The Retro Video Game Market Has Officially CRASHED

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The graded video game market has finally crashed. Prices are down up to 90% or more since I released my original expose video. Lessons were learned, maybe.
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[@karljobst]

Literally no one could have seen this coming. Head to geolog.ie/KARLJOBST100 or scan the QR code on the screen and use code KARLJOBST100 and they will give you an exclusive 100% off of their award-winning skincare trial set. On top of that you can SAVE BIG on the add-ons products of your choice when you add it to your trial. Thank you Geologie for sponsoring this video!

[@thenetgamer2]

Statistically improbable

[@joshuahosang6690]

Kool thanks buddy

[@QIKUGAMES-QIKU]

How much is an original Version 1 Nintendo entertainment system worth ? 🤔 Box is a bit shabby tho but it's all there.. with Mario Bros

[@unixtreme]

The whole thing has been a circus. I started noticing a crash in the stuff I wanted over the last few of months and started buying the stuff I wanted to complete my collection and to store for preservation purposes.

[@LavaCreeperPeople]

Ok

[@chichi2000fgh]

I'd say this is a win for actual game collectors, because if you have no intention to sell, a lower price is always better.

[@rooty]

Isn't this just sealed games though? So it had no effect on actual gamers anyway. The only people it ever concerned were the ones who wanted to buy and sell games cocooned in plastic, as statements of wealth and nothing else. Sealed Mario 64 selling for millions didn't raise the price of unsealed/loose copies for normal people who just wanted to collect N64 games to play.

[@eggs8021]

​@@rootySome people just like collecting

[@liquidsweg4858]

​@@rootynah he's talking about the collectors of these sealed games that never plan to sell not the average gamer

[@caster269]

⁠​⁠@@rootyThere are countless people who collect sealed games because they love them as a hobby. The problem is outside investors, who often never even played games, artificially inflate the hobby to ludicrous prices and hurt those who actually love the product. Nowadays it’s probably harder to find a collectors market that hasn’t been damaged by unrelated prospective investors.

[@HandheldGamer1991]

It did raise the price of games! Majoras mask was and is being sold for absurd prices were before it was maybe a 10$ game!

[@kingtracek7571]

Who would've guessed the price WAS inflated by speculators and not an actual reflection of the value of the collectibles? Besides, you know, everyone who isn't trying to pass the bag.

[@FlipsGTS]

Insert: Shocked Pikachu

[@ashblossomandjoyoussprung.9917]

I feel like the real reason is how easy it is to play retro games. Yeah, I know, emulators and ROMs have always made it easy to play retro games if you really wanted to, but using emulators always required a certain amount of specialized knowledge and with ROMs you had to worry about not getting the version of the game you wanted. With GOG and the retro library offered by Nintendo, as well as services like Gamepass offering retro titles, it's now easier than ever for the average person who just wants to play Ninja Gaiden to just play it at a small cost. Plus, we've seen people like Pat The NES Punk who basically have every retro game that they want. So, like, the hardcore collectors already have all the retro games they actually want, and new collectors either can't get those games or don't even want those games. So, there's a bunch of factors involved, but I think the biggest is that retro games were cool for quite a while, and now they're just not as cool anymore. The retro game scene is kinda dead, and with it went the market for those games.

[@Full_Throttle_Axolotl]

​@@ashblossomandjoyoussprung.9917This isn't about playing retro games though, it's about collecting

[@RealPlasmat1c]

@@ashblossomandjoyoussprung.9917 I wouldn't say that retro games are dead, not in the slightest. It's that the games are expensive to purchase due to not being in production anymore, and that it's easier to just emulate the games compared to forking over hundreds of dollars for the console and games you want.

[@kingtracek7571]

​@@ashblossomandjoyoussprung.9917 I'm sure there are a lot of factors that go into standard retail pricing, but we're specifically talking about the manufactures speculator bubble that peeked in 2021 and crashed due to successful cash outs. 2023 was not the first year that retro games were available via emulator to the consumer market, nor are they the focus of this piece or my comment.

[@Lanatus]

I have a hard time believing the original “sale” was not just Heritage insiders moving things around.

[@cyberworld9000]

You don't seem to understand how much disposable income the wealthy have. Like they spend that much on a weekend trip, it's not that unbelievable honestly

[@viralityac]

If that's the case then this is a very serious case of fraud. I don't think it is personally a case of insiders moving stuff around. A lot of rich people are actually quit dumb and tend to jump into these sorts of markets without really knowing what they are getting themselves into.

[@DanielRodrigues-qr2sd]

There could be insiders, however a lot of investors in stuff like high end art, will have the auction house store their investments until they want to sell. I haven’t seen anyone talk about this. People could simply be buying a video game and having the auction house store them for future sale. It happens all the time. Hell, if I were buying strictly to make money, I wouldn’t care if I had the videogame in my physical possession. As long as I knew where it was, and the money/security was good, I’d say keep it in one of their vaults. It’s sort of the same idea with putting money in a bank or investing in bonds. Do I need/want all my money physically in my house? Do I need the bond certificate papers in my house? No, I put them all safely in a vault like a bank.

[@notimportant3686]

@@viralityac it is that though... i'm pretty convinced too... in fact, back when the huge sales were happening i didn't think almost any REAL people were involved i any of those purchases... it's the auction houses inventing a market... the prices were way too outrageous for actual people to be involved, no matter how rich... no one could convince you that a loaf of bread is worth 300k, no matter how sentimental or nostalgic or whatever traits it may possess

[@viralityac]

@@notimportant3686 Fair enough. Outside of this video and my own personal N64 and Gameboy collection, I have very little knowledge of the market in all fairness. I expect some people could be in some serious trouble though. I understand your analogy with the bread but I don't feel it's a great one tbh, bread is a consumable product and is widely manufactured and available for public consumption worldwide and thus it's value is driven by the cost of ingredients and the demand for it. Physical video games and physical media in general which are no longer produced, are generally only manufactured for a select period of time and thus the price is driven by the condition of the product, it's availability and resale value. In simple terms the price of collectable video game is driven purely by the number of people actively trading the item, unlike a video game in active production which has a consistent price driven by manufacturing cost and retail expectation. With all that in mind it's perfectly believable and very likely that there are numerous legitimate buyers who have lost money, and if what you say is correct, then it a case of fraud by market manipulation.

[@tyrem]

I run a gamestore for 25 years now and I told everybody that they should stay away from graded games since it was obvious that the companies behind the grading are shady AF. We also never bought or sold graded stuff. This crash had to happen sooner or later.

[@BackForwardPunch]

Thanks for having integrity!!!

[@attangfangirl]

heyyyyy do you happen to have a copy of einhander for the ps1

[@lepatenteux592]

I wonder if anyone has lost money for real on those 100K+ sells... From what I understand, it is the same group of people who grade, auction and sell those. In the end, I don't think they exchanged money at all. The only person who made money was the salary of the accountant who put the "loss" in a tax write-off when they sold it to a real "prey" 2 years later.

[@octonoozle]

I never bought the graded games because I actually want to play my games and look at the manuals, posters, etc.

[@ElGitarico]

What das graded/ grading mean im this context?

[@synthem9389]

the silly thing is, even those lower/more recent prices are absolutely ridiculous.

[@ArtisChronicles]

Yes, they're still crazy. They're just not a quarter to half a million crazy.

[@MikeGaruccio]

I was actually thinking they felt somewhat reasonable if one trusts the wata grading? At this point plenty of kids who grew up playing these games have become successful adults and a low to kid 5-figure price tag doesn’t feel entirely unreasonable for a collector wanting the ideal copy of their childhood favorite game, especially when you compare it with other collecting hobbies. It would be interesting to see an analysis of what’s gone on with pricing at the other end of the market with games that are opened and in halfway decent shape since that’s what most retro game fans are more reasonably going to be buying so they can play a classic game on original hw.

