/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.8375000]

Wata population reports are out:
https://www.watagames.com/populations/nes/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=marketingemail&utm_campaign=email-watagames-message-from-prez-2021nov29

[Anonymous No.8375016]

>>8375000
wata load of shit

[Anonymous No.8375157]

>>8375000

[Anonymous No.8375202]

>>8375157
jewtendo ponzi scheme?
who th fuck even wants to own friday the 13th anyways avgn fans?

[Anonymous No.8375328]

>>8375157
>The most expensive games are also the most populous
Ah yes a perfectly reasonable market

[Anonymous No.8376386]

>>8375016
It's a real shitload of fuck.

>>8375328
It was known that they were bullshitters, but it's nice to have it on paper.

[Anonymous No.8376391]

>>8375000
Hey look, it's the obvious truth everybody already knew. Whoever lost money in this shit is fucking stupid.

[Anonymous No.8376398]

>>8375157
Cool grading scale

[Anonymous No.8376412]

>>8375157
these retards are literally rating a cardboard box and people are dumb enough to fall for this

[Anonymous No.8376457]

>>8376412
They aren't rating the cardboard, they're rating the cellophane wrapped around the cardboard. Because anyone who knows anything about video game collecting knows that the plastic wrap on the outside of the box is the most important factor when collecting games.

[Anonymous No.8376472]

ITT: Whaaaa I don't understand investment economics. Just emulate you poor fags. Or better yet, go find a used game store and buy a loose cartridge for ten bucks.

[Anonymous No.8376481]

>>8376457
>>8376412
Retards, there are graded loose cartridges in OP's picture. Don't want them. Don't buy them. Don't send anything in to them either.

[Anonymous No.8376491]

>>8375000
How do I look at the SNES populations?

[Anonymous No.8376497]

>>8376491
They haven't released those numbers yet.

[Anonymous No.8376503]

>>8376481
The loose carts are two copies of that Nintendo event thing which there are only like 20 of in the entire world or some shit, and would have value even without these dipshits. everything else is a bunch of cardboard and cellophane.

[Anonymous No.8376509]

>>8376481
NWC never had a box.

Also picture aside, the population reports are only for sealed games. Loose carts aren't going for the bonkers stupid prices that sealed games are.

[Anonymous No.8376547]

>>8376509
Loose carts don't sell for as much as sealed games. Really... I wonder why that is?

[Anonymous No.8376696]

>>8376481
>Don't want them. Don't buy them.
Every graded game represents another cartridge being entombed in plastic forever and being nothing more than a display piece which is moved around for the purpose of making money. Games are meant to be played, and each game that gets slabbed is keeping someone from actually playing the cartridge. Of course with emulation and flash carts this isn't the end of the world, but the fact that it's a bunch of people who legitimately don't care about video games and only want to make money coming into the world of an existing hobby and deciding to take finite resources away from enthusiasts and turn it into nothing but a speculative commodity.

[Anonymous No.8376741]

>>8376696
To be fair, if a nearly 30 year-old game has survived this long in its original packaging AND cellophane wrapper, it's a good bet it was being hoarded precisely for the purposes of keeping it that way forever, if not for money, at the very least as some kind of trophy

[Anonymous No.8376772]

>>8376696
>Games are meant to be played
just emulate broheim

[Anonymous No.8377110]

>>8376741
No it's because it was stuck unsold in some warehouse gathering dust.

[Anonymous No.8377126]

Fuck is the requirement for a 10? Only seen one and it was Karate Kid.

[Anonymous No.8377139]

>>8376472
>actual product of worth is a bunch of 1's and 0's contained in a cart or disc
>by your own admission anyone can emulate or buy a cheap loose cart and obtain the exact same experience as a 10 graded game
>entire "investment" is in a cellophane wrapped, mass produced, cardboard box or jewel cd case
>nothing you're investing in holds any actual value, and the thing which does hold the value is once again by your own admission extremely easily reproducible and not able to be of differing quality
>"you guys just dont understand investment economics!"
kwab

[Anonymous No.8377230]

>>8375000
I hate those scammers so much.

[Anonymous No.8377340]

>new ebay listing notification for game I'm looking for
>"new sealed rare wata graded very rare btw did I mention it was rare"
>several hundred bucks
Remember when people bought games to play them?

