The year is 2046. Pat the Wii Warrior goes to the flea market, meeting Robo Frank 2.0 along the way. In a bin next to the Avengers 7 Red-Ray is the sealed $1.5 million dollar Super Mario 64 - marked down to $19.99 Bezos Bucks.

Actually I'm the person that bought the Mario 64. I just messed up i mean to bid $150 but I had a muscle spasm and hit the 0 a few more times and then enter. Any way it was a fun game but not quite worth 1.5 Mill. On the bright side GameStop said they'd give me $4 of store credit for it.

Ian’s frustration regarding Pat now knowing who Yuji Naka was has got me rolling.

Fun fact : Yuji Naka has no idea who pat the nes punk is.

4:22 "the _person_ who bought the [$1.5m] is not too happy" **organization, *collective, or *entity maybe. No **_person_** in their right mind would pay for that thing*

I’m not sympathetic to these investors. These “people” are a detriment to every hobby they enter. Let them all go bust.

The 1.5m was a wash sale to establish the price, the second sale was the real scam. This happens in NFTs all the time.

Grading arcade cabinets is going to be the next big thing! You heard it here first! (Now how do we get a plastic slab on this thing?)

Even though im pretty numb to rich wankers who have thousands to blow, I get where youre coming from Pat. Their stupidity when purchasing these games ultimately effects everybody that is into old school games.

You know who needs to get into the game grading service? Soulja boy

Just a heads-up, an auction for Sonic 1 went for $430,500. It's noteworthy because Yuki Naka basically said in a reply "Is this a Scam?" and Goldin went on the PR defensive.

Good analogy. Graded games and NFT's are meme stocks.

If Nintendo has any liquidity issues later on, they should just give wata all their dead stock. I bet they have over "100 million dollars worth" of copies of this game. So silly.

80l for a sealed mortal kombat? Gosh just buy the arcade machines at that point. You can probably get a pristine cabinet and a fully perfectly refurbished and future proof cabinet to enjoy. I thought the tcg market was crazy but at least that makes sense. Having a sealed alpha box of magic the gathering not only is rare but it assures it hasn't been tampered with so no one found a way to open it up, open the packs, take out the black lotus and seal it all back.

I'm sure the price would have crashed eventually anyway, like you guys said, bubbles burst. But I like to think that your recent videos and Karl Jobsts videos, exposing the BS and corrupt business tactics was directly responsible for it happening so soon. I hope all non video game collecting speculators start losing their ass on their investments.

the reason the 1st copy went for 1.5 million is because that bidder and the winner of the most recent 800k auction were battling it out. now both of them own one. it's gonna get lower from here. not that many people want to pay close to a mill for mario 64.

I don't remember ever seeing seals on Megadrive games back in the day. I'd pick up the case off the shelf, take it to the checkout, they'd go out back and get the cartridge, put it in the box and give it to me.

after i thought about my skincare, i would love to see someone sues WATA

The best videos start off with... "IAN!..."

Nobody actually spent 1.5m on the game. It was WATA and their goons just bid shilling…

Yeah, when those sealed Atari games went for that much my Bravo Sierra indicator went haywire. There are probably so many shipping boxes of sealed Atari 2600 games still out there as the market crashed at the peak or near the peak of its popularity so sellers got stuck with a lot of product. Now I remember later Atari games being cheap but Im sure there were plenty left. Well not everywhere was selling Atari games for cheap. My local Ace True Value was selling ET for pretty much its release retail price. They even had it in the window for years.

There are still cases of this game out there lol. (6 games per case), I know of 2 or 3 people in the N64 collector's groups on facebook alone that have a CASE. What's funny is you KNOW a CIB Sculptor's Cut wouldn't bring a million in because people that aren't into collecting, don't know what it is xD. Idk man this is silly goosery.

My first computer was a c64..I'm glad you finally took the time to revisit this forgotten treasure coming straight from the 80s

The dentist lost millions this week.

Super Mario 64 CIB is what $40-$50 so the shrinkwrap is worth about $1,4999950. Wau shrinkwrap is the most valuable substance on the planet .

Almost like the original was artificially pumped up to benefit the companies involved.

