Wata Games SUED For Market Manipulation! 

Do you think this lawsuit has any chance of being successful? Get 20% off your first monthly box when you sign up at bespokepost.com/karljobst20 and use promo code KARLJOBST20 at checkout!

Wata turn of events.

The fact that a single cartridge of SMB1, the 6th most sold video game of all time, was in auction for roughly 10 times the price than the only known existing prototype of the Nintendo Playstation console is pure non-sense and completely outrageous.

The ‘financialization’ of everything has such a high cost on all these hobbies we have loved for so long. I hate it.

Karl, as a longtime VHS collector, I'm definitely seeing market activity I've never seen before Heritage got involved in the scene. The big grails used to be things like extremely obscure horror films (Tales from the QuadeaD Zone!) or rare/early releases of certain popular films, like the first MEDA release of Halloween or Wizard release of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Generally speaking, the VHS collector scene has been really tied in with horror fandom for a long time, and cult movies are where the value has been. Like you said, VHS tapes are pretty terrible; the joy is in recapturing the feeling you got in the video store as a kid, finding weird stuff your parents disapprove of. This insanity with sealed copies of well-known, widely-distributed movies, copies released from major studios' distribution arms at that, is absolutely manipulation. It used to be that an original 1982 VHS of Star Wars might net you $100, which seems an appropriately nostalgia-driven price, one not shared by later releases of the film or its sequels. People trying to pump VHS tapes isn't totally new - there's a longtime joke on the scene about parents thinking their Disney Black Diamond VHS tapes in the attic are valuable. But everything about this situation is reminiscent of the enforced bubble on the game market: the articles, the focus on graded copies of well-known mainstream titles rather than the grail titles that old collectors really want, the complete disconnect from the grassroots collecting scene.

Gonna be honest, was extremely worried about how your initial video would be received. I'm excited to hear not only does it sound like you've experienced no negative consequences, but perhaps your research could be used to make a difference in this community. Thanks for the update!

This was a long time coming for people who’ve been following this channel, and I’m happy to finally see it happen.

VHS seems like an extremely bizarre medium to collect, since the tapes degrade over time, even if they are still sealed in a box and never used. I suppose you could collect VHS boxes for the art, but at that point you're better off collecting movie posters.

Honestly I feel like everything is "collectible" now. It really sucks when all I want to do is collect the few things in my childhood that made me feel happy and grateful my parents were able to buy me the few things I enjoyed.

I started collecting VHS when the retro game market got priced way over what the games are actually worth. And the only reason I started collecting select VHS was to make a display wall for a room with horror memorabilia. I hope it doesn’t inflate because it’s nice to selectively collect your favorite films. For anyone starting to collect vhs be careful, look for mold and look at what things have sold for not for the asking. When we start over paying for vhs it drives the prices up. And look up different editions of the VHS you want so you can see the differences in prices and art. Have fun as always. Thanks Karl you rock brother!!

The thing that REALLY grinds my gears is that true collectors (not investor trash) use WATA despite all this crap. WATA grades should be deemed worthless in the community

Today, Karl is the absolute legend. got the ball rolling on taking down corrupt business(es). Glad the attorneys gave you the recognition you deserve for that video.

Damn, your video got full on credited on the revelations of a lawsuit. I doubt many other RU-vidrs can say to have achieved that. Now let's see how the lawsuit turns out

Finally. Thanks for your hard documentary work, Karl! Maybe we can now see reasonably priced classic games in the future, though I don't think it'll happen immediately.

wata games has truly ruined the retro gaming market and their impact will last a really long time, i really hope they lose this, even if the gaming market never recovers for what theyve done

the same thing is happening within the TCG market (pokemon, MTG, yu-gi-oh), with Heritage Auctions being the one that Buzzfeed contacted to get pokemon cards valued

