Wata SEALED Games Lawsuit Update! 

If anything come of this lawsuit, I hope the following laws are passed: 1. Grading/authenticating/appraising services prohibited from having business connections with online auction/reselling/marketplace sites. 2. Grading/authenticating/appraising services prohibited from speculating on the value of collectibles. 3. Employees of grading services and auction sites are prohibited from participating in auctions as the buyer or the seller. 4. Auction sites/online marketplaces legally required to fully disclose both the identities of the auction winners/sellers as well as what the item actually sold for.

wata ruined the retro collection scene, glad theyre being sued. that sale of the super mario bros for 100k was the start of arbitrary inflation of prices of games. that jim guy owns heritage auctions right? and is ceo of wata. what he did was manipulating the market. which is rakateering, thats illegal af. just that last part of this video what theyre explaining is enough for RICO to stick.

I remember back when Pat had arguments with Bronty in NA. I would have never thought that Bronty would be in this situation 13 years later, and now NintendoAge does not even exist.

I'm glad you two specified not to be rude to parent company of WATA, but doing this while they have a booth there is still a power move lol. Hope you guys are enjoying life. We miss ya.

WATA being named after the Bruce Lee quote is probably the most appalling thing I have ever heard about a videogame grading company

A year or two ago i remember my friend coming to me telling me that his copy of final fantasy 7 was worth hundreds of thousands. It hurt me to burst his bubble had to walk him through the whole graded games situation.

F**k Game Grading!!

The entire graded games market is bogus. But I think 99% of collectors want no part of slabbed games, so it’s not a big deal. Stay away people.

Always here for the WATA updates.

That origin of the name Wata is just embarrassing. That'd be like starting a new company called _Herro_ or _Me So Solly._

i don’t purchase games that I can’t eventually play, so graded games are pointless to me. There’s tons of ppl who want graded comics and it’s understandable why you wouldn’t want to read something like that. Graded games are harder to move because anyone actually into gaming isn’t going to drop crazy money on a huge library of sealed and slabbed stuff. Maybe a couple of things - sure, I get it. So, that basically leaves speculators. How many of those people are there really? Resellers already are generally annoying people to deal with when it comes to just loose copies of games. Add to that something slabbed and it’s like - no thanks! I don’t need it that badly. So, it’s basically just a bunch of greedy people with little to no actual love for or understanding of gaming trying to move shit that the internet tells them is worth tons of dollars. Collectibles will always be a buyers market, not the other way around. Prices reach a point on this stuff that ppl will just pass on it.

a first printing of SMB1 even with a 9.9 grading shouldn't be 100K

Evidence/links: 1) Money from sale of 1-Up Grading (Wata Games) to Jim Halperin foundation: pdf.guidestar.org/PDF_Images/2021/752/294/2021-752294319-202233129349101513-F.pdf (page 3) 2) Dan Maresca is Bronty -- seller of the $100K Super Mario Bros. retrostack.substack.com/p/breaking-news-national-video-game www.reddit.com/r/investing/comments/p1hh9q/anyone_tried_investing_with_lego/ 3) Dan Maresca listed as part of the Wata advisory board -- web.archive.org/web/20191027183237/www.watagames.com/who-we-are

People been calling me jealous and poor because I've said Wata and grading in general was a scam.

I loved seeing vendors selling graded games. I knew which tables would have shitty prices and avoid them.

Ahhh so the selling of sealed and graded games, has reached the levels of corruption that the selling of fine art has been at for decades.

SEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALED

As a collector of vintage toys I go by the rule of never opening or taking off card a toy made before say, 1990 or so. Just on the principle that if it’s survived this long intact, it should be kept as pristine condition as possible. However, slabbing and grading games is a different kettle of fish. These people don’t care about the artistry involved in the creation of these games. They care about buying, selling, flipping and their bottom dollar. As far as WATA is concerned, I would like to see all these selfish people lose their shirts on this fiasco. It’s like a pyramid scheme, it’s shady and it hurts the hobby.

that SM64 for that much money is still amazingly stupid.