[@averageconsumer0]

i suspect money laundering@@MikeGaruccio

[@Oh_deer777]

@@MikeGaruccio i don't know. i think realistically the only items that will have value are those that are one of a kind or almost one of a kind. the first editions that weren't widely available yet are in perfect condition. i can see those always having some value. but when you're talking about a widely sold video game that just happens to be unopened and in perfect condition maybe you're only talking about several thousand at the most and not something that is actually going to hold the value of a house.

[@samvimes9510]

@@Oh_deer777 exactly. If it's a rare misprint or a limited edition or something like that, I could see the value. But a normal mass-produced copy should _not_ be going for thousands of dollars, even if it's sealed and in good condition.

[@Dj.MODÆO]

They were manipulating the market with straw buyers. The initial high dollar sales went right back into the same pocket it came out of so they could re sell the items later for less but still for far more than it should be

[@sadiquebob]

makes alot of sense

[@Alex-mq6qi]

Oh man I love how bubbles are always operating with the same logic: "Nuh uh there is no bubble it's just teh market" *bubble proceeds to burst* "Oh noes who could've seen this coming" If only this was limited to collectibles and not important stuff like, idk, houses

[@0cellusDS]

How I made 100,000$ using retro video games: 1) burrowed 1,000,000$ from my dad 2) spent it all on a copy of Super Mario Bros for NES 3) market crashed. Quickly sold the copy for 100,000$ 4) blocked my dad's number 5) 100,000$ profit secured

[@thor1829]

based

[@TomJacobW]

quite a small loan, indeed!

[@turolretar]

Don’t forget tax

[@Nayte08]

W

[@VanBurenPhilips]

I like the use of the word burrowed. Makes the story extra sinister :D

[@ya9thelatinogringo]

What really gets me is that it’s not like these are for actually rare titles, they’re doing this with literally the most popular video games of all time

[@mattd6085]

Guess I missed the boat for selling my sealed Conkers Bad Fur Day

[@8bitwiz_]

Somewhere I have a graded box of a common CCG card that I found at a thrift store. I think it was from Yugi-Oh, but it doesn't matter. The grading process probably cost ten times what the card is worth.

[@gordon7478]

Right? Literally the dumbest speculative bubble I've ever seen. I have most of these sitting on my shelf, and not because I'm some collector; I just never got rid of them. Super Mario 64 and Sonic the Hedgehog are my favorite examples... literally came with the console! 😂

[@WhatsY0UTUB3]

@@gordon7478 these are unopened games though. a popular unopened game is worth more than a game no one cares about and is unopened

[@blarghblargh]

@@gordon7478 loose copies and graded sealed copies are entirely different products on the market. your copies are worth between 7-35$ a piece, most typically around $12-15, depending on the specific title.

[@Eatpunch]

In 2020 at a Goodwill in Arizona, I saw a later model PS1 with no box, cables, controller, and the cover didn't click shut and it was priced at $65. Last week I found one at that same Goodwill with the box priced at $15.

[@afivey]

I can believe that. I think it's not even too uncommon for anyone selling a console on a smaller auction site to be a bit deluded about how much a poor condition sold-as-seen console with a couple of games is valued at. For second hand shops and charity shops pricing can be all over the place with whoever has the final say on setting a price having no interest in videogames but Total Confidence they know what they're doing.

[@Kenny_G]

2020 was an anomaly though. If you're talking after April anyway. Lots of stuff that was hobby based went wild during pandemic times, nice to hear they've come back to normal!

[@alphatrion100]

15 bucks for a ps one without cables and controllers sounds about right.

[@derekgregg9009]

@@alphatrion100he should buy it and get all the stuff together

[@alphatrion100]

@@derekgregg9009 I would get a ps2 fat. It has the ps1 hardware in it.

[@Gen-X-Memories]

Does anybody else remember going to yardsales around the turn of the century? Walking up and spoting a carboard box with an Atari 2600 or NES with a pile of games and getting it for maybe $10?

[@dasmop5058]

I still remember getting an SNES console with about 8 games, plus two Lethal Enforcer zappers for $5

[@LostClowder]

​@@dasmop5058 A little over a decade ago, I could walk into my local flea market with a $50 bill and walk out with like four or five NES games. I'd give both of my legs and a kidney for it to be like that again.

[@groinBlaster31]

Can still happen if you get lucky. Not all owners of retro consoles and games realizes they can make more money online.

[@baronbrummbar8691]

i got an N64 with Mario 64 for like 10€

[@marcellachine5718]

They were all over the place.

[@potatafeesh]

Most normal people have been priced out of retro game collecting. Even loose cart prices are outrageous. All because EVERYTHING has to be an investment or hustle.

[@bpdmf2798]

I saw the prices a long time ago and just decided to emulate

[@theprofessorfeather]

We've become a society of "pickers". Everybody hustling to get every last cent out of everything. I think it's because of the economic divide between the haves and the have-nots. People feel like they can't afford to let go of ANYTHING, and society treats them like they are stupid if they do.

[@mariopot789]

I live near a local big game swapmeet type place, a collectors paradise basically. A few years ago I was DETERMINED to get Cubivore for the Game Cube it was a childhood want and I finally had a real job. Went with $200 expecting to get it as i'd seen it a year before for like $180. I find the booth selling it and It's marked up to $260... I tried haggling to buy the copy , I was even willing to go to $220 but no dice. I went on Amazin that night and bought a complete copy for $180. All I could think though was how many people enter that store with $200 +ready to get that specific game and because the internet said they could get $40 more they just let me walk?

[@Felamine]

The game resale shop in my city typically wants about US$20-$40 for loose carts, depending on the rarity/popularity of the game. Something like the Zelda golden cart might go for a hundo or more though. They even have consoles on standby, so you can test the carts out before you buy them. Prices are a little up there, but nothing like the ridiculousness you find on Ebay etc.

[@dronespace]

​@@bpdmf2798Can't blame you!

This will make it cheaper for collectors to find rare games at least.

[@yoshikiddoodoofart]

wdym at least? this is 100% fully a good thing

[@blumpkinglinde]

⁠@@yoshikiddoodoofartbecause it doesn’t necessarily mean that open used game prices are going to drop

[@KaitoverMoon]

I can guarantee you if you walk into any video game store in Akihabara you will likely find any retro game in any language your heart desires. It might be a little expensive but it's nowhere as ridiculous as the prices in the western world.

[@LISTINGTOSTARBOARD]

Ive got tons of old games. NES PS1 etc. I will never sell them. Unless you're willing to give me your soul. 😅

[@EddieSpaghetti69]

@@LISTINGTOSTARBOARD I'm more of a trades person. I got Jet Force Gemini, or Parasite Eve; cash I can get anywhere but good SNES games I can't always. I do tradesies and get what I want, works out well most of the time.

[@docmorales24]

I'm glad that you and Billy Mitchell were able to put your differences aside and he now is one of your patreon supporters. Such a happy ending to this story.

[@rickgrimesdirtyondatass5672]

Bro swindled him so hard he made him lay his rent lmao 🤣

[@unkledoda420]

I was into coin collecting and baseball cards as a kid. I was around when the "bubble" popped in both markets and guess who was directly involved in market manipulation in both instances, Heritage Auctions and their friends. Those f*ckers get into any hobby collecting they can and ruin it.

[@glennross85]

Comics too

[@user-pf4wp1sb5p]

Always that same, small group of highly protected people above criticism, who ruin things, print money, start wars, destroy markets like this for profit.