[Anonymous No.8377374]

>>8375000
Everyone kept saying that they had to do this, but regardless of that - why did they actually do this?

[Anonymous No.8377424]

>>8377374
To offset some of the bad publicity, maybe?

[Anonymous No.8379501]

>>8377374
They'll do pretty much anything that will allow them to keep operating and make this bad press go away I imagine

[Anonymous No.8379842]

>>8377110
Copium.bat

[Anonymous No.8379847]

>>8377374
What was the reason not to do it?

[Anonymous No.8379929]

>>8379847
same reason as before
affects price bubble

[Anonymous No.8379951]

>>8375016
fpbp

[Anonymous No.8379952]

>>8375157
Wait, there's
10 factory sealed Super Mario Bros. 3 with a rating of 9.8
136 rated above 9.0
237 in circulation (at the very least)
?

Holy fuck, how is that crap selling for dozen or hundreds Ks?

[Anonymous No.8379963]

>>8376741
>at the very least as some kind of trophy
Before this mania (and money pouring into), this was the real reason. Basically just coomlecting whatever titles you really like and not opening them because you could afford them (they were cheap) and you could play them on emulator or chipped modded consoles.

[Anonymous No.8379969]

>>8379952
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf5FRPfGiC8

[Anonymous No.8380000]

>>8379969
It is funny how the accusations about Karl Jobst being a nazi bubbled to the surface almost immediately after his first video on the topic.

[Anonymous No.8380003]

>>8375157
>11 point grading scale that goes from 6.5 to 9.8
why not just readjust these arbitrary numbers to go from 0-10 instead?

[Anonymous No.8380015]

>>8380003
So the numbers look better.

[Anonymous No.8380042]

>>8380003
Presumably the games that rate below 6.5 don't get valued.

[Anonymous No.8380054]

>>8380042
It must be pretty hard to get something down that low in the first place, unless it is beat to shit.

[Anonymous No.8380058]

>>8380003
Because they copied an existing scale that assigned the low numbers to items that showed signs of significant circulation. But since their organization only exists for the grift, lower-quality items are simply refused grading.

[Anonymous No.8380135]

>>8380054
>It must be pretty hard to get something down that low in the first place
How do any of us know? It's arbitrary.
5 should be 'average' so a 6 should be maybe a crease here and there. That's below the 6.5 which you'd deem 'beat to shit'.

[Anonymous No.8380186]

>>8380042
Then the baseline of what is good enough to be graded should be set at 0-1. Likewise there's no point in having a "10" if it's literally physically impossible. This is like having school report card that caps out at A-

[Anonymous No.8380212]

>>8380000

[Anonymous No.8380540]

>>8380000
criticizing people who - by pure coincidence - happen to be jewish is antisemitism, goy

[Anonymous No.8380568]

>>8380540
Yikes! I can't even...

[Anonymous No.8381352]

>>8375000
>>8375157
What are the odds that these numbers are actually truthful?

[Anonymous No.8381368]

>>8375000
Too little, way too late. They should have been releasing population reports from the beginning. Instead, they let hype generate over common as fuck games for over a year and they and their partners benefitted greatly. Curious it's only NES games they released. What the fuck is up with the slow trickle of information? Seriously, it's a fucking excel sheet.

>>8381352
the report is probably accurate, but they're a month old already.

[Anonymous No.8381375]

>>8377374
Damage control. It's an attempt to reestablish legitimacy after being exposed as a scam.

[Anonymous No.8381385]

>>8381368
>month old
They also apparently have a massive backlog with people complaining about horrible turnaround times. Who knows how current this spreadsheet even is, and at which point in the process games get added in.

[Anonymous No.8382779]

>>8375000
Fuck off Ponzishill

[Anonymous No.8383247]

>>8375000
So, do these guys grade roms? I have a ton of them. Header or no header?

[Anonymous No.8384136]

>>8375016
fpbp

wata still slimy

[Anonymous No.8384140]

>>8376472
>investment economics
Go back Boiler Room

[Anonymous No.8384152]

>>8376547
Some wall art or paper weights can get expensive I suppose.
>inb4 investment economics

[Anonymous No.8384778]

>>8375016
Fpbp

[Anonymous No.8384881]

fpbp

[Anonymous No.8385117]

>>8384881
the zoom is strong with this one

[Anonymous No.8385119]

>>8375000
population of what?

