Exposing Fraud In The Retro Video Game Market | MoistCr1Tikal
A surprising exposé video claims that Heritage Auctions and Wata Games have been artificially inflating the value of old gaming cartridges.
A recent surge in the value of retro Nintendo video game cartridges is allegedly the result of fraud by grading company Wata Games and collectibles auction company Heritage Auctions, according to one journalist’s exposé. All year long, mint copies of vintage games like The Legend Of Zelda and the original Super Mario Bros. have been selling at auctions for millions of dollars, shattering world records almost as soon as a new one was set.
This retro gaming price boom began back in March, where an unopened copy of Super Mario Bros. was sold for over $310,000. After that, a sealed early NES R copy of The Legend Of Zelda broke the record for Most Expensive Game with a final price tag of $870,000 in July. Both of these games were sold at Heritage Auctions, which has auctioned off other priceless relics of gaming history like a prototype of the unproduced Nintendo PlayStation console.
As reported by VGC, journalist Karl Jobst recently posted a bombshell YouTube video claiming that Heritage Auctions has been part of a scheme to inflate the prices of old video game cartridges for an increased profit. He claims that Heritage co-founder Jim Halper and Wata Games president and CEO Deniz Kahn were the ones leading this fraud operation, as Wata directors artificially raised the value of games they’ve graded. Furthermore, very few of the games being sold off at Heritage Auctions were actually purchased by game collectors. Heritage Auctions has since denied these accusations, with a spokesperson claiming that Jobst’s video contains “many misstatements.” A company spokesperson from Wata Games gave the following statement to Screen Rant.
Heritage Auctions isn’t the only auction house that has been making headlines by selling high-profile copies of retro video games. Earlier this month, yet another copy of the original Super Mario Bros shattered records with a final price of $2 million after a bidding war at rival collectibles site Rally – not too long after Heritage’s Legend Of Zelda auction. Shortly before that, eBay set the record asking price for a game cartridge with a $1 million gold copy of Nintendo World Championships.
The recent surge in final auction prices for old-school games like Super Mario Bros. and The Legend Of Zelda has surprised a lot of people. If Karl Jobst’s allegations are true, then it looks like some of the craziest stories to come out of the gaming auction circuit, such as that record-breaking Legend Of Zelda cartridge, could be the result of fraud.
Original Video |
Karl Jobst Channel |
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