Okay was this purchased by an individual or from a member of Wata? Because just a few weeks ago its was discovered that someone from Wata was purchasing these games.

We're still assuming the $1.5 million actually changed hands. We've still not seen any financial transaction records to prove someone actually paid the $1.5 million.

I get Pat's point about the snes boxes, cardboard is so much harder to keep it nicer looking.

There is a scenario where the guy who bid 1.5 million didn't get screwed over but in fact came out ahead. What if that auction was another shill bidding? And this guy who bought in for the 799k is the one who got conned thinking the value was higher because of the 1.5 mil sale?

I am inclined to believe all dislikes on this channel are from Tommy Tallarico.

I want to see a grader that grades WATA and VGA gradings and then puts another acrylic box over the acrylic box.

Its absolutely crazy Super Mario 64 sold for 1.5 million when millions of carts were made and sold. I am very happy to hear that price crashed. At most a sealed copy is worth 150.00 USD in my opinion. Also the game being available for Wii,Wii U, flash carts and Switch will likely keep a super high price at bay. Very interestimg story one for the news outlets to run with and have a great day.

its awesome to have a sealed game but just imagine if you have an unopened battery save cartridge and the battery busted all on the pcb?

the look on Ian's face at 16:21 LOL

If you can't explain the value of something then the value isn't real. We can explain why a game has artistic or historic value. In some special case, we can even make a case that it's very rare. But no one can explain why a grade should inflate the value of an item 10x 100x or even over 1000x. If you're investing in graded collectibles, you need to think about that.

I think the real pronunciation of the lowest point of the zenith is Nuh-deer. Don't ask me. It's not like some of us have it as first names tho lol

Actually a lot of later Genesis games did come in cardboard boxes. Also, Ian mentions that you can buy a nice CIB Sonic at his store for $20, that's probably the NFR version, which is a lot more common.

There is a big rip in that sealed Sonic that went for 400k, bottom right on the font big rip.

I’m questioning how legit the sale was of the 1.5 mil Mario. With so many of these probably sitting in a store room at heritage it smells of manipulation.

Can someone drop a source for the price drop? I havent been able to find one.

so basically the 2 people who wanted it the most have been taken out of the bidding picture, and the price will continue to drop. The amount of people willing to pay close to a milly for that game can probably be counted on 1 hand.

I doubt that someone would spend 1.5 Mio if there are similar offerings in Ebay. I wouldn't be surprised if they find some money laundry, financial books manipulation (ie, can ask a loan based on the value of your game collection), or similar.

I'm glad this bubble seems to be beginning its burst. I swear, even cart only games are insane. A loose cart of Gunpey for the Wonderswan with a fucked up label will cost you $30 on eBay, but a compete in-box copy in Japan will set you back $8. That's almost 4x the price for a vastly inferior product. I own a Wonderswan, but no games because the prices are too much for me. (I don't have a job due to the world situation currently and I have no other source of income)

The shitty thing is that when the price does come tumbling down even 100k will look like a deal to some joker compared to 1.5 mill

It's because Wata etc are buying at that price and no actual money is being exchanged

I love this podcast format on this channel!

I purchased a graded game like 10 years ago, which is a crazy story... I was looking on eBay for a copy of Data East Classics on Wii and came across one sealed... GRADED, AND ENCASED!... The price the seller was asking was essentially the same price as a going sealed copy of that game... Needless to say, I made the purchase and contacted the seller and they proceeded to tell me that there was a "strong protective plastic case" around the game, and that they thought about removing it after finding it at their local Goodwill in Coral Gables, FL... The only graded game in my collection... lol... Wild...

I don't think the guy who bought that $1.5m Mario lost money because it was BS to begin with. It was a scam sale. It was never worth that.

I think your point at 19:20 sums it up Pat

What is music during advert at beginning?

I appreciated the Gem and the Holograms reference even if no one else did.

I wonder whether we will see games getting ungraded or unsealed to raise the values of the copies that have been sold at a very high price. I mean if you are rich enough to buy that 1.5 mill copy, you can probably buy some more copies if they get really cheap comparatively (like 20 or 30k) and just basically destroy them to raise the value of your game. Unless there is an basically endless supply of sealed copies in fantastic condition, which might well be the case. There could easily be hundreds or thousands out there.