[@drewt1717]

They TRY to. I doubt they make enough actual money to justify the effort. Maybe a few rich idiots get scammed for plenty of money.. if so, who cares? That's what rich idiots are FOR.

[@BookJay35]

I tell my friends everyday that keep buying sports and Pokémon cards daily that the more you buy the more the cards become less and less rare the value of the cards go down. Unless you’ve got first edition Pokémon cards or a one of one “Patrick Mahomes” rookie card you’re just making the card companies rich. Your cards are worthless if everyone has it who’s gonna buy it?

[@francisbalfour1243]

Even if you were collecting for the purpose of simply collecting, if a bubble pops up, sell your stock. Wait a year or 2 then you can buy 10x as much to collect once the price goes back to normal. Since your doing it for the purpose of more collecting, not cashing out. it's still genuine.

[@wasd-moves-me]

A few years ago I sold my entire collection in one fell swoop to a retro game store. I got most of mine at flea markets and yard sales. I enjoyed the thrill of the hunt more than anything. Of course, I was an avid gamer and grew up in the early NES era but I sold my entire collection for just under $10,000 and I never looked back. I have no longer feel the need to collect the media anymore and I still enjoy gaming to this day

[@SykoMuffin]

Same. I just recently sold a majority of my childhood games and systems (SNES and GameBoy stuff mostly) and made out with a cool $300. I think that was pretty ridiculous. Because I sold that stuff online, I even let people barter. AND I still made out with an insane profit. Pretty good considering most of it was hand me downs and old garage sale finds. I just don't have the space anymore to have old stuff laying around :P

[@ordinaryretrogamer6944]

I also sold my entire retro collection as i saw a collapse coming and i can easily emulate all the games.

[@quantumjourney1]

You dont collect anymore? You must have reached a point in your life where you feel you have a bit more control over life stuff

[@rgergigergeergergegergeg]

any 12 year old can order a 35 dollar raspberry pi, an 8 dollar sd card, flash retropie, or something similar, and be emulating everything from atari to super nintendo in 15 minutes. tack on another 25 dollars for your preferred systems modern usb controller and go. me and my son play super nintendo on a raspberry pi all the time. when hes asleep i play atari on the same pi lol.

[@retroadventurer]

I sold my entire collection last year for a very healthy profit! I dont miss collecting at all!

[@thatoneweirdbish6364]

Gotta love that this video is basically just 12 minutes of Karl saying "told ya so" over and over again. This is great

[@weaksauce13]

common Karl Jobst W

[@Upgraydez]

It must be sooo satisfying for Karl to post this. I'm still looking for the guy commenting that mario 64 is totally worth $1.5 million. Can't find one yet lol

[@IDKeffect82]

Love it

[@magicball3201]

Seems more 12 minutes of Karl reading a very big number than a second number that is still big, but not as big. Followed by I told you so, :p

[@VoltShatter]

​@@magicball3201"still big but not as big" my boy, a loss of $300,000 is a fucking significant loss. The bubble has popped and it's a good thing for everyone who likes collecting for the sake of collecting instead of profit.

[@joshuamedlock5571]

I'm happy for you Karl, you boldly called bs on a rigged, predatory market, stood your ground, and now your good call is on full display

[@Gaia_BentosZX5]

Aren't all predatory markets like this are a huge scam anyway? There's huge red flags based on the grading system alone.

[@Time_Capsule_Museum]

Trust me this won’t age well. Also this is a very biest video. The market is not down 97%. It’s down the same way every collectible market is down.

[@jaronmarles941]

​copium

[@areschampion4316]

​@@Time_Capsule_MuseumIt may not be down 97% but it's losing literally millions? Lol

[@AbigatorM]

cope much? the reason all other markets are down is the same reason tho. @@Time_Capsule_Museum​

[@shidanslair]

Since the previous two videos wera almost an hour long I didn't have time to watch all of them until now, your work is amazing, few times I've been so glad to follow a channel in YT, no matter how different the videos could be, you always made them interesting and worth watching.

[@calvinmurray81]

This is the most obvious case of fraud I have ever seen in my life. No one bought these games. I don’t believe for one second someone would buy something so worthless only to leave it for a year or two with the company and try to make more on it. It just doesn’t make sense.

[@David-ud9ju]

In one of Karl's videos he has an interview with another KZbinr who states that his Dad used to work for Heritage and said that the guys would put their own products up for auction every couple of years and bid it up with shill bidders and basically just move the money from one pot to another without actually selling the product with the goal of inflating the price for when they did want to sell it.

[@trueamerican2716]

Who would have thought that an industry that was being held up like a house of cards by a handful of companies would come crashing down?

[@Taystesouth]

The crazy part is, he's saying it's crashed, but these games are still worth thousands.. I suddenly have $ in my eyes bevause I have loads of games like this in my cupboard that I've held onto since the 90s

[@Valoric]

They haven’t fully corrected until these games that sold in the millions are rightfully back at a 2nd hand shop for dollars. Maybe the decent condition ones as much as they sold in the 90s. It’s got more crashing to go yet.

[@angryretailbanker5103]

@@TaystesouthAre they in 9.6 A++ Super Giga Mega Mint Condition, vacuum-sealed and never seen by human eyes?

[@Dragonking1984]

That's typically how these bubbles pop. Comics, AAA gaming & hollywood are all lined up for possible crashes of their own.

[@ArtisChronicles]

​@@Taystesouth but it's not the value he previously showed. Imagine you bought one of these at $150,000 and now you can only sell it for $5,000. You wouldn't see this as a win.

[@Sett86]

Ironically, all of these games now have the additional value of being soaked in the priceless tears of unsuccessful fraudsters. My day did indeed get better watching this.

[@ErikLosLobos]

I think jury is out on who profited. Need more info to make that determination for sure. Also maybe money was made on numerous smaller trades due to the bubble created.

[@HelloYersoGae]

I believe the fraudsters were successful, it was the buyers that got rugged.

[@Sett86]

@@HelloYersoGae And they bought the games at these ridiculously inflated prices because....?

[@Boomrainbownuke9608]

@@Sett86 they very likely wanted to sell them for an even higher price to profit off of the purchase.

[@thingi]

@@ErikLosLobos The Jury isn't out, they retired laughing and are living on a beach in Fiji. It's just like casinos... the House ALWAYS wins i.e. WATA benefitted from their vastly inflated 2% 'Liability' fee (for the cost of 'grading' the game based on it's 'value') and the Auction House from their cut of every game sold 'over-value'.

[@shailordedbd]

I love that I came back to you 2 years later for an update. I was telling people everything you were saying and that you were right and no one believed me lol.

[@spookdoggtv6917]

Karl i had a good laugh when i saw the name "billy mitchell" in the patreons list at the end LMAO

[@RichSmithson]

Seeing a game like Sonic go for such insane prices, when they were EVERYWHERE in the 90s is insane to me. Literally every kid with a Genesis had at least Sonic 1 and 2.

[@McNibbler]

They’re still just as common, that was the thing, which is why this was such a scam

[@dangerdantheone]

I have all the genesis Sonic games

[@64jcl]

While I agree at the premise, very few were untouched and unopened like most games that are highly collectible. A lot of the sealed stuff you can easily get is often games that didn't become popular.

[@BigPeter93]

​@64jcl Exactly. Every kid had sonic, but how many kids kept a sealed mint copy of sonic for the last 30 years? Not many.

[@neandrewthal]

@@BigPeter93 Imagine going back in time and telling yourself don't go to college. Just don't open your games. Would probably still be a tough sell for kid self.

