What do you think about prices coming down on sealed games so much? Is it surprising? Do you think they will come down more or will rebound in the future? Let me know!
I understand if people want a sealed copy of their favorite game because that makes them happy, but people who buy something as an "asset" have no appreciation for what makes it special because they've never played it and never will. I hope their "equity" goes further down than crypto.
I will buy every game from you at the price you paid. Seems fair right? I am sure you would be happy for this to happen considering your reaction amd celebrations to people losing large sums of money on this crap.
@@mikes567 I feel exactly the same, but we’re actually gamers. These speculators are actually just assholes. There’s the difference! Rule number one with investing is knowing something about wtf you are buying. These people know jack shit about gaming and therefore know jack shit about wtf they are buying. Solid plan, assholes.
Here is a lesson I learned waaaaay back in the mid 90's from my college level economics 101 professor. A course I think should be mandatory in public schools the nation over. You can have the rarest collectable in the world and have the biggest expert say it is worth x amount of $$. But it isn't worth that much. It is worth....what someone else will pay for it. No more than that. These speculators that are whining about their games "underperforming" at auction are really whining at the potential buyers of their games because they won't pay their hyperinflated prices that they say they are worth. Too bad. Just because WATA games says one of the most common games ever made is worth 2 million dollars doesn't mean there is someone willing to pay that. Or anything close to that.
I agree with you, but I do always wondered that statement to be good water across the board. If say a coin sells 100 times for $10, but then the 101st time it sells for $2, does that mean that coin is worth $2? It sold for $10 across the board yet someone got it for $2. Oh and also f*ck grading games lol glad these prices are at least coming back to somewhat unridiculous prices
No, why did it sell for $2? If the sale was private or a hyper local market, the transaction reflects worth only between the parties or non-monetary goods were exchanged as well. If it sold for $2 on a larger market, it’s usually because supply is larger for demand, like, people quit collecting coins or a large cache was found. Heritage is more the second model here
@@mattdubovik3082 ah, I see you suffer from basic social interactions & sarcasm is lost on you. It's ok, I'm sure you have other attributes to bring to the table. Carry on.
The problem with a lot of these trendy new collecting hobbies - and I'd include NFTs in this - is that very few people actually want to be the end user of the items.
Probably the best description of any collectibles market. If you actually want the product for what it is, then go for it and do your research about its value.
This is exactly the problem. When I buy a game for my collection, my plan is to keep it forever so what it's worth after I buy it means absolutely nothing. Paying inflated prices has been rough but I got a lot of what I wanted the past three years and now I have it forever
@@damonke79 exactly and the older you get the easier you see the value of buying collectors items early on. By the time it sells for thousands fully sealed you have zero interest because you already bought it when it was 100 and have no interest in paying so much extra for it being sealed. You're pretty much paying extra for plastic wrap and a hard case you can't open unless you really don't care about selling it ever.
At least most other hobbies have something tangible unlike NFTs (I swear these are the dumbest thing ever invented). My Marvel and DC cards are worthless, but I do look at them once in a while to reminisce.
@@knghtbrd yeah I don't know anymore hardly pay for games these days I just stick to free to plays like fortnite and rocket league and games that you can physically download and modify and share legally without resorting to you know what and preserve them archive them and back them up for generations without the threat of legal action being taken on your head by Nintendo Microsoft Sony 18 one of the companies out there
@@bretton_woods never ever pre-order I learned that lesson the hard way with many of the Early Access and soon to be released games thinking I was getting such a great deal on DLC when really it was just burning myself out before the big release I guess because these days companies are turning customers into investors and by investing I mean commodifying and almost saying Good things by the game because they are invested by pre-orders and stuff
Just so you all know, Mad Dog is the one who bought the graded Mega Man for over $49k and graded Metroid for between $4k and $20k from this auction. I guess he's doubling down hoping a greater fool is going to pay more!
Back in the late middle ages, when I was in college, I learned about a concept called "constructivism". In short, it suggests that something has a value if people collectively believe that the value exists. It's hard to find a better illustration of that theory, in action, than this boom-bust cycle for sealed games.
@@LoyalWilliamUK Same with gold or silver though. It has very little value outside of some niche electronics products. The difference is that it's a lot harder to print more gold.
Retro game collecting on the whole seems very “in” right now. I’m betting half the people who only started collecting in the last 2-3 years are going to start to liquidate sooner than later. when they realize that this stuff takes up a lot of space and they don’t really have any true passion for it. Which will be fantastic for the rest of us who are still around to buy it up for reasonably sane prices (hopefully). The sealed/graded stuff never made sense for video games to begin with. I imagine that end of the hobby will go back to just a handful of incredibly niche collectors even sooner, especially with prices tanking. Which is great news for any true collectors.
People are trying to make definitive statements about supply and demand, but we haven’t even seen the actual supply for most of these games. There’s so much more out there that people just aren’t having graded or that Wata hasn’t gotten to yet.
It's funnier that everyone who is a true collector/gamer knew this was going to happen... when these investors originally said these games will only go up in value I scoffed.. they apparently have never spent a long period of time collecting anything. I hope this retro bubble pops and prices get back to just insane and not outrageously insane.
I want the prices I used to pay back in 2009, I got into collecting because I could buy games and consoles I had never played before real cheap and I had a blast discovering new to me games.
@@MAGAIVER Yep. I got into collecting around 2008 and I use to buy a console in the box with every paycheck.. even the harder to get consoles like the Atari Jaguar was around $150 boxed back then.. heck I even remember getting the Master System 3D glasses in box for dirt cheap.. sure you still had crazy priced games back then but even those weren't out of the realm of obtainable to the average collector... and things could still be found at garage sales and flea markets for good prices.... it just is not fun anymore with how high everything is.. maybe I sound bitter but when even common games are going for hundreds of dollars I just can't get into it anymore.
I used to have a 1500+ vinyl collection. The whole time I was collecting, I said it was for my own enjoyment. I moved cross country and sold my entire collection to a local record store I liked. People lost their minds at me about how I was losing "my investment". The records were never an investment to me. I collected them because I loved listening to them, no matter how rare some of them were.
Can stick all the fancy stickers on it they want, it's still a mass produced item from a timeframe we can still all vividly remember. These are a curiosity. It's so hard to wrap my head around a $14k box for Goldeneye.
Being 40 I have seen this so many times now. BTW they are moving onto cards at the moment. All of a sudden as this market is crashing the graded card market is going crazy. Look at the prices of graded pokemon, yu-gi-oh or magic cards at the moment. You can see it coming and a new generation of people (ie the pokemon card collectors instead of sports cards which they crashed in the early 90s)are going to get scammed.
Well at the nft market crashed a lot faster than I thought well maybe it's just taken off who knew a token could be so much now they're commodifying accounts game accounts steam accounts any account you think of online they can come modify it as a token and buy and sell accounts to the highest bidder
I think the important bit of evidence in all of this is the people complaining all have NFT monkey avatars. That should have really been the tell tale sign of what these people were into this for.