I'm skeptical of anything sealed. It's just too damn easy to reseal things these days with the average person having no clue. Furthermore, unless you're willing to open it up and actually enjoy the sealed thing (most collectors aren't), you have no idea what you've actually paid for. And if you do, then you take the financial hit of having paid more specifically because it was sealed only to then open it up and play it. The only thing that makes LESS sense to me is to buy the sealed thing, sit it on the shelf, and never open it and play it. Personally, if I wanted a good collection of any kind of media, I'd want "complete in box" whether it's a repro or original, as long as the repro is similar to original quality. Who cares if it's been reproduced, especially if the repro is in better condition than an original? As long as it functions exactly the same way, I wouldn't care. Nor would I have to worry about taking the financial hit of opening it up. Collecting these things for monetary value is utterly stupid. Keeping a game sealed in its original packaging and sitting on a shelf is utterly stupid. Back in 2000, I went to Best Buy and bought a brand new copy of Daytona USA for Dreamcast. When I got home, I opened up the game (which seemed to have slightly different shrink wrapping than other disc games I had bought back then) only to find a blank CD-R inside. Someone had swapped it out and replaced the shrink wrap. That was all the way back in 2000. I don't even want to know how many "sealed" games out there are fakes. People are already doing it with 3DO games! This problem will only get worse if the collector trends continue.

you’re officially an investigative journalist now, karl

As someone who’s collected VHS for years I’ve seen such a rise in cost and people trying to scam others, don’t fall for sell thru’s, do your research, no one needs to be or should be paying $75,000 for a tape specially not a sell thru!

This video reminds me why I am so adamant about people speaking out on things like this, even if you are 99% sure nothing will come of it, because that 1% is still worth the effort.

Just so you know, the FTC generally watches suits like this one and then intervenes if the plaintiffs seem to have a case that would get over the procedural hurdles between initial filing and the courtroom.

In the case of the UK Video Nasties, sometimes VHS was the only way to watch certain banned horror movies in the 80s. Unlike films, VHS did not have to be classified by the BBFC so important films like Night of the Living Dead, The Beyond, Dawn of the Dead and Suspiria could only be seen uncut on VHS. While DVD is clearly superior in terms of quality, VHS is obviously a nostalgic format for many people. The static, scan lines and low quality have a particular effect on horror movies as they trick your eyes into seeing things that are not there. Something that Konami also played with Silent Hill with the "static effect". Many people attest to finding the VHS version of Alien scarier than the DVD, simply because it is harder to clearly see where the alien is. Laserdisc was a great format but far out of the price range of most people. Probably due to the amount of pornography that was released on VHS making it a more popular format. I agree that collecting VHS as a invest opportunity is bs though.

It's about time. I love how they introduced you as Independent Journalist, instead of youtuber. I love it!

I would much rather something like the FTC doing something about this. A class action lawsuit is just a lawyer taking a slice of the pie, and giving a large group of people their respective crumbs.