[@Znaffers]

3:38 there's something about the way Karl looks when he says the end of the ad read that makes it seem like someone is just out of frame with a gun pointed to his head

[@robwashers]

good work my dude seems like you have burst their bubbles, surely that would make a good game :D edit your videos together and release on streaming sites - such huge interest in this subject

[@dethiamthelaw1353]

As someone who likes collecting games simply as a hobby with no intentions to sell, I see this as an absolute win. Time to scratch some items off my list

[@turbochargedfilms]

@@LeonSKennedy7777 yes

[@Bleeglesplotch]

​@@LeonSKennedy7777hell yeah, I don't care about people trying to make money. I want to PLAY these games. I'm definitely getting games while they're low.

[@bustywaifus]

The Ebay market for regular games, not WATA graded, is pretty much the same price as always. Lowered a bit this year but not much. I'd anticipate it will rise with new analogue consoles coming to market like Duo and 3D.

[@turbochargedfilms]

@@bustywaifus dude you do not realise just how much you ruined my day by telling us Analogue are coming out with new pieces of FPGAss.

[@NeatChill]

I wouldn’t say games are low price right now. If anything they’re just lower than they were a year or two ago… I would wait longer

[@doozy5184]

I honestly feel that paying more than 3 figures for a game is just insane. I just want to enjoy a game and keep my house, thank you.

[@videostash413]

Even 3 figures is hard to accept

[@retiredsnowbunnyhunterx5106]

I'm a hardcore gamer. Both old school and modern. But I ain't spending no 2 figure on a game that I already got. An even if I didn't get could get it good condition one for under $50 dollars.

[@bestaround3323]

​@@videostash413I mean with inflation 100$ isn't off the table.

[@hanspeter731]

People that just want to play the game are switching to emulation due to the prices. Collectors are waiting it out because they're aware of the bubble. So the only people buying those overpriced games are rich people trying to make a profit. I just hope that supply and demand takes care of the situation and stabilises the prices once all the rich people leave.

[@superresistant0]

We're not talking about playing games. You would be insane to open and play a collector game. Emulators and flashcart have been around for decades, you never need to buy a retro game to play it. Not to mention 99.999% of retro game aged very badly but we are nostalgic of them.

[@Stoiss]

Great video Karl, always making great content

[@MilkieBeargames]

I knew you were right, my cousin and I have traded and sold vintage games from our collections for years, and then suddenly there was an increase, but it seemed like prices normalized pretty quickly back down

[@georgefrankly]

Let's not kid ourselves: they didn't actually lose money. Those record setting auctions were basically Heritage buying the games from themselves to establish visible market prices. Now they aren't keeping up the bubble they had hoped and they need to set new values.

[@daben7145]

shit like this should be forbidden.

[@maclura]

@@daben7145it is

[@ariefachrisal]

They made a fortune though, from greedy people paying the grading service hoping their games hit that million $ price.

[@snex000]

@@daben7145 Or you could just do your own due diligence as an investor. Suckers will find a way to lose their money no matter what silly regulations you try to put in place.

[@FA-nd9uk]

They still lose money cuz they now need to adjust the price on their books.

[@karaokehammick5215]

I sold my entire collection during this bubble out of necessity and I thought it was a huge mistake at the time. This gives me some hope.

[@Walkeranz]

Emulation

[@magicball3201]

And now if you're back in a good spot, it'll be easier to get it back. Hooray!

[@Ange1ofD4rkness]

@@Walkeranz That's been mine, but they only work well for older systems. Say a PS2, the emulator is hit or miss (or for Gamecube, Dolphin couldn't run Cel Damage, thankfully I found another work around)

[@Gehrich_]

@@Ange1ofD4rkness In case you haven't tried it; The nightly PCSX2 is significantly improved in compatibility, accuracy, artifacting, and performance. You may still have to use a few manual fixes found on the PCSX2 wiki, but we're at the point now that a majority of the problem titles (i.e. Samurai Legend Musashi, R&C, Valkyrie Profile 2) are fully playable.

[@anonofanon]

Sea Shanty 2 (: @@Walkeranz

[@2amichaelj]

I owned a vintage video game store for 5 years and it was lucrative. I passion for video games and had an interesting business model. I would buy higher than other game stores and sell those same games cheaper than the competition. Example. Earthbound I would give $55 for a cart only and sell for $80 in good condition with no marks. The same cart being bought from another game store 2 stores down would only give $5 and would try to sell it for $120. I would have collectors willing to bring me great, rare games because they would get a fair price and would even look at places like garbage sales and flea markets knowing they could actually make money with good finds. At one point I had a complete CIB NES, complete CIB SNES, complete CIB N64 collection. That's every game in the library complete in box. Some systems I was only 1 or 2 games away from completion. I would keep it in store and it was quite impressive. I ended up selling off all my games when I got divorced to pay for the divorce unfortunately.

[@hangtenboy]

Glad you called this out. I didn’t have the money to buy these expensive games to resell, mostly because I buy games to play, but sad to hear people lost a ton on money. I know you jest about no one could see this coming, but it’s the same cycle we see in other products and people still fall for it

[@ek1578]

I genuinely wonder if any of the initial high sales that never left the vault even happened. Isn’t it possible that no money actually changed hands and that the “sale” was done deliberately in order to create a false value on other sales? Smells a lot like the whole NFT thing.

[@bluedistortions]

Totally possible. We already know the investors, the graders, and the auction house were all in bed with each other colluding for high prices. Whether any money exchanged hands at all.. that really would be interesting.

[@beakt]

I thought the same thing. People probably didn't lose nearly as much money as Karl calculated, if at all.

[@Cheezus]

I mean it's also very possible a lot of these were listed at an absurd price and never sold and just sat there as a listing inspiring others to match the price and it kept going for years

[@gunrugger]

@@Cheezus The video states that those were the sale prices. Not the listing prices.

[@negate3]

That's almost the entire art market in a nutshell.

[@CSXIV]

Hey, anyone remember back in the 90's when a speculator bubble on comic books nearly tanked the whole industry? And people were buying comics just for investment with no intention of selling it? Because the retro game market didn't.

[@ericjohnson9623]

Which was doubly hilarious because all those comic book speculators just came over after the baseball card speculator market collapsed. But no, it's gonna be VHS now! It'll work out THIS time!

[@ScooterinAB]

Pepperidge Farm remembers. I knew a family that were both comic collectors and flippers during this, and they lost their shirts. I remember stuff like Death of Superman being overproduced as "collectors editions" that are now worthless because that's how pricing and rarity work.

[@roughcutretrospect7235]

Yes but the difference being no more retro games are being produced. There are TONS of counterfeit games messing with numbers. And nobody was buying video games for investment 30+ years ago. Funny times changed

[@taoofjester4113]

​@roughcutretrospect7235 uhh...there are no more comics being reproduced with a 1990s date. Or whenever. Todd McFarlane will never produce another Spider-Man #1 circa 1990. Nor will he produce another Spawn #1 after having just left Marvel. Sure, new comics are being produced, in ridiculous numbers. However, as the years go by,, there are less and less mint copies of any given comic book. There was definitely a bubble, but there are still a ton of comics from that time frame that worth a decent amount of money. I paid a couple months of rent after selling my collection of Spawn.

[@roughcutretrospect7235]

@@taoofjester4113 spawn is awesome. I have. Massive spawn comic collection. Wait until the movie. The later issues are hard to find. I am trying to get 303-309 variants they are tough. These are barely 4 years old.

[@schoki222]

It's so sad that all of those video games sit in a box never to be played. I'd love to open all the boxes and release them.

[@thecandyman9308]

While this is of course obscene speculation, if I had money I might be tempted to get a factory sealed NES game just to pop open the plastic and get that "new NES cartridge smell" one last time. It was unique, for those old enough to have been there. Ah, time....

