These people have a lot of power and money, so let's hope they don't attack me for this. A lot of people talk about money laundering but I didn't go into it because it's all pure speculation. Money laundering doesn't CAUSE bubbles. People can take advantage of a bubble that exists, but it's not the root cause. I just focused on what I could prove.
Have you been following the Wargaming, World of Warships saga Karl? reg: The mass walkout of the community contributors, gambling loot boxes, USS Missouri etc?
Hi mossbag. I 100% agree with you. I remember the days when 3ds games were 30 bucks and that was awesome. I can’t believe what people are doing just to get more money in their pockets. Also keep up the great work mossbag. Can’t wait for silksong lore videos when the game comes out.
It's pretty poetic that this video describes perfectly what corporate "journalism" has become, a PR platform for shady practice because they trust that no actual research would be done. In a trend larger than video games, video essays are effectively real journalism, and it's fascinating.
Perhaps not just in video games, just in general. I have limited interest in games and virtually no interest in speed runs but I've found his presentations, especially the investigations of fraudulent activity to be very well done.
I’m a huge retro collector and have been for years. Ive NEVER has any interest in owning a graded game. I own sealed games that would grade high but ive always seen these companies as scams and that they were ruining the hobby. Glad that others are finally seeing the truth. I hope wata is exposed and forced to close.
I remember when the worlds most expensive video game was Gold Nintendo World Championship with a staggering price of $18,000. And that's a game with only *26* Cartridges ever made. So how does a game with over *11 MILLION* copies sell for $1,500,000?
Because it's money laundering that's why it wasn't some joe smo's game it was sold by the auction house and the grading company. That's why it's obviously a crime.
This felt like an actual documentary. My jaw actually literally dropped when Heritage and Halperin came up in the coin bubble segment. Absolutely amazing work, Karl.
@@chaseyoung5984 the bush president president bush bush president president bush president is president president bush president president of bush bush president president bush president of bush bush sunshine sunshine sun sun shining sunshine sunshine sun shining sunshine sun sun shining
My niece loves collecting N64 games. This bubble has made it impossible for her; she has managed to add to her collection, but only through near-religious devotion to going to garage sales and digging through thrift stores. I hope this bubble bursts soon. Thank you for explaining how this problem got this bad to start with.
Garage sale and thrift store plundering is the best part, if you ask me. Just owning the items is one thing, but it's the stories you create hunting for them that really make collecting special.
This is honestly groundbreaking, professional reporting. Puts the big names to shame. I hope this gets wide recognition and publication. Dishonest profiteering and this retro game price bubble need to end, and those who genuinely appreciate retro games ought to be the ones to collect and enjoy them when prices return to realistic levels. Keep up the incredible work!
@@mofny its every collectible ever, this is funko pop, hot toys, beani babies etc,i cant believe people still buy into hype and trends like this. Funko pops are a good example, adults spend money they often shouldnt to have a "rare" pop that is only desireable due to a falsely created rarity and imaginary desire. People will pay 300$ for a piece of shit plastic because theyve been told that soon it will be worth 600, only to find out later that the goal was only ever to scam the initial goons out of their 300 and many high dollar funko pop sales are shill bids and inside buyers simply driving up the online price to dump the shitty retail pops for double or triple what they paid. Collecting for the sake of collecting is fucked up, if you like a thing thats a different thing, but many collectors are simply caught up in the attention that having a "rare" item gets them
when he started talking about the coins I thought, it would be funny if the same people were involved in both...but then I laughed thinking that was way too ridiculous..
You would think as part of the punishment he would not be able to own another "grading" type company. Also, I remember watching a pretty similar report on 60 minutes (years ago) about the inconsistent and even fraudulent authentication companies in the sports memorabilia market.
Look at Jim Halperin's wikipedia page. It states he started a fraud mail-order business when he was 13 years old! This guy has been a criminal for at least 56 years at this point!
I laughed when I heard "yea if we lose 15k on you, whatever, no big deal" I was like ohhhh these people are RICH rich. For 15k to be an acceptable loss on a hail mary is insane.
Thank you so much for creating this piece! This is legit journalism that true gaming websites should be covering. I'm a retro game collector myself, and any legit collector can tell the prices right now are insane and inflated. Most of us collect games because we play it and we want to preserve the history of it, not to resell for profit. For the most part, we wish it wasn't so expensive so future collectors can get into the action. WATA is the biggest scam right now and I avoid graded games like the plague, it's clear the grading system they use is tainted. Who knows how many fakes also get through.
It may sound like a silly question, but can't video games collectors use this trend to their advantage ? They have hundreds of retro games they bought for much lower than the current price. They could make some money selling them now, and buy more once the prices go down.
@@fabienmorival669 The thing about that is, the auction house only sells games that have been graded through WATA. Its those ones that go for ridiculous jacked-up prices. If a games collector wanted in on that action, they'd have to actively support the companies that are responsible for this market manipulation, perpetuating it to even more ridiculous extremes. And that would make them no better than scaplers.
@@fabienmorival669 Not a silly question and this is different per collector. I can only speak for myself, but the most important think is its extrinsic value. My CIB copies of my video games that I had as a child each have a specific personal meaning to them. They were given to me by friends or family members, some have passed away. I also bought a lot of those games personally from a store so I know they are authentic. You're right, I can probably sell it for a lot of money now and rebuy a different copy for cheaper. BUT, If I sold those games, I will never get that exact copy back. It loses ALL of its extrinsic value to me. Now on the intrinsic side, buying used games online as a collector is not as easy as it sounds. The vast majority of games sold online are either by collectors getting rid of their inferior copy, game stores trying to flip a game they overpaid for or games that had multiple owners. These games often are incomplete or damaged in ways only collectors will notice. Furthermore, there are A LOT of reproductions out there and they are getting better. Sometimes the manual or artwork is a reproduction but everything else is authentic. Therefore, I'd have to spend a lot of time talking with sellers and getting additional photos trying not to get scammed. Some of these sellers themselves, don't even know they have a reproduction piece. All and all, collectors for the most part collect for the love of video games, not for profit. Selling our valuable collections just to rebuy a different copy in similar or better collection is just too much work.
The other issue I see with this is, whos to say the box being graded is even real, or if theres even a game inside it? Whos going to think to invest in something like this to crack it open and truly see and make the item 'worthless'? No one... for all we know, they could be putting a blank cart, or something weighted insidew, have a reprint of the box and seal it themselves, than bam, 'grade' it some how and be done. Profit.... It's a scam is so many ways and whos to say if there doing this or not. There really isn't any way to tell and with the prices as they are it's just... yikes...
The joy of retro gaming has been ruined by greedy profiteers. I miss those days of going and picking up loose carts for $3-$5 bucks, complete games for $5-$15. This video was eye opening and spot on; thanks for the great work!
Karl reached out to me after leaving this comment on your channel, Pat (37:10). I then approached UA-camr "Reserved Investments" about the project Karl was working on, and Shaun said he was already on board with the investigation. Great to see the UA-cam community working together to expose corruption in our favorite hobby. The amount of evidence Karl was able to come up with in this video is staggering.
What's really strange to me is although sealed boxes are very sought after; they have largely misread the market. The most expensive pieces (at least when I was following collecting) were bit mint in box pieces, they were obscure and rare items that either a)never had full releases b)never had any releases or c) some developers tool. While inbox pieces are pricey it was usually this kind of stuff that was the most valuable in large part due to scarcity of their original run and the details behind it's manufacturing
For people wanting an example- Nintendo World Championships (never officially released, was part of a game competition in like a magazine or something in the 80's) used to be called the holy grail of Nintendo collectors, and it was just a loose cart.
I think that you’re missing an important point; if they pump up rare items it only stimulates a few sellers and buyers. If they make widely available items more valuable it creates a wave of movement in sales and in hype. "Wow such a well known game is worth that much? What about other great games?’ I’m no expert but it creates a longer lasting hype if more people can engage with it. I see your point about rarity but these people don’t care about video game history.
There's way more money behind this. This won't be "spurious lawsuit threats": this will be a lawsuit to shut him up, and it's going to come. He's gonna need a legal defense fund already, can pretty much guarantee.
You, Sir, have massively outdone yourself with the amount of research and the work that has gone into the production of this video. I myself have done some investigative journalism in the past and I know how tedious this work can be, going through thousands of pages of documents just to get some background info on some topic, talking to people that are hard to get otherwise, get the best sources possible. And I was just writing, which - from a production point of view - is the easiest thing to do. Massive congratulations!
Well not really. It’s little more then insinuations and tangentially related events, with a heaping of personal incredulity. It’s realistically a starting point and Hopefully someone else will be able to do some actual research gather evidence that can actually make a change.
@@kx7500 You don't have to be a marxist to be disgusted by the likes of Jim Halperin. The guy's a crook. Plain and simple. This is the polar opposite of a "free market".
@@kx7500 Really??? I"m a capitalist, and I'd offer the solution that this man halperin and several of his accomplices need to be arrested, fined heavily (for the second time in halperin's case) and put in prison for a number of years.
One thing this kinda reminds me of is when Goodwill (which they even advertised in their own stores) and news outlets started to talk about how someone got a sofa years ago and found money inside. During that time, I hardly saw many at the stores. Once that story hit, many were near the sofas, trying to find money as I seen a guy sitting on one the day after reaching in to see if there was anything inside. Then started the news about things for sale in the locked up cases and people reselling for more, which started the resellers coming in with their coffee and stalking the people bringing out carts and once, even starting a small fight at one store I was at. Since then, prices went up cause of all that and was bad cause I saw things from Dollar Tree that was more than buying them new from Dollar Tree themselves.
like, how do you even find that? can you do a search for any place his name comes up? or do you have to already know to check into coins? like how do you make that connection? I'm so impressed
It's the same problem with fossils market. Now, exceptional fossils (like complete skeletons of dinosaurs) are sold at prices so big by auction houses that national museums can't buy them. Even when multiple museums band together! Now, those paleontogistic tresors are disappearing in private collections and will never be studied by reserchers.
The capitalist market has reached a choking point, the rich are too rich and the poor are too poor. This kind of shit is going to continue until the complete collapse of our society as we know it.
@@cosmichemistry Unfortunately, "freedom and liberty," in the sense of no restrictions to what one can do, are exactly what led to this mess in the first place. These people are too _free_ to restrict others' freedoms themselves. The freedom to restrict others' freedoms is one that is worth restricting. It's the same kind of deal of "is it tolerant to tolerate another's intolerance."
"Exposing Market Fraud - Lawsuit%" more like. Karl's done a good thing, but these people ARE going to go after him for this. There's too much money involved.
@@arcanehornet nope it's not , look at the brave female journalist in Afghanistan and an indian journalist died covering the talibans. A lot of journalists do deserve respect .
I feel like I am actually watching a journalist doing in depth research about a topic. It's a breath of fresh air actually listening to in depth research on a topic and not just an opinion piece we see every night on CNN/MSNBC/FOX.
I’ve got a guy in eBay whose bragging about owning an original sealing machine- Karl figure out to Dm me i think you’re going to want to read this conversation
He is a journalist at this point, i think you don't to have that label or career to be recognized as one, the investigation, work and passion he has is more than enough to be one
@@evanjacoby7805 It should be. Especially speculation on large scales (Hedge funds influencing the stock market and real estate, 2008 could've easily been avoided..)
These kinds of people will always be around and it's difficult or impossible to make laws to prevent it. The best thing we can do is to educate potential buyers so that they don't fall for this scam. There is a famous cartoon that had two panels. One panel was labeled "ways to grow rich" which had activities like hard work. The other panel was labeled "ways to grow poor", which had speculation, gambling, and that sort of thing. Of course, some people are beyond help. I remember back in the bitcoin days someone ran a bitcoin ponzi scheme. Everyone knew it was a ponzi scheme and its creator almost admitted as much. And yet people were still buying into it. Eventually he ran off with everything. Some people are just beyond help.