[Anonymous No.8385127]

>>8385119
Number of games at each condition rating that WATA has graded. Typically you'd use this to get an idea of rarity, but given the company's apparent backlog and slow turnaround time, who knows if this list is truly current.

[Anonymous No.8385591]

>>8383247
Header implies that the rom was tampered with, so you will never receive the coveted 9.8 grade on a headered rom.

[Anonymous No.8385651]

>>8375000
How do they know its not just a cheetahman II cart inside a carefully resealed Mario Bros. 3 box?

[Anonymous No.8386431]

>>8385651
This is honestly one of the whole reasons that grading games is idiotic, you can't truly know what is or isn't a "first print" (which is very much what auction houses are pushing as the big money) without opening up the cart and looking at the PCB. Any info that you have to break the seal to find apparently doesn't count.

[Anonymous No.8386461]

when will WATA start grading and slabbing my NFTs? I really want to preserve my Rare Pepe investments (do not steal)

[Anonymous No.8386472]

>>8386461
Cool picture. I saved it and made 20 copies of the file I hope that's okay.

[Anonymous No.8386475]

>>8385651
I'm curious about this sort of thing as well. It's not like old video games were packaged in some way where the #1 thing they were focused on was authenticity and security, like the effort the treasury puts into printing bills that can't be counterfeited. It's literally just dime-a-dozen standard production practices with a typical construction paper box and some shrink wrap. Theoretically anyone could make a perfect replica of that bullshit with basic packaging equipment. All they'd need to ensure is having scans of the box art of high enough resolution.

I guess theoretically they could x-ray the box to look at the PCB, since sometimes they were different sizes inside with extra chips for mappers and whatnot, but that's a simple enough thing as well.

>>8386472
NOOOOOO NOT MY HECKIN PEPERINO WATA PLEASE SAVE ME AAAAAAAHHH

[Anonymous No.8386716]

>>8386461
>weird runes and hieroglyphs
I cannot read the fiery letters, Gandalf

[Anonymous No.8386723]

>>8375202
Jews run the same few tricks over and over. It's why they are so good at them.

[Anonymous No.8386740]

>>8379952
lol the 9.8 doesn't mean factory sealed it just means they called it a 9.8, people have pointed out their so-called 9.8 had large scratches on them. It's as bullshit as their auctions.

[Anonymous No.8386749]

>>8375202
It's not actually a terrible game but I already lol at collectors who collect real stuff much less faggots who got scammed into "collecting" "slabbed" """collector's items""".

[Anonymous No.8386760]

>>8385651
Generally reseals are easy to distinguish from original seals. In the past I guess there wasn't huge profit incentive to fogure out better reseal techniques, but with the speculator market a good reseal could tack thousands onto game sales, so now there might be more motivation to work out "perfect" resealing. Even then, though, there are going to be common imperfections in opened games that would generally not be there on a reseal (crushing in the center of a cardboard flap from when it was opened, box scratches and dings that don't really match seal tears, stains, etc).
As dumb as WATA grading is, I honestly think the idea of there being some big scandal over theoretical swapped games or them missing perfect reseals probably isn't the best tactic to go after them with, unless a good handful of actual occurrences are documented. The worst thing they did that I know of in terms of grading was authenticating obvious bullshit prototypes because they had no idea what they were doing. The fact that they did that shit should've been enough to ruin their reputation, but (fortunately) the big bux collector cux don't seem to give much of a shit about prototypes so it was probably beyond the realm of their comprehension.

[Anonymous No.8386767]

>>8386760
That's applicable to taking a genuine box that's been opened/used and resealing it, sure, but what about just printing new boxes and sealing those? They just use standard glossy-finished cardboard. Same sort of tech that's used for various consumer disposable boxes for decades for everything from kitchen appliances to cereal boxes. Should be easy to handle. In the past it's been such a niche thing that most likely few have even bothered, but with the jewed WATA market of the current day, it's totally viable

[Anonymous No.8386769]

>>8386760
>big bux collectors
Don't buy WATA shit and would be laughed out of the already highly cliquey and paranoid collector circles for doing so.
WATA crap only exists as a fraud vehicle, money-laundering vehicle and investor speculation vehicle.