So, from a former Investment Banker's perspective: So, first and foremost, people shouldn't expect the auction house to do anything, that isn't their role. Obviously since it's not their job to get a specific price for their customers, but let's talk about Heritage specifically. It's basically been proven that Heritage and WATA were shilling their own items back and forth, and they didn't care enough to not engage in market manipulation. You were trying to think of an example of an asset deflating rapidly and couldn't think of one, but you don't have to look beyond Heritage for the perfect example: coins in the 80's. Heritage was found guilty of and paid damages for market manipulation of graded coins, and acting in the exact same manner they did with WATA. One point that nobody seems to be touching on is that both Heritage and WATA have been caught colluding and shilling their prices, so what's the logic in trusting Heritage at all, and who's to say that numerous games that WATA's graded aren't legitimate 9.8's or 9.6's? Once the world comes to terms with the fact that their company is just a shill mill, the credibility of their grades is going to be worthless. These idiots talking about population reports might as well be saying "well, there's one 17 shares of THIS Enron stock available! It's undervalued!" Actually, Timmy, it's fucking worthless, but thanks for stopping by. Heritage and WATA aren't your friends, they don't give a FUCK about YOU. They both actively prey upon and profit from the community they claim to support, and THEY will be fine. They get paid whether you're in a mansion or bankruptcy court, so don't get the idea that they owe you anything. Invest in what you love. If it all goes to zero, you've still got something you're passionate about.
The bubble bursted, the smart money probably moved on and the leftover hypemen and bagholders try to convince someone, anyone these overblown moon prices were ever justified. I think their big mistake was the million dollar mario. That was just too obviously stupid and greedy, else they coulda had this grift run a little longer maybe.
Yeah I remember in the early days of the internet jpgs of people building shit and making outfits made entirely out of super Mario brothers cartridges. They were everywhere.
I'm happy to see prices going down and I really hope they will continue to go more and more down in the future :) And I don't care if my own collection loses value, I'm interested in games and their history, not the money I could get if I sold them (which will never happen).
It was just a large amount of investors driving up these prices. Majority of game collectors don't give to licks if a game is sealed or open. It doesn't help most people who want games just want it opened to play. Sealed collecting is in most cases about a value vs actually caring about the games.
I like how they still try to manipulate the market by holding onto product. Wow it’s the highest graded one ever! I mean it’s the highest graded one we’ve auctioned. I mean it’s like he highest one we’ve graded…and decided to auction. These things aren’t THAT rare.
@@worldsheaviestjamband93 yeah I mean I wonder why do people buy and hold on to things that are inherently intangible in nature like games Pokemon I mean they're intangible creations because they can be easily reproduced in that sense you might as well just be holding on to patents that may well just expired
It's a long time coming and I love to watch them squirm haha! I also love how the dentist says all the speculators have left, as if he's not one of them!
Anyone know where I can buy a graded 9.0 or above tiny violin so I can play it for these dipshits who tried to artificially overvalue games for their own profit?
You're right that the auction house doesn't care what the price is. The reason is that they profit every time it goes up for auction. So if it's down now, they make their commission. If the price goes up in 2 years when the new owner sells it at auction, they get another commission. They're happiest if the owners turn the items over rapidly, and if the market continues to hold interest in the item. But if the market loses interest in the item, the auction house just moves on to facilitating auctions for items that the new market is interested in now. It doesn't matter if it's video games, comic books, movie memorabilia, sports memorabilia, guns, antiques, art, or jewelry, if there's a perception of value, and the items are unique, not commodities, people will flock to auctions to buy what they are interested in, and the auction house makes money. They don't care about what people are buying and selling, they help people buy and sell what they are interested in.
About five years ago, I bought sealed copies of Dragon Quest 4, 5, 6, and 9 for about $20-$90 a piece. What did I do with them? I ripped off the plastic shrink wrap from all four of them and played the damn games.
"At some point the auction house has to say no"...My dude, this is under performing because it's a $120 complete in box game that some decided to throw in a plastic container and give a magic number to. It was never worth anything near six figures.
This entire subject with Heritage auction house and grading video games has been a scam for money laundering. I've been collecting for 30 years, all of this is nonsense. NONE of these games are worth ANY of these ridiculous prices in the real world. Grading a game does not increase it's value to these levels, it's just not legitimate. A graded sealed copy of ANY retail game will NEVER be worth more than something like a Nintendo World Championship cart, which is in the $20k range.
Another angle that I see is that not only are these things considered Commodities now which is a shame, some people by them so they can have something nice on their Shelf. But especially with Retro Gaming with all the shadow boxes and reproduction stuff you can get if you want a nice picture of a contra you can put it up on your shelf or wall. Shelf collectors have other alternative methods than to spend
That's what I realized as I got older and fortunately it became more understood and easierto buy. Stuff like artbooks and high quality memorabilia appeal to me much more than sealed games I can never even touch lest it's value plumit, something that's not even on my mind when I buy "collectors" stuff. I'd rather have a pixel frame of metroid more people can appreciate for a literal fraction of the price of it's sealed game
The biggest problem i have with these sealed games is that the grading is based on the box. This always sound foolish to me, since this isn't like a trading or sports card (or even comic books!), where the corners, fading, centering, etc are on the actual product. All the grades... are on the box. You could be spending thousands of dollars on a N64 cart... only to find out that the cart itself is actually a worthless piece of rusted garbage. "But they're never gonna play it!" That's not the point and you all know it. These guys aren't gamers. I collect video games, but I have them so that I can play them. I collect comic books, but I have it so I can read them! I collect trading cards, but I have it so I can use them! These guys would just be better off buying the box without the game!
I hope retro game prices get back to more sustainable prices. I’d rather not see a crash since I have friends who work at retro game shops, but these outrageously high prices lately have been insane. Glad to see these speculators are getting hosed on some of these.
Prices are just starting to drop, it's going to be a bloodbath across the entire collecting spectrum once hyperinflation in food, energy and housing kicks off.
Heh, I bought Rai 3 and 4 for $2.00 many years ago. The bad one was that damn Turok 1 gold cover. 1,000,000 copies were made of the regular cover, but that gold thing for awhile was impossible to find. (Big 90s Valiant universe fan.)
Buy low sell high. Imagine if they digitized the trading of these games. It would crash the market so fast. It’s ridiculous these people aren’t buying the games at these low prices. You buy when their is blood in the streets!
Regarding A++, A+, and A seal ratings, just to add some objective numbers into the analysis. As of the August 1st pop reports: A++ exists on 6.26% of all graded NES games (pretty uncommon, really) A+ exists on 37.23% of all graded NES games games A exists on 38.92% of all graded NES games A++ vs A+ vs A genuinely does make a big difference and people absolutely care. If you translate to the VGA scale, 9.6 A vs 9.6 A+ could be VGA 85 vs VGA 90, which, as I know you know, is *massive*. Not saying it completely negates comps that are falling, but it shouldn't be disregarded as not mattering.
@@ewantu Generally speaking, an A will allow for actual small rips, tears, and more obvious damage than A+. Of course, the grading itself isn't 100% perfect so you can find "weak A+" and "strong A", but getting an A, in general, allows for much more wear to the seal than you'll find on an A+. Then A++ is near perfect and WATA is quite stingy giving it out (as the numbers suggest with only 6.26% distribution) I don't want to plug my own channel but I did a video talking in-depth about the WATA seal grades and their distributions. I think they did a bad job with them, personally. We have ended up in a spot where 76% of all graded NES is either A+ or A, and that is kind of useless for differentiating conditional nuances.
Shut up Greg you aren't an authority on here and honestly have lots to lose if this market continues to plunge regardless if you have no intention of selling. Your pretty little paper weights are losing value daily and it makes your hobby kind of a joke bud.
