Do you think the Super Mario sale qualifies as a "sham"? Or do you think it was normal? Download court docs ➡gofile.io/d/YgReU4

It seems strange for a group of people to purchase something Ian?!?!? What about Bart, Martin and Milhouse purchasing Radioactive Man #1!?!?! Got em!

These WATA purchases never smelled right at the time but good god were they absolutely blatant with their dishonesty! I can't believe it took this long to surface.

Wata should've played Wall Street Kid. Then they would have known that insider trading is illegal. Too late now.

I'm surprised that those shady looking grifters turned out to be scam artists! I think back when this all started I "speculated" that most of the high auction prices were just collectors passing the games back and forth. I never expected they'd have the balls to NOT EVEN SELL THE GAME IN THE FIRST PLACE like with that 100K Mario

I’m just patiently waiting for Mad Dog Collections to explain why none of this is shady🙃

Great video, Pat! I stand by my original sentiment I made back when this all started. A reputable third party grading company should never, ever, be involved in the sale of an item they grade. This is considered to be a major conflict of interest in the antiques and collectibles trade. It is also extremely unethical and considered to be a form of market manipulation in most cases. In my opinion, the relationship between WATA Games and certain high profile collectors, auctions houses, and other participants in the trade that have a vested financial interest in these items, should also be investigated. I am terribly saddened that some in the video game collecting community still support these unethical practices and defend these actions. Always remember that the end result of any alleged successful market manipulation, is always massive speculation. The speculative bubble that ensued in this market was in my opinion, a direct result of these actions. Making matters worse, the same collectors that originally defended WATA Games and other participants (claiming they did nothing wrong) are the exact same collectors that are now being hurt financially by the falling prices of these items, once the speculative bubble broke. These same collectors fail to realize that due to these potential unjust actions, the video game collecting market is now seen in a very negative light. To those still defending these actions, you are in the wrong; you are wrong, and history will prove you to be wrong. There is no defending this, so regardless how much you like graded video games, please just stop.

My cherished childhood memories don't need to live in an acrylic box with a foil sticker on it.

Whenever I walk by a WATA and/or HA booth at a convention, I have to restrain myself from flipping them the bird. What a bunch of grifters.

As they say, "There's a sucker born every minute".

Meanwhile, I'm still enjoying my NON-GRADED sealed copy of Dragon Quest III that I bought last year for $30.

It's interesting that all these other collector markets paralleled each other before 2020, all seeing 'pumps' from (buyers groups). Same exact thing happened in sports cards - and other markets, of course.

Trying to make a collectable market when the public has no interest will inevitably lead to fraud.

So basically all the suckers that took the bait and insulted Pat instead of listening to him are now trying to sue to get some momey back? Lol

This is my surprised face 😑

And no “news outlet” has any update on this since May 2022…. Unreal

I might be more likely to join Scientology than buy a slabbed game in this day and age.

I'm glad these WATA scumbags are being taken down. The $100k Mario never made any sense. One of the most popular, best-selling NES games... for $100k sealed? I don't think so. Heck, I wouldn't even put it past them to have faked the shrink wrap.

These people should be in jail and their assets seized but who we kidding? That ain’t gonna happen and they’ll get away with it

Rick Harrison - "Wata is the company that grades these. These are the ones you can trust."

Going full Jobst, friend of the channel.

Great video Pat. As a game collector this whole thing has been so painful. Thank you for your thoughtful insight.

>was he on the advisory board? >no >did he hold any other positions? >yes, he was chief advisor hahaha this is hilarious

I remember hearing about this when it happend, it stunk from the beginning . Sad part is if the market had blown up with six figure sales this might have been forgotten. Kudos on calling out the BS from the start guys.

I’ve always thought that this graded games racket was a sucker trap, but thanks for staying on top of it Pat & Ian. 🏆 When Lawyers and the people paying them get involved this stuff can take incredibly long periods of time to filter through the legal system, and most observers lose interest way before that. ⏳⏳⌛️💸💸💸

Take a 🥃 every time you hear the word "allegedly" 🥴

Why is anyone still giving these guys any money? Or VGA for that matter? My first impressions of these companies was that they were just silly, mostly harmless organization selling a bit of fun to insecure game collectors needing someone to tell them exactly how wonderful their sealed videogame is. But as time goes on they seem much more sinister than I first imagined.

Slithering snakes, wow. Jim Halperin was let off with a slap on the wrist back in the 80s for inflating coins.