@@evanjacoby7805 This kind of speculation is pretty scummy but I can't think of a worse response to it than to ban all speculation. What you're asking for is a law to make it impossible for fools to be parted from their money. Which is impossible, but politicians would love for you to beg them for more laws to try.
It raises concern. Or rather, it really should raise concerns for anyone thinking of doing business with a company having that policy. The fraud really is in the racketeering of the whole thing between circles of key people, but getting a sense for the motive is a sign of working intuition.
@@groomersgotohell Ah. The rich and powerful narrative within a select demographic people-group. That really only comes down to opportunistic individuals having their own bent for control. Dumbing it down to broad labels is…well, dumb.
You'd probably do a simple moving job for a couple hundred bucks. Would you do a moving job full of fragile valuables for a couple hundred bucks or would you raise the price because handling valuables puts you at some risk
@@russellm2555 There should be a hard cap they don't go over, at least, not a percentage that can forever scale up. Sure, a harder, more valuable item filled moving job you'd charge more for, but you wouldn't be like "Ok, we charge 5% of your total networth to move your stuff" like WATA is basically doing with each item, lol. Also, with moving stuff, or working on someone's house, etc, you have insurance to cover potential damages to help mitigate the risk. You don't take a flat percentage of their networth and try to justify it by saying "well it puts me at some risk" instead of insurance, or ontop of insurance. I've painted multi-million dollar houses. We didn't ask for a flat percentage of the house's value or the owner's networth to cover our risk from working on such an expensive place. We just had insurance. Sure, we charge more for a big job, especially if there's parts that will be an extra hassle or be complicated, but not a percentage that can scale and scale up way too high to absurdity.
@Thaddeus Cosse if you have reason to believe it's not I'm sure myself and a lot of others would love to see it. Does appear like he has done his research here.
I mean he just explained how a pump and dump works. One of favorite books is Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Lists every single bubble from the last 1000 years in detail.
@@danieljensen2626 Oh yeah no question, but you cant prosecute. Its like pumping up the price of dogecoin or a minecraft silver on a server. There are things that are totally unethical frauds, but legal.
@@TehCommentMaster LOL not dissing him, he did a great job, just saying this happens literally every day. Or maybe I just spend too much time watching stocks and reading SEC filings for a decade...
I think this might be the first youtube video to ever pre-pop a speculative bubble. I followed the Heritage Auction tag on Instagram because I love looking at old coins, and you would be shocked how far this video reached. Every comment on random vase posts was referencing this vid. It rightly tore down the reputation of these companies. I'm really excited to see how the internet continues to affect the market, for one guy to decrease a company's value by likely hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars is thrilling. This is Dan's NFT video for the retro gaming world.
Excellent video, and awesome journalism work. If this is true, it would really explain a lot. It's so frustrating seeing a hobby I love so much become more and more inaccessible due to the price surge. I'm surprised it has flown under the radar this long. Hopefully it gets a lot more traction.
I mean, I have made sure that 8 of the sources exist, and before showing them this video, I asked a critical thinker and they predicted about half of the video. While the alerts in red letters are heavy handed, I feel that's a necessary measure in this day and age, as long as proof is screenshot
I'm involved in the retro game industry. When I heard these headlines, I instantly thought "There is something wrong about this. I'm not sure what, but it is completely fraudulent evaluation." It wasn't just hedge funds snapping up new investment verticals in a pandemic bubble. There was something just 'off' about it all. Boy, I didn't realize how 'off' things were. This was an excellent documentary. Dude. Honestly. Amazing work. Truly amazing.
I thought something was really weird as soon as I heard that games were selling for this much on EmpLemon's channel Like seriously, Super Mario Bros selling for millions? My old local retro game store sold copies of that for less than $5. I don't care how good of condition the box is in, it can't be worth THAT much.
@@supyo1 Yeah a few thousand to few hundred thousand with the steepest exponential climb I've seen since bloated memecoins. Seems pretty legit to me. Now just wait when the price doubles again in under a year, because that's how collectables work.
only thing left is to go after counterfeits and pirated copies. Market is large but also scams the user with copies of video games that are legit almost unplayable due to piracy checks.
I laughed at even the idea of NFTs. Sounded even more ridiculous than the virtual real estate scam, and twice as corrupt. Nobody believed me. No single tool I have has been more useful than skepticism these past 7 years or so. I have been vindicated every single time. Let me tell you right now, especially in our current sociopolitical climate, there is nothing more powerful than refusing to be manipulated. If you think that something seems too good to be true, or that something doesn't add up, or that something is missing, *believe yourself.* Do not let yourself be swayed by anything but your own research and intuition. Know when you are being played, and by whom. The harder you are being pushed to blindly accept or believe something, the harder you need to push against it. The louder something is being screamed, the less attention it deserves. The more widely accepted something is, the more scrutiny it warrants. Do not let yourself be a statistic.
Oh naturally. NFTs are probably the worst scheme of them all as you don't literally have anything physical to hold. You don't even have to buy it to own the image.
This is one of he most incredible videos I've ever seen. I remember loving your old Billy Mitchell videos but who would have known you would uncover such a massive scam. Congratulations on a job well done, genuinely a hero for doing all this work for the community.
So to everyone who actually wants the game, because it is that specific game from your childhood and not because of money: Don't buy anything in the next couple years. Wait for the bubble to pop, then grab the stuff cheap. And to those who just want to play said games: Just go with emulation at this point. It will become more and more important for preservation anyway.
I remember buying a sealed copy of Aria of Sorrow on GBA long before this nonsense started happening. Opened that sucker up and plugged it into my Classic NES GBA SP and had a blast going through it. All these collecting bubbles cannot burst soon enough...
Karl, as a collector for the last 20 years, I have to thank you for making this video. Prices were already ridiculous with every legitimate company trying to get into the market, and these guys have only made it worse. Hopefully, your video will help push these people out of the market so we can all get back to business as usual.
@@RooftopRose079 same man; my house got renovated in 2014 and after that I couldn't find it again. During that time it was around $80 new, then in 2018 it shot up to $300, weird thing is it's still around that price and the pokewalker accessory is really hard to find; sellers marking it over $100, feels like market manipulation. On my lost game, I had all the event pokemon from Ruby/Sapphire to the last ones for Heart/Soul Gold/Silver, felt pretty bummed out when I couldn't find it.
@@Zed-Corps Yea a few years back you could sell a game and get it back later for a smaller higher amount but now if you sell you are expected to pay 3-5 times the amount in a year span. Sad
And we had a perfect example of speculation inflating prices just a few months ago. When Sony announced they'd be shutting down the PS3 and Vita stores, prices for the games skyrocketed. Then when Sony changed their minds after fan backlash, the prices went back down. Vita games are still kinda expensive, but that at least makes some sense. Most Vita games didn't have hundreds of thousands of copies printed like PS3 games did.
Halperin is from the blue blood ruling caste families for sure. This isn't the first one Karl has unearthed; Bettencourt and his fake Mario speedrun was the other. Halperin's wiki is a goldmine. The fact he's pulled the same scam in the coin market show's he is protected by some powerful people. His niece Molly DeWolf Swenson was a White House intern under the Obama administration, for example. Halperin also attended spook feeder schools including Middlesex School, then later Harvard. Halperin also endows the James & Gayle Halperin Foundation, so he knows how to run a charity tax evasion front as well. If you need some extra vomit, he also wrote a sci-fi novel called *The Truth Machine*, which is about a genius who develops an infallible lie detector, that every citizen must pass in order to get a job or license, thus "eliminating dishonesty in all parts of human interaction..". Of course, the inventor of the machine created a backdoor, allowing him to avoid detection. Gee, this story sounds familiar..
I'm a couple of years late but I've known about at least part of this story for years. I had no idea the rabbit hole was this deep, of course. Videogame collecting has been a passion of mine, and it's getting to the point where I'm no longer able to afford it. It breaks my hearts to see what these people are doing just to enrich themselves even further, as it's pricing me out of one of the few things that's brought me joy and given me a purpose in my miserable life. I used to give myself a budget of $1000 a year (which is less than 100 a month on entertainment/hobby spending). Before I could easily walk away with over 100 games over the course of the year, now I consider it a good year if I get even a third of that. I feel bad for a lot of the people who are going to go broke too, when the bubble inevitably bursts. And these criminals will walk away with killings. I hope one day something is done and this whole racket is stopped, and they face real consequences instead of just moving on to another artificial bubble. But I'm not optimistic.
So apparently Wata games replied (from Nintendo Life): "Wata Games is the trusted leader in collectible video game grading and we're honored to play a key role in this booming industry that we are incredibly passionate about. We're humbled by the support of our thousands of customers who trust us to provide accurate and transparent grading. The claims in this video are completely baseless and defamatory and it is unfortunate that Mr. Jobst did not contact us to give us the opportunity to correct him." Seems like they wanted to "convince" Karl to "reconsider" details in his video before releasing it
Notice they didn't mention any specific claims that are "baseless". They could have easily said "No these people aren't directors and have no financial stake in Wata" IF THAT WERE THE CASE. But instead just run of the mill corporate speak for "we don't like it when you point out our shitty practices". Reminds me of the recent Homestuck video by Sarah Z.
Also, Jobst shot back at Wata Games's response by tweeting this gem: "We have conducted an investigation (and in record time!) and find ourselves to be innocent."
I've never heard of any kind of appraisals that cost a % of the products estimated value, and not a flat fee. And I work with professional appraisers. Absolute scam to charge like that, as it OBVIOUSLY means they'll over estimate everything.
As someone who's younger brother is getting into higher value pokemon cards, many of those appraisal services also take a greater fee depending on the value of the card. This makes sense to me though because the value of any individual card can be easily verified, and getting a high rating generally boost the value by a predictable amount. Also for higher value cards, they have to be that much more careful with it to make sure they don't cause any damage themselves, something that is super easy to do especially when many flaws can only be seen through a jewelers loupe or something similar. It also makes lower value cards (~$100) much cheaper to appraise often at around $25 when the value can increase by much more than that with a high score (which is luck of the draw considering most flaws are printing errors). Also since there is competition in thos market, there are appraisal companies who's decisions have ruined their reputations, so in this field they have to be careful and appraise well to be trusted by the community to maximize their income.
As a retro collector who lost a huge chunk(not pat the nes punk levels, but still about 3 grand total) of their collection to water damage about 2 years before this bubble this pisses me off so bad. I can barely find stuff out side the internet anymore.
I suppose I should say it's good they got sued and the market is going back down, i was unaware this was the reason prices spiked a few years ago when i decided to start collecting again. The old nintendo stuff still hasnt gone down enough, but im sure itll even out soon. Used to grab nes consoles from thrift stores and the like for between $20- $50 now they go for like 180 online , and goodwill and other thrift stores using online auction prices has ruined alot of those places. Saw an unsealed wow TBC collectors box in rough shape selling for $600 at a thrift store the other day. That's what they go for sealed online, and in good shape no less. Shit was bonkers
This video is the pinicle of "I'm going to ruin this man's entire career". Karl has presented a crown court worthy level of detail to spank these muppets with and I love it!! There's still 20 mins of the video left and my jaw is just on the floor. Thank you Sir Karl
That's been the way with retro games since good emulators started coming out. Collecting is on some level about acquiring the real items - it's about the thrill of the hunt, getting the real object to hold in your hands. But if you just want to experience the gameplay, the emulators are just a Google away.
Seriously, and I have replica SNES and Saturn controllers that work great for any sega or nintendo emulated games, and the Playstation controllers never changed much, so using the PS4 one on old PSX/PS2 games feels great. I miss cartridges and the giant physical collection I once had, but it was all stolen, so I just use emulation now..
