Wata Owner & Game Seller Responds to Controversy 

What do you think of Mark Haspel's statement? Do you think his behavior is OK or is this sleazy behavior and a back look for Wata and the graded game market as a whole?

It was obviously a con from the start because if you look at the games they inflated the prices of they choose very specific games. They choose games that they could find sealed very easily, which were also in a lot of people's collections. That way they could obtain a commodity, they could inflate the price of easily, and also make money from grading other owners games that they knew going to come their way. If they were inflating the prices of things like competition and prize carts that are genuinely rare, it might seem less suspicious; however jacking up the price of really common games produced in the literal millions made it clear what their aim was. They wanted to build collections overnight to pump, and also encourage as many games as possible to be graded.

These guys created a WATA problems in the retro collecting scene

Everything you said was spot on. I read Haspel's statement a few days ago and thought the same thing. I laughed at these two parts of his own statement - "I have never graded any of my own games or any other video games submitted to Wata" (further down in the next paragraph) "I submit games to Wata the same way any other customer or collector submits games." Get out of here, this all stinks to high heaven.

The guy in the packing room can’t sell games, but the founder and chief advisor can🤣

Owner/executive/employee doesn’t matter - if you’re involved in the company rating games and you sell games they rated, you’re getting a favorable rating to inflate the price you get. That’s unethical at the LEAST. Even if they graded it fairly, you can’t be above suspicion, which is why you DON’T DO IT.

To this day, ever since your 2010 Comic Con coverage, I still say “🅰️llegedly” with the same level of conviction that you do.

Statements like this guy's make me think of my favorite quote from Mr Show With Bob and Dave: "You don't know what words mean, do you?"

"I wasn't actually involved in the company in any way, except for all these many ways in which I was involved in the company."

Wouldn't it be fun to live in a world where people collected video games to, you know, actually *play* them?

$50 bucks says Tommy is at least thinking about sending an Edible Arrangement to WATA for taking the heat off of him...

WHEN this gets investigated I’d like to see the money trail. I have a hunch that some of these big dollar purchases were a combo of shill bids and money not actually being exchanged and or returned to the “purchaser” after the media hype. Said it before and I will say it again. They got too greedy with the head scratching $1.5mill Super Mario 64.

2:12 "I was never an employee of Wata". That is one of THE most disingenuous statements I've heard in years. lol Trying to distance himself, to anyone who might not know he's a FOUNDER of the company. sigh That sentence alone should be enough to tell you all you need to know about him.

the old saying...the more you talk, the more you dig a hole for yourself. i think he is going to get in trouble and he isn't helping himself set the "record" straight.

You know it's CUP-time when Pat shrieks "Eeeeeen"

It's not just the games market that looks fishy right now. I've seen something similar in the plant trade market lately, and it's bizarre. A few of us have been looking at each other in shock at some of them. An unrooted variegated monstera cutting that has no root node (so WILL DIE) going for $500 NZD ($350 USD)? Come on now. There's been exceptionally rare mature plants going for as much as $12k NZD, mostly to investors who can then pay a plant expert to propagate these plants for sale. However, the massive prices of those rare plants, and the news releases with just the broader species name has had people going wild. A few months ago, a large variegated monstera went for $7k NZD at auction. A month later, plain baby monsteras came in to regular market for the slightly high price of $30 a pop. People were fighting over them because "IT'S WORTH $7K!" My mother, a manager at a store selling them, actually send me a photo for my pricing advice on it to try and convince her work kids to relax, because they are aware I'm a tropical and desert plant collector and I HAVE plants worth hundreds.

God bless Karl Jobst 🙏 I've been watching him for years and came across this channel because of him

i think they have SEALED!!!!!! their fate

Gotta love pats bloodsport tee shirt

Hey pat and Ian. Thanks for taking the time to call these people out. But I think the next thing you guys should do is call out the stores and the other individuals who are doing this to the community. Places like Trade N Games and other independently owned game stores are knowingly doing this to collectors as well. They’re grading their shit and flipping them at really really high amounts to the point where this is becoming the new normal. The coin, trading card and sports memorabilia people are also getting in on it. You see it time and time again with the listings on eBay. Luckily some of these folks are posting them on social media and calling it their “investments”. It’s unsustainable and it’s damaging to the community. I wouldn’t be surprised if people prefer digital media in the future because physical is just too damn hard to collect.