[Anonymous No.8386890]

>>8381352
At the time?
Likely because they'd get sued otherwise

[Anonymous No.8387215]

>>8386760
They graded a bunch of resealed PAL PS1 games.

[Anonymous No.8387220]

>>8375000
>graded games
literally who gives a single fuck

[Anonymous No.8387237]

>>8387220
I kinda understand it, its the same as with comics or anything of physical interest.
Hell, my dad has collected LP's & singles for ages.
With how you can basically view action comics #1 digitally or listen to Gentle Giant's first album, on flac/mp3s, it doesn't really matter to me if there is an actual physical thing for it, but I can see the appeal of appreciating the game/LP/whatever you know is in real mint condition and/or is super rare as fuck.

[Anonymous No.8387264]

>>8387215
Oh really? Hah, I hadn't heard about that.

[Anonymous No.8387362]

Sealed game collecting is for Patrick Bateman tier psychopaths. Slabbed games doubly so.

[Anonymous No.8387374]

>Why, yes, I do purchase sealed games on Ebay to open and play regularly on my vintage video game consoles. How could you tell?
Last year I bought a sealed copy of Perfect Dark on Ebay. The seller messaged me afterward asking if I could let him know what the WATA score is after I got it graded. I opened that shit the day I got it in the mail.

[Anonymous No.8387378]

>>8386749
>that pic
God dammit.

[Anonymous No.8387509]

>>8387374
What was his reply to that? And why didn't he just get it graded if he cared so much? Would've probably sold for more.

[Anonymous No.8387581]

>>8375000
>a cult of rich retards who worship defectless paper labels and creaseless shrink wrapping with no concern for the functionality of the actual product
>paying any amount of money for rotting Chinese plastic and rotting Chinese PCBs when emulation and high quality scans are freely available

[Anonymous No.8387601]

>>8387509
He didn't bother replying after that. I'm not sure why he cared so much. It was one of those SEALED AND READY FOR WATA GRADING listings. The box is in mint condition so he probably was thinking it would fetch a high score.

[Anonymous No.8387612]

>>8387374
But why though? You can just buy an ordinary CIB game for fractions of what you paid.

[Anonymous No.8387625]

>>8387612
It's one of my favorite games and I wanted a complete mint condition copy. It was 180 burgerbux. For some reason, Perfect Dark was considerably cheaper sealed than other N64 titles last year. Goldeneye was going for over $400 sealed around the same time I bought Perfect Dark.

[Anonymous No.8387627]

>>8387625
You probably could have saved at least $60-80 though on a mint box that was already opened.

[Anonymous No.8387630]

>>8387627
I don't doubt that but at the time I thought, "eh, what the hell I'm going for it". It was fun opening a game that had been sealed for 21 years.

[Anonymous No.8387657]

>>8387581
>worship
Nah, not really. The majority of these people don't really care about the condition of their games, the whole "this displays beautifully" is nonsense lip service, they look at their sealed games and see a new car or vacations or a new house or whatever the fuck. Their end goal isn't finding amazing condition games that they love, it's to hold a certain game until they can trade it for generic rich normie shit.

[Anonymous No.8387915]

>>8387657
This. Most of these people don't even play any videogames at all, let alone collectible retro ones.

[Anonymous No.8388012]

I have a whole bunch of sealed games, bought a lot of them maybe 10 years ago all around $50 each or so. Which is exactly how much they should be worth. A bunch of dorks started grading them so now they are worth thousands? I just don't get it.

[Anonymous No.8388038]

So what would happen if you went to a retro games convention dressed in cosplay as Mario from Wrecking Crew COMPLETE WITH A SLEDGE, found those two guys, and smashed the games to pieces there in front of everyone.
Bonus points for being homeless and poor and not having anything they could sue you for, for breaking their $100000 bullshit. Just smash their shit.
BOOM! Surprise fools! I mean sure you'd go to jail for destruction of property, but you could bond out then split and laff at their suffering for the rest of your life.

[Anonymous No.8388050]

>>8388038
That's distasteful, but I would pay somebody to buy a WATA graded game and set it on fire on camera.