WATA rating a game an A+ vs an A++ is meaningless. A couple google searches will show you how utterly unreliable their ratings are. There's dozens of examples of A+ seal ratings being torn and ripped...lol...its a joke if anyone argues that it's a big difference between the two. It means NOTHING since WATA scores are highly arbitrary at times. The only morons to argue otherwise are the bag holders or the resellers.
@@Iricetis Bingo! I know “Greg’s” a nice guy (I also know that ain’t his name, but whatever), but he’s definitely got skin in the game. Hard to take his defense of an extra “+” seriously. The pool of speculators that do as well is evaporating rapidly, simple as that. The proof is in the prices.
The Graded games market is crashing and soon the Graded card and comic book markets will crash too. I say let them all crash. I get a good laugh out of it all.
Going down the YT rabbit hole a few months ago I stumbled upon a video about this topic and the company that was grading these games. I believe it was WATA, and yeah they've done this before. They will be the ones that are buying these games at first; just to build that fomo and that artificial excitement, they'll cash out and the market for these collectibles will crash, and they'll move on to the next collectible.
I'm not an economic genious BUT I was raiseed enough well with economics to understand how the most basic levels work - And in second-hand level I have learned A LOT. However, things have seriously gotten out of hand with people and money in general and younger generations have seemingly lost touch of reality. You can have the rarest collectable in the world (Game, cards, toys, art, music etc.) and have the biggest/greatest expert(s) say it is worth x amount of $$. But it is not worth that much. It is worth....what someone else will pay for it. No more than that. It is solely based on how badly someone or some people wants that item(s) and that possibly triggers others to want the same amount or more money, despite we still play bu the very exact reason of term = What someone else will pay for it. The problem is that often people link this with the economic term "Supply & Demand" that spins up or down the prices while the item(s) are hot...but should likewise cool down the asking prices if the demand is weak and so on. Now, in my own opinion, this is a major problem and things have seriously gotten out of hand with people and money in general and younger generations have seemingly lost touch of reality. They pay anything to get what they want and never seem to stop and think about there action(s) and evaluate what it all means. When they accept these prices, then things will never go sane and the prices keep being on redicules levels and it ruins classic gaming IMO. You can't get in to collecting when the prices demand a big chunk or all of your hard-earned money.
I believe some of those superinflated games may have been bought by heritage people making stock in order to flip them later. Remember how they were talking about "upward trajectory", they were probably expecting these games to be going for millions by now lol. I hope this is the case, I revel in that😅
Glad the speculators that put huge amounts of money into the games buying and selling are losing money on it. It was clear it was artificial growth. VGA was around much longer and we didn't see those prices. I'll keep buying sealed games when I see them cheap. They can go up or down and it won't really matter to me. I'll either keep them in my collection or sell some off for what whatever the value seems to be at the time. Speculators shouldn't spend money they are not willing to lose on the items. $10-20k for sealed retro games for the ones that are icon and loved does seem more in line with what I'd expect. Wouldn't be surpised if they continue to fall and people just avoid them because of all manipulation and drastic price drops and recession. Might create a opportunity for game collectors to actually get some of them
I mean how do you know they're sealed from the factory and not post sealed and Nintendo won't just release new old releases later on down the road for the switch or something under the old box design or something
Also all these money and clout chasing MFs probably thought that with hype for the new Super Mario movie that these prices would be soaring into another (SM) galaxy
... I always felt that sealed market while not for me seemed to be bragging rights and or people "investing" into something stupid. And no the auction house doesn't care about your seeeeeaaaaallllled game selling low cause they make money regardless of how crappy the auction goes.
@@PatTheNESpunk oh yeah, I know about those, but it was also playing your join video, which I've never seen happen on a premiere. Typically I just get a black screen with the premiere time.
Kinda wish I had a time machine. All these games I bought as a kid and could have just not opened them, sold them earlier this year and I’d have my house paid off.
It's just a sign of the times. Demand for games is low, demand for property is lowering, companies are starting to layoff workers again, we're starting to feel the belt tightening. Recession is definitely around the corner.
I knew they were becoming ridiculously overvalued from the start, the prices just didn't reflect real collector interest and were massively overvalued and I'm sure caused a lot of panic selling and price crashing
What made retro collecting worth any money was the fact they were discontinued history. Now that the retro scene is SO ALIVE that even dollar general sells mini ninendos that come with a hundred games that is what is devaluing the collector part of things. I have never collected anything I am just glad retro didn't die.
The other issue is the ridiculous prices that the market has commanded up front and even now. These items are not even 50 years old and commanded prices commensurate to new homes at the highest level...that is just plain insane even without market manipulation. It was irrational exuberance that drove the market high just as was the case with the "Beany Baby" market in which every single object was effectively the same internal component...beans...and varied solely based on the surrounding cloth. And that was another market that was doomed due to artificial inflation such as "retirement" of objects which had the knee-jerk reaction of causing prices to jump.
Ever since I discovered that a shrink wrap machine can be used, I refuse to pay top dollar for anything sealed. I noticed CIB sometimes goes down too. I think it's like the stock market. Also depends how many available, and if a seller decides to sell cheap based on any minor flaws. I really hate how retro games keep climbing up in price. 20 years ago you found 99 cent popular games. Thrift store finds. Now the 5 dollar games are 20. Some games alone go for 150, 500, even 700 cart only on NES or SNES. I ended up buying a few repro carts for 20 because I refuse to buy an NES cart for 500. It also used to be cheap to re-buy your entire collection. Some of these sealed games go for the price of a new car, and even a down payment on a house.
They won't make their money back, too many global things happening. The British pound is dropping, the US is on the verge of a recession, the war, crypto is still down from its high and won't return to what it was anytime soon. When all of this is not an issue, Heritage could be gone, Wata could be gone, and nobody will pay that much for games that aren't that rare.
You guys nailed it! Actual collectors & passionate enthusiasts welcome the current price “correction”. I open all my games because I PLAY THEM! That said, some of my open games are in better condition vs theses so-called “graded”, but I would never trust sending any of them to Wata to grade.
I hope they all freak out and push all their stuff out at a loss. It should have never gotten this insane to begin with. Karma or not, it's nice to see things evening out.
I remember seeing cases of sealed Perfect Dark and Mario 64 on eBay for cheap back in like 2008 I think. I'm sure people are sitting on multiple boxes of those sealed games and laughing at these prices.
As much love as I have for classic gaming and the notion what we grew up loving holds value that is hard to measure in dollars, this is one of the reckonings that needed to happen most.
All these collectors now should be happy to buy the dip now and it'll go up in a few years, right? Some of these collectors just label themselves that to fit in when they know they're speculators. If anything, you're an acrylic box collector and a video game speculator.
We’re living in the weirdest fuckin timeline, I swear. Pixel art is now home decor, the Mona Lisa is a punchline, and “serious” art is money laundering. Crazy.
Actually I kind of like pixel art it's nice and square so it fits rather smoothly like a puzzle piece the Mona Lisa is public domain except the one at the Louvre and serious art is more so AI created and therefore has no copyright at all so it has no commercial value
"Serious" art has always been that to quite an extend. But with the advent of people not understanding the core of art (the "movement" of people and ideology) and rather think it's all just pretty pictures with a hyper focus on skill or random shit put together put the whole money laundering to an extreme. Which is also why the whole AI art reaction by "artists" is hilarious as someone with a deep knowledge of art and a small time artist myself (and programmer), AI art doesn't move people, it doesn't communicate something, it's just a pretty picture. If anything the whole concept and existence of AI art is an amazing criticism of modern understanding of art, making it arguably art in itself. It's akin to how some musicians reacted when electronic generated sounds and music became a thing.