This actually puts me in a decision making dilemma, because on one hand I love owning physical copies of the games I play, but on the other hand, emulation would be so much easier for playing the games I want and I wouldn't have to go through the nonsense of dealing with overinflated prices
"When people realize how common some of these games are, prices will be destroyed." God I hope one day I can find Earthbound for under $200. Its disgusting.
I hope for your sake that you're able to, as well. Earthbound was a super-common game at release (at $70 US, since it came with a strategy guide, while normal Nintendo 1st-party releases were $60 in those days) and after, even going so far as to go on clearance for $5-$10 a couple years after it was released. If memory serves me correctly, something like 300,000 copies were sold in the US. Earthbound is not rare, and neither is Chrono Trigger (400,000 sold) or several other RPGs typically lumped therein. Great games, though, by and large, and ones deserving of being tracked down to play and collect...just not overpaid for.
I have a decent collection and can’t wait for the bubble to burst. I want more people to enjoy these classic games. This hobby should be for those who want to preserve gaming history and most importantly for gamers.
The biggest fraud of these grading companies is that they charge progressively more for their services is the item is high value. Looking at, grading, and then encasing a collectible should be a flat cost.
Yes! This is a problem for so many collectible communities, they shouldn’t be able to change it based on the worth of the collectible, that’s bullshit.
Exactly, charging you a fee based on the price they assign to your item is such a massive conflict of interest, it obviously incentivizes them to inflate the value as much as possible. It astonishes me that these companies aren't immediately shut down for the obvious scams that they are.
@@maythesciencebewithyou No. The difference is realtors collect a percentage of the sale price on an open market. CGC and WATA collect a progressive fee based on the speculative value of the comic or game. No sale has occurred. No open market has established the assessed value for that item. Nothing but an incentive to rate the collectible with a high value so that the fee is higher.
Karl needs to do one on the housing market too, realtors, home inspectors, banks and fake bidders. All destroyed any chance for middle class and young people to ever own houses
Karl you have a rare combination of 2 things: 1) Careful, conscientious, fair research. 2) High courage at speaking truth that cuts against people who can (and do) legally threaten you. This channel has become absolute gold, one of the best on UA-cam.
Karl my name is Mark. I am a video game player, collector, and avid trader of video games with a collection of 6050+ games in my collection. I am friends with people like Michael Thomasson who held the Guiness Book Of World Records title for most video games and talk to certain other collectors who are good people. I have said for the longest time that since the market started to rise in 2008, that something was going on and things were being manipulated. You don't just have places like WATA, you have people who buy games as well as companys who sell on ebay and also physical stores buying their own product. There are massive shady practices and I pray that this video helps expose more of it. The main thing I think that needs an anecdote to this is that loose games have suffered immeasurably from this, where it was not mentioned enough that loose, and complete non-graded games are skyrocketing. Ebay records prices for thier "buy it now" even if a game is not delivered/canceled delivery. Manny shady companies are buying games and selling thier own stock to drive the "buy it now" up. They are mostly american companies but I speculate a few canadian ones as well. Also one more thing, there are communities of individuals who choose a game to make it scarce to skyrocket the prices just so they can have the certain game they own, valuable as a personal pride thing, not letting others in the "cool kid club" unless they pay. I appreciate you making this video and validating things I have said for almost a decade.
Hey, I just started this video and I'm not sure if the topic of Reproduction Carts comes into play. I wanted to ask, considering you're so deeply invested in the community. I thought it'd be neat to hear your opinion. I dont have as large of a collection as yours, just a boxfull of Genesis cartridges and some ps2 games. Some are CIB, some are not. However, when it came to the Genesis games, I picked up a few reproductions for the simple purpose that I wanted to add a physical copy of the game to my library. They were never marketed as a genuine cart, I got it at a reduced price. I can see the issue of reproductions when you're actively attempting to FIND a genuine, and the two are getting mixed together, however I don't hate the existence of them. Where do you stand? Thanks!
I can imagine it being there but still outrageous when you think about other people barely making ends meets, it’s an disgusting attitude to have and very wasteful.
There exist way richer people than this. Yes him and his friends and family are clearly upper middle class but I don't see anything wrong about this. (Other than the dishonest market manipulation)
@@herrabanani Bruh how can you not see the grotesque disregard for $15,000 when that amount is monumental to 60% of the population. That is not middle upper class
I think a big part of mainstream video game collecting (at least, in my experience) is having _working copies,_ not just museum pieces. It's cool having a piece of history that you can still use. I don't care about what my games are worth. I care that I have them and they work.
He's a better journalist than anyone at WashPo, the Times, Polygon or any other rag that uncritically propagated the $2,000,000 Super Mario Bros story.
Really enjoyed this one man. When you linked it back to the same people doing the same thing with coins in the 80s I audibly gasped. Your investigative reporting is on the level of an HBO doc here.
Dig a little further on Jim Halperin. There's a Forbes article that states he's been pulling scams since the 60's... When he was 13. No joke. Dude popped out of the womb as a grifter.
Damn lol and here I am happy buying fire emblem 30th anniversary for MSRP $50 on amazon renewed that includes the digital game for nes. And I thought people paying $200 for it was too rich for my blood. That's nothing compared to these crazy bubbles.
It only makes sense that the same people who took all the fun out of collecting coins, comic books and baseball cards are doing the same thing now with video games. Grifters gonna grift.
They need to do an HBOMAX doc on this. They REALLY do. This should be national news. And the news needs to stop propping up these greedy manipulative mother fuckers. Shows you the lack of investigative reporting being done.
@@DraftyRum im talking like antique tier of video games and 300-400 is around the max of how much i would be willing to pay for a game i really want to own, if its for ps2 and xbox then yeah youre getting ripped off
Holy fuck KJ did it again.... You absolute savage this is so juicy - I love it.... Let's hope this gets sorted appropriately and no innocent folks see any financial or legal harm as a result.
Holy shit. The way I gasped when reading ahead during that coin collector's lawsuit in the 80's. It's pretty obvious that the scheme exists, but rarely does anyone see just how dirty it all gets when digging deep enough. Applause to you, Karl, and a hope that this bites all these billionaires in the ass, eventually.
It also goes to show how meager those fines are and how it doesn't actually deter these companies from doing the same thing over and over again. You know they made far more than 1.2 million on their first coin scam and now that video games are getting way more popular they're in these guys' crosshairs.
And you have no idea how deep it actually goes. This is peanuts compared to something like housing or other commodities. If there's a market to manipulate, it's been done. And you can guarantee it's dirty as hell.
This is amazing. I can't believe you spent so much time on this! This type of thing happens a lot, but you really tracked down every detail . impressive.
@@MrJohnlennon007 pretend to be a 70 year old grandpa with a stutter wanting to buy Battletoads for their grandson, but can't really remember the title.
Seemed pretty obvious that there were some shenanigans with the latest sales, and I was disappointed to see how much coverage those sales received, because that was clearly the goal of them. What I didn't expect was what a massive conflict of interest this whole thing turned out to be. Thanks for bringing so many eyes onto it.
A sealed copy of FF7 selling for $140,000 sounds so absurd. Like, There's no reason it shouldn't be anymore than a few thousand at MAX. Its used price is below $40, even for a high profile PS1 title. How insane.
It’s very rare that you find a video as well made as this one on UA-cam. But this gets crazier when you realize that all of Karl’s video are a quality level that is out of this world. What an absolute legend.
Karl. I'm honored to have talked at length with such a thoughtful, independent investigative journalist like yourself. Thank you for your due diligence in keeping video games pure in every form. Well done, A++ rating on this video from me!
What's absolutely insane is that they're running a scam with Super Mario - one of the most widely available games of all time! You really can't make this stuff up!
I think it goes to show how obvious it is that no one involved in this scam actually cares about games, they just chose the most well known one and went with that.
@@werewolfwebsite that's not what they did. They know since it's the most popular, the grading company will get the most business with people trooping in to get their super mario graded since they heard they are valuable. Also the auction houses will have a lot of business since there are a lot there to sell. Why would you choose obscure titles with few copies when you want business. You choose the one with a lot of copies out there They thought it through and made the best decision to make easy money. If it wasn't for pesky Karl they'd get away with it. In fact they still probably will since investment businesses are all in on it & wanna still make a profit
That mic drop moment with the coin bubble Halperin conspiracy blew my mind - I just thought you were referencing market history, not introducing a smoking gun into the mix. Get this man a Netflix documentary…
As a collector myself, I am grateful Karl is exposing this bs. The vast majority of us collectors do it for the love of gaming. These asshats do it to turn it into the stock market. Pathetic!!! The finger used to be pointed at content creators. Now its auction houses. We have it hard enough to find games for our hobby without this. First it was pawn shops, then it was eBay, now speculators. Effing jerks!!! Nothing is sacred!! Not coins, not cards, not comic books, and now not games! Next will be codes for PC and Mario 3D All Stars.
Unfortunately, real journalism like this takes real efforts and can take very long time, especially if its research is very thorough. 'High risk' report like this, in particular, needs to be hole-proofed to prevent hitback by the parties being covered. That's why some gaming sites are content just posting news about Valheim hitting new high player count or something and move on. They need the clicks to survive. It's a bit of "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation.
@@lotus_flower2000 Articles aren't "read" by time, they're read by word count. I can put on an hour long video and listen while I do housework. I can't read even a thousand word article while I mop the kitchen.
Ground breaking videos like this shed so much light on the topic you owe it to the world to keep uncovering the truth I imagine you making an incredible documentary.
They'll still get away with it, even if caught, even if fined, because laws only functionally apply to the poor. They'll pay their million dollar fine and walk away with their 100 million dollar profit, as always. It's just an expected fee to them. This is capitalism "working."
I don't think I'll ever buy a sealed game let alone a graded one. My collection needs to be entirely playable and only games that I would want to play. But the prices of unsealed and ungraded games are going up crazy and it sucks
@@KnakuanaRka For me the point is to collect and display them. I get satisfied when I see game sealed (or any other vintage collectible item, e.g., cards). People collect cards, cars, rare watches (e.g., a vintage mint submariner), old wines etc., and they would not use them to preserve their condition. That's what I always enjoyed about collecting. Finding a 1993 MTG card in a flawless condition gets me excited, but also anxious that it may get damaged. Consequently, seeing it then encapsulated makes me actually happy and satisfied. I have good memories of a vintage mario game that my mom bought me when I was little, so I ended up buying a sealed and graded copy. Nothing makes me happier then seeing it displayed in my flat.
Exactly! It would make me very sad to see my games imprisoned and robbed of what they were meant to be. I collect games because I love the games, not the cover art. I like them complete and in good condition and I put some in protective cases but that's about it. I'm careful, but I play them, I look at the manuals and art. It's a hobby, not an investment. And that's why I sell my spare games and stuff I'm not really into. I don't need it and I'm not speculating on the price. Also I'm not scamming buyers into paying higher prices by writing "ONE OF A KIND ULTRA RARE HISTORIC FIND" in the auction title. That's what WATA is to me. Giving this kinda scam credibility.... Also if you're like me interested in Nintendo from all generations go and buy Wii games now, nobody gibes a damn about those atm. I "finished" my Wii collection and bought 14 games I wanted for under 100€ this year. It's ridiculous. Even without a bubble they'll be 4 times that in a few years, easy. Not that I would want to sell then, but now is just a really good time to get those.
I totally understand why people collect things for display. Nothing wrong with that at all but yes me personally, i collect the ones i used to pkay growing up so i can do it again!
You definitely should make a video about NFTs and the insane prices it goes for. How about the Jpeg of a rock that is selling for 1.5 million or the cryptopunks that are going for tens of millions. There's clearly market manipulation & money laundering going on in that market. These I think are the modern tulips.
You buy NFT's with crypto. You can't buy crypto with cash. So money laundering is unlikely. The nft bubble is more like the tulips than coins and retro games. It formed organically.