[@samsonsoturian6013]

The classic sign of a bubble is that people are angry when you call it a bubble. If it were not a bubble, they would not care

[@RomanJr316]

I am sooooo glad to see all those people lose all that money. I’m so tired of seeing people who don’t care or know anything about video games ruin our hobby and make it a pain to enjoy our older games

[@yellowblanka6058]

Yeah, fuck ‘em, market speculators ruin everything.

[@popularkid86-xg1tu]

​@@yellowblanka6058well actually dude market speculators are already trying to come up with new ways to make money off of anything especially our favorite nostalgic Hobby's. 😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅 especially scalpers and scammer's.

[@retrogamer82]

Agreed

[@losnamerales3403]

Yeah F em leave them with their overpriced mint copy and either refurbish for collection or get some emulation in your life to play the rarer games, collecting mint retro games should be way cheaper, only the rich can afford these prices, 6 figures or even 4 figures for a mass produced n64 game that was worth £23.93 now worth £45.90 in materials (the most expensive) when adjusted for inflation is still insane and seems like an unfair false rarity monopoly 💯

[@MrDernagon]

The speculative investors are mostly victims too. The entire bubble was questionable, unethical, and likely illegal. The scammers who built the bubble are the ones who should suffer. Unfortunately they will mostly getaway rich and untouched. Gamers got screwed. Investors got screwed. The game graders and auction houses made a fortune.

[@claudronnaidoo1]

A huge thank you to Karl Jobst from all the real collectors and gamers. Your content has been very insightful, well researched and has saved many people thousands of dollars.

[@addcted842]

12:44 LMAO to the funny dude being a Patreon of Karl's channel under the name "Billy Mitchell"

[@Smuggy97]

I have strong feelings for this and things like card collecting. I remember how me and my couple of friends who played Pokémon got laughed at and called nerds/losers for years throughout out school days. Well the pokemon card boom happened a couple of years ago and suddenly people want me to tell them which cards/games are worth the most. No one cared till money was involved

[@losnamerales3403]

That's just life nobody cares until money is on the table even when it directly isn't 💯

[@ChaChaGames19]

At least cards were intended to be collected and speculative. By their very nature, scarcity was introduced into the supply which in turn created value. Games were never really made with scarcity in mind. If a game is scarce these days it means it was either a massive failure or a random marketing ploy (clay fighters). Games were also meant to be played an enjoyed. This can be accomplished with console mods or emulation with no need for discs or cartridges at all.

[@losnamerales3403]

@@ChaChaGames19 nicely put 👌🏾 I agree with those exact sentiments, emulation and console mods are the way forward plus it gives more opportunity for homebrews and interesting game hacks 🤔

[@ScooterinAB]

When you said card collecting, I thought you meant hockey, baseball, and Marvel cards from the late 80s and early 90s. *cries and turns to dust*

[@MisterCreamyDude]

Tell them to kiss your ass!

[@Svante]

Seeing all those scammers, lose all that money, makes me feel so warm and fuzzy inside.

[@sesukun2064]

practically an early Christmas present ☺️☺️☺️

[@lucrative6477]

The scammers made their money, this is the people dumb enough to buy from scammers losing their money.

[@deejay7339]

Exactly, but there are probably still scammers trying to flip it and lost money buying the high price and selling it for a loss now. @@lucrative6477

[@kyral4978]

It wasn't the scammers that lost money. They made money on each transaction, and unloaded a lot of their own games before the market fell. That's the point.

[@kukuntul-yr6cb]

The scammers are called scammers for a reason…They didn’t lose.

[@Azrael-xl3jl]

This makes me all warm and fuzzy inside, very happy indeed. I gave up on collecting and sold my whole collection 5 years ago because the prices were getting ridiculous. Maybe it's possible to restart soon.

[@MaunoMattila]

5:45 - Tomb Raider was not first released on Playstation, but on Sega Saturn a month earlier to be precise.

[@Neo-ruga]

It's important to note that the overall retro game market is still inflated. This is due to two major factors. First, WATA did play a role in the overall mindset of the general consumer and collector. A lot of people thought they had gold, this drives demand. Second, there is still a lot of liquidity within the overall market. People are willing to pay a lot more now than they did in 2019. Little Samson is a good example.

[@gardian06_85]

you miss-spelled "investor"

[@GuessTheSongMS]

I’ve noticed prices dropping on most collectibles, people have less disposable income with this economy. Having to choose between food/bills and a sealed game you will never play

[@Neo-ruga]

@gardian06_85 Thanks for catching that.

[@Neo-ruga]

@GuessTheSongMS I agree. It's dropping slower than the sealed game market, but it's still really high.

[@mrgarneau4895]

Little Sampson is a bad example. The game us rare to begin with, had a low print run and was already was pricey before the bubble. A sealed copy of Little Sampson should be rare and therefore have at least some value.

[@Testyourmemory350]

I get the feeling Karl's going to wind up as a pivotal figure for the history of Video game achievements, at least in the realm of speedruns and calling out problematic organizations

[@hypurban]

Karl is speedrunning justice

[@christianstachl]

Speedruns, problematic organizations AND Silly Bitchell! 😁

[@allanshpeley4284]

"problematic". Way to out yourself leftists.

[@rocksteady9826]

He already is... He is a legend.

[@vegasvanga5442]

Wish he'd do more ridiculous PUA videos

[@austinthrowsstuff]

I think there is an added problem where once something sells for 100k. It makes other people start grading their games and looking for them. There is usually a second bubble where the market starts to recognize that most of the games have been found.

[@rgergigergeergergegergeg]

underrated comment

[@SS64DD]

I got into collecting back in 2019. I remember what the prices were like before 2020. I miss them

[@Heresor]

As a fan of TCGs and retro media, speculators are the bane of my existence. Everytime they lose is a win for me.

[@diamonddudeygo]

Based. We need to drive those assholes off our hobbies.

[@Hogscraper]

It's funny watching this happen and knowing it was coming from the beginning. The exact same thing happened when I was a kid with baseball and other sports cards. Everyone was buying and selling to make money and driving the prices higher and higher until the entire thing collapsed.

[@neoqwerty]

It's funnier when before baseball cards, it was buying and selling tulips. (yes, the flowers. somehow there was a tulip bubble and a tulip crash.)

[@Chef_Alpo]

I'm glad it did, though it's been a long time coming.

[@Nathan_Talisien]

A fairly large part of the baseball card collapse was also on the production companies- Topps and such- getting greedy. They saw the value going up, wanted a cut, and over just a couple years absolutely FLOODED the market with just far too many different sets... Instead of 1-3 sets per sport from each manufacturer, suddenly there were a dozen or more. The market for the hobby became completely diluted. It was great for the casual collector, though... I was about 14 or 15 years old when it happened and big into baseball, and it made filling gaps in my sets very much more affordable. I've still got all of my completed sets neatly packed away, too, lol... Wonder what they're worth these days? 😆

[@ocpd23]

@@Nathan_Talisien True that this has happened more recently, but there was also an earlier boom an crash waaayyyy back in the 90s. It is the same thing over and over again, and the worst part about it, is that many baseball card collectors are younger. So, they don't know what is happening because they haven't ever seen it before. The same thing will happen over and over again in the future, for certain. And each time the biggest victims will be a fresh new generation of young collectors.

[@8bitwiz_]

I remember the comic books bubble in the 90s (as a bystander). After it was over, used book stores had piles of junk titles that nobody wanted to read, that had been all bagged and boarded the moment they left the original shipping box. The bag and board were often worth more than the comic book inside them, because you could at least re-use them for a good title. Um yeah, guys, the reason Superman #1 was worth so much was because all the other copies got thrown out over the years. If there were 1000 perfect copies, they wouldn't be worth so much.