It's PSA (Nat Turner) not CGC which owns Goldin now.

19:59 imagine paying more so you can have fun destroying the slab of a graded game opening it like a present

WATA will just initiate POP control and the next ones won’t get near that grade.

When you grade a sealed copy of a game, how do you know if it’s even in the box?

Nice Jem reference, Pat @4:35

I hope the price drops out because I need a copy but people on ebay seem to think a junk cart with a bad label is worth 35-40$ that's nuts for Mario64

Funny enough on sealed Dreamcast: I pick-up sealed intact PAL /EU Dreamcast games when I see a decent deal because the case is beautiful but also very fragile (just opening the case a few times likely damages it). It’s also relatively cheap (most games are in that 20-60$ range, and then the heavies are worth more). Certainly has nothing to do with the WATA craze or any investing - they just have heavy nostalgia to me and are unique items compared to any other video game case I’ve seen.

VGA do have pop reports you have to email them to get it though saying what game you want a report on

The last time that a market exploded like this out of nowhere? Tulips

that Taylor pork roll sticker on Ian’s laptop Is that a new sticker ? Don’t remember seeing it before. Awesome

I think this one went for half because it's a different auction house, so the shill bidders from the heritage/wata scam didn't bid up the price.

Similar deal in sport's cards with the 86 fleer mj psa 10 run-ups. Lot of shady manipulation going on in bg, but at least with cards we have pop reports.

someone should build a website that tracks all sales of wata items , then count how many times that sold and how much, just like other websites.

It makes sense. Spending $1.5 million on an N64 game really is insanity.

It's worth noting that even population reports aren't fully accurate because people will break open cases and resubmit things if they aren't happy with a grade.

Pat - the 95 VGA is UNCIRCULATED!! that means that it is from a factory case of 6 games. CASE FRESH!! There are 5 more of these with possibly the same grade!

Best deal I ever got was 6/7 years ago my dad picked up a mint (but not sealed) copy of A Link to the Past on the snes for 50 pence (less than a $). Box, manual, map all immaculate. Can't believe how the price of my gamecube and even ps2 games are going for! Into rpgs so even my copy of the likes of Sword of Etheria seems to be rising weekly. Problem being I love my games so not selling.

Imagine the person who spent 1.5 (if it wasn’t a WATA person) may want to know a bit more about what’s gone on. Let’s get the lawyers involved……

It does affect regular people getting taken for a ride with the promotion of buying shares of games. I continue to see it, KZfaq retro game channels with sponsored segments cheerily telling audiences they can get a piece of Wata graded games on Otis.

There was a Sealed SNES MK at the last Heritage auction that was a 9.x that sold for a good amount.... that had mold on it...

Thank God there's no such thing as sealed arcade cabinets.

damn, I shouldn't have put all of my sealed Mario 64 carts in the spokes of my bike.

not releasing population lists on the graded games is an insanely smart/underhanded move on wata's part.

Wondering how much that sonic not for resale goes for

I worked at a store... with the most hilarious backroom, where 4 years ago, there were formerly sealed N64 games, with torn seals... from being stored on the ground in a pile of $1 comics and other crap. What was more hilarious is I brought it up to the owner and he was all, "oh yeah, the seals broke. ...it's fine, you know we can reseal those right? There's nothing special about the wrapping." And he claimed to test out the authenticity by getting a sample new game resealed. The games were sealed and not tampered with, but, in Nor Cal, the veterans all know they can reseal them and nobody can tell.

Fun to think about.... How much would cost the original unopened Nintendo64+super mario 64......box, manuals, controller etc.

Now that the N64 switch online has been announced, how will it affect the N64 game market?

Editors note 😂😂😂😂😂

Imagine a few boxes of new old stock with mario64 in it appears some were in a warehouse.

This was because of supply and demand, the first sale was a fluke and everyone in the know called that it would drop. Frankly, the fact that the second one sold so high was surprising to me. I didn't think it would break $200k.