Great to see you guys out and about and doing your thing. Ian looks like he's having a good time. If you ever make your way down to the Tampa area I'll definitely come out to support.

Should be called Wata-gate.

If they said WATA was the Japanese form in katakana, might be more dignified.

I just wanted to vent. I sold a sealed copy of dbz budokai on ebay because I need the cash. Someone tried to lowball me and i ignored them. Then they message me again and say theyre on a budget. I ignored them again because honestly who isnt on a budget these days??? Then they offer me more and say its their favorite game. We haggle and come to an agreement at 125 dollars and its Price charted at 130. Okay fine ill give you the 5 dollars no problem. Im thinking alright this guy will enjoy the game in his collection. Well today i go check his profile and i see this guy has 2.5k items sold. Im like oh interesting. I go check his feedback and immediately i see almost all his items sold are wata graded games. So this piece of shit literally lowballs and lies to people to get sealed games just to SCAM people into buying these fake graded games. Im beyond pissed off because i always said id NEVER sell anything of mine to a reseller IF i ever did sell. Im a gamer that was born in the 80s and i actually collect and play games. My collection is estimated around 10k dollars and most of it is consoles and games in their boxes from childhood. Im so disgusted right now. Part of me wants to message him and tell him what a piece of shit he is, but im sure ill end up blocked or reported to eBay for doing so. Why do people buy graded games???? Wata is a scam. They graded FAKE games. Games are not meant to sit in a case!!!

Grading sealed games is super bogus. When i worked at a games shop in the 90s some of the product we received wasn't sealed. The employees would vaccum seal the games ourselves. I get grading cards and comics cuz the quality of preservation is being scrutinized.

Beware of Pats giant hand!!

I miss the days of Luna horror stories. They should make a compilation of all the game store stories for us OG fans

Great video. Thanks for the update.

I always find it humorous that wata employees have the nerve to show their face at venues like this. Surely they have to be aware of the company's Legacy.

You guys do great work!!

Strange you'd get caught up on Bruce Lee's pronunciation of water as the origin for Wata's name, when in the entire quote, read with knowledge of Wata games shady dealings, seems to be a bit of a Freudian slip. Who doesn't want a grading company make it's way though the cracks 🤔

Glad I was there to see you guys

Glad i collect games to play them. Ive never understood the graded game collecting appeal. Hopefully the truth comes out.

This is excellent news, I've been waiting for this news for sometime now, plus it's great to see Pat and Ian back together just like old times. I'm glad that WATA has been caught with their hands in the cookie jar with evidence proving they did start this retro video game grading thing on a fraudulent purchase, a huge power move by Pat and Ian, I'm glad the two of them said outright don't harass WATA since they have a booth here while they dropped their truth bomb, pretty wild stuff.

I miss the CU podcast long time fan

i wouldn't necesarily get a game graded for financial gain but more or less for insurance purposes

great videos guys

Wata such a terrible company especially how they've manipulated the one market that many so gamers love and enjoy. Hope they get whats coming for them!

Dont forget the sale of NA and Pats good pal Dains Carolina collection

When I hear about sealed graded stuff I just go WATAFU#$ !

What's the status with this lawsuit now? Literally 0 news out there. Does anyone have an update?

Glad, I found out about this before sending my games. Such and evil company...

Racketeering and Influence in Corrupt Organizations.......R.I.C.O.

I want the WATA guys and Tommy in a cell for Christmas!

WATA appears to be getting a bunch of new generation influencers on things like TikTok and Instagram to show off graded games to stay relevant. I just send clown emojis and love from Karl Jobst to them

great update!

Rico is Mr Suave’s first name.

Speaking of Pawn Stars i want to ask how much of that is scripted vs reality? I still rewatch the clip of Pat's here and there and i wonder how do they decide what they want to film. Did Pat just wonder in there or did he have to call ahead etc lol.

You're using a Logitech Mouseman Wheel? That's serious dedication to an old mouse. I suppose it's pretty much the same as pulling out a Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer, and I've been guilty of that.

In my language “water” means “vodka” 😁

WATA is not making fun of Bruce Lee's accent. LOL It's the noise he makes when he punches.

