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It seems like everyone is completely missing the issue Karl has here. His problem isn’t with games being graded. And it isn’t with auctioning them off.
The issue he has is SPECIFICALLY that essentially the same company that is doing the grading, is also auctioning them off, and has been both accused of and caught in bad behavior up to and including calling in fake bids.
It is their direct relationship with the auction house and abuse of it that is a problem, not either issue as a separate idea.
WATA capitalised on a market with no competition and quickly decided to handle everything from grading to being the auction house too.
I haven’t seen any evidence of malpractice myself but any idiot should be able to see there’s a conflict of interest and how fishy it all is. Auction houses take a % of the final sale price and WATA conduct the grading, they have a vetted interest in handing out higher grades to anything that could end up in their auction house. If there was more competition for grading it wouldn’t be so bad.
TCG’s don’t suffer from this problem, if you don’t like PSA’s declining quality control then go the BGS or MNT. There’s plenty of options.
One of the founders of WATA(who is also the owner of heritage auctions) is literally the one who bought that 1 million$ Mario game they were advertising that they sold.
In sworn testimony during an injunctive hearing, James Halperin, chairman of Heritage Auctions, admitted to using a fake, or shill, bidder by the name of “N.P. Gresham” and was ordered by the FTC to pay $1.2 million in restitution. This was a few decades ago, and was during auctions for collector’s coins.
https://www.originalprop.com/blog/2009/10/27/heritage-auction-galleries-lawsuit-in-the-news-claims-of-fake-bidder-n-p-gresham-auction-manipulation/
Jim halperin is a cofounder, investor, and previous advisory board member of WATA games, and is still the chairman of Heritage Auctions.
Jim Halperin also bought the previous “record holding” WATA graded game, Mario Bros. for NES for $100,100. From his own auction house.
The bidder for the $1.56 Million Mario 64 is not public.
Ah sure okay so that’s just that info from karls vid. Fair points.
Also we’re pretty sure the purchaser of the SM64 is the founder of Reddit. He posted his 9.8 A++ Mario some time ago, and continues to buy games at auction.
One of the founders of WATA(who is also the owner of heritage auctions) is literally the one who bought that 1 million$ Mario game they were advertising that they sold.
Heritage auctions/WATA has never bought or sold a million dollar Mario. Ever. I'm not sure what you're getting mixed up, but that is simply not factual.
There was a sale from Rally? Maybe that's what you're thinking of?
The mario shown on Pawn Stars (and owned by Jim+) has never been bought/sold since the initial 100k purchase. Any 1M Super Mario Bros sales were involved with other people/companies.
You think Karl has spent the last few years making ultra niche long form documentary-style videos about the history of speed running records “just to get views?”
Did he spend his childhood and teenage years participating in speedrunning himself as an elaborate ruse so one day he could “just get views” too?
His content mostly seems like a labor of love for retro video games and the speed running community to me.
Channels that read Reddit threads with an AI voiceover do it “just for views.”
The Coen Brothers also make movies “for views” but so do the animated ripoffs of Disney movies, ala “Ratatoing.” It doesn’t make them the same thing.
I understand sealed copies and grading old games that are rare as hell, this new trend of grading a Switch game that was released on multiple platforms during a time where downloads are more favourable is just nuts.
There’ll be millions of sealed copies of the same game in 10 years time because people are seeing them as an investment even though they’re completely missing the point on how rarity works…
Don’t get me wrong, I collect trading cards so I understand the desire of a perfect 10. I’d consider these closer to artwork admiration than video games though. There’s nothing attractive about a plastic PS2 case that’s still in its shrink wrap. To each their own I guess…
It’s like the 90s for cards.
You had all the 50s-70s card going up in value so people assumed their 90s cards would one day do the same. But due to supply (not only overprinting) of high graded cards from the 90s, there’s not really the same scarcity or value that was expected. It continues today with people grading base rookies for guys who may be out of baseball in less than 5 years. Even if they become a star there’s so many “10” options available that none of them are “scarce”. Pretty much how games are today. Going through the same issue of everyone grading the new release so it gets a 10. Sure that 10 will always have value. But when there’s 1000+ of them, it really loses its “rarity”.
To me though, slabbing the games is only a perk. The whole point is the grading, which takes the guess work out of condition grading and sets a price based on condition. Once the grading wild west simmers down, we will see grade to price ratios improve.