I can’t wait till this bubble pops. I love collecting and I don’t care of the value of my collection. I love the history and the preservation. If my collection’s value drops to almost nothing, I couldn’t care less. That just means I can by the games I want for super cheap. It means more people can experience the games I enjoy too for cheap. Sure you can emulate and that’s completely fine. Some people like me find it fun getting the original hardware and the original game and playing that way. This is just ruining the hobby for so many people like myself so they can make a quick buck.
Same here future homie! Over the past 2 years ive bought all the consoles and half of the games i used to play growing up. Some games like twisted metal 2 im going to wait for this to pop. Im not trying to make a profit nor benefit scumbags like this. I just wanna play my nostalgic games again on the original hardware, original cd skipping, original lag and sounds. 😀
These people have corrupted the hobby so much that when the bubble pops, they'd ask you "What are you gonna do with all those games now that the value has dropped immensely?" Uh, idk, play them?
"I love the history and the preservation" which is exactly why genuine collectors exist and why collecting stuff is fun. It sucks that capitalists have to ruin everything because they just want to get money they will never use anyway. Keep being an awesome and genuine collector man, the bubble will eventually pop and with some luck these idiots will lose a lot of money.
I can‘t believe the guy I found years ago through my love for Goldeneye 64 became one of the best sources when it comes to videogame journalism. What. A. Legend
You've taken several phrases that I've heard but never understood, and explained them in an interesting way that didn't talk down to me. Well done! Excellent video. Thank you for making it 😊
Karl, you have cemented yourself with this one as THE absolute legend. I never thought anyone with a platform such as yours would speak on this topic, because it seems like a very niche “retro gaming collector” topic. And yet you’ve done it, and I hope the cogs of change begin to turn. Thanks! Edit: AND you featured HappyConsoleGamer? This videos getting a thumbs up from me.
@@bkirk0510 - Boost up the price of an item far beyond its actual worth with media propaganda and under the table deals with auctionhouses and sellers (sellers with high position in said auction house) - normal people buy over inflated games because they think the stuff is worth it Id say they scammed everyone who bought games through their auction house.
@@tomoda7602 lol yeah they totally forced/scammed people to buy games through an open auction by going on Pawn Stars. Unless there's concrete proof of shill bidding on their auctions, which there isn't yet, then that's just plain false.
20:50 The second I hear this guy talking about video game trading to N-F-Ts trading people, that's the moment shit got serious. That's probably the single worst market to emerge this century, for so many reasons, and seeing video games in the same wheelhouse is somehow worse.
These people have a lot of power and money, so let's hope they don't attack me for this. A lot of people talk about money laundering but I didn't go into it because it's all pure speculation. Money laundering doesn't CAUSE bubbles. People can take advantage of a bubble that exists, but it's not the root cause. I just focused on what I could prove.
Yeah. They Just want money.
Have you been following the Wargaming, World of Warships saga Karl? reg: The mass walkout of the community contributors, gambling loot boxes, USS Missouri etc?
Hoping for your safety, legend
HOPE UR SAFE LOVE FROM ISRAEL
I just know they're gonna go all Billy Mitchell on you. I'd be ready for a lawsuit.
Gamers don't even want to spend $70 on a game, of course they aren't spending 1.5 mil smh
Hi mossbag. I 100% agree with you. I remember the days when 3ds games were 30 bucks and that was awesome. I can’t believe what people are doing just to get more money in their pockets. Also keep up the great work mossbag. Can’t wait for silksong lore videos when the game comes out.
@@R0ll0run 3DS games? they still are 30 bucks
why are you here
@@jordanwise5 I mean when almost all games were 30 bucks, 3ds games as an example
@@R0ll0run found the shill. "hello, popular UA-camr who is popular. Can't wait for your series of videos covering specific topic." 🤔
I'm not sure if it's Karl's intention, but he is seriously becoming one of the best investigative journalists in video games
It's pretty poetic that this video describes perfectly what corporate "journalism" has become, a PR platform for shady practice because they trust that no actual research would be done. In a trend larger than video games, video essays are effectively real journalism, and it's fascinating.
Perhaps not just in video games, just in general. I have limited interest in games and virtually no interest in speed runs but I've found his presentations, especially the investigations of fraudulent activity to be very well done.
The dance
@@gizmogremlin1872 me too, I'm too lazy for speedruns, but I've watched most of his videos because he took it seriously.
Investigative journalist period.
I’m a huge retro collector and have been for years. Ive NEVER has any interest in owning a graded game. I own sealed games that would grade high but ive always seen these companies as scams and that they were ruining the hobby. Glad that others are finally seeing the truth. I hope wata is exposed and forced to close.
what if you sell now and buy back when it all crashes
@@Maebbie he does it as a Hobby so he probably doesnt care about the money
I just bought these games when they came out and never sold them.
Same here, been collecting since the early 00's and have sealed games that would grade very high and I have never graded a single game of mine.
How can you have sealed games? Serious question, at least with toys you can watch them, but in games you can only watch the box.
I remember when the worlds most expensive video game was Gold Nintendo World Championship with a staggering price of $18,000. And that's a game with only *26* Cartridges ever made. So how does a game with over *11 MILLION* copies sell for $1,500,000?
google "wash trading"
@@aristideau5072basically just buying and selling repeatedly to fake market activity if I’m correct?
@@aristideau5072 holy hell
Karl explains how in the video mate
Because it's money laundering that's why it wasn't some joe smo's game it was sold by the auction house and the grading company. That's why it's obviously a crime.
"Babe, what are you watching?"
"Um... a true crime documentary?"
i legit replied "a documentary about financial speculation"
100%
It back fired, she wants to watch now
This felt like an actual documentary. My jaw actually literally dropped when Heritage and Halperin came up in the coin bubble segment. Absolutely amazing work, Karl.
James L. Halperin is a jew by the way.
@@AA-lz4wq Likely are Kahn and Haspel, too
@@AA-lz4wq umm and what's your point?
@@GalanOfTruth there greedy money hungry people. That’s the point. Dummy 😒
You're shocked a multimillionaire is manipulating people? Brilliant. You're one of those people who believes Elon Musk is a great guy 😂
Karl is a man on a mission to expose all video game nonsense, and I absolutely love it
like Jim Sterling but for non industry bullshit
@@Sceleri and without diabetes
Same but I love it more than you
I hope hvvh hand hit hyou h h h h hi h h how how how h hh ih ih ih. H
@@chaseyoung5984 the bush president president bush bush president president bush president is president president bush president president of bush bush president president bush president of bush bush sunshine sunshine sun sun shining sunshine sunshine sun shining sunshine sun sun shining
My niece loves collecting N64 games. This bubble has made it impossible for her; she has managed to add to her collection, but only through near-religious devotion to going to garage sales and digging through thrift stores. I hope this bubble bursts soon. Thank you for explaining how this problem got this bad to start with.
Not sure where your niece lives, or you, but I'll gladly offer up my collection, if it worked out, for rightful pricing.
The thrill of going to Rumage and yardsales. All the best in her endeavors.
Same
@@SuppleBadger $10,000 minimum, right? ;)
Garage sale and thrift store plundering is the best part, if you ask me. Just owning the items is one thing, but it's the stories you create hunting for them that really make collecting special.
Banger video homie.
Muda ❤🤟
Yep
Sup brown man
Immediately thought of you, Muta. Y'all are doing god's work here, love it.
Muda muda muda
This is honestly groundbreaking, professional reporting. Puts the big names to shame. I hope this gets wide recognition and publication. Dishonest profiteering and this retro game price bubble need to end, and those who genuinely appreciate retro games ought to be the ones to collect and enjoy them when prices return to realistic levels. Keep up the incredible work!
Are your a super hero
I'm learning a lot by applying this information to the baseball card collecting community. There seems to be some overlap.
@@mofny its every collectible ever, this is funko pop, hot toys, beani babies etc,i cant believe people still buy into hype and trends like this. Funko pops are a good example, adults spend money they often shouldnt to have a "rare" pop that is only desireable due to a falsely created rarity and imaginary desire. People will pay 300$ for a piece of shit plastic because theyve been told that soon it will be worth 600, only to find out later that the goal was only ever to scam the initial goons out of their 300 and many high dollar funko pop sales are shill bids and inside buyers simply driving up the online price to dump the shitty retail pops for double or triple what they paid. Collecting for the sake of collecting is fucked up, if you like a thing thats a different thing, but many collectors are simply caught up in the attention that having a "rare" item gets them
It's really an impeccable reputation he's cultivated
There needs to be more education on the video game market and what prices are a scam or not. Doing this will drasticly lower the scam market.
Holy shit, the connection to the coin grading companies is wild.
when he started talking about the coins I thought, it would be funny if the same people were involved in both...but then I laughed thinking that was way too ridiculous..
Yes! I thought he was just going a comparative tangent for our sake. Never saw the connection to the two that was about to slap me in the face.
Is it?
You would think as part of the punishment he would not be able to own another "grading" type company. Also, I remember watching a pretty similar report on 60 minutes (years ago) about the inconsistent and even fraudulent authentication companies in the sports memorabilia market.
Look at Jim Halperin's wikipedia page. It states he started a fraud mail-order business when he was 13 years old! This guy has been a criminal for at least 56 years at this point!
I cannot imagine having even a fraction of the money these scammers have and still wanting more.
I laughed when I heard "yea if we lose 15k on you, whatever, no big deal" I was like ohhhh these people are RICH rich. For 15k to be an acceptable loss on a hail mary is insane.
Can’t fix stupid with money
@@keithbellair9508Oh, nice, casual antisemitism
@@EmilinkoHoward every character in the story was one of them… but i could have told you that before i even watched it.. every single time.
@@EmilinkoHowardoy vey...
Thank you so much for creating this piece! This is legit journalism that true gaming websites should be covering. I'm a retro game collector myself, and any legit collector can tell the prices right now are insane and inflated. Most of us collect games because we play it and we want to preserve the history of it, not to resell for profit. For the most part, we wish it wasn't so expensive so future collectors can get into the action. WATA is the biggest scam right now and I avoid graded games like the plague, it's clear the grading system they use is tainted. Who knows how many fakes also get through.
Watch how "true gaming websites" all of a sudden care about this subject soon.
It may sound like a silly question, but can't video games collectors use this trend to their advantage ?
They have hundreds of retro games they bought for much lower than the current price. They could make some money selling them now, and buy more once the prices go down.
@@fabienmorival669 The thing about that is, the auction house only sells games that have been graded through WATA. Its those ones that go for ridiculous jacked-up prices. If a games collector wanted in on that action, they'd have to actively support the companies that are responsible for this market manipulation, perpetuating it to even more ridiculous extremes. And that would make them no better than scaplers.
@@fabienmorival669 Not a silly question and this is different per collector. I can only speak for myself, but the most important think is its extrinsic value. My CIB copies of my video games that I had as a child each have a specific personal meaning to them. They were given to me by friends or family members, some have passed away. I also bought a lot of those games personally from a store so I know they are authentic. You're right, I can probably sell it for a lot of money now and rebuy a different copy for cheaper. BUT, If I sold those games, I will never get that exact copy back. It loses ALL of its extrinsic value to me. Now on the intrinsic side, buying used games online as a collector is not as easy as it sounds. The vast majority of games sold online are either by collectors getting rid of their inferior copy, game stores trying to flip a game they overpaid for or games that had multiple owners. These games often are incomplete or damaged in ways only collectors will notice. Furthermore, there are A LOT of reproductions out there and they are getting better. Sometimes the manual or artwork is a reproduction but everything else is authentic. Therefore, I'd have to spend a lot of time talking with sellers and getting additional photos trying not to get scammed. Some of these sellers themselves, don't even know they have a reproduction piece. All and all, collectors for the most part collect for the love of video games, not for profit. Selling our valuable collections just to rebuy a different copy in similar or better collection is just too much work.