Got a PSA email talking about graded DVDs/Blurays yesterday

The Consistently Accurate Podcast

I friggin loved this on the audio podcast. Lookin forward to some Pat-rage this afternoon

Man I thought this was an old video, I thought this started when I was in HS lmao

There was an entire (now going out business) industry that evolved around "fractionally" selling collectibles under a similar guise (retained ownership). I wonder what this might mean for those businesses down the line (investors on those platforms were destroyed)

Thanks for updating. I enjoy ya'lls work and passion.

you all know nothing is going to happen to wata. they still gonna be grading an absurd amount of games.

it could be worse on a PAWN Stars episode 1 guy wanted to sell this same game with a the same 9.4 grade for 1 MILLION dollars but Rick declined to make ANY offer.

i have a similar level of contempt for card grading. im perfectly capable of deciding if a card is "lightly played" or "near mint" with my own eyeballs. i really don't need someone else to certify that a card is a 10/10 or whatever

This whole situation is mind-boggling. Thank you for this coverage, great video sir

I really LOVE your conclusion "just a bunch of rich collectors trying to make themselves richer". It's clearly what happened with all this wata-sh*t (and graded games in general)

It's worth noting Deniz was recently canned from Collectors Universe. Had this not happened, all this may not have come out, but he could also be pissed off and exaggerating the details here to get everyone in deeper trouble. Just something to keep in mind.

I love how wata didn’t even have to do this. They had a decent looking business model initially, and sleek, good looking packaging. They would have had a multimillion dollar empire had they just done what they set out to do🙃

There is a new news article floating around about Zelda holy grail item and heritage auctions asking the seller to come down to Florida. Should of sold Feb 22-24 2024

i fucking love this show

bronty, now that's a name I've not heard in a long time. I really disliked the sealed game and prototype cult over on NintendoAge.

I should of sold my sealed skies of Arcadia legends when these games were going for big bucks

The thing that always got me is that these things where bought as investments. I paid a hundred thousand dollars for a single dirt common game and expect it to be worth more in the future. Meanwhile, where was this money for the truly one of a kind Nintendo Playstation made a similar amount of money and I am sure that if that went to auction again would make more this time around.

The question I have now is: how many other people are doing this sort of thing? Okay, not everyone has their own auction company, but there are some seriously messed-up prices (and scalpers too) on these things. Funnily enough, it seems some retro game prices have started to normalise, but certain games still haven't (look at Pokemon or old Mario games - the same games that have far more supply than any other on the market).

I want to like this video 60 times, thanks for speaking up for all the real collectors out here.

Here is my issue with the pricing of these in general before we even get into the obvious insider trading here: Anyone born in the 80s who was a teen in the 90s will understand this, but, for context it wasn't like today where you have xbox or playstation and PC. In the 90s at any point the smallest number of systems that were actively making games at any one point was probably 4, and in the mid 90s I think it was 6 or 7, maybe more...but...to everyones aunt and uncle, parent, grandparent no matter what you owned, you had a Nintendo, and every kid who was a gamer had at least one Christmas or birthday where they got a game for a system they didn't own. I don't care if someone has a complete in box never opened Mario 2 or 3, you can't price it like its the last one of its kind when we all know there have to be at minimum 20 of these that just got tucked away in basements or attics and will eventually surface and make these $100k price points dop to far more realistic $1k price points. And this is assuming that some dentist office that used to be a electronics store doesn't have a entire box of sealed Mario 3's in the back storage, which I think is more likely then not. This isn't coins or baseball cards we don't have true population reports on video game carts, it was stupid to ever price them like this or think they would hold their value

Great video. Thanks for bringing all this to our attention.

Point proved. Imagine the manufacturing of the stock market.. easier to do when no one pays attention to the physical trade in a larger market.

Oh, no, obvious scam turns out to be scam.

And now (or has been for awhile) this is happening with VHS tapes. How long until blu ray and 4K?

Great video. Really breaks down the deposition for a not so smart guy like me. I wish you’d both come back weekly. I so miss this podcast weekly.

Thanks for continuing to cover this story. What you are doing here, and Reserved Investments, is documenting something the legacy media is ignoring, except for the endless 'do you have treasure in your house' ad articles.

thanks for doing actual gaming journalism

thanks for the update! You called it

I don’t collect video games but been subbed to you guys for years. I collect comics and somewhat the genres cross over. Anyway, we have a range of grading companies but the main one being CGC. They are always in and out of deep water for similar things as Wada…shady activity. Any hobby that has a financial value will attract bad characters who ruin it for everyone

Thanks Pat. You seem to be the only one covering and exposing them.

where theres money theres corruption

I love all the "allegedly", now I need more 'Pat math'

HA was at Too Many Games last year with WATA games everywhere. Their logo was on everyone's lanyards, I refused to wear it and bought my own. I wish more convenient guests push to get rid of these guys.