Here's a thought. Anyone grading and pricing any collectables legally requires themselves to immediately buy the item on the spot if asked to. If a company tells you your copy of Ice Climbers is worth 10k, you can say "okay give me 10k" and they are legally obligated to do so in exchange for the game. If they believe it to be worth 12k and lowball it, they still win 2k out of it when they sell it. If they give you a ridiculous number to inflate the price, they lose a lot. I am an auctioneer by trade, and often tell people what their paintings, porcelain, figurines, or other antique stuff is worth. I always aim for high prices but I also aim for selling the thing to begin with. If I see similar auction results for 1000 bucks, I might tell them I'd be willing to put it up for auction for 800, and see how high it gets. I do get my 20% cut from them, so I benefit from it selling at all, so my goal is to sell it somewhere between market value and customer satisfaction. There have been times where I rated a painting at 800 bucks and it sold for 3k, and I happily took my 20% cut and even hand delivered that myself, helping the customer put it up above his couch in a town three hours east. There have been times where I sold a whole set of cheap porcelain for 12 people for 50 bucks and I honestly spent more time packaging it for shipping than I ever made selling it. You win some, you lose some. You send customers away if their things are worthless, and you give them a reasonable expectation if you think it might do well. Prices can always go up if more people bid on it. But you have to pick a nice minimum to determine a value. And I have at times told people I'd outright buy their item because I expect it to sit in my auction house for three years until someone is interested, and they would not want to wait those three years. And sometimes three years turn into seven, and sometimes 200 bucks turn into 70. At some point you just want to be rid of old stock for any price even at a loss. People just going out and telling people some ridiculous price without any strings attached are ridiculous and they need to be held accountable. Buy the thing if you think it's worth so much. Give it a two tiered approach if you must, tell them "I think it's worth 70k, but I'd buy it for 30k" and that's still an enormous price. People are free to call the grader on their bullshit if the buy price and the worth price are wildly different. This would be a simple and effective way to do business. I already do it. If I think your stuff's worth it, I will gladly sell it for you. And if I don't, I either turn you away, or I offer you a lowball price because the sellability is low but the value is there, and I might make my money eventually. And you can pick from that. I don't just say "hey this is worth a million bucks, enjoy" and go away. And I definitely don't charge for grading. I give a price range based on historic data and my personal expectations, and I am open about that. And maybe your item will be that unicorn three rich people fight over and it'll triple in value. Or maybe it'll go unsold for two years and you'll get it back. Both happen. One more than the other. Both are more or less outliers.

To sum up: Manipulation isn’t illegal. But lying to sell is. And they crossed that line.

A greedy corporation finally getting what they deserve? A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.

The big problem now is all the other "grading companies" that come up. I was at a comic con recently in North Carolina and there was a company selling "Graded Collectibles" such as comics and books but noticably they also had games. One of which was a $500 copy of Grand Theft Auto V in the shrink wrap for Xbox 360 and a $1800 copy of a Spiderman game for Xbox 360

I went to a retro con a few weeks ago and saw a table full of WATA graded stuff for sale for ridiculous prices.....they didnt sell one thing from their table and I just laughed

Wata and heritage deserve to be dragged through the courts. They ruined the collector market for video games. Being a buyer and trader I can tell you that a lot of retro games have seen a 50% to 100% price bump in the last few years, pricing a lot of people out of this once affordable niche hobby. I know the price hike is partly because of the covid too (more people at home, etc) but overall I think the hype around sealed games bled into the general unsealed market.

4:47 "On the tenth of May, a class action was filed in the United States District Court." Small clarification: there are 94 federal district courts in the United States. As Wikipedia correctly states, "Each of the 50 states has between one and four district courts, and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico each have a district court." The case of Jacob Knight et al v. Wata, Inc. et al was filed in the U.S. District Court in the Central District of California.

Something needed to be put on the books about this. Ruining a hobby and trying to scam people at the same time. Thanks for keeping us updated Karl

"The market dies because of Karl Jobst's video!!" What they mean to say is, the bubble popped before they could liquidize all that investment.

Can’t believe it’s been almost a year since that first video. It feels like no time’s past. Thanks for another banger Karl

I can't remember if you said it in your original video on the matter, but the pandemic is the biggest factor in the retro game market pricing skyrocketing the way it did, plenty of nostalgic people who were bored out of their minds went on eBay or wherever to get a hit of nostalgia, same thing with Pokemon cards. I think that's the biggest factor for things normalizing, things are opening back up, and the people who aren't as savvy to the alternative methods of playing classic games like that are moving on to something else.

Excellent report Karl. I’ve been in antique market for five decades now. I’ve seen this before. Just happens a little faster with internet today. VHS appears to be the same field as the graded video games. Now there has been a market for big box/ scarce horror titles. But there was a reason as they where rare and obscure. Many with companies long gone. Some that the original film stock was lost etc etc. but who would need a graded copy of a block Buster movie that really never went out of print? That sold 100’s of millions of copies for vhs, laser disc, dvds, etc. doesn’t work that way. If you can walk into a goodwill and find copies all week long. Then it’s not rare.