@@robertmcknightmusic I agree, but loads of people do treat it as such. But even ignoring AI art, it's really the general lack of understanding which is what made serious art so attractive to money laundering. This lack of understanding has always existed but is arguably at an all time high.
I'm pretty glad those astranomical prices for what is essentially a hobby for most people invested in it has finally burst it's bubble. The prices will of course rise in time and stabilise the market, it will be nowhere near the inflated numbers they were over the last few years for the forseeable future.
I think prior to the pandemic there was a couple of other things that got NBA fans interested in basketball cards again. There was the excitement of the 2018 and 2019 classes which would contain "face of the league" type players. Also when people got comfortable with instagram live (which basically launched in 2017) and started doing breaks on it, it changed what the ROI could be for people. So at least there was some organic growth to begin with.
They will NEVER hit 2021-2022 prices ever again. It was a highly speculative unproven market. Fueled by pump and dumpers, unknowledgeable investors like dentists, lawyers, wall Streeters etc. The bubble grew too fast to sustain any structure. I'm good friends with a high end investor who recently DUMPED all his sealed games, graded MTG and Pokemon as well as all his NFTs. (He owned TWO Bored Ape NFTs, 9.4 Sealed Little Samson, Alpha set and a PSA 9 1st edition shadowless Pokemon set) He said the sealed game market will NEVER recover to highs. I know because I sold a few myself through heritage. 1st 3 did well, last one very very BAD. 2 previous sales of the last game I consigned were $8,500+-$11,000. Mine sold for an abysmal $1,440. 9.8 A+ PS2 ultra rare title. This market for investors is done. I'm just glad I'm still a collector and not one of these hype beast "collectors"
Not likely bruh. If this is about collecting w/your daughter start buying silver coins. Even semi- numismatic, coins that have collecting value attached... It's bullion so it has intrinsic value. You're basically building your own bank w/your daughter. Like Jefferson said. "Paper is poverty, its the ghost of money but not money itself". Since 1933 the dollar lost 92% of its purchase power... I'm doing this w/my son, we keep it between us. He's starting to see the true value of items since we started building our own bank:)
Everything is down. The stock market is down. Video games, not just graded, are down. Sealed, CIB, loose. Cards. Comics. Feds increasing interest rates. Gas prices high. Houses stopped selling. People are leaving their homes. Pandemic pretty much gone from everyone's minds. It's a buyers market if you're into that kind of stuff. This kind of stuff, not just games, happens in swings. Check back in 5 years. Prices go up. Prices go down. Then back up. Then down. Then up. Then down. New lows, new highs. If you're into collecting, it's a good time to buy. Graded, sealed, CIB, loose...whatever you're collection is focused on. Prices are down and will eventually go back up over time. Good luck everyone! Who ever you are, where'er you're reading this from...may the force be with you! Blessings to you and yours!
From the 18th century Tulip Bulb mania, to baseball cards, to comics, and now to retro games. As long as people tout collecting something as an "investment", you will have speculators that fill up a bubble, and then that bubble will pop and loads of people will be out LOADS of money.
Just stumbled back onto watching Pat's videos. It's interesting to see similar patterns in what people have speculated on in various hobbies from video games, comics, collectable card games when they had easy money, but now that interest rates are going up and loans need to be paid back, those who have FOMO'd in to make money are now on the goat trail out and loosing money. But they won't admit that they made mistakes. Anyways, thanks for the great video and interesting talking points you raised. Peace out
What do you think about prices coming down on sealed games so much? Is it surprising? Do you think they will come down more or will rebound in the future? Let me know!
I understand if people want a sealed copy of their favorite game because that makes them happy, but people who buy something as an "asset" have no appreciation for what makes it special because they've never played it and never will. I hope their "equity" goes further down than crypto.
its sickening that slabbed games are this expensive if i cant play it then it has no value to me
The sealed game scam doesnt work? ;) i wonder when will people realize bitcoin is a scam? :D ☮️
I will buy every game from you at the price you paid. Seems fair right? I am sure you would be happy for this to happen considering your reaction amd celebrations to people losing large sums of money on this crap.
@@mikes567 I feel exactly the same, but we’re actually gamers. These speculators are actually just assholes. There’s the difference! Rule number one with investing is knowing something about wtf you are buying. These people know jack shit about gaming and therefore know jack shit about wtf they are buying. Solid plan, assholes.
Here is a lesson I learned waaaaay back in the mid 90's from my college level economics 101 professor. A course I think should be mandatory in public schools the nation over. You can have the rarest collectable in the world and have the biggest expert say it is worth x amount of $$. But it isn't worth that much. It is worth....what someone else will pay for it. No more than that. These speculators that are whining about their games "underperforming" at auction are really whining at the potential buyers of their games because they won't pay their hyperinflated prices that they say they are worth. Too bad. Just because WATA games says one of the most common games ever made is worth 2 million dollars doesn't mean there is someone willing to pay that. Or anything close to that.
Stop educating people, let them think their trash is gold haha
I agree with you, but I do always wondered that statement to be good water across the board. If say a coin sells 100 times for $10, but then the 101st time it sells for $2, does that mean that coin is worth $2? It sold for $10 across the board yet someone got it for $2.
Oh and also f*ck grading games lol glad these prices are at least coming back to somewhat unridiculous prices
No, why did it sell for $2? If the sale was private or a hyper local market, the transaction reflects worth only between the parties or non-monetary goods were exchanged as well.
If it sold for $2 on a larger market, it’s usually because supply is larger for demand, like, people quit collecting coins or a large cache was found.
Heritage is more the second model here
@@llhaken If video games are trash why are you even watching this channel lmao
@@mattdubovik3082 ah, I see you suffer from basic social interactions & sarcasm is lost on you. It's ok, I'm sure you have other attributes to bring to the table. Carry on.
The problem with a lot of these trendy new collecting hobbies - and I'd include NFTs in this - is that very few people actually want to be the end user of the items.
Probably the best description of any collectibles market. If you actually want the product for what it is, then go for it and do your research about its value.
This is exactly the problem. When I buy a game for my collection, my plan is to keep it forever so what it's worth after I buy it means absolutely nothing. Paying inflated prices has been rough but I got a lot of what I wanted the past three years and now I have it forever
NFTs suck.
@@damonke79 exactly and the older you get the easier you see the value of buying collectors items early on. By the time it sells for thousands fully sealed you have zero interest because you already bought it when it was 100 and have no interest in paying so much extra for it being sealed. You're pretty much paying extra for plastic wrap and a hard case you can't open unless you really don't care about selling it ever.
At least most other hobbies have something tangible unlike NFTs (I swear these are the dumbest thing ever invented). My Marvel and DC cards are worthless, but I do look at them once in a while to reminisce.
Guys, GUYS! Just wait. Mad Dog Collections will explain ALL this in an airtight rebuttal video.
didn't he delete his channel?
Mad dog = genius.
(Sarcasme 10000%)
I totally concur !! jajajajajajaja Fuuuuuuck WATA !!!
Oh I am waiting to see that!!!
Oh man,that garbage?🗑️
Any seasoned collector saw this coming a mile away. Now we just watch.