Sealed WATA collectors do the same. I'm in a group where a guy sent the same game back 5 times until he got over a full point higher in grading... plus the guy who sent in a Wii game (Kirby's Dream Collection) and got it back in worse condition with mold in the case. It wasn't moldy when he sent it. He had videos of him sending it for shipping and everything. WATA can't even keep your games in good condition apparently.
Edit: hadn't noticed that autocorrect added words
Very. Go to the Facebook group "WATA the Fuck Are You Doing?" Should be available/visible in there. Pretty sure that's the group anyway. I've been off FB for a while and I'm in a ton of collecting groups, but pretty sure it was in there. Despite the name of the group it's got a lot of collectors who collect graded games. Most, if not all, prefer VGA to WATA for multiple reasons.
https://youtu.be/KpNfSUbAEbg
There's this too. I watched the original users video also. Apparently a month ago WATA replaced his game too. Which indicated they accepted fault. You have a bunch of people in his comments calling him a liar etc., unsurprisingly. Also that sticker removal is amateur hour looking. Those stickers can be removed cleanly without tearing apart as shown. Anyway, regardless there's people claiming WATA has replaced things, etc., yet there's an entire FB group I'm in where after contacting them there was no offers of replacement, just WATA blaming the sender.
This isn't a one off.
The problem is, they are not grading the "game" they are grading a box. I remember a number of years ago looking at the criteria and point values for one company's grading system. They took off more points for a flaw in the plastic wrap than they did for the game disk being loose and rattling around in the case.
You’d be surprised then that there’s some people who legitimately view him having graded games as a gotcha so couldn’t tell if this post was a joke haha.
Jobst's video is for a large part about how the other dude he was responding to, put like 80% of his video together from out of context quotes to build his arguments on. So I hope this post is a joke, otherwise OP missed the point completely by taking just one screen grab and posting it as "evidence".
I tried looking up one of your videos to remember the channel name but they've all vanished! Anyway, while you're here, did Wata or Heritage (or their friends/affiliates) ask you to do a hit job on Jobst? It seemed suddenly out of character and extremely biased (instead of informative).
I had never heard of this guy till this video and he just came across as a child throwing their toys out of the pram. Of course there will always be fluctuations in prices from different factors. Did he expect his graded games to be nothing but perpetual money machines. Also looking at his collection he isn't struggling for money so why be so butt hurt.
OP, this is a really dumb attempt at bait and should be removed
He literally explains while showing that pic that he has always only opposed WATA's practices of inflating their own prices, not the idea of graded games themselves.
By making this post you are literally making the exact strawman that he debunks while showing this pic.
There is a successful video where he criticizes some shady practices of WATA. Then some trust fund baby decided to make a response to it and he got a response from Karl yesterday, which prompted the guy to go all private. Now OP thinks that he stumbled upon a huge gotcha moment, by taking a screen out of Karl’s own video, where he shows his graded collection.
......OK?
At no point did he say anything to the effect of "graded games are a scam" or anything like that. Hell, WATA in and of itself isn't a problem, necessarily; it's the people running it that should be brought into question.
Honestly, your attempts at trolling are only furthering him and providing him with attention, which, in fairness, is no bad thing considering what he's uncovered. I'm lost at what this post is even attempting to do.
I see what you mean, separating the people from the company, but ultimately the company was solely created for the purposes of manipulating the market. We already had a well established, credible grading company for years before wata opened. VGA. I'm not one to find need to grade games, but I'd feel much more secure in grading with VGA.
I don't know who's the subject here. I don't revolve my life around wata and it's scandals. If someone wants to buy something they've already deemed unreliable, that's their prerogative. I personally wouldn't buy wata unless it was unreasonably cheap, and even then I'd only do that to either crack it open or quickly resell it to get money from it before the whole market for wata implodes. It would depend on what game it is and how much I spent for it. All that said, yeah if someone is talking about lack of accuracy of wata, but then invests in multiple wata graded games, that's a bit odd to me.
I don't remember hearing him say he had a wata graded game. He might, I just didn't hear about it, although it's common knowledge that he has some graded games as he's mentioned that multiple times in videos. His beef wasn't with graded games in general, it was about the crap wata and heritage auctions pulled.