So the new owners bought a company built around deception and greed. Is that why they purchased WATA in the first place ? For the opportunities ? Their follow up response if we ever get one will be telling. If it's the same as the first one then their lining up with the WATA board will speak volumes. If it differs substantially then there might actually be a place in their buisiness for truth and honesty. Unfortunately every day of silence that passes buries their reputation even deeper. EDIT Well what a surprise. This has happened before. Former board member Jeff Meyer resigned in 2019 after being accused of selling a large collection of WATA-graded games in 2019 for large amounts of cash. Now how is Mark Haspel different ?

Everyone: You work for WATA. Mark Haspel: No Everyone: 😡 Mark Haspel: Nah, it’s just a prank bro.

WATA SCAM

What gets me is that the news orgs haven't reported this, or retracted statements... not yet, anyway...

Promoting the company? Sounds like something an employee would do. Here's another test. Has wata ever paid you or have you received any other benefits for any of your services to them? If so you are an employee. Are you a founder of a company? If so, you are an employee of that company.

Earlier today, I was looking for this one PS1 game on ebay. Copies with the original case and manual ranged from around $80-150, except for this one single WATA-graded copy that wanted well over $3,500. Yeah, guess which one I didn't buy.

I so hate these grading and certifying crazes. They are a Cancer on actual hobbyist communities. What is the purpose of owning a comic book sealed in acrylic that cannot be read? A Videogame that can never be played? A toy that can never be touched? It kills hobby’s and inflates prices in an extreme speculator bubble that drives the actual passionate hobbyists away. No real value is added by the speculators and graders. And the opportunities for scams, grift and fraud is rife.

"In a way" it kind of reminds me of ja rule with fyre festival . When it went sideways he acted like he had no part in it

If you work for the company in any capacity, even as an advisor, you are an employee of the company. Management are still considered employees.

Yeah it’s crazy, Mark even reached out to me on Facebook and was asking if I had any sealed Turbo Grafx and Sega CD games he could buy. 😑

hope someone sue these guys

More like de-grading, amirite?

With the amount of money that is driving this, you know they are going to go down swinging.

Wata you talking about Willis?!

I don't like what WATA and Heritage have done and are currently doing. To anyone that is reading this and they aren't fully aware, please PLEASE understand that sealed video games are not rare. Especially Atari games. I have traveled all over the US. I have been to countless flea markets. You wouldn't belive how many sealed cases of 6 games per case exist. There are warehouses full of them. I myself have MANY sealed Atari and Intellivision games. I didn't buy them as an investment. I don't think too many other's did either. There are just so many out there. Even back in 2015 eBay was loaded with them for dirt cheap. Yes, know "but how many are 9.8?". I don't know? But with the amount of sealed copies I've seen over the last 10 years, I would say more than people think. Please be careful with your money. I understand that you might want a sealed copy of Adventure or Pacman, but they made MILLIONS of copies. They made more copies of Pacman than there even was systems! Please be wise. Graded games will never go away. Grading for sports cards, comics, coins, toys, etc have been going on for a long time now. So grading is here to stay whether people like it or not, but the video game market is currently outrageous. These prices will cool down. Don't waste your 50,000,000.00 on a graded Adventure. You'll lose in the long run.

Two co-founders chilling on video Five feet apart cause they're passive

Hey Ian, where'd you get that Isabelle sticker?

Can we merge WATA with some kind of crypto/NFT so we can make the Voltron Of Scamming?

If the market gets flooded with replica Chinese copies of wata cases and box would these high priced auction sales need extra proof that the game is actually inside the box ? Like an extra proof of authenticity?

WATA games is the bond villain of the game industry lmao.

Pat, Ian, thank you for covering this so regularly. You're champions.

Need to be careful guys. PayPal and eBay splitting had nothing to do with government intervention. You had PayPal wanting to dip into other markets besides eBay, and you had eBay wanting to start accepting other forms of payments as well. It started to no longer make sense to be bound together in the way they were, all they were doing was holding back the other business.