Yup
Absolutely, and the shit show that will happen now will be something to watch.
your right
Tbh these prices should've been dropped
Hahahahahahaha yup! 100%
Monkey Island had it right 32 years ago. “Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game”
that's probably the most i have ever spent! i never buy games when just released though
Is that $20 accounting for inflation
@@joshallen128 If you account for inflation it might be $30 now? *shrug*
@@knghtbrd yeah I don't know anymore hardly pay for games these days I just stick to free to plays like fortnite and rocket league and games that you can physically download and modify and share legally without resorting to you know what and preserve them archive them and back them up for generations without the threat of legal action being taken on your head by Nintendo Microsoft Sony 18 one of the companies out there
@@bretton_woods never ever pre-order I learned that lesson the hard way with many of the Early Access and soon to be released games thinking I was getting such a great deal on DLC when really it was just burning myself out before the big release I guess because these days companies are turning customers into investors and by investing I mean commodifying and almost saying Good things by the game because they are invested by pre-orders and stuff
I hope these people lose so much money that the view of a sealed game will make them sick.
😂
Lol😂
Just so you all know, Mad Dog is the one who bought the graded Mega Man for over $49k and graded Metroid for between $4k and $20k from this auction. I guess he's doubling down hoping a greater fool is going to pay more!
That wanker.
This is what happens when speculators get involved. Collectors aren't panicking, they're licking their lips waiting to increase their collections.
If you get excited enough to lick your lips collecting old games still in cellophane, you need to expand your horizons.
Speculators = most “collectors”.
Do real collectors really want their games permanently entombed in plastic cases? Personally I enjoy actually being able to play mine.
@@synical13 I think it’s good for people to tell others when what they are doing is lame
@@synical13 It’s not. It’s called judging people. Not the same thing.
I’m still sitting on all my pogs. Once they make a comeback, retirement here I come! I got a limited edition OJ in the slammer
😂 😂 😂 Pogs are the future ;) ☮️
But do you have an ALF pog because he's back ... In pog form
POG SLAMMER OJ Lmfao
Only true Pog Champs know
@@hatsunemikufanboy Not sure if I have ALF or not. Would have to sort thru them. Lotta 8 ball ones I know that 🤣
LOL, I had an OJ Slammer pog that I think came from Cracked magazine.
Back in the late middle ages, when I was in college, I learned about a concept called "constructivism". In short, it suggests that something has a value if people collectively believe that the value exists. It's hard to find a better illustration of that theory, in action, than this boom-bust cycle for sealed games.
NFTs
how about the us dollar? worthless paper that only has value because people believe it does.
Yeah, like money, it has no intrinsic value. It's only valuable because we deem it so.
@@LoyalWilliamUK Same with gold or silver though. It has very little value outside of some niche electronics products. The difference is that it's a lot harder to print more gold.
There's nothing unique about this to sealed video games. Paintings, action figures, comics, NFT's, crypto, hell fiat currency almost by definition.
Retro game collecting on the whole seems very “in” right now. I’m betting half the people who only started collecting in the last 2-3 years are going to start to liquidate sooner than later. when they realize that this stuff takes up a lot of space and they don’t really have any true passion for it. Which will be fantastic for the rest of us who are still around to buy it up for reasonably sane prices (hopefully).
The sealed/graded stuff never made sense for video games to begin with. I imagine that end of the hobby will go back to just a handful of incredibly niche collectors even sooner, especially with prices tanking. Which is great news for any true collectors.
People are trying to make definitive statements about supply and demand, but we haven’t even seen the actual supply for most of these games. There’s so much more out there that people just aren’t having graded or that Wata hasn’t gotten to yet.
Supply and command
It's funnier that everyone who is a true collector/gamer knew this was going to happen... when these investors originally said these games will only go up in value I scoffed.. they apparently have never spent a long period of time collecting anything. I hope this retro bubble pops and prices get back to just insane and not outrageously insane.
Well for the most part, they were only saying it would go up to inflate potential sales and increase interest prior to the inevitable crash.
Also people who actually collect games, wants to be able to play them. Who wants to put them in a plastic case and never touch it?
I want the prices I used to pay back in 2009, I got into collecting because I could buy games and consoles I had never played before real cheap and I had a blast discovering new to me games.
@@MAGAIVER Yep. I got into collecting around 2008 and I use to buy a console in the box with every paycheck.. even the harder to get consoles like the Atari Jaguar was around $150 boxed back then.. heck I even remember getting the Master System 3D glasses in box for dirt cheap.. sure you still had crazy priced games back then but even those weren't out of the realm of obtainable to the average collector... and things could still be found at garage sales and flea markets for good prices.... it just is not fun anymore with how high everything is.. maybe I sound bitter but when even common games are going for hundreds of dollars I just can't get into it anymore.
I used to have a 1500+ vinyl collection. The whole time I was collecting, I said it was for my own enjoyment. I moved cross country and sold my entire collection to a local record store I liked. People lost their minds at me about how I was losing "my investment". The records were never an investment to me. I collected them because I loved listening to them, no matter how rare some of them were.
Well stated...
@@btread8875 thank you.
I bet you regret it now, or you will.
@@Dman3827 not even a little bit :)
Can stick all the fancy stickers on it they want, it's still a mass produced item from a timeframe we can still all vividly remember. These are a curiosity. It's so hard to wrap my head around a $14k box for Goldeneye.
Still a lot less than trading cards in quantity
Being 40 I have seen this so many times now. BTW they are moving onto cards at the moment. All of a sudden as this market is crashing the graded card market is going crazy. Look at the prices of graded pokemon, yu-gi-oh or magic cards at the moment. You can see it coming and a new generation of people (ie the pokemon card collectors instead of sports cards which they crashed in the early 90s)are going to get scammed.
and VHS too
They will soon run out of "markets" to pump and dump. Sealed bottles of old perfume? I don't know.
Well at the nft market crashed a lot faster than I thought well maybe it's just taken off who knew a token could be so much now they're commodifying accounts game accounts steam accounts any account you think of online they can come modify it as a token and buy and sell accounts to the highest bidder
Pokemon is for 4 year olds tho!!
@@johnnyace2287 yeah and magic is for 40-year-olds or something
@@joshallen128 no real games are. Not instructing yellow Pikachu with a button command to see if he won or not.
I think the important bit of evidence in all of this is the people complaining all have NFT monkey avatars.
That should have really been the tell tale sign of what these people were into this for.
They literally saw a market like this a few years ago. Remember when people were grading comic cards from the 90's? lol how did that work out.
I remember hearing about what Marvel cards were going for and was like, "Huh? Do people realize that nearly every kid in America had those?!"
Can we fit just one more sticker on that laptop???
So, from a former Investment Banker's perspective:
So, first and foremost, people shouldn't expect the auction house to do anything, that isn't their role. Obviously since it's not their job to get a specific price for their customers, but let's talk about Heritage specifically.
It's basically been proven that Heritage and WATA were shilling their own items back and forth, and they didn't care enough to not engage in market manipulation.
You were trying to think of an example of an asset deflating rapidly and couldn't think of one, but you don't have to look beyond Heritage for the perfect example: coins in the 80's.
Heritage was found guilty of and paid damages for market manipulation of graded coins, and acting in the exact same manner they did with WATA.
One point that nobody seems to be touching on is that both Heritage and WATA have been caught colluding and shilling their prices, so what's the logic in trusting Heritage at all, and who's to say that numerous games that WATA's graded aren't legitimate 9.8's or 9.6's?
Once the world comes to terms with the fact that their company is just a shill mill, the credibility of their grades is going to be worthless. These idiots talking about population reports might as well be saying "well, there's one 17 shares of THIS Enron stock available! It's undervalued!"