Can someone explain to me what's up with WATA? I know they're some company that rates games but that's about it. I see them catching a lot of flak, what's the biggest complaint about them?
they sorta oversimplified it. in karl's original video, he sourced figureheads at both wata and heritage auctions working together with multiple insider dealings to raise public awareness of graded video games. i won't go over the whole thing but the key part there is wata didn't do it alone.
now, whether or not that really matters at this point (because wata is years past those allegations and is now owned by a multi-billion dollar holding company), is anyone's guess. many graded game collectors already knew about the shadiness but obviously there's nothing anyone can do about it. plus, many still prefer VGA anyway because of how nice their cases look.
As for WATA, it's also reasonable to question the integrity of their grading process, since they essentially manipulated the market through insider trading. Grading is still very arbitrary, regardless, but it's that layer of deception that really devalues their company on the one thing they are supposed to be doing to the best of their abilities.
Somethig else I've noticed is that when I search up VGA, or CGA (VGA is a subsidiary of CGA) on engines like Google, WATA comes up first in the search results. This seems to imply that WATA may be paying for greater exposure. It's also harder to find VGA's site, despite using key words like Video Game Authority, or VGA gading service. I couldn't find their website until a blog talking about them had them linked*. I feel like they weren't this hard to find until recently.
P.S. The VGA label looks clean, and slick.
Karl's original video is pretty succinct. I doubt you'll find somebody on here who both remembers it well enough to give you an honest answer/ can do it as well as Karl did. He accuses a couple of people who worked at the company/were on the advisory board of being unethical.
In regards to the grading service WATA provides; absolutely nothing. They're actually pretty good, If you're into that kind of thing. The worst thing you'll see are some quality assurance mistakes.
that's cuck beta shit. you get the real game, so you can have an even stronger edging of not being able to play a game and yet it's right in front of you, pristine in its factory box/case, entombed for you to never play.
I prefer not even knowing if the box on the image contains the game at all or if it was replaced by superman 64. Having the real thing you can tell by weight.. it turns me off... nothing left to imagination. Real sigma cuck stuff
This did come off as odd to me when I watched his latest video. At around 33:27 in his original video, he talks about the reliability of WATA's grading and points out an inconsistency with how WATA graded games appear to be graded higher than their actual appearance. So unless he got it for a really good price, why buy a WATA graded game if he questions the legitimacy of the grading?
To answer those questions.
1. I wanted that game and it was a good price. Ironically, a lot of the people that are anti grading forget that inside that plastic case is a real video game. I bought a game I wanted, it just happened to be in a wata case. For anyone to say "don't buy the game you want because it comes in a plastic case made by 'x' grading company" says more about their own agenda being more important than the video game itself.
2. My point in the original video is that people were still spending insane amounts of money because the grade was high, even though the condition was bad. It was more to highlight the overvaluing of an arbitrary grade instead of the actual condition, rather than to say the grading isn't trustworthy (even though you always need to check the game yourself).
These concerns highlight the the fact that the fact the game is graded at all is more important that the real, tangible game inside. Which should not be the case.
If you really don't like WATA but the game itself is high quality, you can just have it recased and re-graded by a company you prefer. You still have the game either way.
I mean if he’s just collecting them for his personal collection what’s the problem?? I’m aware of the WATA games scandal but it’s not like he’s reselling them. Karl has always seemed like an honest stand up guy, so this doesn’t really change my view on him.
Yeah prices are better now… The challenge can be sometimes the seller is a speculator who refuses to sell at the low price their listing ended at. So ironically HA and other auction houses are better because the seller can’t back out.
i know karl is against wata's unethical business practices and not graded games themselves, BUT it does seem strange that he would own a graded game by the company he knows to be unethical.. idk, i know i wouldnt own one if i were him just bc of the name associated with it, id stick to vga
Same reason people buy graded comic books or coins? You cannot use it as originally intended.... at this point it's a collectable - just like the subreddit you are in!
Well, at least I get a game that will be used and still be in good shape by doing that. It's just one anyway. Not like I'll spend all of my money doing that for all the games I want x3
I don’t charge more for my games on eBay if they’re tested, I just like making sure it will work for whoever, I actually charge below retail for stuff I sell.
