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Stephen Kick, who runs under the username of @pripyatbeast, posted on Twitter an image of a received package after being handled by customs. The package was supposed to be an encased sealed copy of Pokemon Yellow, graded A+ with a score of 9.2 by Wata Games with an alleged worth of around $3'800 dollars, but instead, the owner got a broken acrylic case, with a mangled seal and sliced box of Pokemon Yellow.

The highest rated Pokemon Yellow game is also an A+, but with a score of 9.4, which is currently going up for around $10'500 dollars in price.
While the morality and legality of sealed copies of widely available games as Pokemon Yellow is highly questionable and up for debate, and regardless of its alleged worth, it's always heartbreaking to see something you ordering getting destroyed in shipping or customs.

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[smilodon]

Very nice. Wata Games is a scam which is artificially inflating the game of retro games and this person only got what he deserved.

 

[osaka35]

Sad to see a perfectly good CIB (complete in box) game get destroyed because of overzealous morons, speculative market aside. Even if it was insured, I suspect they'd try their hardest to not pay out.

 

[CoolMe]

Smells like an inside job..

 

[AmandaRose]

I don't believe any of this supposed story. For me the dude is trying an insurance scam and he received his Pokemon Yellow in perfect condition then destroyed another Pokemon Yellow box to claim on the insurance and recoup his massive outlay.

 

[Foxi4]

I agree but I think the point is exactly to speculate on it, not to preserve it necessarily. Rather the value their preserving is the OG unboxing experience. It isn't a preatical thing to preserve but since it can only be done once, it values up.

That said, did GBA Gameboy games even had a seal? I don't think I ever bought a GBA Gameboy game with a seal.

You’re not wrong - video game collecting has become big business, and “mint” copies (based on an arbitrary scale for the most part) are treated like investments - we’ve been through this many times, like with Ty plushies and other assorted nonsense. I still remember a time people were outraged that they’d have to pay $500 for a copy of Radiant Silvergun, and that was genuinely a rare piece of software, so there was actual scarcity involved. Pokémon isn’t a particularly rare piece - you can’t throw a rock and not hit some kind of Pokémon game. The n-thousand dollar premium on what amounts to cellophane and cardboard is inexcusable, and everybody knows those prices are artificially inflated by grading houses. Heck, those graders often aren’t even subject matter experts anyway. Earlier this month they admitted that they gave a “perfect” score to a reproduction cartridge and had to profusely apologise because they “didn’t know” those exist.

Edit: Here’s their pathetic statement. They can’t even tell if the damn game is real, how can they *possibly* be able to grade it on any scale? Scammers pretending they’re king shit, nothing more, nothing less.



Maybe this is a controversial point of view, but I’m a collector *and* a gamer. I honestly believe that those products were meant to be played, not to be put into a plexiglass box never to be touched again. Collectors who do that care more about appearances than what they’re actually collecting - yes, take care of the collection by all means, but if you’re never going to play any of it, it has no value to me.

 

[Deleted member 194275]

We live in a real dumb era. People believe everything they see on the internet.

Nobody checked this tale, but many shared anyway.

 

[Jayro]

Good. That game is only $30 new at MSRP. Screw Wata Games, and the guy who bought it. Let that be a lesson to him.

 

[r1vver]

Why was this game so poorly packaged?
I mean, some people mail all kinds of cognacs in crystal bottles, etc. and it's okay, as long as the packaging is good...

 

[The Catboy]

In all fairness, the entire grading system is a scam. There is no additional value in having a sealed copy of anything. In fact, in the case of many products it is *detrimental* from a preservationist standpoint (built-in batteries, capacitor plague-era products, suicide PCB’s and so on).

Ok but they still destroyed his property

 

[Foxi4]

Ok but they still destroyed his property

Customs far and wide reserve the right to open any packaging in order to inspect its contents - this is done both when something suspicious is detected *and* at random. The product is not considered “destroyed” as it is fully functional. It’s the collector’s community that places undue value to cardboard, the average consumer wouldn’t give two shits about this, and neither do customs. Unless the package included specific instructions that this is a collectible and the whole point is that it’s sealed, they’re not liable, and I’d argue that even if there was such a note, they’re not obligated to care.

 

[NumberXIIIEdwin]

Don’t get me wrong, I feel bad that customs went and literally tore the front off the box but also, it was Wata graded so nothing much of value was really lost

 

[Osakasan]

Now that you mention it, I don't think they did...

They did, it was pretty cheap film-like plastic, but they came sealed.