🎶MmM _"Wata"_ saaayyy , MmM that you only meant well...🎶

These people have been caught with their pants down, and are just throwing anything they can out there in the hope that people will forget about them again. We need to keep the pressure on far into the future.

I don't grade myself but I was interested in the market and I'm in a few FB video game grading groups. I can tell you that all the people into grading just don't care. They love that the market is pumped and will continue buying and selling them.

PayPal and eBay splitting up had nothing to do with government intervention. There were activist investors wanting eBay to split off PayPal because the parts (PayPal) had greater value than the whole (ebay+paypal).

People should always be wary of any grading company. Their business model in itself profits off of the items being graded having a "higher value" The more expensive an item is , the higher they charge for the item to be graded, rather than a flat charge regardless of the item itself. That in itself is kinda sketchy to me. If the grading companies charge a flat fee even if a game is rare I would find the business model less prone to fraud, at MOST maybe charge like a surcharge of handling it more delicately or whatnot.

Wata the problem?

They will be held accountable, given the exposure. Then likely pay a fine substantially less than their profits, sadly. Price millions of people out of a wholesome hobby and ruin it for all of them.

don't know why this guy thought that his statement would convince anyone that he wasn't being shady if anything it only raises further questions about how shady he really is

"Passive Investor" yeah right! good try Mark.

I don't like how the Link mask covers the Ian art. C'mon Pat!

I thought this was a Wu tang live stream.

I just seen a week old youtube video where you where in Ludwig's stream. I was shocked to see you pop up. That's great that Ludwig subscribed to you. ;)

13:47 PSA and Goldin Auctions anyone? 👀 Same thing but sports cards.

Pat epic shirt 👔. Who is your favorite fighter? Ray Jackson for me.

I’m selling a sick snes sealed bundle on EBay right now! And my bids are not high at all. Is the bubble over?

Anybody want to do an investigation into their pasts? We know that one guy at Heritage Games got in trouble with the FTC over coin collecting fraud (or whatever it was). What business dealings do these other guys have? Are we going to find out that some of them have committed crimes in the past? Money laundering? Straight up theft? What are their legal statuses? What lawsuits have they gone through? Do these con men have a history of violating the law? Shady shit?

The dentist still says that He LOVES WATA! LOL

If that sticker sealed SMB is $2 Million, that gold NWC has to be $10 Million , right?

Love the podcast guys! Greetz from Belgium 🇧🇪 Mah man Ian

I knew this would happen.... Story leaks and is breaking news for 2 weeks then.... our generation moves on.... we cannot stay focused on subject to find a resolution

Wata effects my collecting 0%

The fact that it didn't go up with VGA and it did so fast with WATA definitely shows some shady business happening.

This whole racket is dirty. I watched Karl’s excellent video. Something stood out, one of the Buyers are Mythic Markets. They are a holdings company that is pure garbage. They sell fractional shares, but as a membership and give no ownership of the game. They started with Magic: The Gathering buying the Black Lotus card and RU-vidrs in that community just went to town on them. One of the biggest channel Alpha Investments did a thirty minute video on how garbage they are. The video is title is CONTENT NUKE …….

If the wata gradding become worthless. Or become on the eyes of the costumer as not safe. The price Will fall. I would recomment to pay close atention to the marked. And move the games as is still posible if You Buy it as invesment.

When Pat said "He's a comic book guy" is it wrong that I immediately thought "Worst episode ever" ?

Really enjoying the updates to the WATA nonsense.

How does one verify games that were sealed in shrink-wrap from the factory? It seems wide open to fraud.

This Mark Haspel guy must think everyone is stupid. How disrespectful to even come up with that as an excuse. What he's doing, what they're doing, is insider trading, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. I can't wait for the inevitable Wolf of WATA Street movie based on these jokers.

This guy is basically claiming, "Officer, I was just the 'get-a-away' driver. I didn't do anything wrong?!"