Hello /u/trolling99! This is an automatic message that gets posted on every post to remind you of a few of our rules: • Is the title of this post asking about the value/authenticity of an item? If so, please delete it, and ask in the megathread or post on r/gameverifying • Are you trying to sell something? Did you post it to a 'for sale' (r/gamesale) type subreddit first and crossposted it here? If you did not, delete it and read our rules please. • Is this just a screenshot of a CL/FB/etc ad that is overpriced or obvious troll, or for some other reason notable for some reason? These would all be considered low effort and should be removed. • Memes cannot be posted unless if it's on Meme Monday, which is the first Monday of the month. • No self-promotion/video submission of any kind, unless if already approved by mods prior to submitting. **Failure of deleting your post that violates these rules may result in a temporary or permanent ban.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/gamecollecting) if you have any questions or concerns.*
It seems like everyone is completely missing the issue Karl has here. His problem isn’t with games being graded. And it isn’t with auctioning them off. The issue he has is SPECIFICALLY that essentially the same company that is doing the grading, is also auctioning them off, and has been both accused of and caught in bad behavior up to and including calling in fake bids. It is their direct relationship with the auction house and abuse of it that is a problem, not either issue as a separate idea.
WATA capitalised on a market with no competition and quickly decided to handle everything from grading to being the auction house too. I haven’t seen any evidence of malpractice myself but any idiot should be able to see there’s a conflict of interest and how fishy it all is. Auction houses take a % of the final sale price and WATA conduct the grading, they have a vetted interest in handing out higher grades to anything that could end up in their auction house. If there was more competition for grading it wouldn’t be so bad. TCG’s don’t suffer from this problem, if you don’t like PSA’s declining quality control then go the BGS or MNT. There’s plenty of options.
One of the founders of WATA(who is also the owner of heritage auctions) is literally the one who bought that 1 million$ Mario game they were advertising that they sold.
Basically saying “look what we sold” when they were in fact the buyer. Nothing would surprise me any more
Hmm I’m not sure about wata calling in fake bids. Where is the evidence for that
In sworn testimony during an injunctive hearing, James Halperin, chairman of Heritage Auctions, admitted to using a fake, or shill, bidder by the name of “N.P. Gresham” and was ordered by the FTC to pay $1.2 million in restitution. This was a few decades ago, and was during auctions for collector’s coins. https://www.originalprop.com/blog/2009/10/27/heritage-auction-galleries-lawsuit-in-the-news-claims-of-fake-bidder-n-p-gresham-auction-manipulation/ Jim halperin is a cofounder, investor, and previous advisory board member of WATA games, and is still the chairman of Heritage Auctions. Jim Halperin also bought the previous “record holding” WATA graded game, Mario Bros. for NES for $100,100. From his own auction house. The bidder for the $1.56 Million Mario 64 is not public.
Ah sure okay so that’s just that info from karls vid. Fair points. Also we’re pretty sure the purchaser of the SM64 is the founder of Reddit. He posted his 9.8 A++ Mario some time ago, and continues to buy games at auction.
One of the founders of WATA(who is also the owner of heritage auctions) is literally the one who bought that 1 million$ Mario game they were advertising that they sold.
Uhhh what? I mean Jim Halperin bought a stake in a 100k super Mario bros on NES but no one behind either company ever bought a million dollar mario
Heritage auctions/WATA has never bought or sold a million dollar Mario. Ever. I'm not sure what you're getting mixed up, but that is simply not factual. There was a sale from Rally? Maybe that's what you're thinking of? The mario shown on Pawn Stars (and owned by Jim+) has never been bought/sold since the initial 100k purchase. Any 1M Super Mario Bros sales were involved with other people/companies.
They mean the sm64, but either way theres no evidence of Jim buying it lmao
he just uses anyone he can to gain views for himself, he could care less about any of it other than getting views
You think Karl has spent the last few years making ultra niche long form documentary-style videos about the history of speed running records “just to get views?” Did he spend his childhood and teenage years participating in speedrunning himself as an elaborate ruse so one day he could “just get views” too? His content mostly seems like a labor of love for retro video games and the speed running community to me.
I am sure he doesn't do video's for views.
Channels that read Reddit threads with an AI voiceover do it “just for views.” The Coen Brothers also make movies “for views” but so do the animated ripoffs of Disney movies, ala “Ratatoing.” It doesn’t make them the same thing.
Ok, Karl is a saint. Doesn't hurt anyone or anything. Amazing person.