Actually, Timmy, it's fucking worthless, but thanks for stopping by.
Heritage and WATA aren't your friends, they don't give a FUCK about YOU. They both actively prey upon and profit from the community they claim to support, and THEY will be fine. They get paid whether you're in a mansion or bankruptcy court, so don't get the idea that they owe you anything.
Invest in what you love. If it all goes to zero, you've still got something you're passionate about.
The bubble bursted, the smart money probably moved on and the leftover hypemen and bagholders try to convince someone, anyone these overblown moon prices were ever justified.
I think their big mistake was the million dollar mario. That was just too obviously stupid and greedy, else they coulda had this grift run a little longer maybe.
Yeah I remember in the early days of the internet jpgs of people building shit and making outfits made entirely out of super Mario brothers cartridges. They were everywhere.
I'm happy to see prices going down and I really hope they will continue to go more and more down in the future :) And I don't care if my own collection loses value, I'm interested in games and their history, not the money I could get if I sold them (which will never happen).
Somewhere that snively whiplash Mad Dog is shedding tears watching these prices plummet. For some reason this brings joy to myself :)
It was just a large amount of investors driving up these prices. Majority of game collectors don't give to licks if a game is sealed or open. It doesn't help most people who want games just want it opened to play. Sealed collecting is in most cases about a value vs actually caring about the games.
They're trying to buy games to sell them to other people to sell them to sell them to sell them to sell them...
Sealed games help for disk because it means it has no scratches which is good if you want to play the game.
@@spearfisherman308 it does help much for blueray games that scratch protection helps out a lot
I like how they still try to manipulate the market by holding onto product.
Wow it’s the highest graded one ever!
I mean it’s the highest graded one we’ve auctioned.
I mean it’s like he highest one we’ve graded…and decided to auction.
These things aren’t THAT rare.
And as always…Pat and Ian make my point later in the video.
@@worldsheaviestjamband93 yeah I mean I wonder why do people buy and hold on to things that are inherently intangible in nature like games Pokemon I mean they're intangible creations because they can be easily reproduced in that sense you might as well just be holding on to patents that may well just expired
These speculators trying to land on the carrier in NES Top Gun now!
How much you wanna bet graded - sealed “collectors” won’t get the reference?😂
@@justsayin4632 So true!
@@justsayin4632 Right? One has to be an actual gamer to get that reference.
It's a long time coming and I love to watch them squirm haha!
I also love how the dentist says all the speculators have left, as if he's not one of them!
This brings me so much joy, because people were soooooo sure this was the next best thing😂😂😂😂
there's always gonna be rare and expensive games but video games that cost as much as a mortgage or decent used car, that crap needs to stop
This reminds me of the speculator boom and ultimately the crash of comic book industry in the 90's
Anyone know where I can buy a graded 9.0 or above tiny violin so I can play it for these dipshits who tried to artificially overvalue games for their own profit?
You're right that the auction house doesn't care what the price is. The reason is that they profit every time it goes up for auction. So if it's down now, they make their commission. If the price goes up in 2 years when the new owner sells it at auction, they get another commission. They're happiest if the owners turn the items over rapidly, and if the market continues to hold interest in the item. But if the market loses interest in the item, the auction house just moves on to facilitating auctions for items that the new market is interested in now. It doesn't matter if it's video games, comic books, movie memorabilia, sports memorabilia, guns, antiques, art, or jewelry, if there's a perception of value, and the items are unique, not commodities, people will flock to auctions to buy what they are interested in, and the auction house makes money. They don't care about what people are buying and selling, they help people buy and sell what they are interested in.
I'm an avtual collector. I collect to have these things. Couldn't care less about the values going up or down.
I like stuff being cheaper lol
About five years ago, I bought sealed copies of Dragon Quest 4, 5, 6, and 9 for about $20-$90 a piece. What did I do with them? I ripped off the plastic shrink wrap from all four of them and played the damn games.
Hell yeah
The drop is even worse , you need to add about 15% inflation for the last year….
"At some point the auction house has to say no"...My dude, this is under performing because it's a $120 complete in box game that some decided to throw in a plastic container and give a magic number to. It was never worth anything near six figures.
This entire subject with Heritage auction house and grading video games has been a scam for money laundering. I've been collecting for 30 years, all of this is nonsense. NONE of these games are worth ANY of these ridiculous prices in the real world. Grading a game does not increase it's value to these levels, it's just not legitimate. A graded sealed copy of ANY retail game will NEVER be worth more than something like a Nintendo World Championship cart, which is in the $20k range.
Another angle that I see is that not only are these things considered Commodities now which is a shame, some people by them so they can have something nice on their Shelf. But especially with Retro Gaming with all the shadow boxes and reproduction stuff you can get if you want a nice picture of a contra you can put it up on your shelf or wall. Shelf collectors have other alternative methods than to spend
That's what I realized as I got older and fortunately it became more understood and easierto buy. Stuff like artbooks and high quality memorabilia appeal to me much more than sealed games I can never even touch lest it's value plumit, something that's not even on my mind when I buy "collectors" stuff. I'd rather have a pixel frame of metroid more people can appreciate for a literal fraction of the price of it's sealed game
The biggest problem i have with these sealed games is that the grading is based on the box. This always sound foolish to me, since this isn't like a trading or sports card (or even comic books!), where the corners, fading, centering, etc are on the actual product. All the grades... are on the box.
You could be spending thousands of dollars on a N64 cart... only to find out that the cart itself is actually a worthless piece of rusted garbage.
"But they're never gonna play it!"
That's not the point and you all know it. These guys aren't gamers. I collect video games, but I have them so that I can play them. I collect comic books, but I have it so I can read them! I collect trading cards, but I have it so I can use them!
These guys would just be better off buying the box without the game!
Wait? Supply outweighing Demand doesn't create rarity
Is this the same Dentist that Comic Tom talks about as being a huge speculator in comics as well???
Comictom and Nastygirl? Biggest grifter scum in comics and video games.
I hope retro game prices get back to more sustainable prices. I’d rather not see a crash since I have friends who work at retro game shops, but these outrageously high prices lately have been insane. Glad to see these speculators are getting hosed on some of these.
Prices are just starting to drop, it's going to be a bloodbath across the entire collecting spectrum once hyperinflation in food, energy and housing kicks off.
Heh, I bought Rai 3 and 4 for $2.00 many years ago. The bad one was that damn Turok 1 gold cover. 1,000,000 copies were made of the regular cover, but that gold thing for awhile was impossible to find.
(Big 90s Valiant universe fan.)
I still have that gold Turok lol bought it when I was like 8
Buy low sell high. Imagine if they digitized the trading of these games. It would crash the market so fast. It’s ridiculous these people aren’t buying the games at these low prices. You buy when their is blood in the streets!
Regarding A++, A+, and A seal ratings, just to add some objective numbers into the analysis. As of the August 1st pop reports:
A++ exists on 6.26% of all graded NES games (pretty uncommon, really)
A+ exists on 37.23% of all graded NES games games
A exists on 38.92% of all graded NES games
A++ vs A+ vs A genuinely does make a big difference and people absolutely care. If you translate to the VGA scale, 9.6 A vs 9.6 A+ could be VGA 85 vs VGA 90, which, as I know you know, is *massive*. Not saying it completely negates comps that are falling, but it shouldn't be disregarded as not mattering.
What is honestly the difference between a 9.2A vs a 9.2A+?