GOOD! The market is completely screwed still from all the artificial grading hypes these companies published over the years! It has heavily influenced not just the sealed games market, but also the used games market one, ruining a hobby for many of us! Sue em, ruin em, i dont feel sorry about it at all!

I have less of a problem with sealed VHS collecting than sealed video game collecting. Anyone who wants to own a copy of these movies can easily find superior transfers of them on dvd and/or bluray. I'm sure there's some rare VHS releases that never got a DVD/bluray release, but those are extremely rare exceptions.

A friend of mine messaged me last night about how he got his copy of Ocarina of Time graded as an 8.5 from WATA. People say I can be kind of a dick, so I didn't want to be the one to tell him it's probably a scam and a waste of money. But he's just happy to have it in the plastic casing with the grading like old baseball cards, so to each their own.

You're a force for good on the internet. Sometimes doing good seems pointless, given the insurmountable amount of evil in the world. But we cannot let evil run over everyone without trying to fight back.

Worried this will go nowhere, but at least SOMETHING is happening to these frauds.

Wata the chances they lose? 😏

What strikes me is that by the time someone is paying millions for sealed games, there's literally no chance it will ever be opened. When you're talking this kind of money it would be way too easy to fake. That could easily be a repro box with a block of wood inside and the buyers would never know or be able to verify it.

Respect for inspiring this lawsuit! Has been a long time coming. I hope it will end with a bang.

Last time I was this early Billy Mitchell’s scores were still verified

Good. They destroyed the retro collecting hobby through manipulation. They need to lose everything they made.

They got exposed, they got salty and now they are getting sued. They shouldn't be blaming you though, you are not the one that forced them to lie to the public. This is what happens when you lie.

It must've felt good to have yourself referred to as a journalist instead of "Speedrunner RU-vidr." Nice job on this stuff.

Karl, I hope you know how many people appreciate your vigilance and integrity in the gaming and speedrunning space. Lots of love and all the best to you

The fact that Karl undeniably got this case opened with his video is _awesome._ Great job reporting Karl!

You absolutely deserve a lot of praise for this! I hope you keep doing more and more investigative work like this one. Not sure about VHS, but the VHS grading says "Tom Wilson Collection", LOL indeed the same tactic to artificially inflate the price by making the item more "special".

Its incredibly satisfying to see this lawsuit in play hopefully it acts as a flood gate for other higher level investigations. Great job Karl!!

Years ago, there was a viral article about a vhs of beauty and the beast that was sold for 10k. A lot of people i know started looking for their vhs and looking into that and i did not understand it for the same reason, VHS are crappy and they decay, also, it was not rare at all. But still, the article made waves.

the FTC seriously needs to get on them for price-fixing. big legal no-no in the US.

Regarding the VHS tapes sales, I've cleaned and digitized VHS tapes for various clients. While much of the world has since moved on from VHS, there are use case scenarios where things like DVDs or Blu-ray or digital streaming services are not an option. There are some TV shows that never got a DVD release, and thus people would pay money to have the VHS copies. Speaking from personal experience, in the late 90s and early 2000s, I used to wake up every morning to tape _Godzilla The Series._ At the time, only a handful of episodes got released on VHS. An acquaintance in the US was posting on an old forum thread asking if anybody had recordings of the show, and when I said that I recorded every episode off the TV, he paid me to cover the costs of sending VHS copies to his friend in the UK who made DVD backups of the episodes. I found out later one of them posted the episodes on Bit Torrant and my recordings went viral. Of course, now you can officially buy the whole series on DVD. But there are still TV shows for which all we have are official VHS tapes or VHS recordings of television broadcasts. _Grim Tales_ with Rik Mayall and _James Bond Jr_ are my favourite examples of such. Most of the recordings I've seen on RU-vid are not the best quality, usually