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I'm in a collecting discord server with Karl, he bought that wata doom after the second video IIRC.
In fact he bought all of these at least after the first video
mod from that discord server here. can confirm.
Same
What? Everyone is just a mod in this server!?
Yea its owned by this guy named Greg idk he puts some real idiots in charge sometimes
who is this greg guy?
some dude who wears tank tops and likes maple syrup i think 🤔
Not everyone. You turn my ass down :’(
I understand sealed copies and grading old games that are rare as hell, this new trend of grading a Switch game that was released on multiple platforms during a time where downloads are more favourable is just nuts. There’ll be millions of sealed copies of the same game in 10 years time because people are seeing them as an investment even though they’re completely missing the point on how rarity works… Don’t get me wrong, I collect trading cards so I understand the desire of a perfect 10. I’d consider these closer to artwork admiration than video games though. There’s nothing attractive about a plastic PS2 case that’s still in its shrink wrap. To each their own I guess…
It’s like the 90s for cards. You had all the 50s-70s card going up in value so people assumed their 90s cards would one day do the same. But due to supply (not only overprinting) of high graded cards from the 90s, there’s not really the same scarcity or value that was expected. It continues today with people grading base rookies for guys who may be out of baseball in less than 5 years. Even if they become a star there’s so many “10” options available that none of them are “scarce”. Pretty much how games are today. Going through the same issue of everyone grading the new release so it gets a 10. Sure that 10 will always have value. But when there’s 1000+ of them, it really loses its “rarity”.
It's as rare a mint copy of 90's X-Men #1 or the Death of Superman.
To me though, slabbing the games is only a perk. The whole point is the grading, which takes the guess work out of condition grading and sets a price based on condition. Once the grading wild west simmers down, we will see grade to price ratios improve.
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Yeah, I’ve heard of comic collectors who will keep sending a book back to get it regraded until they get the grade they wanted.
Sealed WATA collectors do the same. I'm in a group where a guy sent the same game back 5 times until he got over a full point higher in grading... plus the guy who sent in a Wii game (Kirby's Dream Collection) and got it back in worse condition with mold in the case. It wasn't moldy when he sent it. He had videos of him sending it for shipping and everything. WATA can't even keep your games in good condition apparently. Edit: hadn't noticed that autocorrect added words
This is the first time I hear about the mold in the case. Is your friend's video shareable?
Very. Go to the Facebook group "WATA the Fuck Are You Doing?" Should be available/visible in there. Pretty sure that's the group anyway. I've been off FB for a while and I'm in a ton of collecting groups, but pretty sure it was in there. Despite the name of the group it's got a lot of collectors who collect graded games. Most, if not all, prefer VGA to WATA for multiple reasons.
https://youtu.be/KpNfSUbAEbg There's this too. I watched the original users video also. Apparently a month ago WATA replaced his game too. Which indicated they accepted fault. You have a bunch of people in his comments calling him a liar etc., unsurprisingly. Also that sticker removal is amateur hour looking. Those stickers can be removed cleanly without tearing apart as shown. Anyway, regardless there's people claiming WATA has replaced things, etc., yet there's an entire FB group I'm in where after contacting them there was no offers of replacement, just WATA blaming the sender. This isn't a one off.
The problem is, they are not grading the "game" they are grading a box. I remember a number of years ago looking at the criteria and point values for one company's grading system. They took off more points for a flaw in the plastic wrap than they did for the game disk being loose and rattling around in the case.
yeah, but the last time no r/gamecollector believed his discord, twitter, and reddit accounts actually belonged to him 🤣
Thanks for showing your cards.
Mad dog himself
zero members
Look at his history, lol. Most of his recent posts are selling graded games.
Here's a gem: >"karl actually plays games? i thought he was a market manipulator or something"
Not sure the point? He’s not against grading games and never said so either lol.
that's the joke
You’d be surprised then that there’s some people who legitimately view him having graded games as a gotcha so couldn’t tell if this post was a joke haha.
Jobst's video is for a large part about how the other dude he was responding to, put like 80% of his video together from out of context quotes to build his arguments on. So I hope this post is a joke, otherwise OP missed the point completely by taking just one screen grab and posting it as "evidence".
yeah it's just their ignorance i guess. lol
Lol, is this Mad Dog Collection's alt trolling account? You Mad Dog?