[Anonymous No.8388091]

>>8388050
>distasteful

How?? I mean, really, nothing about it is distasteful— everything about his suggestion is a poetic drama that borders on the epic. It’d be the type of thing that’d be talked about for decades.

[Anonymous No.8388094]

>>8388091
It's nigger behavior.

[Anonymous No.8388098]

>>8388094
Can’t argue with that, but to simply write off all nigger behavior as lacking in taste or cultural significance is just straight up ignorance of the most laughable sort.

Gallagher wasn’t a nigger, and yet what he contributed to society is pretty close to what is being suggested here except without the criminal element.

[Anonymous No.8388102]

>>8388050
It is distasteful.
Revising my previous wish then.
Someone robbing them of these games, including the NWC carts, would be great. they could be robbed at knife-point(no need for guns with pussy-ass fags like them) by someone who takes the games home and opens them and plays them on his busty-ass NES. And make sure those NWC carts never get found. Play them too. Play them until the contacts wear out on the PCBs.

That would be sweet. DO NOT destroy the carts. But make sure you get fingerprints and stains on the included manuals!

[Anonymous No.8388109]

>>8388098
>Gallagher wasn’t a nigger
Debatable

>>8388102
Now THIS is some crazy whiteboy shit. Approved.

[Anonymous No.8388117]

>>8388102
I guess this is also a good point. Since what these fuckers are doing is essentially the same as destroying the carts, playing them is actually a much more significant form of poetic justice. I guess sometimes it’s better to refrain from smashing things of value if it can be helped.

[Anonymous No.8388118]

I'd just like to see the games cracked out of those stupid plastic shells. I don't mind if people want to collect games or pay ridiculous prices, but slabbing them is just fucking retarded. It also seems like it would be easy to fake, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the boxes inside those shells are actually empty or have a shitty used cart inside.

[Anonymous No.8388125]

>>8388117
>>8388109
Yeah, I hereby revise my idea. Seeing games still wrapped in plastic is an affront to every sense. My Zelda 2's gold is scratched to hell and back and the battery doesn't work. It's well-loved and a testament to time. I actually managed to hold onto to it.
A game that isn't played is like a song that isn't heard.

[Anonymous No.8388292]

>>8387374
>purchase sealed game
>tear the box to pieces
>oh no, it doesn't work, send back to seller

[Anonymous No.8388329]

>>8388125
This is why used american games look like shit.

[Anonymous No.8388720]

>>8387264
I mean is it really any surprise? They're self-appointed experts, we don't know who they are or where they got their so-called expertise from. What do Americans even know about PAL games?

I'm looking at a VGA 85 Xbox game right now that is clearly resealed and someone just sold it for 300 dollars.

[Anonymous No.8389440]

>>8388720
>What do Americans even know about PAL games?
That they're worthless, inferior and irrelevant. That's really all you need to know about them

[Anonymous No.8389628]

>>8389440
Thanks for proving my point

[Anonymous No.8389659]

>>8375000
Are those people Jewish?

[Anonymous No.8389684]

>>8389659
those are cats, anon

[Anonymous No.8389694]

>>8389684
...Jewish cats?

[Anonymous No.8389697]

>>8389659
Guy on the right is named Deniz Kahn. Sounds like it could be a jewish name.

[Anonymous No.8389736]

>>8375000
Wata were they thinking.

[Anonymous No.8389742]

>>8389659
asking questions is anti-semitic, goy

[Anonymous No.8389757]

>>8389736
/thread

[Anonymous No.8389824]

>>8389697
>Kahn
that's Mongolian you fucking retard

[Anonymous No.8389832]

>>8389697
He’s very cute. Does he have a wife?

