price.

Yeah it was a nice copy (I think it was VGA 90, certainly not every copy you buy from Amazon would grade at that level, mine wouldn't), but still, c'mon.

There are also people paying over retail for the Let's Go pokeball bundles (which are still in stock on the Nintendo store, or were last week anyway, things move fast in Pokeland...) and some sellers are listing Super Mario 3D All Stars for silly prices (don't think anyone's paying them yet, thankfully).

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1 hour ago, Amermoe said:

I debated whether I should talk about this, but I recently listened to a video with a comic book dealer that mentioned something that shocked me for a minute, then didn't really surprise me - assuming it's true. He basically candidly said that he had a friend that worked for Heritage who told him that WATA is partly owned by Heritage...apparently it was a partnership.

Also said some some explosive things like Heritage buying tons of games to grade at WATA's inception, and putting them on auction to kickstart the company. Not certain if any of this is true, but make of it what you will:

Listen in at 2:31

 

I spoke at length about some of this stuff here:  

 

It's a good read.

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2 hours ago, Amermoe said:

I debated whether I should talk about this, but I recently listened to a video with a comic book dealer that mentioned something that shocked me for a minute, then didn't really surprise me - assuming it's true. He basically candidly said that he had a friend that worked for Heritage who told him that WATA is partly owned by Heritage...apparently it was a partnership.

Also said some some explosive things like Heritage buying tons of games to grade at WATA's inception, and putting them on auction to kickstart the company. Not certain if any of this is true, but make of it what you will:

Listen in at 2:31

 

You are just learning this now?  That is old news bro.  And yes, everything you said is true.  You obviously weren't around when NintendoAge was sold to Jeff.  Jeff is part owner of Heritage.  He came off as all cool and "not gonna mess with the site at all" at first.  Then he tanked the site shortly after that.  Turns out he bought all of Dain's collection and the NintendoAge site was just tossed in the deal for the entire collection.  He then proceeded to grade that collection via WATA and sell them through Heritage.  And guess what, Jeff is on the Board or part owner of WATA.  Something like that.  It's a fucking racket for sure.  Someone dug up an old article about how Jeff was charged with fraud or some similar "scammer" charge for doing shady stuff with graded coins.  Maybe someone can link it here if they find it.

Edited by tbone3969
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Administrator · Posted
26 minutes ago, tbone3969 said:

You are just learning this now?  That is old news bro.  And yes, everything you said is true.  You obviously weren't around when NintendoAge was sold to Jim.  Jim is part owner of Heritage.  He came off as all cool and "not gonna mess with the site at all" at first.  Then he tanked the site shortly after that.  Turns out he bought all of Dain's collection and the NintendoAge site was just tossed in the deal for the entire collection.  He then proceeded to grade that collection via WATA and sell them through Heritage.  And guess what, Jim is on the Board or part owner of WATA.  Something like that.  It's a fucking racket for sure.  Someone dug up an old article about how Jim was charged with fraud or some similar "scammer" charge for doing shady stuff with graded coins.  Maybe someone can link it here of they find it.

Just to make sure it's clear, his name is Jeff, not Jim.

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39 minutes ago, tbone3969 said:

You are just learning this now?  That is old news bro.  And yes, everything you said is true.  You obviously weren't around when NintendoAge was sold to Jim.  Jim is part owner of Heritage.  He came off as all cool and "not gonna mess with the site at all" at first.  Then he tanked the site shortly after that.  Turns out he bought all of Dain's collection and the NintendoAge site was just tossed in the deal for the entire collection.  He then proceeded to grade that collection via WATA and sell them through Heritage.  And guess what, Jim is on the Board or part owner of WATA.  Something like that.  It's a fucking racket for sure.  Someone dug up an old article about how Jim was charged with fraud or some similar "scammer" charge for doing shady stuff with graded coins.  Maybe someone can link it here of they find it.

I knew a bit about Go-Collect buying then killing Nintendo-Age, and buying Dain's "Carolina Collection", but honestly didn't know the connection to Heritage. It's more messed up than I thought if all this is public knowledge, not sure how anyone can then deny how manipulated this market really is. Interesting to know, thank you...

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Administrator · Posted
7 minutes ago, Amermoe said:

I knew a bit about Go-Collect buying then killing Nintendo-Age, and buying Dain's "Carolina Collection", but honestly didn't know the connection to Heritage. It's more messed up than I thought if all this is public knowledge, not sure how anyone can then deny how manipulated this market really is. Interesting to know, thank you...

They know, but don't care. People are making money.

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3 minutes ago, Gulag Joe said:

What was the point of killing Nintendo Age? Too many people might use all the old threads to start their own grading service?

GoCollect went Donner Party for the data. And even then they did a lousy job putting that to good use. Which is why I might contact Wata if I was given a sticker sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. and wanted to find out which printing it was. Just not much else. But even then, NA did not help me find a reason to like WataGames. So... Maybe?

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On 4/9/2021 at 11:28 AM, Gulag Joe said:

What was the point of killing Nintendo Age? Too many people might use all the old threads to start their own grading service?

Because we rejected the push into sealed/graded collecting as THE hobby, like a botched kidney transplant.

Plus, I called Fuggin JEFF a fart sniffer a WHOLE bunch, so he probably got pissed off and pulled the plug outta spite! 🤣

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4 hours ago, OptOut said:

Because we rejected the push into sealed/graded collecting as THE hobby, like a botched kidney transplant.

Plus, I called Fuggin JEFF a fart sniffer a WHOLE bunch, so he probably got pissed off and pulled the plug outta spite! 🤣

I was way ahead of ya, I called Deniz a douche 😄

But yeah, people trying to tell us what we should and shouldn't be collecting. I'll take hoes to left bros any day, and rares and real dealz to SMB matte seals...

Edited by fcgamer
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  • 4 weeks later...

Oof. Guess the game they received from me april 20th speedrun won't be returning for awhile.

 

Honestly they should do a psa esque shutdown because paying 100 dollars + shipping + potential after the fact valuation changes to get a game graded that will now likely take 4 months until it's in hand is a bit ridiculous. They have to be majorly backed up

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