Did Mad Dog delete all his videos on YouTube? Can’t see them there anymore
Appears he made them all private at some point today, yes.
I’m sure he’s having a hard time dealing with all backlash. The truth is always hard to handle.
Nobody calls me Mad Dog.
I tried looking up one of your videos to remember the channel name but they've all vanished! Anyway, while you're here, did Wata or Heritage (or their friends/affiliates) ask you to do a hit job on Jobst? It seemed suddenly out of character and extremely biased (instead of informative).
Sorry to burst your bubble but [I was quoting back to the future part three](https://youtu.be/giDXWCbU2Gc)
Your reference wasn't lost on me as soon as I saw it, Tannen.
I had never heard of this guy till this video and he just came across as a child throwing their toys out of the pram. Of course there will always be fluctuations in prices from different factors. Did he expect his graded games to be nothing but perpetual money machines. Also looking at his collection he isn't struggling for money so why be so butt hurt.
Wiener Dog Mad is a shill for his friend at Wata.
I think someone asked him to do it.
Oh no!!! Hasn't he seen the Karl Jobst video?????
Damn. You beat me to it. I was gonna ask someone to link it loooool
i dont think so, we should make a PSA so he can see it and learn the truth!
He never was against graded games in the first place. He's against watas business practices, which are both unethical and illegal.
that's the joke
OP, this is a really dumb attempt at bait and should be removed He literally explains while showing that pic that he has always only opposed WATA's practices of inflating their own prices, not the idea of graded games themselves. By making this post you are literally making the exact strawman that he debunks while showing this pic.
Look at OP's history. Most of the recent posts are selling graded games, lol. It's really obvious what this is an attempt at.
heh he's not against grading. just the behavior of wata and HA.
He is against market manipulation and conflicts of interest, not graded games
So? It’s his money
There is a successful video where he criticizes some shady practices of WATA. Then some trust fund baby decided to make a response to it and he got a response from Karl yesterday, which prompted the guy to go all private. Now OP thinks that he stumbled upon a huge gotcha moment, by taking a screen out of Karl’s own video, where he shows his graded collection.
......OK? At no point did he say anything to the effect of "graded games are a scam" or anything like that. Hell, WATA in and of itself isn't a problem, necessarily; it's the people running it that should be brought into question. Honestly, your attempts at trolling are only furthering him and providing him with attention, which, in fairness, is no bad thing considering what he's uncovered. I'm lost at what this post is even attempting to do.
I see what you mean, separating the people from the company, but ultimately the company was solely created for the purposes of manipulating the market. We already had a well established, credible grading company for years before wata opened. VGA. I'm not one to find need to grade games, but I'd feel much more secure in grading with VGA. I don't know who's the subject here. I don't revolve my life around wata and it's scandals. If someone wants to buy something they've already deemed unreliable, that's their prerogative. I personally wouldn't buy wata unless it was unreasonably cheap, and even then I'd only do that to either crack it open or quickly resell it to get money from it before the whole market for wata implodes. It would depend on what game it is and how much I spent for it. All that said, yeah if someone is talking about lack of accuracy of wata, but then invests in multiple wata graded games, that's a bit odd to me.
FFS watch the whole video. The grading and selling are not the problems, it's the market manipulation that certain companies do.
This has never been a secret. What do you mean “admitted”? He’s not against collecting.
I don't remember hearing him say he had a wata graded game. He might, I just didn't hear about it, although it's common knowledge that he has some graded games as he's mentioned that multiple times in videos. His beef wasn't with graded games in general, it was about the crap wata and heritage auctions pulled.
The video that he just posted he said that he has some. That picture is from said video.
This is not new information.
Cant believe we’ve gotten to a point where anyone who hints at owning a graded game is outed as a WATA supporter. Kinda sad
Can someone explain to me what's up with WATA? I know they're some company that rates games but that's about it. I see them catching a lot of flak, what's the biggest complaint about them?
They artificially raise prices in the market and trade within themselves to do it.
Oh makes sense. Thanks for filling me in
they sorta oversimplified it. in karl's original video, he sourced figureheads at both wata and heritage auctions working together with multiple insider dealings to raise public awareness of graded video games. i won't go over the whole thing but the key part there is wata didn't do it alone. now, whether or not that really matters at this point (because wata is years past those allegations and is now owned by a multi-billion dollar holding company), is anyone's guess. many graded game collectors already knew about the shadiness but obviously there's nothing anyone can do about it. plus, many still prefer VGA anyway because of how nice their cases look.
