Two of our own headline Video Game collecting article 1 1

[Jeffro.]

27 minutes ago, Bronty said:

30 minutes ago, Jeffro™ said:

As long as you don't mind  shi  ing into a turkey

Mind?   I'd find it borderline amazing

You'd think differently if you were the turkey

[Bronty]

5 minutes ago, Jeffro™ said:

You'd think differently if you were the turkey

Yes!   However, the head of that turkey appears to have been severed for use as a plunger, so I'd say his days of having objections to where I poop have long passed

Edited August 12, 2019 by Bronty

[Icculus308win]

7 hours ago, Jeffro™ said:

You'd think differently if you were the turkey

😂

Bronty I’m glad you love my coveted turkey toilet. It is truly a work of art, labor of love, one of three - and most importantly it’s just fun to look at when peeing and comfy to sit on when seeing a man about a dog. 

[Bronty]

9 minutes ago, Icculus308win said:

😂

Bronty I’m glad you love my coveted turkey toilet. It is truly a work of art, labor of love, one of three - and most importantly it’s just fun to look at when peeing and comfy to sit on when seeing a man about a dog. 

It’s epic and the fact you took it to the next level with the plunger... respect

[Icculus308win]

Much obliged. Won that puppy at a NWTF auction - it totally completed the ensemble in my eyes  

My Brother in-law wanted me to say to people, it was like a Kohler ....we built the bathroom around that plunger😂

 

[entalmighty1]

I just want to be known as a deep pocketed collector.

[badback83]

1 hour ago, entalmighty1 said:

I just want to be known as a deep pocketed collector.

Me too.

[jharvey]

I'm curious what the usable life of an old NES/Atari cartridge is? Surely those old circuit boards corrode and decay over time. I'm guessing these things decay faster than a comic book. I wonder if any of these old cartridges from the 1970's and 1980's will still be usable in another 20-30 years. I guess it's not much of a risk for a game still in the shrink wrap, because you have no way of knowing if it actually works or not. But is this a serious risk for an opened game? Isn't it worth a lot less if it's not in working condition, and won't more and more of these old cartridges stop working as the years go by?

[comicwiz]

On 8/12/2019 at 11:13 AM, Bronty said:

That's patently obvious, but which do you think is the better potential for the long term?   The one where utilization (readership) fell off a cliff 25 years ago?   Or the one with lots of tons of utilization to spare?    The answer to that should be obvious too.

Anyways, the biggest things holding it back have been:

- learning curve and lack of education about about print variants

- no sales at public auctions like heritage

- lack of visibility of the hobby

- no real "dealers"

- no GPA equivalent

In other words, lack of infrastructure.

Every single one of those infrastructure points either has, or is in the process of being, addressed for the first time.    That collecting infrastructure builds a ton of value because it makes it easier for people to collect.    As a result, it should be no surprise that values have risen.    There's less effort required.

There likely won't be an infrastructure, certainly never one comparable to comics or coins.

Star Wars toys have been going strong for over 40 years without any of the bullet points you mention, with the qualifiers of a few printed guides sparsely released over this four decade span, and Hakes beginning to make a presence with the Russell Branton auctions.

The "good" is that it's still going strong, the "bad" is that the lack of any "infrastructure" has caused record sales which act as "new normal" and new price benchmarks which are not always repeatable. Worse of which, there have been a number of instances where those items have resold in a short period, or even a few years later, for less, causing people to question the validity of these price resets. I'm certain when we read these articles, they're thin on such contextual examples.

 

Edited August 13, 2019 by comicwiz

[Bronty]

41 minutes ago, jharvey said:

I'm curious what the usable life of an old NES/Atari cartridge is? Surely those old circuit boards corrode and decay over time. I'm guessing these things decay faster than a comic book. I wonder if any of these old cartridges from the 1970's and 1980's will still be usable in another 20-30 years. I guess it's not much of a risk for a game still in the shrink wrap, because you have no way of knowing if it actually works or not. But is this a serious risk for an opened game? Isn't it worth a lot less if it's not in working condition, and won't more and more of these old cartridges stop working as the years go by?

Nah the retail boards are well built.   

Prototype boards are less stable.

[porcupine48]

2 minutes ago, Bronty said:

Nah the retail boards are well built.   

Prototype boards are less stable.

I was waiting for this answer.I was sad my Spider-Man atari game might be fading!

[Bronty]

16 minutes ago, comicwiz said:

There likely won't be an infrastructure, certainly never one comparable to comics or coins.

Star Wars toys have been going strong for over 40 years without any of the bullet points you mention, with the qualifiers of a few printed guides sparsely released over this four decade span, and Hakes beginning to make a presence with the Russell Branton auctions.

The "good" is that it's still going strong, the "bad" is that the lack of any "infrastructure" has caused record sales which act as "new normal" and new price benchmarks which are not always repeatable. Worse of which, there have been a number of instances where those items have resold in a short period, or even a few years later, for less, causing people to question the validity of these price resets. I'm certain when we read these articles, they're thin on such contextual examples.