[@gardenia5311]

Two words: money laundering. It's been happening in the art world for a long time and I presume it's happening in the video game market now.

[@postersandstuff]

I wish someone would make an expose on fake autographs : Piece of the Past has since 90s sold fake autographs and has minimum 9 dealers aid him. Ive studied POTP and Hollywood Show for 10 yrs , POTP sell very valuable sigs at ridiculous prices : Monroe sgd photo for 1k , thats a 8-10k+ item if real. And there are many such examples.......these sob's dont honor money back either , nothing but bs excuses. HS also allow POTP to sell fakes at their cons.

[@jonaszprzybycien6545]

"the problem is not collecting grading ort auction houses its greed" words to live by

[@wildcatlh]

With regard to the copies that were kept at Heritage, I'm very curious if the original sales were actually legitimate, or, similar to the NFT bubble, they were fake sales designed to inflate the bubble.

[@Just.Kidding]

The latter. Most of it was people selling to themselves, or to very closely linked parties.

[@GeomancerHT]

Absolute fakes and now selling at a loss to avoid paying taxes is also 100% true.

[@primecalibur]

Imagine if these auctions were also shady, like the first "sale" wasn't real and these relatively much lower sales are the real scams

[@AlbRomano]

That's what I thought when Karl spoke about the games that never left the auction house. If it was a person from the company they could just have declared they sold it for crazy money when none of was actually exchanged begore being sold at a "lost".

[@DustinHasVideos]

This is common in classic cars. You make people feel like the are getting an amazing deal. Also I am curious if the games actually sold. Someone could have ran the bids up and then didn’t actually pay. The auction house sits on them for a while and then relists them

[@yuin3320]

The unfortunate nature of these situations makes it so the intended scam can be at every level. They can just keep sliding the pricing however they want to try making as much money as they like.

[@GeomancerHT]

All scams and I'm sure they are like "no IRS, I don't have millions of dollars, I bought this collector items and then I sold them at a loss"

[@unrulybxite]

Like wash trading NFTs... "Sell" your NFT to your other wallet for an inflated price and now that's the value of the NFT. After that, sell it to a greater fool for the inflated price that you created.

[@Elmo9001]

"Of all of the NFL games ever released, this was definitely one of them." Your deadpan delivery on this absolutely killed me.

[@StoneKnight1]

intresting, even in my country Poland got affected. Some museums started selling retro gaming stuff on actions online

[@notenoughmonkeys]

Seems to me things are only valuable when they’re in sealed packaging. Which is why I’m putting all my money into buying sealed packaging. It’s the one constant of any bubble.

[@bruhbruh-us6gl]

Gotta open a sealed packaging factory. Then, ship those sealed packages using sealed packaging packaging. Infinite money.

[@onrch]

​@@bruhbruh-us6glWe need to make sure the sealed packaging is authentic, so we need to start grading it.

[@blowing_up]

If you use vacuum storage bags you can get more money into each sealed package

[@polygontower]

@@bruhbruh-us6gl How will we ever deliver a single of those sealed packages if those sealed packaging packaging also need to be shipped using sealed packaging packaging packaging? The price of a single sealed package would skyrocket!

[@nitroxylictv]

​@@blowing_up are you talking about resealing a package and illegally selling it as new in box or vacuum sealing an already new box for longevity

[@bw7754]

The sports cards market had a situation similar to this where a couple grading companies were found out be passing off fake auto’s as legitimate. A lot of people lost a lot of money

[@eddiepeach3975]

Selling fake cards? Is that similar?

[@bw7754]

The cards weren’t fake the signatures would be. And being that WATA is being sued yes they are similar. Smart ass

[@eddiepeach3975]

@@bw7754autos! Autographs! Duh, thanks

[@user-wj6jh1cd5n]

​@@bw7754 Hey cool, it's the guy who gets offended over basic questions.

[@LeonSKennedy7777]

Just wondering, but what’s the difference? If people believe it’s a real card/signature and it makes them happy, isn’t that the most important thing?

[@jamesrohner5061]

Holy shit I wasn't prepared for you to be an actual person. Congratulations on that amazing voice.

[@rohitchaoji]

I want to go to all these sealed retro game collectors' houses and open all the seals. Maybe have a nice oily pizza beforehand and stain all the boxes.

[@resentfulshrimp8044]

Some see a crash, I see an amazing opportunity to be able to play, collect, and preserve great games for lower prices

[@games4us132]

u plan to play sealed game?

[@thedeadpoolwhochuckles.6852]

​@@games4us132No. that's why i open mine.

[@saru2530]

​@@games4us132idk about the person you replied to but I personally do.

[@arksin11]

even games that are not sealed will drop in prices

[@Dakumun640]

@@arksin11 i sure hope so. These things are way above the original market value these days. That being said, I found a really good "new" 2ds at a pawnshop for 75 dollars. Gamestop had me paying 300 for an original 3ds that was in worst condition XD.

[@sevware]

This is a good thing, every game collector and fan of retro gaming should be happy about this

[@YoBGS]

I'll be happy when it ripples down to the casual market. Unfortunately most retro games went from like $4-$5 average to like $14-15 now. Which is kinda prohibitive to ppl trying to collect on a budget.

[@jamesesparza6893]

I love retro games and I don't care, why? Because ROMs baby ROMs

[@КГБКолДжорджКостанца]

My dad will be

[@КГБКолДжорджКостанца]

​@@YoBGSi want to ask something to you, it's about a friend with a family that is a family of gamers but they also sell retro consoles in another country, nothing bad, just making a living at a swap meet, is there anyway I can contact you personally about something, like if what he is doing is wrong

[@kaboomkp]

ROMs are awesome for experiencing games on consoles you either can’t afford or don’t own , but if possible physically playing on like a Nintendo DS is incomparable compared to emulation on PC

[@bigideasmath5477]

I saw a sealed and graded 9.whatever Tears of the Kingdom on sale at a collectables fair for $200. That game is still easily available on shelves. All they did was do the work of sending it to the grader

[@Jaceblue04]

If that's not a damning indictment that these grading companies are scammers, nothing is.

[@DiGiValentine]

There's something ironic about Yuji Naka asking if it was a scam, considering he turned out to be a financial criminal himself.

[@BeastOfSoda]

Guess he wanted in.

[@atarijaguarfan7893]

A bullshitter can detect bullshit from 5000 miles away

[@rgergigergeergergegergeg]

@@atarijaguarfan7893 new yorker mode activated

[@Just.Kidding]

So, a lot of these examples may not be people losing money. As with many scams and market manipulations, people buy these from themselves to drive up the price. Where the health of the market really matters is the average retro game that went from $30 to $300

[@Vanity0666]

I went to my local collectibles market for the first time in a while and the video game shops were slam packed full of people buying loose games at double retail price, which made me laugh in their faces before walking out I just wanted some saturn games One shop wanted $300+ for a boxed copy of Xenosaga Part 3

[@moonjelly5]

I love looking for games, but don't care about grading. I thought it was strange that certain games exploded in price and am now attempting to wait for the fallout.

[@codycast]

@@Vanity0666what’s “double the retail price” ? You mean double the price YOU think it should be? If lots of people are buying/selling by coming to an agreement on a price - THATS the ‘retail price’

[@sorenpx]

@codycast I took it to mean double the original MSRP.

[@Vanity0666]

@@sorenpx correct

[@moderman512]

I love seeing my kids little faces when they get a new game at Christmas.....then I get a stomach ache when they open it and actually play it...this is what this shit is doing to people...play the games.