@@ewantu Generally speaking, an A will allow for actual small rips, tears, and more obvious damage than A+. Of course, the grading itself isn't 100% perfect so you can find "weak A+" and "strong A", but getting an A, in general, allows for much more wear to the seal than you'll find on an A+. Then A++ is near perfect and WATA is quite stingy giving it out (as the numbers suggest with only 6.26% distribution)
I don't want to plug my own channel but I did a video talking in-depth about the WATA seal grades and their distributions. I think they did a bad job with them, personally. We have ended up in a spot where 76% of all graded NES is either A+ or A, and that is kind of useless for differentiating conditional nuances.
Shut up Greg you aren't an authority on here and honestly have lots to lose if this market continues to plunge regardless if you have no intention of selling. Your pretty little paper weights are losing value daily and it makes your hobby kind of a joke bud.
WATA rating a game an A+ vs an A++ is meaningless. A couple google searches will show you how utterly unreliable their ratings are. There's dozens of examples of A+ seal ratings being torn and ripped...lol...its a joke if anyone argues that it's a big difference between the two. It means NOTHING since WATA scores are highly arbitrary at times. The only morons to argue otherwise are the bag holders or the resellers.
@@Iricetis Bingo! I know “Greg’s” a nice guy (I also know that ain’t his name, but whatever), but he’s definitely got skin in the game. Hard to take his defense of an extra “+” seriously. The pool of speculators that do as well is evaporating rapidly, simple as that. The proof is in the prices.
The Graded games market is crashing and soon the Graded card and comic book markets will crash too. I say let them all crash. I get a good laugh out of it all.
Sealed video game market crash in 3, 2, 1...
Going down the YT rabbit hole a few months ago I stumbled upon a video about this topic and the company that was grading these games. I believe it was WATA, and yeah they've done this before. They will be the ones that are buying these games at first; just to build that fomo and that artificial excitement, they'll cash out and the market for these collectibles will crash, and they'll move on to the next collectible.
I'm not an economic genious BUT I was raiseed enough well with economics to understand how the most basic levels work - And in second-hand level I have learned A LOT.
However, things have seriously gotten out of hand with people and money in general and younger generations have seemingly lost touch of reality.
You can have the rarest collectable in the world (Game, cards, toys, art, music etc.) and have the biggest/greatest expert(s) say it is worth x amount of $$.
But it is not worth that much. It is worth....what someone else will pay for it. No more than that.
It is solely based on how badly someone or some people wants that item(s) and that possibly triggers others to want the same amount or more money, despite we still play bu the very exact reason of term = What someone else will pay for it.
The problem is that often people link this with the economic term "Supply & Demand" that spins up or down the prices while the item(s) are hot...but should likewise cool down the asking prices if the demand is weak and so on.
Now, in my own opinion, this is a major problem and things have seriously gotten out of hand with people and money in general and younger generations have seemingly lost touch of reality. They pay anything to get what they want and never seem to stop and think about there action(s) and evaluate what it all means.
When they accept these prices, then things will never go sane and the prices keep being on redicules levels and it ruins classic gaming IMO.
You can't get in to collecting when the prices demand a big chunk or all of your hard-earned money.
When gas, meat and potatoes are getting super expensive, suddenly sealed games don't seem to be so appealing anymore.
This 🙌
I believe some of those superinflated games may have been bought by heritage people making stock in order to flip them later. Remember how they were talking about "upward trajectory", they were probably expecting these games to be going for millions by now lol.
I hope this is the case, I revel in that😅
Glad the speculators that put huge amounts of money into the games buying and selling are losing money on it. It was clear it was artificial growth. VGA was around much longer and we didn't see those prices. I'll keep buying sealed games when I see them cheap. They can go up or down and it won't really matter to me. I'll either keep them in my collection or sell some off for what whatever the value seems to be at the time. Speculators shouldn't spend money they are not willing to lose on the items. $10-20k for sealed retro games for the ones that are icon and loved does seem more in line with what I'd expect. Wouldn't be surpised if they continue to fall and people just avoid them because of all manipulation and drastic price drops and recession. Might create a opportunity for game collectors to actually get some of them
I mean how do you know they're sealed from the factory and not post sealed and Nintendo won't just release new old releases later on down the road for the switch or something under the old box design or something
Love it!!! 😆 the people buying these aren't game collectors... just people buying them up for profit. 📈
Love it, can't wait for all the low end games I'm watching on ebay to be on clearance too lol Prices were ridiculous
Also all these money and clout chasing MFs probably thought that with hype for the new Super Mario movie that these prices would be soaring into another (SM) galaxy
Wouldn't sealed games collectors suffocate?
Yeap they will drown with the cellophane of their sealed games while we laugh till getting unconsciuos jajajajaja
... I always felt that sealed market while not for me seemed to be bragging rights and or people "investing" into something stupid. And no the auction house doesn't care about your seeeeeaaaaallllled game selling low cause they make money regardless of how crappy the auction goes.
"Premieres in".. but theres a video playing? What is this witchcraft?
Hi, it's a UA-cam premiere. It's been a thing for years now.
@@PatTheNESpunk oh yeah, I know about those, but it was also playing your join video, which I've never seen happen on a premiere. Typically I just get a black screen with the premiere time.
Kinda wish I had a time machine. All these games I bought as a kid and could have just not opened them, sold them earlier this year and I’d have my house paid off.
Why? You might as well have played the game and instead played the lottery.
That's a waste. Games are meant to be enjoyed. You're better off saving money in blue chip stocks
yea..And I could have kept my Hot Wheels Red Lines. Baseball & Football cards sealed at 5 cents a pack.
nice, if this continue i maybe get my hands of some of my old game library that was stolen from me again
Who was the son of a bitch who did it?
What?
It's just a sign of the times. Demand for games is low, demand for property is lowering, companies are starting to layoff workers again, we're starting to feel the belt tightening. Recession is definitely around the corner.
Pretty much the saying is: just because it's rare, doesn't mean it's valuable.
I knew they were becoming ridiculously overvalued from the start, the prices just didn't reflect real collector interest and were massively overvalued and I'm sure caused a lot of panic selling and price crashing
What made retro collecting worth any money was the fact they were discontinued history. Now that the retro scene is SO ALIVE that even dollar general sells mini ninendos that come with a hundred games that is what is devaluing the collector part of things. I have never collected anything I am just glad retro didn't die.
As much as I love retro gaming, I wouldn't spend more than $100 on it.
This was as obvious as the collapse of NFTs
The other issue is the ridiculous prices that the market has commanded up front and even now. These items are not even 50 years old and commanded prices commensurate to new homes at the highest level...that is just plain insane even without market manipulation. It was irrational exuberance that drove the market high just as was the case with the "Beany Baby" market in which every single object was effectively the same internal component...beans...and varied solely based on the surrounding cloth. And that was another market that was doomed due to artificial inflation such as "retirement" of objects which had the knee-jerk reaction of causing prices to jump.
Line goes up
bubble goes pop
Ever since I discovered that a shrink wrap machine can be used, I refuse to pay top dollar for anything sealed. I noticed CIB sometimes goes down too. I think it's like the stock market. Also depends how many available, and if a seller decides to sell cheap based on any minor flaws. I really hate how retro games keep climbing up in price. 20 years ago you found 99 cent popular games. Thrift store finds. Now the 5 dollar games are 20. Some games alone go for 150, 500, even 700 cart only on NES or SNES. I ended up buying a few repro carts for 20 because I refuse to buy an NES cart for 500. It also used to be cheap to re-buy your entire collection. Some of these sealed games go for the price of a new car, and even a down payment on a house.