The other issue I see with this is, whos to say the box being graded is even real, or if theres even a game inside it? Whos going to think to invest in something like this to crack it open and truly see and make the item 'worthless'? No one... for all we know, they could be putting a blank cart, or something weighted insidew, have a reprint of the box and seal it themselves, than bam, 'grade' it some how and be done. Profit.... It's a scam is so many ways and whos to say if there doing this or not. There really isn't any way to tell and with the prices as they are it's just... yikes...
In a gold rush, the people who get rich are the ones selling the shovels
What a true statement 👏
51:22 spotted :^) , real quick shot but its there
Toilet paper shares went down now
That is hilarious because they're literally grading a TON of *shovelware*
Brb. About to monopolize the controller market 👌
The joy of retro gaming has been ruined by greedy profiteers. I miss those days of going and picking up loose carts for $3-$5 bucks, complete games for $5-$15. This video was eye opening and spot on; thanks for the great work!
Karl's accent is making Pawn Stars sound much more exciting than it really is
It does make him sound more professional though.
I could not hear pawn stars at all
@@stevedoidoultimate4815 holy shit dude, 7/10 comment sections i go have some connection to brazil lol
Reminds me of the kind of people I'd watch at night
@@ryandyer3466 no it makes it sound like something else lol, like a different word that's very similar...
Legendary video my friend.
You are a bit late on the verified comment group
Austin!! Great to see you here :D
@@solanumtuberosa Austin is a busy man
eyy it's the computer guy
Damn, everyone's here, Austin, muta, critical nobody, shank mods
Thanks for including me as a part of this video. I appreciate it!
nice content
Absolute Legend.
Karl reached out to me after leaving this comment on your channel, Pat (37:10). I then approached UA-camr "Reserved Investments" about the project Karl was working on, and Shaun said he was already on board with the investigation. Great to see the UA-cam community working together to expose corruption in our favorite hobby. The amount of evidence Karl was able to come up with in this video is staggering.
Thanks for including THE POTATO BOY as a part in the video. I kajaijhwhwihwiuhwjihaiuhaija ianjianajinaluihauukhauukha it!
The irony of getting angry at this but defending Blizzard with Diablo Immortal...
What's really strange to me is although sealed boxes are very sought after; they have largely misread the market. The most expensive pieces (at least when I was following collecting) were bit mint in box pieces, they were obscure and rare items that either a)never had full releases b)never had any releases or c) some developers tool. While inbox pieces are pricey it was usually this kind of stuff that was the most valuable in large part due to scarcity of their original run and the details behind it's manufacturing
For people wanting an example- Nintendo World Championships (never officially released, was part of a game competition in like a magazine or something in the 80's) used to be called the holy grail of Nintendo collectors, and it was just a loose cart.
I think that you’re missing an important point; if they pump up rare items it only stimulates a few sellers and buyers. If they make widely available items more valuable it creates a wave of movement in sales and in hype. "Wow such a well known game is worth that much? What about other great games?’ I’m no expert but it creates a longer lasting hype if more people can engage with it. I see your point about rarity but these people don’t care about video game history.
@@loganmyall660the '80s *
Karl really likes poking bears and it's great. I hope this exposé doesn't lead to another series of spurious lawsuit threats
Let's support him, if it happens.
Hopefully there will be people with the means standing up for Karl.
He is poking bubbles
There's way more money behind this. This won't be "spurious lawsuit threats": this will be a lawsuit to shut him up, and it's going to come. He's gonna need a legal defense fund already, can pretty much guarantee.
Or they just send a hit man.
You, Sir, have massively outdone yourself with the amount of research and the work that has gone into the production of this video. I myself have done some investigative journalism in the past and I know how tedious this work can be, going through thousands of pages of documents just to get some background info on some topic, talking to people that are hard to get otherwise, get the best sources possible. And I was just writing, which - from a production point of view - is the easiest thing to do. Massive congratulations!
Appreciate it
@@karljobst ❤💯👍👍👍fingers crossed you spark a change in the industry
Karl going from discussing gaming drama to literally exposing corporate fraud is amazing, you go man!
Lol the ghost of Karl Marx has possessed this man
Well not really. It’s little more then insinuations and tangentially related events, with a heaping of personal incredulity. It’s realistically a starting point and Hopefully someone else will be able to do some actual research gather evidence that can actually make a change.
@@kx7500 You don't have to be a marxist to be disgusted by the likes of Jim Halperin. The guy's a crook. Plain and simple. This is the polar opposite of a "free market".
@@wallyman292 you do need to be an anti capitalist if you want to offer a solution to the problem, though.
@@kx7500 Really??? I"m a capitalist, and I'd offer the solution that this man halperin and several of his accomplices need to be arrested, fined heavily (for the second time in halperin's case) and put in prison for a number of years.
One thing this kinda reminds me of is when Goodwill (which they even advertised in their own stores) and news outlets started to talk about how someone got a sofa years ago and found money inside. During that time, I hardly saw many at the stores. Once that story hit, many were near the sofas, trying to find money as I seen a guy sitting on one the day after reaching in to see if there was anything inside. Then started the news about things for sale in the locked up cases and people reselling for more, which started the resellers coming in with their coffee and stalking the people bringing out carts and once, even starting a small fight at one store I was at. Since then, prices went up cause of all that and was bad cause I saw things from Dollar Tree that was more than buying them new from Dollar Tree themselves.
*Wooow* that moment when you made that Halperin connection between the coin and video game bubble...
Investors riding high during a recession period. ”It’s a big club, and you aren’t in it.” Pretty sure that was from George Carlin.
Real eye-opener! What a scumbag.
That was some real Ace Attorney stuff ngl.
As soon as I noticed Halperin's name, my brain totally did a *record scratch noise*. Wait, WHAT?! lol.
like, how do you even find that? can you do a search for any place his name comes up? or do you have to already know to check into coins?
like how do you make that connection? I'm so impressed
It's the same problem with fossils market.
Now, exceptional fossils (like complete skeletons of dinosaurs) are sold at prices so big by auction houses that national museums can't buy them. Even when multiple museums band together!
Now, those paleontogistic tresors are disappearing in private collections and will never be studied by reserchers.
;w; Sad that so much knowledge went by the wayside in the pursuit of $$$.
They are missing an opportunity. They should rent the fossels back to the musiums at a premium.
The capitalist market has reached a choking point, the rich are too rich and the poor are too poor. This kind of shit is going to continue until the complete collapse of our society as we know it.
@@barry1902 uh huh..
somehow i doubt your solution involves more freedom and liberty
@@cosmichemistry Unfortunately, "freedom and liberty," in the sense of no restrictions to what one can do, are exactly what led to this mess in the first place. These people are too _free_ to restrict others' freedoms themselves. The freedom to restrict others' freedoms is one that is worth restricting.
It's the same kind of deal of "is it tolerant to tolerate another's intolerance."
Karl Jobst creating a new speedrun category: exposing scammers 100% speedrun
100%? that will take a while
"Exposing Market Fraud - Lawsuit%" more like.
Karl's done a good thing, but these people ARE going to go after him for this. There's too much money involved.
I’d never miss an episode
100% is impossible, the contents are randomly generated with no end
We call it as "exposing wall street%"
I'm sorry the accent when he says "pawn stars" catches me off guard everytime
I had this in the background and I thought they were just VERY desperate
13:30
I thought he was talking about porn for some reason
Pornstars
That's how pawn is pronounced - hence the pun "pawn stars".
Your vids are getting more and more epic. What a journey from speedruner to serious investigative journalist.
Being called a journalist is an insult, more than anything
@@arcanehornet Unfortunately, but the point still stands. Journalism outside of the rare instances and few exceptions is a dead industry.
Love your art TenHun!
@@arcanehornet ok, how about Public Investigator?
@@arcanehornet nope it's not , look at the brave female journalist in Afghanistan and an indian journalist died covering the talibans. A lot of journalists do deserve respect .
I feel like I am actually watching a journalist doing in depth research about a topic. It's a breath of fresh air actually listening to in depth research on a topic and not just an opinion piece we see every night on CNN/MSNBC/FOX.
I’ve got a guy in eBay whose bragging about owning an original sealing machine- Karl figure out to Dm me i think you’re going to want to read this conversation
He is a journalist at this point, i think you don't to have that label or career to be recognized as one, the investigation, work and passion he has is more than enough to be one
My thoughts EXACTLY. Why can’t we have some real journalists. Nobody believes anything anymore
@@dean7528 Hi. When you say an original machine, you mean one from a game company's factory?
Pultzer prize time
Great vid. I hope they're shut down in a way where they can't just start up again with a new collectible
honestly the kind of thing that makes me think speculation should be illegal, period
@@evanjacoby7805 It should be. Especially speculation on large scales (Hedge funds influencing the stock market and real estate, 2008 could've easily been avoided..)
These kinds of people will always be around and it's difficult or impossible to make laws to prevent it. The best thing we can do is to educate potential buyers so that they don't fall for this scam.
There is a famous cartoon that had two panels. One panel was labeled "ways to grow rich" which had activities like hard work. The other panel was labeled "ways to grow poor", which had speculation, gambling, and that sort of thing.
Of course, some people are beyond help. I remember back in the bitcoin days someone ran a bitcoin ponzi scheme. Everyone knew it was a ponzi scheme and its creator almost admitted as much. And yet people were still buying into it. Eventually he ran off with everything. Some people are just beyond help.
@@evanjacoby7805 This kind of speculation is pretty scummy but I can't think of a worse response to it than to ban all speculation. What you're asking for is a law to make it impossible for fools to be parted from their money. Which is impossible, but politicians would love for you to beg them for more laws to try.
That's a lot for words for "I hope they go to prison"
It’s insane that graders charge a percentage of the graded value! I figured they just charged a flat fee.
this is standard for every auction house on earth. they all charge a percentage of the total cost, and 40% is standard
@@TacoTuesdey He is talking about the graders taking a percentage, not the action house, you clown
@@TacoTuesdey absolutely not what @Bang Bang meant. Wata charging percentile and not flat is a HUGE conflict of interest
@@TacoTuesdey the AUCTION HOUSE yes. the graders/appraisers absolutely not, that's a massive immediate conflict of interest.
@@LauraLovesHugs you don't get it, he's trying to say that they are all scammers
the idea that getting something graded costs a percentage of value instead of a flat rate is just down right fraudulent.
amazing how people will overlook clear conflicts of interest for a gamble to make it rich
It raises concern. Or rather, it really should raise concerns for anyone thinking of doing business with a company having that policy. The fraud really is in the racketeering of the whole thing between circles of key people, but getting a sense for the motive is a sign of working intuition.
@@groomersgotohell Ah. The rich and powerful narrative within a select demographic people-group. That really only comes down to opportunistic individuals having their own bent for control. Dumbing it down to broad labels is…well, dumb.
You'd probably do a simple moving job for a couple hundred bucks.
Would you do a moving job full of fragile valuables for a couple hundred bucks or would you raise the price because handling valuables puts you at some risk
@@russellm2555 There should be a hard cap they don't go over, at least, not a percentage that can forever scale up. Sure, a harder, more valuable item filled moving job you'd charge more for, but you wouldn't be like "Ok, we charge 5% of your total networth to move your stuff" like WATA is basically doing with each item, lol. Also, with moving stuff, or working on someone's house, etc, you have insurance to cover potential damages to help mitigate the risk. You don't take a flat percentage of their networth and try to justify it by saying "well it puts me at some risk" instead of insurance, or ontop of insurance. I've painted multi-million dollar houses. We didn't ask for a flat percentage of the house's value or the owner's networth to cover our risk from working on such an expensive place. We just had insurance. Sure, we charge more for a big job, especially if there's parts that will be an extra hassle or be complicated, but not a percentage that can scale and scale up way too high to absurdity.