I remember this hit mainstream news back then (at least around here) and hearing about it because a family member knew I enjoyed collecting video games and told me about it and I can remember thinking something's not quite right here, something seems off because Super Mario Bros. no matter what edition it is, I don't care if it is a perfect 10, I don't really give a shit about grading video games, so I don't know if that's possible, because to me that's not what they are for but if that's you then you do you, but I digress, there is no way that is worth 100k. NO FUCKING WAY! 1k if you are lucky. Now to see this bullshit come to light I feel like my instincts were right on the money, so to speak. I felt the same way with the Mario64 that went for over 1mill, it doesn't get to be that way without something happening behind the scenes.

All this story completely destroyed the retro game collecting. EVERTHING is about 3 to 4 times higher then it should because of what happens.

I need a pen..

If there was a WATA 10.0 of Nintendo World Champions Gold it would probably have been so valuable it woiuld lead the United States into bankruptcy

I guess Ian's new job involves law.

What’s going on? I thought this podcast ended?

Why is the name WATA incensitive. It's pretty mild in terms of cancelling someone over.

I love that Pat is so passionate about this topic. Wata needs to be exposed. Then maybe my neighbors will stop thinking their copy of Mario / Duck Hunt is worth bank.

Or CU later guys, bet that's ones new

Here me out guys, the coin con guy from the 90s is just trying to go legit man, all this is just a HUGE misunderstranding and it's not AT ALL Jim seeing the same opportunity he tried for with the coins again. I mean, come on. THIS IS HISTORICAL PIECES MAN. YOU HAVE TO BE A REAL ONE TO SEE IT.

So is my sealed bonks 3 worth a billion dollars?

Hello

🦭🦭🦭

I LOVE WAWA

I want to buy an nft and have it graded

WATA EXPOSED! Man, this stuff was even shadier than we thought! I can't wait to see how this lawsuit turns out! *cue the Dis Gon Be Good gif* 🤣

You guys just want a peace of that huge cake for your self that's all! There is no problem with graded games! I don't like Watas shady business or HA auctions weird bidding system since as programmer i would say there should be a created algorithm for bidding system, but sorry i don't think you don't have personal interest from this lawsuit otherwise you can publicly share the lawsuit documentation!

I knew i would CU again one day!

I mean, it's pretty obvious that this was all fake. Aint known in the right mind. Ever gonna pray million dollars for a video game? And that's maybe some is rare like tetris on the On the mega drive Stadium events gold campus challenge stuff that's actually incredibly rare

Is it me or is Ian starting to look more and more like John Riggs??

Pat looks goofy 😂

Ya’ll realize video game grading existing far before WATA did right? And there is a reason people grade games.. lol.. y’all crack me up 😂

You guys should go after the FDA next.

Pat, are you a fan of Kevin Bacon? When I clicked on this for an at of him advertising for a phone network in the UK.

Filthy and underhanded, used to like bronty but he's just rotten to the core. Hopefully someone sees prison time on this, particularly Halperin since he felt he could take another whack at it again after losing fairly big harming the coin market with the same scam, pre-internet style.

Guys looking thick

Graded cards and comics are the only media that will hold any real value in the future. Calling it now.

Anyone following goldin auctions? Wata graded Super Mario bros bid is well over 100k already with 3 weeks to go. Yeah perhaps there was some manipulation back in 21. Time will tell. Doesn’t anyone trade the stock market?? Manipulation happens in every market. That’s just how it goes. Graded games it’s just a way of authenticating and sealing these beautiful pieces of history. Everyone can cry about the graded market all they want but graded games will only grow in value. ESPECIALLY these low pop Mario/Zelda’s which is VIDEO GAME HISTORY. Honestly everyone crying about it just doesn’t understand the market.

what does rico stand for? "do you know, i don't know". lol these guys are a joke

Ian looks like a reject from wheelchair basketball

Just like card grading companies. Wata doesn’t charge you until it’s graded. Do research.

Ian you look old brother, LIKE WAY WAY OLD THAÑ YOU ARE MY MAN. LOOSE THE BEARD BRO!!!