Who's down for a little buisness venture? I have this "Jail Haspel" T-shirt idea... lol

Separating PayPal from ebay was a government decision? Huh? I’ve never heard that and can’t find anything on it. All I’ve heard (directly from ebay) is that ebay simply decided to drop PayPal to make things “a better experience for the customer”. Yeah, sure. Mostly to have direct access to your checking account.

It's 100 percent manipulated .Jim Halperin shill bid a sealed copy of his own Mario NES game for like 100 grand in 2019 .These scumbags should face prison time for defrauding people and manipulating the market. Also, Mario 64 isn't worth even close to 1.5 million even at the highest grade possible because Nintendo produced like over 12 million copies of that game .I'm pretty sure there are over ten thousand sealed copies of that game in existence. If they wanted to make it more believable , then should've make the price more believable like ten grand WATA 9.8 or something.

If you are involved in trading and investing, you would never EVER broadcast that you are a co-founder, regardless of what you relationship with the company is. The second you attach yourself to the company you are trading with, you immediately put yourself into a conflict of interest.

I don't work at Burger King, I just hang out in the back and flip burgers from time to time...and collect a paycheck...

They should give all retro collectors affected by this stuff $3000 each so they can afford the games they were saving up for that were once just $100-200 and are now $800+ thanks to the damage they have cost everyone.

Why are prices going up especially pokemon franchises what happen to playing for fun videos games

Government needs to regulate. Auction Houses cannot own grading services, visa versa, and umbrella companies can't own both. I would also add that Auction Houses *can't* have an exclusive arrangement with a grading company. Auction Houses should be required to list ANY item, regardless of source. Any caveats and disclaimers should be called out in the item descriptions.

Everyone in the retro gaming community wants to know what the official statement of WATA and Heritage Auction is.

I think being the owner makes it even worse. He's THE BOSS of the people grading his games. Huge conflict of interest there

Passive aggressor?

At first this was another WTF for me since I love video games. Grew up with all these games. Now I'm kinda mad that these people are doing this. Now gamera can open that mario 64 and enjoy a great game.

4:08 once Pat the NES Punk starts pointing his finger at the ~air~ you need to shut up *because* it's his turn TO speak

It bothered me! It’s splice wires, split hairs……… now irony!

Yeah EBay is now forcing us to use EBay Managed payments.

Bro iam pissed, I dont even buy graded games, but I WAS really into graded comics and cards......its all a fucking shame man. From the start, the collectivity was tarnished by Jim 50 fucking years ago.... The prices are fake, the numbers are skewed, its all fucking bullshit......*feeling defeated*

I love it when they say one thing but their actions show exact opposite!! How do fools like this get away with it so long???

A sealed mario 64 is worth 1.5 million dollars! Nothing suspcious at all! And my friends sealed Final Fantasy 6 and Zelda 2 is enough to buy a house, mm suuuuure! Its like my friend says, then pay it. Because I been offered a couple of 1000´s of dollar each for them, from real people, around 5k each.

Yeah I'd totally visit Ians Hotdog stand

Collectables as "investments". Investments are expected to appreciate in value, and unregulated markets are prone to manipulation. Do the math.

Someone needs to hack into the auction houses and f**k with their systems.

Greed is most common human trait. Im telling you we are doomed because we just allow greed and even promote it in some circles. Basically untill u enforce removing money from certain things greed and shortsightedness will ruin the world. Seriously if u look at tech we have our potential is like 100yrs advanced yet greed keeps us locked into 20th century systems of govt business. We r doomed because its always been too late. Embrace nihilism and live best life u can its short. Personally im gtfo of this society on a sailboat. I mean 30yrs cities will be underwater.... that new hugh jackman movie gets it right. Citys like vienna will emerge and ghettos. Still hate immigrants when its americans? Uhhggg so many ignorant consuming humans

Can WATA just go AWAY?

its split hairs Pat , not Splice hairs ... close though.

Weasel speak, he knows what he did was not ethical and potentially illegal, at the very least it doesn't look good for WATA puts their whole grading system into question.

Of course they’re not grifters.

Co-owner, but passive. Exec team, but passive. Ridiculous.

Exactly what I expected.

WATA We alter the assets