Was this the Super Mario that was on pawn stars?

Thank you for exposing this trash company.

I remember seeing a lot of this stuff at the time thinking this seems like such a scam. Is wild cause it pumped up so much of the retro market even the none graded stuff so people just wanting to play old games

did you guys see the zelda sale on heritage yesterday for almost 300.000 USD?

This whole thing just makes me sick. Can't really think if any other words right now for it.

The graded sports cards is the same thing.

Please keep covering this case. This behavior is horrible.

I know it won’t happen but I want WATA completely shuttered and completely delegitimized.

I still dont get why so many collectors still buy wata graded games. I personally would not want to support these types of people ever. It seems like everyone just forgot about this.

I’ve believed this has occurred for years at heritage. They have a division that auctions lab equipment. I’ve seen the exact same equipment sell multiple times on heritage, each time for multiple thousands of dollars, and each subsequent time less than previous. It seemed to me heritage was pumping up the auction prices and if they didn’t get a real bidder at a high price, they will just reauction it a month later. Sounds like something very similar happening with their video game auctions.

Oooooooo, what shady video game related entity are y'all gonna bust next?!?

Can't wait for stuff about that Mario 64 copy ;p

This is why I feel that WATA graded games aren't worth the plastic they're encased in. You'd have to pay ME to accept a WATA graded game in my collection. Also, as for "maintaining an interest" in an item you sell...are you KIDDING me? Hey Pat, I wanna sell you my PS5 Slim Disc edition for $450. But I still want to keep it at my place and play on it anytime I want to. How's that sound? If full ownership was never given over, then there was no sale. This whole bubble started because of a scam, and when the scammers got exposed, they panicked and tried blowing up the bubble more to cash out before it burst. And now, if the bubble hasn't burst on this aspect of game collecting, it's close to that point. A guilty verdict or some kind of plea deal...ANYTHING other than an (unlikely) full not guilty verdict in favor of WATA and the graded game market bubble is blown.

I loved him in the cartoons, the figure looks awesome. The attention to detail is amazing.

I would have got away with it too… if it weren’t for you meddling gamers!

Did you missed the word "Sales" in the thumbnail?

Herritage Auctions and Wata Games Controversy?!?!? Again? SHOCKED! SHOCKED! well not that shocked.

Someone needs to go to jail

Froggy Flips? Is that you on the left?

Wata conundrum. 🔥💀🔥

Interesting stuff!

Reminds me that someone ought to look into some of the bullfuckery regarding even Reserve List Magic the Gathering cards, so many of the same red flags, warning signals echo in my head when I think back t othat.

Holy s*** what happened to Ian he literally looks like he's giving side quests

So Pat now what? This completely screwed up the market as a collector who do you trust? I mean I personally I dont have any graded games. I sold all my sealed stuff years ago, But I would love to get an honest answer as to how much my NES Test Station is worth. Another thing what about company's like this Limited Run Games for example theres others like limited run I just cant think of right now but limited how how many in each print of individual games ? That should determine prices how many made . How does one find out how many limited run switch games were in the print for each individual game. I really want to acquire all blk box games in CIb/or/SIb form but how do I know Im not over paying for them. I mean I have most of them loose but I would really like to start going for a lot of NES Cib's of loose carts i already have but Im scared.

this is why cgc grading step in for better grading and authorize

I wonder how regular people's games We're how back and not sold to the public. Because they were trying do the s***

There's something about spicy pat thats so fun to listen to

Karl jobs thanks

Beyond shady. games are meant to be played not kept sealed away by greedy people .screw graded bull crap

It's alot of BS

The sad part is, no matter how much the WATA, CGC and VGA bozos get exposed, the greedy lemmings and sheep will continue to send in games to be graded thus F’ING up the hobby for the genuine collectors and fans who truly appreciate it even further.

Thanks for covering all this, and being right all along. Can't wait for the bubble to burst, and be able to buy games again.

Ian looks like a weed head young version of Gandalf....

I kept preaching since the beginning that them individuals we're dirty even I didnt know the extent of how bad the situation really was? Yet it didnt surprise me they got away with this that long because gamers are the most easily manipulated people on this planet. It was just another reason why Wata got away with it that long because many of gamers and resellers thought Wata are great for the retro gaming community! Now the truth is all coming out thanks to the help from Pat, Ian, and Karl Jobst 🙂

This is... sad. And hilarious. But mostly sad.

Money. Laundering.

Do you feel weird being on Pawn Stars for the NWC cart and so was Dennis Kahn about the Mario Cart?

Isnt this old news?