I havnt started the video yet. So a part of me is wondering if the video Karl Jobst dropped had anything to do with this crash.

I collect PC games and I unseal just about everything I get. SHRINKWRAP is actually bad for cardboard boxes, especially the flimsy stuff big boxes were made out of. Unwrap it and put it in a protector... if possible. I've had to do a little work on sealed boxes because the shrink straight up damaged the box.

16:45 ngl, I had to google who he was to find out that he is basically to Sonic as Shigeru is to Mario

Heritage auction was a hustle.

Some Genesis games came in cardboard boxes , not all came in clamshells . I'm sure that Earthworm Jim came in both cardboard and clamshell variants , that's one reason you see so many used without box .

I think they'll start buying them all up to create a false scarcity in order to bring the amount back up and keep it there.

thing is, when the first copy drops by 600,000 dollars, it psychologically hurts the game's image and people will know that the game isnt that hot. thus making them pay less and less when they realize more of those copies can circulate the market at any time. its kinda like trading cards where everyone's getting all hyped up and overpays, then all of the sudden somebody dumps their shit on the market or everyone involved catches ADD.

You're missing the point about the most crazy and perhaps shady aspect of the Sonic copy. It's graded at 9.4 yet it has obvious tears and damage of the "seal" which by any stretch of the imagination makes that grade look completely fake. This seems to be a blatant attempt to pump up the value of Sega games and jump on the Nintendo inflated price bandwagon without even making a pretense at realistic grading.

...Bubble Bobble comes to life. Wata felt sketchy to me from the start. It will be interesting to see how this keeps unfolding. Re your comments regarding the quality of a seal, and whether it should add value (Sega packaging )...there has been a huge market for sealed product for a long time. Think of Star Wars figures/play sets, etc. Magic the Gathering and Pokémon are literally sealed boxed of sealed packs. But if the shrink wrap surrounding that booster box is not as it was from the factory, the resell value will be cut into fractions. I think collectors like the idea of the “new in box/factory sealed” because it adds an authenticity factor, regardless of the medium... It has never been sullied by human hands. I collect and invest in various sealed collectibles, and bring in a nice side profit doing so. But I invest in brands that have been around for 20 years and have already developed an existing and open market.

I still don't see the point of buying old games in the age of Everdrive and repro carts

It’s like putting a phone case for the Nokia on that sonic case seal 🦭

They artificially tried to raise the price of a game with a fake auction then are surprised when no one want to buy it off them for more? I could have understand when it was some of the rarest games that had ver few copies produced going for high prices just because it is practically one of a kind to still be in near perfect condition. However to think people will believe the value of three of the most common games are worth more is proof they never thought it through very well as there are multiple versions of those games in near perfect condition going for a fraction of what they were sold for. This is obviously thinking the name on the box is worth more than the rarity of the actual games.

Valuable art is unique, the original copy or close to it, and is still more than just rarity. The value of the Mona List is not the shape, and it's not even *entirely* the art, it's the reputation of that thing. Wikipedia notes it became famous in art circles in the mid 19th century, but even then the public wasn't familiar it. The Mona Lisa didn't reach the status as the most famous painting in the world until the early 20th century when it was stolen for two years. While it's an amazing work, that extra history has value. There are plenty of unique works by artists now and past with little value. You can make one right now! Old comics that have high value are simply hard to find as a whole. Action Comics #1 in any shape has value. The best quality copy of X-Men #1 isn't worth anything. One of the most common video games ever in a really nice box is not special. There could literally be a pallet of these somewhere lost no one has discovered waiting to be graded by someone to slowly sink the market.

One comparison that I feel never gets made that makes it obvious these aren't video game enthusiasts is because why would any one get ONE sealed common game they can't play that costs as much or more than what it would cost to buy every CIB game they like for every game system ever. 1+ million dollars can buy ALOT of games lol

I recently bought a very nice condition Mr. Do's Castle by Parker Bros for the Commodore 64 for €80 - a game I have likely seen no more than 3 times in over 10 years of collecting. That is a rare game, not this sealed Super Mario 64 nonsense. The investment collectors business is a joke.

Actual good journalism

I miss Tales from the Game Store😢