 

[Foxi4]

Now that you mention it, I don't think they did...

I would have to pull out some of my old packaging (yes, I still own packaging for my games, neatly folded and filed), but if I recall correctly the boxes were shrink wrapped, there was no sticker seal on mine as there was no need for it.

They did, it was pretty cheap film-like plastic, but they came sealed.

Yeah, shrink wrap. I think they meant a plastic sticker seal on the flap, which I don’t think Nintendo used.

 

[Ferris1000]

I would say AWSOME...I hope the Customs do that with all WATA Packages.
Those who are that dumb and use the Scam company WATA doesn't deserve any better.

Grading and Grading Scams destroys the Retro Collector Market.
BTW: WATA Graded a Bootleg Copy of a Game not so long ago, no wonder why the Customs are suspicious

 

[Adran_Marit]

You’re not wrong - video game collecting has become big business, and “mint” copies (based on an arbitrary scale for the most part) are treated like investments - we’ve been through this many times, like with Ty plushies and other assorted nonsense. I still remember a time people were outraged that they’d have to pay $500 for a copy of Radiant Silvergun, and that was genuinely a rare piece of software, so there was actual scarcity involved. Pokémon isn’t a particularly rare piece - you can’t throw a rock and not hit some kind of Pokémon game. The n-thousand dollar premium on what amounts to cellophane and cardboard is inexcusable, and everybody knows those prices are artificially inflated by grading houses. Heck, those graders often aren’t even subject matter experts anyway. Earlier this month they admitted that they gave a “perfect” score to a reproduction cartridge and had to profusely apologise because they “didn’t know” those exist.

Edit: Here’s their pathetic statement. They can’t even tell if the damn game is real, how can they *possibly* be able to grade it on any scale? Scammers pretending they’re king shit, nothing more, nothing less.

View attachment 348948

Maybe this is a controversial point of view, but I’m a collector *and* a gamer. I honestly believe that those products were meant to be played, not to be put into a plexiglass box never to be touched again. Collectors who do that care more about appearances than what they’re actually collecting - yes, take care of the collection by all means, but if you’re never going to play any of it, it has no value to me.

How does a grading company not know reproductions exist? spoiler they would knoe exaftly what they are doing hence adding yo the scam more

 

[pustal]

You’re not wrong - video game collecting has become big business, and “mint” copies (based on an arbitrary scale for the most part) are treated like investments - we’ve been through this many times, like with Ty plushies and other assorted nonsense. I still remember a time people were outraged that they’d have to pay $500 for a copy of Radiant Silvergun, and that was genuinely a rare piece of software, so there was actual scarcity involved. Pokémon isn’t a particularly rare piece - you can’t throw a rock and not hit some kind of Pokémon game. The n-thousand dollar premium on what amounts to cellophane and cardboard is inexcusable, and everybody knows those prices are artificially inflated by grading houses. Heck, those graders often aren’t even subject matter experts anyway. Earlier this month they admitted that they gave a “perfect” score to a reproduction cartridge and had to profusely apologise because they “didn’t know” those exist.

Edit: Here’s their pathetic statement. They can’t even tell if the damn game is real, how can they *possibly* be able to grade it on any scale? Scammers pretending they’re king shit, nothing more, nothing less.

View attachment 348948

Maybe this is a controversial point of view, but I’m a collector *and* a gamer. I honestly believe that those products were meant to be played, not to be put into a plexiglass box never to be touched again. Collectors who do that care more about appearances than what they’re actually collecting - yes, take care of the collection by all means, but if you’re never going to play any of it, it has no value to me.

Let's start our own grading system, based on cartridge/disc preservation state and based evaluation and make tons of money. Also with blackjack and hookers.

 

[SDA]

I believe those customs do not like Pokémon at all. Only real Pokémon haters would be crazy enough to destroy the physical cartridge to pieces!

 

[Osakasan]

Yeah, shrink wrap. I think they meant a plastic sticker seal on the flap, which I don’t think Nintendo used.

Nintendo has never used that

 

[1B51004]

ooh, that's painful. something you own that is supposedly worth a lot of money gets recked by improper handling/ U.S. customs.

Does it happen often? Haven't really heard much about US customs destroying games until... now actually.

 

[Adran_Marit]

ooh, that's painful. something you own that is supposedly worth a lot of money gets recked by improper handling/ U.S. customs.

Does it happen often? Haven't really heard much about US customs destroying games until... now actually.

It was graded by WATA games, which has been exposed as a scam company trying to raise the prices of retro video games, so who cares