Here before Karl gets sued for slander.
Lucky for Karl Truth is a wonderful defense against slander ;)
@Thaddeus Cosse if you have reason to believe it's not I'm sure myself and a lot of others would love to see it. Does appear like he has done his research here.
Karl: ah sh*t here, we go again... anyway, who's hungry? I took a cooking course on Skillshare.
Yay :D
Me too
This is a legitimate credible piece of investigative journalism. Incredible job, Karl.
I mean he just explained how a pump and dump works. One of favorite books is Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Lists every single bubble from the last 1000 years in detail.
@@sorsorsor11 Yeah, but he also provided a lot of evidence for how the people involved with this are tied together, which is the investigative part.
@@sorsorsor11 Which video did you watch? He explained a lot more than that...
@@danieljensen2626 Oh yeah no question, but you cant prosecute. Its like pumping up the price of dogecoin or a minecraft silver on a server. There are things that are totally unethical frauds, but legal.
@@TehCommentMaster LOL not dissing him, he did a great job, just saying this happens literally every day. Or maybe I just spend too much time watching stocks and reading SEC filings for a decade...
I think this might be the first youtube video to ever pre-pop a speculative bubble. I followed the Heritage Auction tag on Instagram because I love looking at old coins, and you would be shocked how far this video reached. Every comment on random vase posts was referencing this vid. It rightly tore down the reputation of these companies. I'm really excited to see how the internet continues to affect the market, for one guy to decrease a company's value by likely hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars is thrilling. This is Dan's NFT video for the retro gaming world.
"If I lose $15,000 on this..."
I wish I had "family and neighbors" who would just throw me a $15k stake to gamble away.
he said that in the most condescending way too
@@jamesderepentigny5446 all decent and heallty people.
Yea, sure.
@@milosmevzelj5205 he said wealthy 😜
All on red!
me too, but just could, even if they wouldn't.
Excellent video, and awesome journalism work. If this is true, it would really explain a lot. It's so frustrating seeing a hobby I love so much become more and more inaccessible due to the price surge. I'm surprised it has flown under the radar this long. Hopefully it gets a lot more traction.
I mean, I have made sure that 8 of the sources exist, and before showing them this video, I asked a critical thinker and they predicted about half of the video. While the alerts in red letters are heavy handed, I feel that's a necessary measure in this day and age, as long as proof is screenshot
I'm involved in the retro game industry.
When I heard these headlines, I instantly thought "There is something wrong about this. I'm not sure what, but it is completely fraudulent evaluation." It wasn't just hedge funds snapping up new investment verticals in a pandemic bubble. There was something just 'off' about it all.
Boy, I didn't realize how 'off' things were. This was an excellent documentary. Dude. Honestly.
Amazing work. Truly amazing.
Couldn't agree more!
Same, Like $1 million for a game that everyone has.
They been doing this in every industry. In every facit of life for dacades now. Same old scam.
Same
How are you involved on the retro games industry?
13:32 (Listening while cooking) "They took to cart where?!"
I thought something was really weird as soon as I heard that games were selling for this much on EmpLemon's channel
Like seriously, Super Mario Bros selling for millions? My old local retro game store sold copies of that for less than $5. I don't care how good of condition the box is in, it can't be worth THAT much.
Mah Bread! (Edit: autocorrect WHY)
Yeah but which fossil did you take and how much was it graded
@@supyo1 Yeah a few thousand to few hundred thousand with the steepest exponential climb I've seen since bloated memecoins. Seems pretty legit to me. Now just wait when the price doubles again in under a year, because that's how collectables work.
I thought the same thing. The shop by my school sold boxes super Mario in mint condition for 299. I thought someone would have to be dedicated to buy
I remember seeing the price for $0.09 in a Funcoland flyer
36:35 Was awesome working with you on this video, Karl! Thank you for standing up against corruption in the realm of video games!
only thing left is to go after counterfeits and pirated copies. Market is large but also scams the user with copies of video games that are legit almost unplayable due to piracy checks.
I just want to point out they are already doing this with NFTs manipulating market, owners and creators buying their own NFTs to inflate the price
NFTs were doomed from inception to be speculation bombs. I'm sorry that many young artists will get left holding the bag when the bubble pops.
I laughed at even the idea of NFTs. Sounded even more ridiculous than the virtual real estate scam, and twice as corrupt. Nobody believed me.
No single tool I have has been more useful than skepticism these past 7 years or so. I have been vindicated every single time. Let me tell you right now, especially in our current sociopolitical climate, there is nothing more powerful than refusing to be manipulated. If you think that something seems too good to be true, or that something doesn't add up, or that something is missing, *believe yourself.* Do not let yourself be swayed by anything but your own research and intuition. Know when you are being played, and by whom. The harder you are being pushed to blindly accept or believe something, the harder you need to push against it. The louder something is being screamed, the less attention it deserves. The more widely accepted something is, the more scrutiny it warrants. Do not let yourself be a statistic.
@@ootdega I agree with you.
This shit is done in every market. Art market, stock market and worst of all the property market
Oh naturally. NFTs are probably the worst scheme of them all as you don't literally have anything physical to hold. You don't even have to buy it to own the image.
This is one of he most incredible videos I've ever seen. I remember loving your old Billy Mitchell videos but who would have known you would uncover such a massive scam. Congratulations on a job well done, genuinely a hero for doing all this work for the community.
So to everyone who actually wants the game, because it is that specific game from your childhood and not because of money: Don't buy anything in the next couple years. Wait for the bubble to pop, then grab the stuff cheap.
And to those who just want to play said games: Just go with emulation at this point. It will become more and more important for preservation anyway.
I remember buying a sealed copy of Aria of Sorrow on GBA long before this nonsense started happening. Opened that sucker up and plugged it into my Classic NES GBA SP and had a blast going through it.
All these collecting bubbles cannot burst soon enough...
@@CyberDragon10K I bought sealed boxed set of Lunar 2 Eternal Blue Complete many years ago and opened and played it myself.
@@CyberDragon10K i fucking hope so cause then i can grow my atari 2600 collection and probably afford the required parts to fix it as well.
How far is the price going to plummet?
@@the_kovic sadly rogue squadron is still an issue
Karl, as a collector for the last 20 years, I have to thank you for making this video. Prices were already ridiculous with every legitimate company trying to get into the market, and these guys have only made it worse. Hopefully, your video will help push these people out of the market so we can all get back to business as usual.
Yeah, I mourn the loss of my original Pokemon HeartGold. The prices now for getting a legitimate copy?
@@RooftopRose079 same man; my house got renovated in 2014 and after that I couldn't find it again.
During that time it was around $80 new, then in 2018 it shot up to $300, weird thing is it's still around that price and the pokewalker accessory is really hard to find; sellers marking it over $100, feels like market manipulation.
On my lost game, I had all the event pokemon from Ruby/Sapphire to the last ones for Heart/Soul Gold/Silver, felt pretty bummed out when I couldn't find it.
@@RooftopRose079 If it's any consolation, the bubble will burst and prices will come down, be it in 10 or 20 years (hopefully doesn't take that long).
@@Zed-Corps Yea a few years back you could sell a game and get it back later for a smaller higher amount but now if you sell you are expected to pay 3-5 times the amount in a year span. Sad
And we had a perfect example of speculation inflating prices just a few months ago. When Sony announced they'd be shutting down the PS3 and Vita stores, prices for the games skyrocketed. Then when Sony changed their minds after fan backlash, the prices went back down. Vita games are still kinda expensive, but that at least makes some sense. Most Vita games didn't have hundreds of thousands of copies printed like PS3 games did.
Halperin's early life section on wikipedia is quite interesting, commiting fraud since he was 13 years old! Now that's a man dedicated to his craft.
More people should see this!
This man was on the grindset from an early age
Early life shows he's a member of the small hat tribe every single time.
Can't you start a lawsuit against those ppl. ?
You can just take this video to the police 😂.
Halperin is from the blue blood ruling caste families for sure. This isn't the first one Karl has unearthed; Bettencourt and his fake Mario speedrun was the other. Halperin's wiki is a goldmine. The fact he's pulled the same scam in the coin market show's he is protected by some powerful people.
His niece Molly DeWolf Swenson was a White House intern under the Obama administration, for example. Halperin also attended spook feeder schools including Middlesex School, then later Harvard. Halperin also endows the James & Gayle Halperin Foundation, so he knows how to run a charity tax evasion front as well.
If you need some extra vomit, he also wrote a sci-fi novel called *The Truth Machine*, which is about a genius who develops an infallible lie detector, that every citizen must pass in order to get a job or license, thus "eliminating dishonesty in all parts of human interaction..". Of course, the inventor of the machine created a backdoor, allowing him to avoid detection. Gee, this story sounds familiar..
I'm a couple of years late but I've known about at least part of this story for years. I had no idea the rabbit hole was this deep, of course.
Videogame collecting has been a passion of mine, and it's getting to the point where I'm no longer able to afford it. It breaks my hearts to see what these people are doing just to enrich themselves even further, as it's pricing me out of one of the few things that's brought me joy and given me a purpose in my miserable life.
I used to give myself a budget of $1000 a year (which is less than 100 a month on entertainment/hobby spending). Before I could easily walk away with over 100 games over the course of the year, now I consider it a good year if I get even a third of that.
I feel bad for a lot of the people who are going to go broke too, when the bubble inevitably bursts. And these criminals will walk away with killings.
I hope one day something is done and this whole racket is stopped, and they face real consequences instead of just moving on to another artificial bubble. But I'm not optimistic.
So apparently Wata games replied (from Nintendo Life):
"Wata Games is the trusted leader in collectible video game grading and we're honored to play a key role in this booming industry that we are incredibly passionate about. We're humbled by the support of our thousands of customers who trust us to provide accurate and transparent grading. The claims in this video are completely baseless and defamatory and it is unfortunate that Mr. Jobst did not contact us to give us the opportunity to correct him."
Seems like they wanted to "convince" Karl to "reconsider" details in his video before releasing it
ugh... they just write the expected. blablabla customers blablabla trust blablabla we are good company.
Notice they didn't mention any specific claims that are "baseless". They could have easily said "No these people aren't directors and have no financial stake in Wata" IF THAT WERE THE CASE. But instead just run of the mill corporate speak for "we don't like it when you point out our shitty practices". Reminds me of the recent Homestuck video by Sarah Z.
download this video just in case shit happened...... At high quality.
And they will be releasing their publication reports to make people feel better?
Also, Jobst shot back at Wata Games's response by tweeting this gem:
"We have conducted an investigation (and in record time!) and find ourselves to be innocent."
Billy Mitchell: "I'm gonna be the scummiest and most disgusting con-man and fraud in video game history"
Jim Halperin: "Hold my coin collection"
Deniz Khan has a scummy haircut just like Billy Mitchell
Fun fact. Kahn and Halperin both belong to a certain group that specialises in usury and speculation. It's amazing.
Bernie Madoff: how cute
Nah man Deniz is cool I think he should be head of Heritage for it also lol
@@firaselachkar4159 Eric H. Naierman also !
I've never heard of any kind of appraisals that cost a % of the products estimated value, and not a flat fee. And I work with professional appraisers. Absolute scam to charge like that, as it OBVIOUSLY means they'll over estimate everything.
Right?? Huge conflict of interest just in that one aspect of this whole mess...
As someone who's younger brother is getting into higher value pokemon cards, many of those appraisal services also take a greater fee depending on the value of the card. This makes sense to me though because the value of any individual card can be easily verified, and getting a high rating generally boost the value by a predictable amount.
Also for higher value cards, they have to be that much more careful with it to make sure they don't cause any damage themselves, something that is super easy to do especially when many flaws can only be seen through a jewelers loupe or something similar.