One thing that needs to be taken into account with a lawsuit like this, is that if someone outside the parties involved purchased a game at a massivly inflated price caused by insider trading, they can sue for damages if their valuable collectors item suddenly crashes in value in an instant... So if you bought a game for 100,000 dollars, but a lawsuit suddenly crashes it's value to like 10,000 dollars instead, the buyer can now ALSO sue for damages, as they would basicly have a case for fraud. It would be like saying only 10 sealed copies remained of a game, but as soon as you paid the massive amount of money for an extremely rare item, 100 more magically appear out of nowhere, making your purchase next to worthless

This was really insightful, while I am not a lawyer myself I have worked as a paralegal myself. In a case of a class action lawsuit of this size it is most likely (in my unprofessional opinion) that this will be dragged on for a few months and then settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. While I highly doubt Heritage Auctions and Wata Games can win a case such as this, it seems rather unlikely this will affect them on the scale that most people would like. In the most probable scenario Wata And Heritage will make a behind closed doors payout, a few articles will be written about it and they will continue in the same fashion buying and selling until their inventory drys up and they will move onto the next pump and dump scheme.

At this point I'm just glad to see any scammers getting dragged to court for any reason at all about anything whatsoever. I don't expect the scammers to be found guilty, to be punished, or even to lose business when the case unavoidably falls apart on some slight technicality; on the contrary I expect them to come out of it swinging for the bleachers and profit off of this, probably with some crowdfunding scam, but, well, fuck this species.

Pretty sure the Back to the Future VHS sold for so much because it was owned by the actor who played Biff and he included a personal message with the tape. Don't see just any VHS tape, even sealed, going for that much unless there is something similar like that that makes it unique.

This sort of thing started with old art work I am pretty sure. And actually, that is still probably where the real professionals do their business. One thing that can be done is tax avaoidance. I understand at some airports they have tax free zones and if the art sits in a warehouse there and gets sold off at that location, there are no taxes owed. Another thing that can be done is a piece of art from an artist can be sold at a very high amount, probably the best piece, then the rest of the collection can be donated to a museum with an inflated evaluation for an especially large chartable giving tax deduction (this is an American thing, not sure if any other country has that). Thus, overall the person who bought the art should make it out ahead by paying overall less taxes. Or at minimum the artist could do so, and easy enough for people to go into cahoots with this sort of thing and both come out ahead on it. However,, my suspicion is that collectables primary use is money laundering. Or payment for services other than what is on the surface. Say you need to hire a hitman, and have to pay a lot for the service. Or maybe you need to buy a whole lot of drugs. Or something else highly illegal. Well, you can't just pay the guy and write "hitman expense" on your taxes, nor can the guy accepting payment write "assassins' income". So instead, you have your buddy evaluate some collectable, especially art, as particularly valuable and the payment is made ostensibly for that item so everything as far as money movement is above board, when in reality the art or whatever is just something easy to move around and claim has lots of value so payment can be made legally an relatively non-suspiciously. Or even more mundanely, it could be used to pay for legal services, but if done at one of those freeports for the item rather than the actual desired service taxes could be avoided. I am not saying all collectables are like this, I am just saying this is definitely something this market and similar ones could be used for for people needing to move large amounts of money around but can't actually say the real reason why. A single, lightweight, small item falsely claimed to be worth a whole lot is perfect for this sort of thing.

Really eager to see what can come out of this. This type of practice really makes a joke out of actual collectors...

You Karl. You're the absolute legend. I don't think this would have happened without you.

It's important to note too that the only reason that Back to the Future VHS sold for as much as it did is because it used to belong to an actor in the movie Thomas F. Wilson who played Biff Tannen.