[Anonymous No.8389837]

>releases pop reports
>even though the same company owns both wata and the platform where their shit is sold
oh wow, it's fucking nothing

[Anonymous No.8389839]

>Open tab
>"nes no intro emuparadise"
>Make sure greasemonkey extension hasn't broke
>right click "save as"
>Navigate to retroarch games folder
>Press enter
>Wait 0.0000005 seconds for every Nintendiddler game to dl
>Do this a bajillion times until I pirated all 789 NES games 789 times over
>Bankrupt everyone at wata as well as all old vidya collectorfags and burst the retarded /vr/ bubble

[Anonymous No.8390210]

It works. I sold my collection for close to a million. Although I'm buying back the THQ snes collection. I bought a retron IV with some of the money, me and my wife's kid have a blast on it

[Anonymous No.8390712]

>>8385651
You don't. When it's done masterfully you really got to detective style to figure out if that seal was tampered with. The polish were pulling a big one with PS1 PAL games circa 2016 and what caught the attention of collectors was the lack of stickers that belonged in the original unopened case. See my example below.

>>8386760
Tell me how you identify this as a fake seal. This one is actually easy.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sonic-Gems-Collection-PS2-New-And-Sealed-rare-/125020158186

>>8387215
Yeah, so did VGA. Their grading is absolutely worthless. You're better off buying defective factory sealed games at this point, they go for much cheaper and less likely to have been fucked with. Spotting fake resealed games is NOT that easy.

[Anonymous No.8391856]

>>8390210
How much money did you sink into grading, tho?

[Anonymous No.8392096]

>>8390712
What would be the point of resealing that? It's not even worth anything.

[Anonymous No.8392436]

>>8375328
yeah this is one of those things that convince me that this is another money laundering scheme like art trading or NFTs

[Anonymous No.8392567]

>>8391856
>falling for the obvious bait

Did the wife's kid bit not tip you off?

[Anonymous No.8392662]

>>8392096
That's what you think. Sonic Gems Collection actually sold for something like £50 some time ago. The reason why it barely got any bids thrown at it this time around is because people are not stupid. I suspect either the seller doesn't have any idea he is selling a resealed copy or he is just test-driving.

Now imagine you slap that factory seal on a Rule of Roses (and if you want to push it higher just use VGA to grade it) and then you'll realize why it might worth the risk.

[Anonymous No.8393172]

>>8392662
Ok so what are the details you would look for to determine a fake?

I know there is some scuffing but i've seen that on genuine US factory sealed Dreamcast games

[Anonymous No.8393475]

>>8385651
Actually a good point

[Anonymous No.8393718]

>>8393172
Yeah, it's the scuffing like you pointed out. That's the big red flag.

From what I understand, the way they do it is they cut it slightly and softly on the side to get the game out and then replace it for *insert whatever vydia you want to sell at high price*. You still need an actual factory seal game to do it but it's worth it if there's some cheap copies laying around.

Signs are generally wear on the outside (like scuffing, removed stickers), in the case of PS1 games searching for the proper CD and manual colours when you add some light on the bottom or upper part of the case, and see if the seal has been tampered with (because they glue back the part that's been cut). You can also weight the game but you need a database to match yours or it's worthless.

It's no easy job when it's really well done.

[Anonymous No.8393793]

>shit some numbers onto an excel sheet for like 20 games
>call it a "population report"
If this isn't the case I'll neck myself. It's way too late for people to trust anything wata says now.

[Anonymous No.8393913]

>>8375000
Aren't they still incomplete though?

[Anonymous No.8394030]

>>8393793
The list is way bigger now. Check their website. There's a crapload of factory sealed games for NES. I have no idea how that is fetching such a high-price at this point. But this will devalue collections A LOT.

[Anonymous No.8394585]

>>8394030
Tbqh there's a bit of sample-bias going on. Who'd send in a CIB or even a loose cart to be rated? Of course there are way more sealed games than not-sealed games rated by them.

[Anonymous No.8394614]

>>8393718
Well like i've said, I have seen scuffing on Dreamcast games with genuine factory seals when they've been kept at a certain orientation for a long time so it's not a tell-tale sign. From what you're telling me the only way you can be sure is with a UV light

[Anonymous No.8394630]

Can't wait till the FTC BTFOs these faggots, again.

[Anonymous No.8394683]

>>8386767
>They just use standard glossy-finished cardboard.
See, if WATA wasn't a scam this would actually be the point of them. The inks and paper used in the 80s are not the inks and paper used today. A proper authenticator should be able to tell the difference and this would be where the value in a graded WATA game would be. IF they weren't scam merchants.

[Anonymous No.8394694]

>>8379842
How the fuck is it cope? That is literally what happens in 99% of cases