It also makes lower value cards (~$100) much cheaper to appraise often at around $25 when the value can increase by much more than that with a high score (which is luck of the draw considering most flaws are printing errors).
Also since there is competition in thos market, there are appraisal companies who's decisions have ruined their reputations, so in this field they have to be careful and appraise well to be trusted by the community to maximize their income.
Yea, auctioneer here- appraisal fees on a sliding scale based on the "value" of the item is a racket, plain and simple.
It flatly makes no sense why it could or should cost more to evaluate an object/game
As a retro collector who lost a huge chunk(not pat the nes punk levels, but still about 3 grand total) of their collection to water damage about 2 years before this bubble this pisses me off so bad. I can barely find stuff out side the internet anymore.
I suppose I should say it's good they got sued and the market is going back down, i was unaware this was the reason prices spiked a few years ago when i decided to start collecting again. The old nintendo stuff still hasnt gone down enough, but im sure itll even out soon. Used to grab nes consoles from thrift stores and the like for between $20- $50 now they go for like 180 online , and goodwill and other thrift stores using online auction prices has ruined alot of those places. Saw an unsealed wow TBC collectors box in rough shape selling for $600 at a thrift store the other day. That's what they go for sealed online, and in good shape no less. Shit was bonkers
This video is the pinicle of "I'm going to ruin this man's entire career".
Karl has presented a crown court worthy level of detail to spank these muppets with and I love it!! There's still 20 mins of the video left and my jaw is just on the floor. Thank you Sir Karl
@@Mocha. how is this man not behind bars 🤷🤦🏻♂️
@@Don_Dilla *13*
This makes emulation look so much more attractive, especially to people who actually want to PLAY the retro games they search for and get.
That's been the way with retro games since good emulators started coming out. Collecting is on some level about acquiring the real items - it's about the thrill of the hunt, getting the real object to hold in your hands. But if you just want to experience the gameplay, the emulators are just a Google away.
Seriously, and I have replica SNES and Saturn controllers that work great for any sega or nintendo emulated games, and the Playstation controllers never changed much, so using the PS4 one on old PSX/PS2 games feels great. I miss cartridges and the giant physical collection I once had, but it was all stolen, so I just use emulation now..
This actually puts me in a decision making dilemma, because on one hand I love owning physical copies of the games I play, but on the other hand, emulation would be so much easier for playing the games I want and I wouldn't have to go through the nonsense of dealing with overinflated prices
@@KipsterMc Maybe you could do both - emulate the games you want and if you're able to get the physical copies, get those as well.
@@stephaniethebatter7975 That is true. Really, for the games I want, I can probably get most of them physically as long as they're not Nintendo games
"When people realize how common some of these games are, prices will be destroyed."
God I hope one day I can find Earthbound for under $200. Its disgusting.
I actually bought it last year for $130. Was really surprised with how the price skyrocketed a year later.
@@Jackie_Fhan just the cartridge. Cib costs around $1000
@@abdallahalbaiti3252 COVID has had an impact on prices in recent months.
I remember Best Buy had dozens of these for $10 each or something when N64 was out.
I hope for your sake that you're able to, as well. Earthbound was a super-common game at release (at $70 US, since it came with a strategy guide, while normal Nintendo 1st-party releases were $60 in those days) and after, even going so far as to go on clearance for $5-$10 a couple years after it was released. If memory serves me correctly, something like 300,000 copies were sold in the US. Earthbound is not rare, and neither is Chrono Trigger (400,000 sold) or several other RPGs typically lumped therein. Great games, though, by and large, and ones deserving of being tracked down to play and collect...just not overpaid for.
I have a decent collection and can’t wait for the bubble to burst. I want more people to enjoy these classic games. This hobby should be for those who want to preserve gaming history and most importantly for gamers.
Me too. I wanted to start collecting them and was disappointed on the marked up prices
Thanks Karl, for including me in the video! Awesome work!
This is the kind of journalism that truly deserves to be protected. Another dead ringer, Mr. Jobst.
look at my channel about the clintons. the clintons did this shit in the 90s big time with property and drugs. its super easy to verify
another _dead ringer?_
for what?
@@selfademus he was right on the bell, hit the nail on the head.. are you Bailing what I'm Swathing here, or should I explain further?
Tyler Brewer
pretty smug fer someone so clueless.
learn what a _dead ringer_ is, doofus.
@@tylerbrewer8863 he's got you on your use of dead ringer. I can't believe I liked this comment without spotting that.
The biggest fraud of these grading companies is that they charge progressively more for their services is the item is high value. Looking at, grading, and then encasing a collectible should be a flat cost.
Oops, this was worth a million dollars! Give us 10%!
Yes! This is a problem for so many collectible communities, they shouldn’t be able to change it based on the worth of the collectible, that’s bullshit.
Exactly, charging you a fee based on the price they assign to your item is such a massive conflict of interest, it obviously incentivizes them to inflate the value as much as possible. It astonishes me that these companies aren't immediately shut down for the obvious scams that they are.
Same shit realtors do.
@@maythesciencebewithyou No. The difference is realtors collect a percentage of the sale price on an open market. CGC and WATA collect a progressive fee based on the speculative value of the comic or game. No sale has occurred. No open market has established the assessed value for that item. Nothing but an incentive to rate the collectible with a high value so that the fee is higher.
Karl needs to do one on the housing market too, realtors, home inspectors, banks and fake bidders. All destroyed any chance for middle class and young people to ever own houses
Karl you have a rare combination of 2 things: 1) Careful, conscientious, fair research. 2) High courage at speaking truth that cuts against people who can (and do) legally threaten you. This channel has become absolute gold, one of the best on UA-cam.
I’d add 3) the ability to explain that research in a straightforward, engaging manner. Fantastic video.
@@heety9 Agreed, on all three.
yep. karl should have millions of subs for his courage and diligence. what an awesome humsn being.
Karl my name is Mark. I am a video game player, collector, and avid trader of video games with a collection of 6050+ games in my collection. I am friends with people like Michael Thomasson who held the Guiness Book Of World Records title for most video games and talk to certain other collectors who are good people.
I have said for the longest time that since the market started to rise in 2008, that something was going on and things were being manipulated. You don't just have places like WATA, you have people who buy games as well as companys who sell on ebay and also physical stores buying their own product.
There are massive shady practices and I pray that this video helps expose more of it. The main thing I think that needs an anecdote to this is that loose games have suffered immeasurably from this, where it was not mentioned enough that loose, and complete non-graded games are skyrocketing. Ebay records prices for thier "buy it now" even if a game is not delivered/canceled delivery. Manny shady companies are buying games and selling thier own stock to drive the "buy it now" up. They are mostly american companies but I speculate a few canadian ones as well.
Also one more thing, there are communities of individuals who choose a game to make it scarce to skyrocket the prices just so they can have the certain game they own, valuable as a personal pride thing, not letting others in the "cool kid club" unless they pay.
I appreciate you making this video and validating things I have said for almost a decade.
Hey, I just started this video and I'm not sure if the topic of Reproduction Carts comes into play. I wanted to ask, considering you're so deeply invested in the community. I thought it'd be neat to hear your opinion. I dont have as large of a collection as yours, just a boxfull of Genesis cartridges and some ps2 games. Some are CIB, some are not. However, when it came to the Genesis games, I picked up a few reproductions for the simple purpose that I wanted to add a physical copy of the game to my library. They were never marketed as a genuine cart, I got it at a reduced price. I can see the issue of reproductions when you're actively attempting to FIND a genuine, and the two are getting mixed together, however I don't hate the existence of them. Where do you stand? Thanks!
"If I lose 15 grand on you, It's not the end of the world." God, I cant imagine being in that position
I can imagine it being there but still outrageous when you think about other people barely making ends meets, it’s an disgusting attitude to have and very wasteful.
There exist way richer people than this. Yes him and his friends and family are clearly upper middle class but I don't see anything wrong about this. (Other than the dishonest market manipulation)
@@herrabanani Bruh how can you not see the grotesque disregard for $15,000 when that amount is monumental to 60% of the population. That is not middle upper class
@@herrabanani i had no idea rich people exist
@@MYNAMACHEF imo middle upper class is about 100,000 a year, but that might just be where i'm from
I think a big part of mainstream video game collecting (at least, in my experience) is having _working copies,_ not just museum pieces. It's cool having a piece of history that you can still use. I don't care about what my games are worth. I care that I have them and they work.
The thing is, I never would've heard of this issue if it weren't for Karl, this absolute legend is quite a hero in my book.
Dang you are everywhere 😂
ffs is there a video on this platform u have not commented on?
He's a better journalist than anyone at WashPo, the Times, Polygon or any other rag that uncritically propagated the $2,000,000 Super Mario Bros story.
This, very much so. I'd love to see this video and message propagated more widely by media outlets. Same guy getting away with the same shit, again.
@@Dusty_B I was thinking the same thing
Incredible PSA. Thanks for shining light on this issue you absolute legend.
Weird as hell seeing you in a random comment section considering all of my friends are a fan of yours yet I'm not. Just feels funny
you are the last person i expected to be here\
@@nysreme7
Krinkels is one of the few "big" channels that still use their mains for commenting normally
@@theinternetpolice2078 cool
You know you're a Texan whan you hear PSA and think Palmetto State Armory.
"write down as we go along or rewatch sections more than once."
Karl literally a professor now.
"You may need to take notes or watch multiple times".
No mate, you did a perfect job and it was easy to keep up and follow the players.
Really enjoyed this one man. When you linked it back to the same people doing the same thing with coins in the 80s I audibly gasped. Your investigative reporting is on the level of an HBO doc here.
Dig a little further on Jim Halperin. There's a Forbes article that states he's been pulling scams since the 60's... When he was 13. No joke. Dude popped out of the womb as a grifter.
Damn lol and here I am happy buying fire emblem 30th anniversary for MSRP $50 on amazon renewed that includes the digital game for nes. And I thought people paying $200 for it was too rich for my blood. That's nothing compared to these crazy bubbles.
It only makes sense that the same people who took all the fun out of collecting coins, comic books and baseball cards are doing the same thing now with video games. Grifters gonna grift.
They need to do an HBOMAX doc on this. They REALLY do. This should be national news. And the news needs to stop propping up these greedy manipulative mother fuckers. Shows you the lack of investigative reporting being done.
Same, it's weird that they still are allowed to work in this field after that happened
Deniz Khan's reply to every question
- "one day a video game is going to sell for over a million dollars"
51:22 spotted :^) , real quick shot but its there
Dude just watch him giving a tour of "his video game collection". He says things that make no sense.
“A Fool And His Money Are Soon Parted”
Meanwhile people are getting rich... Maybe they aren't fools after all.
This only applies to the other 99% of us. The 1% just keep getting richer and continue to take the piss.
@@xenorace I guess I'm confused. The 1% only make money when other people give them money... How, in this situation, are the "99%" losing money?
@@maxamos7 Because the 1 percent is making money off the 99 percent who will be holding the "investment" when it collapses and is worth nothing.
@@mryorkielover the 99% can't afford to invest when the prices are as high as they are. So no, they won't be.
I live in York, PA where the Just Press Play chain is located and I used to love going to that store. This is absolutely devastating.
I usually shake my head when I see retro games costing $300-400, but this is on a whole other level of insanity.
300-400 isnt that unreasonable depending on the conditions and age of it, but yeah i do agree.
@@DoctorBones1 bruh no game is worth that much especially how much we're seeing for ps2 and xbox original
@@DraftyRum im talking like antique tier of video games and 300-400 is around the max of how much i would be willing to pay for a game i really want to own, if its for ps2 and xbox then yeah youre getting ripped off
@@DoctorBones1 Raidou Kuzunoha 1 and 2 shouldn't be $300 disk only
@@DoctorBones1 I remember when SO3 (a ps2 game) was being sold for up to 300 bucks on ebay back in the late 2000s - early 2010s lmao
Holy fuck KJ did it again.... You absolute savage this is so juicy - I love it.... Let's hope this gets sorted appropriately and no innocent folks see any financial or legal harm as a result.
fuck yea
Tarkov let's goooooo
When Tarkov and retro game collecting combine, a wild Veritas appears
Tarky time
HEY i think i know that guy!!!!!