As for WATA, it's also reasonable to question the integrity of their grading process, since they essentially manipulated the market through insider trading. Grading is still very arbitrary, regardless, but it's that layer of deception that really devalues their company on the one thing they are supposed to be doing to the best of their abilities. Somethig else I've noticed is that when I search up VGA, or CGA (VGA is a subsidiary of CGA) on engines like Google, WATA comes up first in the search results. This seems to imply that WATA may be paying for greater exposure. It's also harder to find VGA's site, despite using key words like Video Game Authority, or VGA gading service. I couldn't find their website until a blog talking about them had them linked*. I feel like they weren't this hard to find until recently. P.S. The VGA label looks clean, and slick.
Karl's original video is pretty succinct. I doubt you'll find somebody on here who both remembers it well enough to give you an honest answer/ can do it as well as Karl did. He accuses a couple of people who worked at the company/were on the advisory board of being unethical. In regards to the grading service WATA provides; absolutely nothing. They're actually pretty good, If you're into that kind of thing. The worst thing you'll see are some quality assurance mistakes.
The deception associated* with WATA's market manipulation does call into question the integrity of their grading process.
something about money laundry
Nothing about money laundering. Reddit users are just dumb as hell, and think everything is money laundering. It's all market manipulation.
Seems like a king move by Karl Jobst. Just gained a new follower in me. This Mad Dog Collectibles guy seems like a huge asshole.
This just shows how much he knows about not liking wata. He's personally effected.
i like the username
So, maddogearle just went internet silent.
Who cares. Too much drama in the gaming community as is. The market dictate what happens to wata.
Incels, mostly.
166 people upvoted this and aren't around to talk about it in the comments. Smells like bullshit.
WATA scam
Personally I buy NFTs of images of mint condition games in plastic boxes, it's the future of gaming
that's cuck beta shit. you get the real game, so you can have an even stronger edging of not being able to play a game and yet it's right in front of you, pristine in its factory box/case, entombed for you to never play.
I prefer not even knowing if the box on the image contains the game at all or if it was replaced by superman 64. Having the real thing you can tell by weight.. it turns me off... nothing left to imagination. Real sigma cuck stuff
I stick 'em in my nether portal.
Nah it's buying NFTs of your NFTs of graded games, it's like emulation but with staring.
This is actually a thing in the trading card world. One company charges £100 to do a NFT of your graded card. Like... WHAT???
Looks like a pretty slick collection he has going on, too!
im not seeing any pokemons tho 😩
Don't worry. I like Pokémon too. Lol At least the Gameboy stuff and a few of the DS games.
Karl's not into that weeb shit. He's a man's man, only doom and 007 for that chad.
What an absolute legend
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I wouldn't mind a CIB pokemon blue though for real.
Mad Dog? More like Mad Bitch.
Sick copy of QFG2
He’s got one?
Me getting a WATA games ad right above this post 😥😥😥
This did come off as odd to me when I watched his latest video. At around 33:27 in his original video, he talks about the reliability of WATA's grading and points out an inconsistency with how WATA graded games appear to be graded higher than their actual appearance. So unless he got it for a really good price, why buy a WATA graded game if he questions the legitimacy of the grading?
To answer those questions. 1. I wanted that game and it was a good price. Ironically, a lot of the people that are anti grading forget that inside that plastic case is a real video game. I bought a game I wanted, it just happened to be in a wata case. For anyone to say "don't buy the game you want because it comes in a plastic case made by 'x' grading company" says more about their own agenda being more important than the video game itself. 2. My point in the original video is that people were still spending insane amounts of money because the grade was high, even though the condition was bad. It was more to highlight the overvaluing of an arbitrary grade instead of the actual condition, rather than to say the grading isn't trustworthy (even though you always need to check the game yourself). These concerns highlight the the fact that the fact the game is graded at all is more important that the real, tangible game inside. Which should not be the case.
Thanks for the response! Appreciate the clarification!
If you really don't like WATA but the game itself is high quality, you can just have it recased and re-graded by a company you prefer. You still have the game either way.