I threw out hundreds of VHS tapes my parents moved from my former room into their cellar, that then became covered with mold on the inside of the reels (literally on the tape). I was sad but eventually I replaced everything with digital copies, and I don't miss watching fuzzy, blurry movies with shit tracking at all. Or trying to keep old VCRs around and running when they're mechanically starting to fail. I don't really understand the sudden interest with VHS, people act like they have nostalgia for _the actual crappiness._ I can *kind of* understand it but not enough to make me want to collect them. I don't care at all for it, myself; people can waste their money on whatever they want. There just shouldn't be any deception involved about their worth, or the "grading system."

At 9:39, the headline above caught my eye. "Florida pastor arrested for allegedly masturbating outside Starbucks" EXCUSE ME?!

Thank you for revealing what the world needs to see. We appreciate it.

VHS had a mini boom in the UK years ago , with pre-VRA (Video Recordings Act) tapes of famous and infamous horror films going for what I thought was outrageous sums. DVD and the Internet put paid to all but the most dedicated collectors, but I made some money buying cheap and auctioning on ebay for whatever they wanted to pay

Man having your RU-vid video be used in a lawsuit is a massive achievement. Good job man.

Thank you so much for the update, always exciting to see a new video release on this channel.

I started following this case and purchased Wata Games' Motion for Summary Judgement that they filed on December 22nd so I could read it and Jesus Christ, I didn't expect it to be 678 pages lol.

Discovery will be great on this, just think of the emails. Hopefully this will bring sanity back to collecting. First issue copy of Mario Bros (NES) is always going to be a super collectible thing and reach good a good chunk of money esp if the condition is there. But lets cut out the BS fake values.

God, i hope this works. As a casual game collector, this bullshit has made this hobby SO much harder.

Thanks for keeping us up to date!

8:50 Yeah, I believe I pointed this out. This sealed VHS copy came from Biff (ironically enough) himself and there's no doubt he signed it for good measure. However, there are rare VHS tapes out there, usually ones that hasn't been released on DVD or streaming. Just don't expect Song of the South or whatever obscure ET tape they're crushing in the back.

To me its like theyre doing this again to try and keep focus away from the class action lawsuit against them artificialy pumping up video game prices and its all just disgusting. But then these days EVERYTHINGS a collectable so nothings feel rare amymore or at least to me it doesnt.

There's this other collector who "responded" to your points by insisting there was no market manipulation going on, and that you'd totally changed your mind on game collecting bc he took some interviews you did way out of context. Now I wonder what he thinks now, lol.

Glad to see you’re still doing your thing. Was worried when all that Twitter “cancel” nonsense was going on

I love VHS tapes but shipping costs nearly $10 and I sold / donated my old collection so I don't have them after moving to a new state. I miss my old VHS collection.

as a vhs collector it's definitely more about the nostalgia and experience of it rather than the quality, that being said if i'm paying hundreds of thousands of dollars i'd better be getting hundreds of thousands of tapes

I can see some tapes being worth money, there are plenty of movies that have been released on VHS tapes that never made it to other mediums, as well as some movies having horrible DVD/Blu Ray releases because the movie was cut to fit a different aspect ratio.

i can’t believe that 1st video was almost 1 year ago. crazy how time flies

What a wild ride... From speed running to exposing cheaters to taking down collectible scammers. Love it. Keep doin whatever it is you're doing next.

Amazing when a youtube video is so well researched and organized that it can inspire a law firm to file a lawsuit. Whether the lawsuit is successful or not, Karl is an absolute legend for things getting this far

Was watching a Pawn Stars clip earlier, and was really surprised that they were using someone from WATA as one of their experts.

I collect a VHS tapes and different VHS player formats Back to the Future is very common in thrift stores you'll find about five of them in one store and normally two will be sealed. It's just like how everyone said Disney VHS tapes were worth so much money a few years ago they're very common.