[@Paracelsus23]

honestly I remember watching that video... glad to see a follow-up

[@TheStuffMade]

I suspect money laundering is involved and the buyers don't really care if they lose 50% as long as their money is laundered.

[@richardmcgowan1651]

It was crypto scammers turning something they cant hold (crypto) into something they could inflate (retro games). Or you could call them "tech bros". What people aren't talking about is those people always just move onto the next scam. The next scam is using AI hype to run scams on social media.

[@tomwantshelp]

I don’t think that’s how money laundry works. I’m not sure how this would make the money seem legitimate.

[@DrunkenHotei]

I was about to say the same thing. People seem to think that anything that involves a large amount of money seemingly being spent around nothing tangible is evidence of money laundering. In reality, unless your scheme actually makes the money back somehow, that's just being stupid.@@tomwantshelp

[@oNovais]

@@tomwantshelpwould be just like valued art, you can “buy from youself” from different names. If it was raised in the beggining make even more sense, now they can just “discart” with lesser value. Its more money/manuver than indeed laundry but if someone laudry theyr money they need to do these tacts to make the money came back to their hands

[@AA-BB]

You would still have to show how you had the money to purchase in the first place

[@lopezjose568]

what it's funnier to me it's not just the ridiculous prices, its the fact that those prices are for pretty common games that you can easily find on ebay, or flea markets 🤣

[@reginaldforthright805]

New and sealed as well. I just saw a mint sealed Mario 64 at my local goodwill but i didnt get since i already have it on switch.

[@sydtopia1]

Yea, that is what I am failing to understand as well. Seems like these games for much lower price don't move that quick on ebay. The bubble is clearly around the auction house.

[@H8KU]

It's not about the games, it's about perfect sealed copies of them.

[@BatLB]

​@@reginaldforthright805nonsense. Nobody would pass on a sealed Mario 64, new. Stop talking out of your butt.

[@nicwelch]

@@H8KUStill though.

[@LtheOriginal]

The fact that this video operates in the thousands just blows my mind

[@harrypalmer6228]

Money laundering.

[@bossowl33]

fr

[@CFNgaming]

As someone who literally does not give a single solitary strawberry scented shit what my collection is worth, I'd just like to thank you for this video Karl. I very very rarely comment on youtube, but this video is music to my ears and has absolutely made my day. Thanks again man, keep up the good work! Much love from the UK

[@TheHollowBlade]

This is only affecting rated games. The second hand market remains fairly expensive for what its worth.

[@CFNgaming]

@TheHollowBlade sealed collections do have an impact on the regular market. People who are selling just to sell will look at it and see they aren't worth as much. Prices will drop because of this and its only good news. As Karl said, we aren't going back to how it was, sadly, but this is at least a step back towards sanity

[@X22GJP]

If you didn't give a single solitary strawberry scented shit what your collection is worth, it wouldn't be on your mind to comment in the first place, regardless of how often you actually comment on here.

[@RayRayWasAGoodBoy]

Interesting, my shit is usually strawberry scented too 🤔

[@RustyShackleford556]

@@X22GJPWhat? It's literally the topic of the video lol

[@tskmaster3837]

This reminds me of a story from the 1950s about the speculative stamp market and how the main character is interested in a 50,000 dollar stamp. His family tells him "Sure, and you can spend the rest of your life paying for it" but he replied, "I'm not going to buy one, I'm going to SELL one" so he sets out to steal one from a giant covered in gold... because morality stories can get weird. Turns out, the only reason it was worth 50,000 was because there was a rich guy with excess money willing to pay for it... and paid for it he did... twice... for the same stamp. Moral of the story: A fool and his money are soon parted. That was 70 years ago and while what we're "booming" over may be different, the fools are still the same.

[@internetperson9121]

There have been major scams and collisions in sports cars grading that I’ve never seen videos about. A major seller had insiders with PSA (by far the biggest grading company) and managed to get thousands of doctored cards graded and they’re still floating around out there in slabs. In addition, it’s not unusual to see gem mint 10 cards with flaws that are visible even in a photo on an eBay listing. I guarantee it was submitted by a preferred customer or someone who had a grader in their pocket. News of it really has not spread because so many sports card collectors are addicted to it (including the grading aspect) like a drug. They don’t want it to be true. I don’t even think many videos have been made about it, despite it being exhaustively documented online. There has been endless corruption at PSA.

[@internetperson9121]

*collusion not collision; on my phone and it won’t let me edit

[@rgergigergeergergegergeg]

as someone who is friends with the owners of a MASSIVE local tcg store. we are not talking about the skinny sliver of a shop with baseball cardd boxes stacked in corners that smells like a locker room and the floor is covered in fast food napkins. We are talking a 2 story, 8,000 sq foot immaculate shop with an entire second building for gaming tables / lounge. its where the clean kids with jobs buy sell and play. and since we are in the middle of the most desolate part of america, the shop gets customers from all four surrounding states AND canada I spend quite a bit of time in their bullshitting over the counter, the absolute delusional addict mentality of pokemon collectors, and a decent slice of magic collectors is a sad spectacle to watch. the "cardboard crack" joke isnt actually a joke lol

[@ohmydog9171IsASocialParasite]

This will take a while to have a ripple effect on second-hand markets like eBay, Sega Saturn game prices are still insanely high.

[@Willowposting]

I've had to watch this hobby I've loved my whole life get completely destroyed by these asshats completely inflating the market. I've had to turn to emulation instead of collecting. Puts a massive smile on my face to see the market crash like this.

[@chronology556]

I just have a problem choosing games with emulation, much like my Steam library.

[@rgergigergeergergegergeg]

emulation is so much better. a retro pi takes up the space of a ciggarrette pack on my entertainment center. the 40 systems it emulates would require an entire room

[@temporal_paradox]

Another feel good video from Karl Jobst. Even at ~3% of their 'original' values they're still incredibly overpriced though. Hopefully they keep plummeting until they're actual market prices.

[@danlt1497]

They wont go triple digits tho... 4 digits correction mostly.

[@christophervanzetta]

$1 a game max! 😂

[@colinyoung3685]

Consumers set the market price through what they are willing to purchase. The market price for the individual is simply the point at which the product or service is deemed more valuable than the money needed to buy it.

[@colinyoung3685]

@@jshowao-rw1dh Sure at a surface level producers/sellers "set" the price, however if they set their prices too high they don't sell their products and go out of business. Prices have to make sense for customers to part with their cash, thus purchasing provides the signal that drives the market. Mainstream economics has it backward, as you've shown in your previous post. Over-inflated prices weren't being set until sellers thought the market was hungry for it, this was a false signal as it was being driven through sensationalist reporting so when appetite was shown to be absent the prices declined accordingly. We are in agreement here.

[@ordinaryhuman5645]

If the market is made up of silly people, you get silly prices. People who collect antique plastic for media that is far better to consume in a modern digital format are silly.

[@TheJesanchof]

this last 3 years have been crazy for the used/old game market I just didn't knew it got THIS crazy! at least in my country second hand consoles are starting to adjust, a good example the new 3ds

[@Tattooedpain]

Finally! Been waiting for this a long time.

[@WatashiWannabe]

This video makes me happy. As a (now former) 20-year video game collector and (current) video game store owner, I commented on the original video saying this needed to be brought to light, and now that it has, now that it's gotten as big as it has, and now that these grifters are actively losing their shirts, I couldn't be happier. Sure, I've a small bit of money tied up in sealed games (just bought some sealed NES games somewhere near the end of July-early August), but not enough to where I'd be concerned about losing money selling them at current going rates. Then again, I'm not an investor or a speculator...just a former long-time collector and store owner. The cheaper these games get, the more real collectors that can afford to collect 'em, and the better I feel about selling sealed games to those collectors.