 

I dunno about all that Joe but I know that when you bring down barriers like education, liquidity, and price tracking, prices go up.

[comicwiz]

10 minutes ago, Bronty said:

I dunno about all that Joe but I know that when you bring down barriers like education, liquidity, and price tracking, prices go up.

There's still a great deal to know about factory authentic seals, and WATA's meteoric rise after VGA's long-standing position has me still scratching my head. The main thing I wanted to draw on is that the old tools we used to measure/justify value climbs are outdated and useless with markets like this. We need to be prepared to question the validity of these "outlier" sales and to understand their context. Two collectors driving prices up don't make a market, and unless there's something I'm missing about WATA grading, there's always going to be a sub-floor based on rising populations.

Edited August 13, 2019 by comicwiz

[Bronty]

20 minutes ago, comicwiz said:

There's still a great deal to know about factory authentic seals, and WATA's meteoric rise after VGA's long-standing position has me still scratching my head. The main thing I wanted to draw on is that the old tools we used to measure/justify value climbs are outdated and useless with markets like this. We need to be prepared to question the validity of these "outlier" sales and to understand their context. Two collectors driving prices up don't make a market, and unless there's something I'm missing about WATA grading, there's always going to be a sub-floor based on rising populations.

VGA provided a service but didn't grow the market.

Wata partnered with heritage, which is huge, got clink going, hit the shows and reached out.... lots of people love the material, we all grew up with it.   Its just getting them to know its even a thing.    They've been successful at that where VGA (with all credit to the work that they do) never even attempted that.

[october]

1 minute ago, Bronty said:

VGA provided a service but didn't grow the market.

Wata partnered with heritage, which is huge, got clink going, hit the shows and reached out.... lots of people love the material, we all grew up with it.   Its just getting them to know its even a thing.    They've been successful at that where VGA (with all credit to the work that they do) never even attempted that.

Wata's scale is also much easier to understand. Seemed like every game I saw VGA graded was an 8.5. 

[Bronty]

4 minutes ago, october said:

Wata's scale is also much easier to understand. Seemed like every game I saw VGA graded was an 8.5. 

At the very beginning (I'm talking first year of VGA), that was pretty well their only grade (85).   THey basically didn't give 90s and 80s weren't worth submitting.

Eventually they added the half grades which helped a lot, and started grading more leniently, meaning more of the range was used, but I hear you.  

 

[comicwiz]

4 minutes ago, Bronty said:

VGA provided a service but didn't grow the market.

Wata partnered with heritage, which is huge, got clink going, hit the shows and reached out.... lots of people love the material, we all grew up with it.   Its just getting them to know its even a thing.    They've been successful at that where VGA (with all credit to the work that they do) never even attempted that.

I'll agree to disagree.

And rather interestingly, I cringed when I saw those announcements. You realize that VGA saw no shortage of complaints, including this so-called "investigation" which tried to tease out the relationships between VGA, AFA and the owners. In the end, it was nothing more than an elaborate write-up on how difficult it might be for the company to remain "impartial."

Then Wata comes along and announces partnerships with auctioneers/consignors? Personally, this is exactly the snug relationship that should be questioned for exactly the same reasons VGA was questioned, but somehow Wata gets a pass. Hmmm.... methinks not.

[october]

7 minutes ago, Bronty said:

At the very beginning (I'm talking first year of VGA), that was pretty well their only grade (85).   THey basically didn't give 90s and 80s weren't worth submitting.

Eventually they added the half grades which helped a lot, and started grading more leniently, meaning more of the range was used, but I hear you.  

 

Aren't there gold and silver grades, or "+" or something? Not super familiar with VGA, but saw enough to know that it's not an intuitive as Wata's scale. 

[Bronty]

3 minutes ago, comicwiz said:

I'll agree to disagree.

And rather interestingly, I cringed when I saw those announcements. You realize that VGA saw no shortage of complaints, including this so-called investigation which tried to tease out the relationships between VGA, AFA and the owners. In the end, it was nothing more than an elaborate write-up on how difficult it might be for the company to remain "impartial."

Then Wata comes along and announces partnerships with auctioneers/consignors? Personally, this is exactly the snug relationship that should be questioned for exactly the same reasons VGA was questioned, but somehow Wata gets a pass. Hmmm.... methinks not.

well I'll be honest, that 'investigation' was a joke, #1, and I wouldn't repeat it or link it.. I think you'd do well to delete the link, but do what you want.

#2, sure wata has partnered with heritage, so what?  I would never hold that against a grading co.   CGC is owned by heritage's owners after all. 

Let's not get sucked in by those with an axe to grind.    Hobbies are relatively small business and its naive to think relationships won't exist between players.

[comicwiz]

FWIW the grading scale made complete sense to me. What matters much more is the qualifications of the people grading, particularly when it comes to authenticating prototypes. I know practically nothing about Wata in this regard, and would only trust VGA.