I mean, not much will come of this: 1. It's a civil suit - so the penalties are financial only. You need a criminal case for actual prison time. If you were WATA and you saw a civil suit, you laugh, because you know at absolute worst - your company goes bankrupt. That's it. You file Chapter 11, you get out with your money and you laugh. There are some exceedingly rare opportunities for a civil case to have an enforcable jail time component, but that should generally occur only if they have guaranteed debt which they wouldn't do if this was all a scam etc etc etc. Also class actions suits are really ever seen as a proper benchmark for real liability. They are designed to get funds out of the entity that did wrong - they are not often used as proper criminal action lawsuits. 2. "False advertising?" Delays in providing services isn't false advertising. If you market "we'll grade your games in 3 months" and then take 6 months, but you tell people it's taking longer because of backlog, that's not false advertising. That's supply and demand. That specific charge won't go anywhere. False advertising to succeed there would require them to say they would grade games and that they didn't. 3. The FTC doesn't have the time or resources or finances to go after things like this. Sure, it should, but the video game collector market is probably just not big enough. Limited resources, limited budgets, limited time. Most agencies need like a signficant return on human capital in order to make these things work.

I really hope price continue to drop. Some of my best memories with this hobby was just going out and finding an old game either I've never tried or never owned to begin with and being glad it wasn't no more than ~$20 from what little money I was earning back then. Now, the prices are crippling to the point I had to say no to quite a lot of finds just because it would be far too expensive just to pick up.

Why would a sealed copy of a movie that's readily available on blue-raye and other formats in it's completely unchanged form be so valuable. I could understand the hype if we were talking about a movie where post launch shenanigans had made the original theatrical release pretty much unobtainable (looking at you George Lucas), but not for some random movie which is still available via a modern medium.

Great news! Though seeing this thumbnail and the video only being 12 minutes came as a surprise, congrats on becoming a journalist too.

Impressive video and work as always, Karl! I never click on videos as fast as I do yours. I remember collecting VHS like, 20 years ago now (started with horror and action). I still have my shelf in the basement!

I absolutely love scams getting exposed. you’re a hero

If the market reaches a point where old video games legit are valuable enough to justify spending $1M or more, fine. But getting there by lying through your teeth is where issues begin to arrise

Sadly, this is actually a common practice with authenticaters and auction houses. Not just Wata Games, but even smaller things like pawn shops, including the show Pawn Stars did this (which Wata has stared in)

I am glad to see something is happening with this. I'll be curious to see how the case pans out.

Never underestimate people who want a "complete collection" of every release of a film, or those that see value in an object because it is awful. I think the sealed vhs market will support a small high end clientele of people that just want to be different.

I think the VHS comment at the end is spot on. With video games, if you want to play an old video game in a legal fashion, you either have to hope for the rare chance that it's been uploaded to a digital storefront or track down a rare physical copy - and if you want to use your old console to play it you can't even use a digital storefront. With a movie, outside of hyper rare and indie movies you can get the actual movie legally very easily in a better format than VHS. Even then, with a VHS its just a worse version of the theatre run, with a game you can't buy the original mario bros on the switch and have it be 'higher quality', its still the same game as the physical copy.

Thank you for calling this out, much to the possible detriment to yourself. You are doing the right thing and what you do makes a BIG difference. Thank you. This might be the most important thing you've ever done.

Despite being (currently) aware of 'the 20 year cycle', if you told me back in 2000 VHS would be collector's items id have told you that's crazy. Now what's actually crazy is not just seeing it but experiencing the cycle first had. Getting old is a fuckin trip mate

4:20 Hopefully they'll give you a percentage of their attorney fees! No one wins in a class-action lawsuit except the attorneys. All the "victims" get a check for $1.09, while the lawyers (on both sides) walk away with millions.

I'm in charge of the books and media department at a thrift store, and personally, I've always decided not to contribute to over inflated speculator markets. I rarely ever put a price higher than 4.99 on a NES game. Afterall, how can the store make a profit if we set collectors items at a price so high no one can buy them?