This is what you get for not playing with your toys and being greedy bastards.
They won't make their money back, too many global things happening. The British pound is dropping, the US is on the verge of a recession, the war, crypto is still down from its high and won't return to what it was anytime soon. When all of this is not an issue, Heritage could be gone, Wata could be gone, and nobody will pay that much for games that aren't that rare.
...and so, now I can quote the Ironsword commercial: "Finally! YEAH!".
😁
I am so happy to hear this.
I hope they come down more so I can afford some. I like them for what they are, not for what they're worth.
You guys nailed it! Actual collectors & passionate enthusiasts welcome the current price “correction”. I open all my games because I PLAY THEM! That said, some of my open games are in better condition vs theses so-called “graded”, but I would never trust sending any of them to Wata to grade.
This only means games that aren’t graded will follow too. Sounds like video game market is start to crash.
I hope they all freak out and push all their stuff out at a loss. It should have never gotten this insane to begin with. Karma or not, it's nice to see things evening out.
I remember seeing cases of sealed Perfect Dark and Mario 64 on eBay for cheap back in like 2008 I think. I'm sure people are sitting on multiple boxes of those sealed games and laughing at these prices.
that about the time I bought my CIB Perfect Dark.
Has more to do with people needing cash than it does rarity or collection value.
Those Pixel Frames look pretty sick, can you pick what screen shot you want?
During the 1849 gold rush, the people who made the most money weren't the miners. It was the people who sold the miners their tools.
So true
As much love as I have for classic gaming and the notion what we grew up loving holds value that is hard to measure in dollars, this is one of the reckonings that needed to happen most.
All these collectors now should be happy to buy the dip now and it'll go up in a few years, right?
Some of these collectors just label themselves that to fit in when they know they're speculators. If anything, you're an acrylic box collector and a video game speculator.
0:12 Bought some pretty bitchin' Contra fan art at a convention earlier this year. The artist hid the Konami code in it three times over.
it's almost like only speculators are gonna pay that much money for a sealed game. this is basically rich bastards scamming each other
We’re living in the weirdest fuckin timeline, I swear. Pixel art is now home decor, the Mona Lisa is a punchline, and “serious” art is money laundering. Crazy.
Actually I kind of like pixel art it's nice and square so it fits rather smoothly like a puzzle piece the Mona Lisa is public domain except the one at the Louvre and serious art is more so AI created and therefore has no copyright at all so it has no commercial value
"Serious" art has always been that to quite an extend. But with the advent of people not understanding the core of art (the "movement" of people and ideology) and rather think it's all just pretty pictures with a hyper focus on skill or random shit put together put the whole money laundering to an extreme. Which is also why the whole AI art reaction by "artists" is hilarious as someone with a deep knowledge of art and a small time artist myself (and programmer), AI art doesn't move people, it doesn't communicate something, it's just a pretty picture. If anything the whole concept and existence of AI art is an amazing criticism of modern understanding of art, making it arguably art in itself.
It's akin to how some musicians reacted when electronic generated sounds and music became a thing.
@@relo999 I wouldn't consider AI art "serious." I'm more talking about how like no one supported van gogh in his lifetime.
@@robertmcknightmusic I agree, but loads of people do treat it as such. But even ignoring AI art, it's really the general lack of understanding which is what made serious art so attractive to money laundering. This lack of understanding has always existed but is arguably at an all time high.
@@relo999 do they really? I had no idea. Fair point then.
I'm pretty glad those astranomical prices for what is essentially a hobby for most people invested in it has finally burst it's bubble.
The prices will of course rise in time and stabilise the market, it will be nowhere near the inflated numbers they were over the last few years for the forseeable future.
I think prior to the pandemic there was a couple of other things that got NBA fans interested in basketball cards again. There was the excitement of the 2018 and 2019 classes which would contain "face of the league" type players. Also when people got comfortable with instagram live (which basically launched in 2017) and started doing breaks on it, it changed what the ROI could be for people. So at least there was some organic growth to begin with.
if you invest in videogames and not use it for it's intended purpose needs to be pushed off a cliff. they're games, not stocks and bonds.
They will NEVER hit 2021-2022 prices ever again. It was a highly speculative unproven market. Fueled by pump and dumpers, unknowledgeable investors like dentists, lawyers, wall Streeters etc. The bubble grew too fast to sustain any structure. I'm good friends with a high end investor who recently DUMPED all his sealed games, graded MTG and Pokemon as well as all his NFTs. (He owned TWO Bored Ape NFTs, 9.4 Sealed Little Samson, Alpha set and a PSA 9 1st edition shadowless Pokemon set) He said the sealed game market will NEVER recover to highs. I know because I sold a few myself through heritage. 1st 3 did well, last one very very BAD. 2 previous sales of the last game I consigned were $8,500+-$11,000. Mine sold for an abysmal $1,440. 9.8 A+ PS2 ultra rare title. This market for investors is done. I'm just glad I'm still a collector and not one of these hype beast "collectors"
I seriously hope the crash continues to get worse. Video game collectors are ready for it to go back to where it was in the early 2010s.
Hopefully game collecting can get affordable again, I want to collect for the PS1 and PS2 & N64 with my daughter
Not likely bruh. If this is about collecting w/your daughter start buying silver coins.
Even semi- numismatic, coins that have collecting value attached...
It's bullion so it has intrinsic value.
You're basically building your own bank w/your daughter.
Like Jefferson said.
"Paper is poverty, its the ghost of money but not money itself".
Since 1933 the dollar lost 92% of its purchase power...
I'm doing this w/my son, we keep it between us. He's starting to see the true value of items since we started building our own bank:)
Everything is down. The stock market is down. Video games, not just graded, are down. Sealed, CIB, loose. Cards. Comics. Feds increasing interest rates. Gas prices high. Houses stopped selling.
People are leaving their homes. Pandemic pretty much gone from everyone's minds.
It's a buyers market if you're into that kind of stuff. This kind of stuff, not just games, happens in swings. Check back in 5 years. Prices go up. Prices go down. Then back up. Then down. Then up. Then down. New lows, new highs.
If you're into collecting, it's a good time to buy. Graded, sealed, CIB, loose...whatever you're collection is focused on. Prices are down and will eventually go back up over time. Good luck everyone! Who ever you are, where'er you're reading this from...may the force be with you! Blessings to you and yours!
This is one of the few comments that has critical thinking involved. Spot on, on everything.
It blows my mind that the kid me was right, when I thought these games would be valuable when left sealed. Even then, I never could have imagined this
Good. It’s all a sham and I’m glad it’s taking a big fat dump down the toilet 🎉
Let’s just ignore how lots of other collectibles have gone down in value after Covid.
From the 18th century Tulip Bulb mania, to baseball cards, to comics, and now to retro games. As long as people tout collecting something as an "investment", you will have speculators that fill up a bubble, and then that bubble will pop and loads of people will be out LOADS of money.
Always break the shrink wrap. It will shrink even more causing box implosion.
Just stumbled back onto watching Pat's videos. It's interesting to see similar patterns in what people have speculated on in various hobbies from video games, comics, collectable card games when they had easy money, but now that interest rates are going up and loans need to be paid back, those who have FOMO'd in to make money are now on the goat trail out and loosing money. But they won't admit that they made mistakes.
Anyways, thanks for the great video and interesting talking points you raised. Peace out