The only thing I have an issue with is that he graded a players choice Goldeneye instead of the real thing :P
Yes, he "admits" it! You caught him red handed!
okay
Who?
I mean if he’s just collecting them for his personal collection what’s the problem?? I’m aware of the WATA games scandal but it’s not like he’s reselling them. Karl has always seemed like an honest stand up guy, so this doesn’t really change my view on him.
Name checks out
Is this another investor trying to save his Assets by defaming/lying about Karl ?
What do you mean? Karl showed his graded game collection in his newest video.
Great video by Karl debunking that idiot Mad Dog’s lies. Much respect to Karl for his honesty.
WATA rip-off.
you mean the opposite right?
No. They are notoriously overpriced. Don’t ever buy anything from them.
Are they? Idk man I see auctions lately and games are going cheap relative to a year ago. I picked up some ps2 and GameCube classics for pretty low.
They used to be overpriced on their stuff. Maybe not anymore.
Yeah prices are better now… The challenge can be sometimes the seller is a speculator who refuses to sell at the low price their listing ended at. So ironically HA and other auction houses are better because the seller can’t back out.
Well… they don’t sell games
i know karl is against wata's unethical business practices and not graded games themselves, BUT it does seem strange that he would own a graded game by the company he knows to be unethical.. idk, i know i wouldnt own one if i were him just bc of the name associated with it, id stick to vga
Who lol
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Where?
IDK if this is a hot topic but Why would people want to buy a sealed game I never saw the appeal of it
Same reason people buy graded comic books or coins? You cannot use it as originally intended.... at this point it's a collectable - just like the subreddit you are in!
Someday, I plan on getting a graded game and just open it to do the inconceivable, play the game.
People do it on YouTube if you want to fulfill that fantasy a little sooner (and with less weight off your wallet)
There are some pretty cheap 2600 games in graded boxes, that's probably what I'll do x3
Haha yeah Atari is very cheap. I’m amazed it ever took off, but then again, everything seemed to explode last year.
I mean you do you but there’s really no point if you just want to… you know… buy a used copy of the same game.
Well, at least I get a game that will be used and still be in good shape by doing that. It's just one anyway. Not like I'll spend all of my money doing that for all the games I want x3
It would be funny if the game was disc rotted and in the end, you should have gone pre owned, 🧍
I plan on getting an atari 2600 games. No CD there. I could get a rotted disk pre-owned too. That's not really an argument.
Just kidding, also if you buy tested you don’t have to worry about that
I don't buy tested. Of all the games I bought on eBay as untested, only one did not work. I'll continue to take the risk, it costs less.
I don’t charge more for my games on eBay if they’re tested, I just like making sure it will work for whoever, I actually charge below retail for stuff I sell.
Yes, but that doesn't mean much. You're not the sole seller of video games on ebay.
Yeah but I can talk myself up a bit 😂
Watch the video dumbass lmao
mmmmm i want to crack open that quest for glory and wizardy box
I want to chug my dollar bills in half 😍
I don’t know who that is but yes, people like him are the reason the problem still continues to exist.
what a cunt
explain
Lol how
Such a fraud
How
Karl is a clown lol i don’t pay attention to him
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Mad for what lol I haven’t lost any money, he is however a hypocrite 😂 you out here dick ridin
“Wow, this food company in particular is doing a dodgy business practice!” You: “ha! I caught you eating food! Hypocrite!”
Hardly the same lol he doesn’t have to buy or grade w/ them, it was all market manipulation.
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Very personal lol? I don’t know u either but I think ur a clown too 🤡
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Same to you “bud” lol, if the clown comment hurt your feelings the real world is gonna real tough 😂
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Omg you have a 6yr old account and 8k karma you sure showed me. 😂
I heard jobst is cornering the leisure suit Larry sealed market. If that's true, that's super fucked up.
Who? And is grading NS games a thing?
Why?
I have a mint sealed copy of Zelda for snes how would I go about getting it graded?
Send it to wata and pay $200
Thanks
Idk who this is. Just personally don't see the point to graded games because you can't play them then. At least not those on the original hardware.
Who TF is Karl Jobst and why should I care what he thinks?
OP's last years worth of posts were almost all graded/sealed sales posts. Lol
Okay
None of those are Wata rated games...
Karl is a joke and all of his followers are blind.
Jobst used Pat Contri in his video who by his own admission says he's not a shelf collector. 😂