Holy shit. The way I gasped when reading ahead during that coin collector's lawsuit in the 80's. It's pretty obvious that the scheme exists, but rarely does anyone see just how dirty it all gets when digging deep enough.
Applause to you, Karl, and a hope that this bites all these billionaires in the ass, eventually.
It also goes to show how meager those fines are and how it doesn't actually deter these companies from doing the same thing over and over again. You know they made far more than 1.2 million on their first coin scam and now that video games are getting way more popular they're in these guys' crosshairs.
And you have no idea how deep it actually goes. This is peanuts compared to something like housing or other commodities. If there's a market to manipulate, it's been done. And you can guarantee it's dirty as hell.
This is amazing. I can't believe you spent so much time on this! This type of thing happens a lot, but you really tracked down every detail . impressive.
This absolute madlad going into detail without use of the word "allegedly" Karl, you absolute legend!
true
A legendly.
Allegation is a suggestion of truth.
This is established faxxx
@@garystinten9339 I'm not disagreeing; it was more a comment on Karl's moral courage
@@TheRogueVandil I never thought you did 😁
this has really lowered my opinion of the pawn stars guys.. kinda makes me want to call and ask if they have battletoads..
It never hurts to ask.
Underrated comment
You should always ask but be extremely long winded before asking for the title. Waste as much time as you can.
@@MrJohnlennon007 pretend to be a 70 year old grandpa with a stutter wanting to buy Battletoads for their grandson, but can't really remember the title.
Hello, is this GameStop?
Seemed pretty obvious that there were some shenanigans with the latest sales, and I was disappointed to see how much coverage those sales received, because that was clearly the goal of them. What I didn't expect was what a massive conflict of interest this whole thing turned out to be. Thanks for bringing so many eyes onto it.
51:22 spotted :^) , real quick shot but its there
A sealed copy of FF7 selling for $140,000 sounds so absurd. Like, There's no reason it shouldn't be anymore than a few thousand at MAX. Its used price is below $40, even for a high profile PS1 title. How insane.
It’s very rare that you find a video as well made as this one on UA-cam. But this gets crazier when you realize that all of Karl’s video are a quality level that is out of this world. What an absolute legend.
Perfect definition of quality > quantity
Karl. I'm honored to have talked at length with such a thoughtful, independent investigative journalist like yourself. Thank you for your due diligence in keeping video games pure in every form. Well done, A++ rating on this video from me!
What's absolutely insane is that they're running a scam with Super Mario - one of the most widely available games of all time! You really can't make this stuff up!
I think it goes to show how obvious it is that no one involved in this scam actually cares about games, they just chose the most well known one and went with that.
@@werewolfwebsite that's not what they did. They know since it's the most popular, the grading company will get the most business with people trooping in to get their super mario graded since they heard they are valuable.
Also the auction houses will have a lot of business since there are a lot there to sell. Why would you choose obscure titles with few copies when you want business. You choose the one with a lot of copies out there
They thought it through and made the best decision to make easy money.
If it wasn't for pesky Karl they'd get away with it. In fact they still probably will since investment businesses are all in on it & wanna still make a profit
I have 5 cartridges of Mario I must be a billionaire😂😂
@Matthew Meditz its plástic and wasnt ment to be a real game worth 5 bucks
O and most of those game cartridges have unfortunatly a shelf life they will not work after decades and good luck restoring detereorating tech
Retro collecting was fun for a few minutes there before the buy-at-any-cost collectors drove up the prices.
That mic drop moment with the coin bubble Halperin conspiracy blew my mind - I just thought you were referencing market history, not introducing a smoking gun into the mix. Get this man a Netflix documentary…
Damn, this is scandalous. An incredible feat of investigative journalism too Karl. You're a credit to the gaming community.
As a collector myself, I am grateful Karl is exposing this bs. The vast majority of us collectors do it for the love of gaming.
These asshats do it to turn it into the stock market. Pathetic!!!
The finger used to be pointed at content creators. Now its auction houses. We have it hard enough to find games for our hobby without this. First it was pawn shops, then it was eBay, now speculators.
Effing jerks!!! Nothing is sacred!! Not coins, not cards, not comic books, and now not games!
Next will be codes for PC and Mario 3D All Stars.
Karl Jobst always does such thorough research that it really makes you realize how bare bones all other media outlets are
Just said something like that. Good journalism right? I think it’s great.
Well, would you read a hour long article? Most people just want the basics(often with bias) and move on.
Unfortunately, real journalism like this takes real efforts and can take very long time, especially if its research is very thorough. 'High risk' report like this, in particular, needs to be hole-proofed to prevent hitback by the parties being covered.
That's why some gaming sites are content just posting news about Valheim hitting new high player count or something and move on. They need the clicks to survive. It's a bit of "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation.
Most MSM is in the pockets of the capitalist establishment
@@lotus_flower2000 Articles aren't "read" by time, they're read by word count. I can put on an hour long video and listen while I do housework. I can't read even a thousand word article while I mop the kitchen.
Ground breaking videos like this shed so much light on the topic you owe it to the world to keep uncovering the truth I imagine you making an incredible documentary.
These super villains be watching Karl's videos like "I would of gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for that meddling youtuber!" 😆
@@alt4950 Wall street
You say that like they aren't getting away with it. Your Scooby Doo quote implies they were stopped
They'll still get away with it, even if caught, even if fined, because laws only functionally apply to the poor. They'll pay their million dollar fine and walk away with their 100 million dollar profit, as always. It's just an expected fee to them. This is capitalism "working."
@@Dr.Spatula 1 million people have seen this video. Even if they weren't arrested, 1 million people now know not to buy from them.
@@delphicdescant Big true, there's many documentaries about the subject. At least people who have seen the video won't support them.
I don't think I'll ever buy a sealed game let alone a graded one. My collection needs to be entirely playable and only games that I would want to play. But the prices of unsealed and ungraded games are going up crazy and it sucks
Yeah, the point of games is to play them; why else would you buy them? :-/
@@KnakuanaRka For me the point is to collect and display them. I get satisfied when I see game sealed (or any other vintage collectible item, e.g., cards). People collect cards, cars, rare watches (e.g., a vintage mint submariner), old wines etc., and they would not use them to preserve their condition.
That's what I always enjoyed about collecting. Finding a 1993 MTG card in a flawless condition gets me excited, but also anxious that it may get damaged. Consequently, seeing it then encapsulated makes me actually happy and satisfied.
I have good memories of a vintage mario game that my mom bought me when I was little, so I ended up buying a sealed and graded copy. Nothing makes me happier then seeing it displayed in my flat.
I feel the same way. The only things that should be like that are cards.
Exactly! It would make me very sad to see my games imprisoned and robbed of what they were meant to be.
I collect games because I love the games, not the cover art. I like them complete and in good condition and I put some in protective cases but that's about it.
I'm careful, but I play them, I look at the manuals and art. It's a hobby, not an investment. And that's why I sell my spare games and stuff I'm not really into. I don't need it and I'm not speculating on the price.
Also I'm not scamming buyers into paying higher prices by writing "ONE OF A KIND ULTRA RARE HISTORIC FIND" in the auction title. That's what WATA is to me. Giving this kinda scam credibility....
Also if you're like me interested in Nintendo from all generations go and buy Wii games now, nobody gibes a damn about those atm. I "finished" my Wii collection and bought 14 games I wanted for under 100€ this year. It's ridiculous. Even without a bubble they'll be 4 times that in a few years, easy. Not that I would want to sell then, but now is just a really good time to get those.
I totally understand why people collect things for display. Nothing wrong with that at all but yes me personally, i collect the ones i used to pkay growing up so i can do it again!
You definitely should make a video about NFTs and the insane prices it goes for. How about the Jpeg of a rock that is selling for 1.5 million or the cryptopunks that are going for tens of millions. There's clearly market manipulation & money laundering going on in that market. These I think are the modern tulips.
If NFTs are not Virtual money laundering IDK what is.....
Sorry what is an NFT?
@@SuppleBadger Crypto collectables where your ownership of a piece (music, picture, video etc.) is registered into the blockchain.
@@SuppleBadger non fungible token
You buy NFT's with crypto. You can't buy crypto with cash. So money laundering is unlikely. The nft bubble is more like the tulips than coins and retro games. It formed organically.
"They even took the cart on Porn Stars" is what I will always hear everytme. Thanks, Karl
I can’t wait till this bubble pops. I love collecting and I don’t care of the value of my collection. I love the history and the preservation. If my collection’s value drops to almost nothing, I couldn’t care less. That just means I can by the games I want for super cheap. It means more people can experience the games I enjoy too for cheap. Sure you can emulate and that’s completely fine. Some people like me find it fun getting the original hardware and the original game and playing that way. This is just ruining the hobby for so many people like myself so they can make a quick buck.
When wata falls I hope so
Same here future homie!
Over the past 2 years ive bought all the consoles and half of the games i used to play growing up. Some games like twisted metal 2 im going to wait for this to pop. Im not trying to make a profit nor benefit scumbags like this. I just wanna play my nostalgic games again on the original hardware, original cd skipping, original lag and sounds. 😀
These people have corrupted the hobby so much that when the bubble pops, they'd ask you "What are you gonna do with all those games now that the value has dropped immensely?" Uh, idk, play them?
yeah the prices of these games fetch is a joke, there's no way Rule of Rose is worth over a thousand dollars.
"I love the history and the preservation" which is exactly why genuine collectors exist and why collecting stuff is fun. It sucks that capitalists have to ruin everything because they just want to get money they will never use anyway. Keep being an awesome and genuine collector man, the bubble will eventually pop and with some luck these idiots will lose a lot of money.
I can‘t believe the guy I found years ago through my love for Goldeneye 64 became one of the best sources when it comes to videogame journalism. What. A. Legend
This video was just awesome my man. Thank you for making it
wena Cesarito suba video tkm
@@camaradamanuel5025 googlea mijo ya subio uno hoy
@@gabrielalarcon3179 que suba otro entonces
Wena cesarito gustos GOD
Wena César, besitos
You've taken several phrases that I've heard but never understood, and explained them in an interesting way that didn't talk down to me. Well done! Excellent video. Thank you for making it 😊
Karl, you have cemented yourself with this one as THE absolute legend. I never thought anyone with a platform such as yours would speak on this topic, because it seems like a very niche “retro gaming collector” topic. And yet you’ve done it, and I hope the cogs of change begin to turn. Thanks!
Edit: AND you featured HappyConsoleGamer? This videos getting a thumbs up from me.
Speedrun challenge "Heritage"
- Get rich quick
- scam people
- ruin a market
New world record! “Super smash bros melee announcer voice” 😂
Who'd they scam?
@@bkirk0510
- Boost up the price of an item far beyond its actual worth with media propaganda and under the table deals with auctionhouses and sellers (sellers with high position in said auction house)
- normal people buy over inflated games because they think the stuff is worth it
Id say they scammed everyone who bought games through their auction house.
@@tomoda7602 lol yeah they totally forced/scammed people to buy games through an open auction by going on Pawn Stars. Unless there's concrete proof of shill bidding on their auctions, which there isn't yet, then that's just plain false.
20:50 The second I hear this guy talking about video game trading to N-F-Ts trading people, that's the moment shit got serious. That's probably the single worst market to emerge this century, for so many reasons, and seeing video games in the same wheelhouse is somehow worse.
"if I lose 15k on you, it's not the end the world"
Me: trying to figure out if I can buy meat tonight.