[@HyperMario64]

Yeah it's nice to have some preservation going on and just having a beautiful collection of historic games. But these are all commodities and mass produced copies, which is something that people seem to forget. The markup on the sealed copies is incomprehensible to me. This bubble was set to burst at some point. Trading of these items has to remain reasonable. In my opinion, when a copy or even a console sells for more than half the retail amount at the time (including inflation), that's where we go in crazy territory. There was a time where most of these old games were still affordable and it was no big deal. Nowadays even CRTs have become crazy expensive, where there is no point in having one except to hook up a console with composite output to it.

[@ArtisChronicles]

​@@HyperMario64 true, it might be a different story if it was actually a limited run.

[@zydio1103]

I have a question. Did you accumulate so much stuff over 20 years of collecting that you just decided to open up a store and sell it all?

[@WatashiWannabe]

@@zydio1103 The store was always separate from the collection. That said, there was the occasional thing that would come into the store that I would end up keeping, but those things were generally few and far between (perhaps 1 item out of every 1000-1500 that came in). Funny thing is, though, now that I've been downsizing my collection, the store has been a pretty decent outlet for it :P .

[@AveryKiwi]

Unfortunately this ONLY Affected the grading market. The CIB Market has been dropping closer to early 2020 prices but other than that, most CIB prices have barely changed.

[@AquaLucario]

CIB? Is that Closed In Box?

[@hyrule9165]

​@@AquaLucarioComplete in box

[@joshuaatehortua7352]

Tragic too cause some of those games are crazy in value but it’s taking down the value of some CIB Cardboard games

[@es7990]

Came here to say same thing

[@raafmaat]

but CIB is actually rare in some cases especially for old stuff, the games graded by wata were not rare at all : 10.000+ known to exist but still they get graded and sold for like 300.000 dollar lolllll < thankfully that is likely over now

[@MrFuggleGuggle]

I still collect, but, anything above $150 that isn't Brand New or Complete in Box (CIB) is honestly not worth it, unless you already own it or have a huuuge amount of disposable income. And even then - I don't collect games I don't at least plan to play or see myself playing, now or in the future. Anything else just invades space and is a true waste of money. The vast majority of my collection are copies I bought years ago, across multiple game generations, as I grew up from age 6 getting games for holidays and my birthday as gifts, and personal purchases with my allowance and jobs throughout high school and college. But there will come a day when physical media dies or becomes so limited and rare and infrequent per title that you will ultimately will stop 'owning' what you purchase. You will only eternally pay to 'rent' them until their usage rights or contracts run out, and those who control the services decide whether you not you still own what you paid for. That's why I still invest in physical media from time to time. I dread that day, and it's a very real outcome based upon what we are seeing even now in the marketplace - across all entertainment.

[@AnastasijaPuskowa]

How do you ensure the video remains engaging from start to finish?

[@meanmug5258]

While nowhere near the prices they were i still feel like 38k for a video game is insane.

[@garbagelmao2730]

anything over 40 dollars for any game is over priced

[@grilleFire]

Any game over $300 is insane...

[@the-based-jew6872]

@@grilleFiresome removed steam games go for rediculous prices. Removed Steam version of rocket league goes for 500

[@stefanogandino9192]

Any non physical game over free is too much because it lacks the requisite for it to having a price, that if i sell you that good i will not have it anymore. With non physical copies we still both have the good

[@colbiashimaru]

⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠@@stefanogandino9192I mean as a concept, games need to be made by someone and thereby need money in order to be supported and for them to continue making games, therefore not paying ruins that trust, because the person making the game shouldnt have to pay for your copy. Not to say you shouldnt pirate, just that not all can have that opinion. And even when you sell a physical copy, the only thing you are getting sold is a disk, you arent being given the rights to the game, so even then with that logic there really isnt a reason to pay money for it

[@buttermashpotatoes4617]

They didn't lose money, they were initially selling the game to themselves at 6 figured to inflate the price, then at re-auction found people willing to pay them 4-5 figures for the same game at what looked to be a discount. Their purchase price was probably a fraction of what they sold it for.

[@bluedistortions]

Well said

[@wnsjimbo2863]

They did You can't sell to yourself without paying taxes Also its illegal yo sell to yourself

[@PipeRetrogamer]

Has it finally? I knew this day would come.

[@arliss7132]

I wonder how many of those were sam scaman notfree back when he was a billionaire vs his estate being liquidated...

[@Elfilin]

Seeing Pokepark Wii certainly convinced me they're making up these prices. Literally nobody else is selling it for close to that much.

[@HKlink]

As an auctioneer myself, I assume this company doesn't just take money for the grading, but also a portion of the auction price through their services. I'm an auctioneer irl and we take a 20% cut on the final sale price, plus tax, both from the buyer and the seller. So if something sells for 100, we get 120 from the buyer, and give 80 to the seller - plus tax. So anyone who bought a game and sold it through the same company not only lost a lot of money in general, they also paid a lot more and got a lot less than the prices you actually see. It's common to do a lower 10% fee for really high price items, but I haven't actually checked this company's prices myself. I just wanted to point out that the losses are almost certainly even bigger than you think because of the fees.

[@reginaldforthright805]

The only people making the insane bids were likely wata themselves.

[@quantumm313]

you should watch the other videos karl made on this if you haven't. Its way worse than that; wata bought, graded, and then sold some of the first few games to themselves at the high prices just to be able to say a copy sold for over $1mil. And some of the people involved are the exact same people who were responsible for the coin bubble in the 80s where they basically did the exact same thing they did with the video games.

[@humanbean3]

what kind of things do you auction off if you dont mind me asking? Is it a certain area of interest?

[@zeked4200]

If something sells for $100, but you charge the buyer $120 and only give $80 of it to the seller...that means you ended up taking 33% of the total sale, not 20%. That sounds like some mafia sh*t right there: "Everybody pays me *my* cut or nobody makes a deal" 😂...auction houses are a freakin racket huh?

[@Thundawich]

@@zeked4200 The counterargument would be, you probably wouldn't be able to sell it for $80 without the help of the third party, no?

[@jerrydietzel2882]

Awesome to hear! This is good for all collectors who dont care about the value of their collection, and just love gaming.

[@Bird-Birdy-Love]

These graded games are expensive to get but they were no where near the amount they were initially purchased for. Cause at the end of the day, the collectors market is still a limited market and not everyone has that kind of cash and a lot of these are still found everywhere.

[@Soonjai]

This video made me smile for the entire runtime. In cases like these I love to see the people involved loosing as much money as possible.

[@Rockyzach88]

losing*

[@emilands3635]

I remember watching your documentary two years ago, thinking it was an instant classic of investigative video game journalism. Well done once again, Karl!

[@ZeusKabooze]

This video has the best "I told you so" vibe.

[@olidouze8022]

Shorting that market must have been juicy af

[@ozza000]

The entire collectibles market is down like 50% since 2021. Mostly driven by economic factors and that the initial spikes were not sustainable. For video games it's even worse because of the clear market manipulation taking place in the first place. I do actually wonder for many of these games whether a transaction actually took place though. A number of these original sales seem highly dubious to me, and I wonder for a number of them if a financial transaction even took place, and it wasn't just a fantasy sale that didn't actually take place, just the same person selling to themselves effectively.

[@CantoniaCustoms]

The only thing that this doesnt apply to is guns T.T I JUST WANTED A FLINTLOCK MUSKET

[@RayRayWasAGoodBoy]

@@CantoniaCustoms Just get a Glock